The MyGov.

in webpage has the following declaration: “Government of

India is taking all necessary steps to ensure that we are prepared well to

face the challenge and threat posed by the growing pandemic of

COVID-19 the Corona Virus. The most important factor in preventing

the spread of the Virus locally is to empower the citizens with the right

information and taking precautions as per the advisories being issued by

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.” Yet it is clear that this statement

is not only misleading, but a blatant lie.

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The government has valued optics above the health and safety of those

who reside within India's borders. And many of us don’t know which

statements to trust and which ones to treat with suspicion. And each of

us have been witnesses to the dreadful onslaught of this virus with some

of us losing friends and others losing family members as well. And two

weeks back, we as a congregation lost our founder, Uncle Ken. And

though his death was not COVID related, we cannot but view it with

lenses colored by the pandemic.

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We are tired of the toll around us. Just when we seem to catch a respite,

we wake up to another nightmare in which we hear of dozens and

dozens of people we know falling prey to the new and more virulent

strains. And many of us wonder where God is amidst all this suffering

and pain and loss. And we wonder about the divine wisdom that is

permitting this catastrophe. We wonder if it is a punishment or a

warning, if its reasons lie in the past or its purpose in the future. And we

wonder when God will act to end this suffering.

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Yet, in the middle of his letter to the Romans, Paul writes, “We also

exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about

perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character,

hope; and this hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God has

been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” Somehow,

according to Paul, the filling of the Christian by the Holy Spirit is the

pouring out of God’s love into the life of the Christian - a love that gives

rise to hope that does not disappoint. What does he mean?

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Today is Pentecost Sunday, a day when most Christians around the

world bring to mind the day when the Holy Spirit first filled Jesus’ first

disciples some days after his Ascension. And we too are celebrating

Pentecost today at Christalaya Koramangala even though it is certainly a

different kind of celebration this year. Two years in a row we are

celebrating Pentecost while being locked indoors. Last year, we had no

clue that this pandemic was going to last so long. And we had no idea

that a year later we would still be worshipping behind closed doors.

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Last year, I concluded my sermon on Pentecost with the following

words: “This is the true meaning of Pentecost - when we come out of

the upper rooms where we hide in fear, empowered by the Holy Spirit to

proclaim the just and loving lordship of Jesus over all the earth, inviting

the rest of the world to join us in the blessing wresting task of sparring

with Jesus.” As we continue to worship online in a mode that lacks the

personal touch, the irony of those words strike us for how do we

proclaim the lordship of Jesus from behind closed doors?

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The passage that Reuel read from Joel is the only part of Joel that is

comforting. Otherwise, Joel is a terrifying book to read as he announces

God’s judgment on the people of Israel through all sorts of locust

swarms. Two years back in 2019 we had gone through the book of Joel

and perhaps some of you remember that. As I just said, the passage we

are dealing with is the only comforting part of Joel. However, the

background to the book is a series of locust plagues that devastated the

kingdom of Judah.

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We do not know when these locust plagues occurred. And

coincidentally, when we went into lockdown last year, we heard of the

most recent locust swarms, which plagued great areas of East Africa,

the Arabian peninsula and all the way into India. One thing to keep in

mind is that locust swarms are not uncommon, even if they are not

frequent. They have been observed throughout human history and have

given rise to some of the most terrifying stories not just in the bible, but

in many parts of the world.

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The rapacious nature of these swarms, which easily devastate large

areas of cultivated land, is what gives rise to the terror. So thorough are

they in destroying cultivated crops that humans have long thought that

locust swarms are a sign of divine displeasure. And this is how Joel

interpreted the locust swarms that plagued Judah just before he began

his ministry. Somehow God gave him the wisdom to see in this

particular series of natural events the outworking of divine punishment

against the people who had forsaken their God.

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Given the various kinds of locusts Joel mentions and given that locust

swarms need a particular sequence of conditions to develop, Judah

probably was plagued by these locusts for many years, a view that is

supported when God announces that he would repay Judah for the years

the locusts have eaten. Can you imagine it? This is an agrarian society.

Most of the people lived off the land literally. They planted seed every

sowing season and waited for the harvest some months later. The crop

would provide them with food for the year and seed for the next.

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But what if an army of locusts swarmed into the land and began eating

up everything you had toiled for? What if, as you approached the

harvest season in a year with almost idyllic conditions that gave you

hope of a bountiful crop, the harvesters of sorrow came in and

decimated your crop, leaving you only with the slim pickings they left

behind? What if, before you were able to even get enough seed for the

next year, the pests had obliterated all your crops leaving you without

even the hope of a crop next year?

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And what if this happened year after year for some years? After the first

invasion of the swarm, you managed to preserve some seed, hoping for

a better harvest next year. And that year proved to have wonderful

weather. It rained just when it had to so that the newly sprouted seed

was able to grow rapidly into long, healthy stalks that swayed gently in

the wind. And just when it was time for the seed to ripen, the rains

stopped and the sun began to shine brightly, making the kernels lose the

excess water and readying them for harvest.

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And on the day you decided to begin the harvest, you went to the field

to discover that it was the wrong color of yellow, not the golden yellow

of the ripe wheat stalks but the yellow ochre of the swarming locust

hordes. And you realized that this year was a repeat of the previous one.

Once again, you had labored through the entire harvest cycle only to be

denied the crop at the end of the cycle. How were you to survive this?

And what if this repeated the year after that? And the year after that as

well?

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Joel mentions four kinds of locust and it is possible that each species

swarmed in successive years. Four years of devastation caused by

different kinds of locust. For a twenty-first century urban person this

would be as though you lost your increments and benefits one year, a

severe cut in your salary in the second, a move to part time in the third

and a complete layoff in the fourth. If you lived from paycheck to

paycheck to begin with, now you would have been reduced to a state of

abject penury that you can barely even dare to imagine.

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Our passage for today then begins with the uplifting words, “Be glad, O

children 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.” Locusts reach their

swarming stage only when there is severe drought followed by brief but

heavy rains, the lack during the drought probably giving rise to a mad

scramble for survival at the first promise of food with the rains. When

the harvest cycle is normal, the locusts do not swarm.

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So God promises to restore the normal cycle of things. The rainy season

will be long enough that it could be divided into early, abundant and

latter rains. Israel normally has a rainy season that covers about half the

year. Now, when I say rainy season, we need to put it in context. The

most rainy parts of Israel receive less than 100 cm of rainfall annually,

with most of what was Judah receiving less than 25 cm annually. In

Bangalore we receive about 100 cm of rainfall annually. In contrast,

Chennai receives about 50% more while Mumbai receives 150% more.

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In other words, Bangalore is a pretty dry part of India and it receives as

much rainfall as the rainiest parts of Israel, with most of Judah receiving

less than a quarter of what we receive. So we have a precarious situation

since the land of Judah was already receiving very little rainfall. This

made the harvest cycle exceptionally susceptible to minor changes in

weather patterns. But God announces through Joel that he was going to

reverse their fortunes and give them years in which the weather patterns

would be suitable for bounteous harvests.

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Joel’s prophecy moves seamlessly from the promise of bountiful crops

to the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit. The parallel between the

pouring out of rains to make the land fruitful and the pouring out of the

Spirit to make the people of God fruitful cannot be missed and we need

to understand the pouring out of the Spirit on Pentecost with that in

mind. The pouring out of the rain was after a period of extremely

devastating weather patterns that gave rise to the swarming locusts that

decimated the harvests for years.

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In like manner, the pouring out of the Spirit will be after a period of

extremely devastating faith patterns that would result in spiritual

starvation. We are currently going through the book of Amos and there

is a parallel with Amos 8.11 where Amos announces, “Behold, the days

are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the

land — not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the

words of the LORD.” In a similar manner, Joel announces the Spirit will

be poured out onto all flesh to put an end to their spiritual devastation.

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And indeed, the period between the return from exile to Jesus was a

period of intense spiritual drought. Gradually, the prophecies reduced

until, after Malachi, there is no recognized Hebrew scripture. This is

crucial to observe. The Deuterocanonical and Apocryphal books were

rejected by the Jewish leaders during the process of canonization of the

Hebrew scriptures. So at the time of Jesus, it had been almost five

centuries of silence. And the devastation produced by this silence is

evident when we take a look at the writings of this period.

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Without the proper guidance of the Spirit, the Jewish people produced

all sorts of fantastical, speculative books, most of which lack the grand

vision of the Old Testament books and none of which present Yahweh

as being concerned about the non-Jewish people. It was truly a period of

drought and famine for hearing a genuine word from God. And the

hearts of the people became as parched ground, thirsty for rain. But as

the word from God did not come, the anguish of the Jewish people grew

intolerably as hope of any grand restoration dwindled.

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So you can imagine how eager the people were to hear the message

Jesus brought. He was announcing a grand message of hope to a people

whose hope had almost been quenched. He was announcing the arrival

of the kingdom of God, the imminence of the time when Yahweh would

set right all the wrongs that plagued the world. And with joy people

fawned over him, flocked behind him and followed alongside him. And

then that glimmer of hope was also put out when he was nailed as a

rebel on a Roman cross, the dream he had brought dying with him.

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On the third day, the distraught disciples were dismayed when his tomb

was found to be empty. But to their great joy, he appeared to them, the

first born of God’s new creation and a victor over death. On that

Sunday, as they gathered in the upper room, hope was rekindled. But

then he announced that he would be leaving them and once again the

hope that he had stirred in them began to die out. But he told them not

to be dismayed because he would send the Holy Spirit, the promise of

the Father, who would empower them for the task ahead.

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On the Thursday when he ascended, they looked longingly after him,

but were told that he would return. But in the meantime they were

supposed to wait for the promise of the Father. And so began the

interminably long wait. Every day they would have awoken, hoping for

some grand change to have taken place overnight, as a result of which

they would be changed into the indomitable force Jesus had told them

they would be. But everyday they would have been disappointed as

nothing changed in them or around them.

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And then the day arrived when, without any warning, the Spirit was

poured out of them in fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, as the promise of

the Father was given to them. But, if we read the account in Acts 2 and

other parts of the New Testament, we will reach some conclusions

which are understandable and expected when taken in individually, but

which prove to be quite startling when taken together. So, in order to

learn what the first disciples learnt on the first Pentecost, let us turn to

the conclusions they drew.

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First, they experienced something that they had never experienced

before and they could think of no other language but to claim that the

Holy Spirit was filling them. Luke does not tell us how they felt or

exactly what they experienced and so we really do not know what to

make of the event. A common view is that they began speaking with

ecstatic speech though the fact that what they were saying was

understood by others seems to strongly indicate that they were given the

gift of speaking in other human languages, not ecstatic speech.

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Second, they were convinced that what was happening to them was the

fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy about the outpouring of the Spirit. We

often take this for granted, believing that this must be the case.

However, we must note that the prophecy in Joel indicates that the

outpouring of the Spirit will be accompanied by prophecy, dreams, and

visions. So the first disciples believed that they were prophesying after

having been given a vision of how things really are. And this is why

they concluded that the Spirit had been poured out on them.

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Third, the message they were asked to prophesy about is captured in the

closing statement of Peter’s sermon, “Let all the house of Israel

therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ,

this Jesus whom you crucified.” There is no time here for me to make

this case. But if any of you wish, we can have a discussion at some

point. Fourth, the first disciples proclaimed their message with joy. This

is evident from the tone of Acts and from the speeches that Peter and

Stephen and Paul give in the book.

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But why would they be so joyful just because the Spirit enabled them to

be understood by those who were visiting Jerusalem? What’s such a big

deal about speaking in another human language? Simply put, the

comprehension of languages at the first Pentecost meant that the

confusion of Babel was being undone. It meant that, at long last, under

the good and wise governance of Jesus, the world was being put right.

Remember, the call of Abram was God’s response to human rebellion at

Babel when he confused human languages.

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If, now the confusion of languages was being reversed, it meant that the

project that started with Abram had been completed. Israel’s purpose

had been fulfilled because now Babel was being reversed and this was a

source of great joy because it meant that God was finally opening the

doors to ‘all flesh’ rather than limiting it to the Jewish people. Pentecost

meant that the division of humans into competing people groups was

also going to be reversed and that God was somehow going to unite the

different people groups under a single banner.

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This is the truth that Paul declares when he writes, “There is neither Jew

nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female,

for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The unity of the Church is the

evidence that, in Jesus, God is restoring humanity to the unity it once

had. But what does that have to do with us today? How do the passages

in Joel and Acts relate to us today when we are going through such a

difficult time with this pandemic? How can these books written so many

centuries ago speak to us today?

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Like the people of Israel, who went through centuries of not hearing any

fresh prophecy, we too are going through a time when it seems as

though God is silent. Like the people of Israel, who faced one foreign

power after another that reduced their numbers constantly, we too hear

daily of people who have succumbed to COVID, our prayer lists getting

longer each day. Like the people of Israel, who began inane speculations

about God that just confused them all the more, we too face daily the

barrage of conspiracy theories and fake news.

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Like the people of Israel, who wondered about the wisdom and power

and love and justice of God as they reeled under prolonged pagan rule,

we too wonder about the wisdom and power and love and justice of God

as this pandemic prolongs its onslaught on the world. Like the people of

Israel, who saw their faith tested as the promises to the patriarchs and

David lay in shambles with no sign of fulfillment, we too find our faith

being tested as people near and dear to us fall victim to the virus despite

taking all the necessary precautions.

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Like the disciples, who cowered behind closed doors after Jesus’

Ascension for fear of reprisal from the Jewish or Roman authorities, we

too find ourselves behind closed doors now for fear of attack by an

enemy we cannot see. Like the disciples, who did not know how to act

and acted hastily to choose a replacement for Judas, so also we find

ourselves lacking the knowledge and wisdom for how to proceed in the

midst of the pandemic, our leaders choosing political expediency

instead of carefully considered approaches.

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So what do we say in the midst of this pandemic? Each of us has faced

loss, some more acute than others. Some among us have lost colleagues

and acquaintances. Others have seen their friends and extended family

members suffer and breathe their last. And still others have had to bury

their father or mother, son or daughter, husband or wife. There is not

one of us who has not directly faced some loss. And as we struggle with

this unprecedented level of loss, questions arise in our minds, questions

that haunt us and demand our attention and insist on some answers.

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Where do our loved ones go when they die? Will we ever see our loved

ones again? Are they observing us fondly? And what do we do to cope

with the loss? I will spend the rest of the time addressing these

questions. But please note that these questions are best addressed in

person or, given the current restrictions, over a video call. These

questions are deeply personal and emotionally charged. A sermon is not

the best way to address them. Nevertheless, these are questions that the

Church needs to address. So I will take this opportunity to do just that.

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At the outset, I wish to disabuse us of some common, but misguided,

notions. First, our loved ones are not up in some cloudy heaven, playing

harps or singing in some never ending worship service. Let’s be honest.

That sounds like the most tedious eternity ever. Playing an instrument

most of us have no clue about while there is a never ending chorus of

voices around us? Even the most sanguine of us would want a moment

of quiet and peace! And even the most musical of us would want a

break from the never ending singing.

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Second, what is it that we hope for after death? Is it a place? Call it what

you will - heaven, Paradise, Eden, the new Jerusalem, the new creation.

Is that what we hope for? I don’t wish to sound trite, but I think any

place, no matter how heavenly, would be hell if Jesus were not there.

And any place, no matter how hellish, would be a heaven if Jesus were

there. In other words, the destination we hope for is not a place but a

person. The Christian hope is not that of going to heaven when we die,

but of being with Jesus no matter where that may be.

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Third, the bible does not say much about the intermediate state between

death and resurrection. So all perspectives on this are mostly

speculative, some more fanciful than others. Paul warns us about this

kind of speculation when he writes, “When I was a child, I talked like a

child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a

man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a

reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in

part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

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So let us proceed to address the questions. Where do our loved ones go

when they die? To the Philippian Christians, Paul wrote, “My desire is

to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” Note that Paul does

not focus on the where, but on the who. The bible, as I just mentioned,

has precious little to say about the intermediate state. But one thing we

can be confident about is that, no matter where they are, our loved ones

who have died are now with Jesus. I would urge each of us to focus on

what is most important - our loved ones being with Jesus.

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You see, we can drive ourselves crazy thinking about the intermediate

state. We can ask all sorts of unanswerable questions about this state.

But God has chosen not to give us a glimpse of what this state would be

like except that it is with Jesus. And should that not be comforting

enough for us? Our loved ones are with the one who loved them and

gave his life for them. They are, therefore, eternally secure in his

presence, no matter where that may be. And so let us draw comfort from

the fact that our departed loved ones are enjoying the presence of Jesus.

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So will we ever see our loved ones again? Well, when Jesus returns and

raises all the dead and transforms all who are alive into their new mode

of existence, we will definitely see our loved ones. But if you ask me

what they will look like, I do not know. The bible does not speak about

this and so we too should be guarded in our approach to answering such

questions. We will certainly recognize them though I do not know

anything more than that. But the bottom line is that we will definitely

see our loved ones who have died. So let us be comforted by this fact.

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And are they observing us? There is a commonly held idea that our

loved ones are looking down on us fondly. I really don’t know why this

is a comforting idea. Can you imagine all our loved ones treating our

lives like some sort of celestial reality show? I certainly don’t want my

dad to be observing me because that would mean God had absolutely no

plan for him after he died. After all, his observing my life would mean

he is just sitting around, having nothing to do, and getting so bored that

even my life proves to be interesting to him.

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This notion about our loved ones observing us is a tricky one because it

carries with it an assumption. The assumption is that those who have

departed experience loss in the same way as we do. But that is not the

case. Remember, they are with Jesus. In his presence it is impossible to

experience loss. But more to the point, why would God bother with an

afterlife if he is not going to use the gifts and talents he has given us in

that new life? To the contrary, our loved ones are engaged with the new

tasks that God has given them and they do not watch over us.

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Think of it this way. Consider twins in a womb. One obviously is born

before the other. The baby that is born first cannot look back wistfully

and think about her twin. No! There is a new mode of living to live into.

There is a new set of tasks and new possibilities that were not available

in the womb. Note that it is not as though there is a possibility that the

first baby could look back but chooses not to. Rather, looking back is

just not a possibility because of the new world that she gets to

experience and needs to learn to live in.

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As David said when his son died, “I will go to him, but he will not

return to me.” The bible does not ask us to think sentimentally about our

loved ones who have died. There is no longing for what was or for

seeing what is happening back here for God always takes us forward to

the new tasks he has planned for us. And that is why at the end of

Revelation, we do not return to Eden, but move into the new Jerusalem.

C.S. Lewis describes this well in The Last Battle, the final book in The

Chronicles of Narnia.

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There, after Narnia is destroyed, the narrator, speaking about Aslan, tells

us, “And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the

things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I

cannot write them... But for them it was only the beginning of the real

story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had

only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning

Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which

goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

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You see, our loved ones are experiencing a life that is fuller and

overflowing with more meaning and purpose and joy than we can ever

imagine. They have begun a wonderful life with Jesus in which each

new chapter is more fulfilling than the previous one and in which they

help him to enrich the new creation with the unique set of gifts that God

has given them and that they developed and honed and perfected while

they were still with us. Why then would they look back to see what we

were doing? They cannot return to us, but we will go to them.

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And so we are faced with these losses. And what do we do to cope with

the loss? We need to first be honest about what has happened, how it

makes us feel, and what we think of God in the midst of these losses. Is

it okay for a teenager to lose both his parents to this disease? Absolutely

not! It is a horrible thing that has happened. Is it okay for a newlywed

bride to lose her groom? Absolutely not! It is a dreadful thing that has

happened. Is it okay for… well, I could go on and on, but how would

citing examples and stirring up pain and sorrow help?

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And how are we to think of God in the midst of all of this? The biblical

character who could understand us best is, of course, Job. Early on in

the book he says, “Yahweh has given and Yahweh has taken away.

Blessed be the name of Yahweh.” But as the story proceeds, he begins

accusing God and asking God why he has allowed such unjust things to

happen. And in the end, as God addresses him, we realize not only that

pain and suffering is inevitable in a fallen world but also that the real

mystery is the wisdom of God which we discover is inscrutable.

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We want to know ‘why’ something has happened. We are looking for a

reason and a cause. Like the disciples, we want to know the answer to

the question, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” We want a

cause-effect explanation for the pain we experience and the suffering we

endure. But even if God did give us an explanation, it would not remove

the pain and would not reduce the suffering. That’s why God is silent

when Jesus asks, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

because knowledge does not give peace, nor do reasons give comfort.

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So in response to the disciples’ question, Jesus says, “It was not that this

man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be

displayed in him.” In other words, Jesus changes the focus from cause

to effect, from the past to the future, from reasons to purpose. It is not a

denial of the pain or suffering involved in the life of the blind man till

then. It is a full affirmation of his pain and suffering with a refusal to

assign blame to any human for anything done in the past. And it is a full

acceptance of one thing - humans are made to be God’s image bearers.

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In other words, whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not,

whether we want it or not, we are creatures who communicate ideas

about God to others by the way we respond to the circumstances of our

lives. Given that something horrific and dreadful has happened, we have

a whole pallet of possible responses. As Viktor Frankl, survivor of

Auschwitz, wrote, “The last of human freedoms is the ability to choose

one’s attitude in a given set of circumstances.” and “Ever more people

today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”

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We are, therefore, faced with a decision. Let me speak about how I dealt

with my dad’s passing. On the morning of 26 June 2016, he was at

Manipal Hospital. He was weak but aware and conscious enough to tell

me to go to church to preach and that he would listen to the recording

later. Later that afternoon, he began to sink and around 7:30 PM I was at

his side as he passed away. Just that morning we had planned on him

listening to my sermon. We had hoped that he was pulling through and

would be home in a few days.

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But he was unjustly and unceremoniously taken from me. I had to

remember that nothing I could do would bring my dad back. He would

not return to me. I would go to him. How was I to act in a way that

honors his life? I had the choice to become bitter with God for taking

my dad away from me. I had the choice to decide that this

unprecedented level of pain I was experiencing proved that there was no

God. I chose rather to engage with God in and through my pain, writing

about how much the loss of my dad meant to me.

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You see, denying the existence of God or becoming bitter with him only

changes me and not for the better. It does not address the cause of the

pain and suffering, but actually is a denial of it because I would then be

lashing out with blame rather than admitting that there was someone I

was deeply disappointed with, namely God. For what we need in such

times of immeasurable loss is something that God earnestly desires to

give us. And while our governments may promise to give it to us they

actually cannot and we risk even greater loss by trusting them.

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But God gave it through Joel in his announcement of the pouring out of

the Spirit. He gave it to the Israelites when they returned from exile. He

gave it to the disciples when he raised Jesus from the dead. He gave it to

them again at Pentecost. And if we would only engage with him in and

through our pain and suffering, refusing to become bitter with him and

refusing to deny his existence, he will give it to us today as well. For

what the living God does is bring life out of death. What the living God

does is take our despair and return it to us with the renewal of hope.

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