Final Call

There are just a few days before the Great Fast begins. The Church has already encouraged us to stop eating meat products. Today the Church services are Lenten in character. All this is to direct our attention to what is to come. In case you’re wondering, I’m not talking about Great Lent.

“Yet even now,” says the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.”  Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.  Who knows whether he will not turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a drink offering for the Lord, your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people.  Sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants.  Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say, “Spare thy people, O Lord, and make not thy heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.  Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?'” Then the Lord became jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.  The Lord answered and said to his people, “Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. “I will remove the northerner far from you, and drive him into a parched and desolate land, his front into the eastern sea, and his rear into the western sea; the stench and foul smell of him will rise, for he has done great things. “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things!  Fear not, you beasts of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield. “Be glad, O sons of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord, your God; for he has given the early rain for your vindication, he has poured down for you abundant rain, the early and the latter rain, as before. “The threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.  I will restore to you the years which the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you. “You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, who has dealt wondrously with you.  And my people shall never again be put to shame.”

Joel 2.12-26

Great Lent is not the destination of our journey. It is not even the goal of our fasting. God is coming for us. We don’t know when and we don’t know how, but He is coming. Great Lent is designed to prepare us for God, not for Pascha.

I know this sounds counterintuitive. We even have a dedicated blog to our annual Daily Lenten Journey. That won’t change even this year. What changes is our hearts and minds toward God. This is the message of today’s Prophecy reading.

GOD IS COMING! Some will deny this truth and be destroyed by their wickedness. Others will be comforted by God’s embrace. When He comes, God will remove all forces that work against us. Great Lent is about not being one of those forces.

For those who believe we don’t need to fast, today’s Prophecy says otherwise. “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Great Lent is our return to God, through the practices of the Church.

Today’s ‘final call’ is for us to get our lives in order and return to God. Don’t wait for Pascha. Don’t wait for Holy Week. Don’t wait for Sunday. Get ready NOW! If God is delayed, then the Great Fast will help us to get everything in order for His return.