‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions’ Joel 2:28

The book of Proverbs says visions are vital. Proverbs 29:18, says “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  Whether it is a church, or, indeed, a country, if people have no idea what they are about, or what they are working towards, then they tend to give up and things fall apart. Why would anyone stay involved with an organisation that was unsure of its purpose and which had no idea of what its future would be?

To the prophet Joel, in today’s  Old Testament reading, having vision was an important part of the future for God’s people. Joel looked forward to a day when vision returned to the life of the people.

The Church has taught that Joel’s prophecy of the future came true on the Day of Pentecost, fifty day after Jesus rose from the dead, when the Holy Spirit came down on the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. From the day of Pentecost onwards, the followers of Jesus were to be people inspired by the Holy Spirit and filled with a vision of what God wanted.

If the church were to be true to Jesus’ calling, it would want to be close to the church as it was in the Acts of the Apostles. But when Joel’s vision of the future is compared with a typical parish, there is a bit of a gap between the vision and reality.

Are local parishes places where there is a sense that the Holy Spirit has been sent to all people and should guide and direct every thought and every decision and every action? Do parishes work, in the words of Joel, to “praise the name of the LORD your God?”

If someone went to a local church on a Sunday morning to find out what goes on there, would church members be able to point to things in the life of their church, and in their own personal lives, that would persuade visitors that God is present and that, as Joel says, he is the Lord and there is no other?

Joel lived around about the Fourth Century BC in very uncertain times. The hopes of two centuries previously, of a new and strong country, had not been fulfilled. The country had been through economic and environmental disaster with drought and locusts. People were turning away from God, no longer trusting him. Twice the line is stated, “never again will my people be shamed. There is a sense they are losing their religion, giving up on God who doesn’t seem real to them.

Faith in Joel’s time was no easy matter, those who held on to their beliefs would have wondered what the future might hold. Would the generations to come continue in the faith of their fathers? Even in Old Testament times younger people went off and followed their own choices and preferences. Even in Joel’s time there were people who thought that God was no longer relevant to their lives. Joel would have said that the times people live in now are nothing new.

Joel’s answer would be that the Day of the Lord, the day to which he had so looked forward had come, and what had people made of the gifts that God has given them?

Pointing to Acts of the Apostles, Joel would say, read about the gifts given to the Church, these are gifts for the local church. Don’t complain about the church not growing or younger generations not being interested, if people don’t use the gifts that God has given them.

Joel would say that the opportunities are there for people to take. If people don’t take them, then don’t be surprised if God says he has had enough and gives his blessing elsewhere.

Dreams and visions, Joel would ask, what are the dreams and visions? Being honest, when it comes to the church, dreams or vision are not plentiful. Keep the place going, hope something will turn up, maybe even prefer to move back into the past. Where’s the vision?

People without vision perish, a church without vision dies. The LORD says,

‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions’