At certain time in the past I have become a news junkie. When I am at home I am watching television flipping the channel between different networks or scouring the Internet looking for more information about what is going on in the world around me. I was that way with the Columbia tragedy a couple of years ago and then again a few weeks ago when Discovery was flying.
I have been that way again this week with the events in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. I have wanted to know hear, see, and read all of the news from that part of the country this week. I think that is probably because of growing up on the Gulf Coast and now, I live closer to the Gulf of Mexico than at any other point of my life. I know, I understand that what has happened to those folks could just as easily have happened to us here in Santa Fe.
My heart aches for what our neighbors to the east have experienced this week. Perhaps I have felt this way because I have been through several hurricanes during my lifetime. I have seen some damage from wind and floodwaters. I have vague memories of Hurricane Carla when I was a small child. I have clearer memories of going through a hurricane at sea when I was in the Navy, though I can’t tell you what its name was. I also remember very well Hurricane Alicia and the less than comfortable aftermath that followed her. And, though I was in Grapeland at the time, I don’t think that I will ever forget the tremendous flooding that happened with Tropical Storm Allison.
As I have watched the news of Hurricane Katrina this week, I have come to realize that what I knew of destruction is comparitivley nothing at all. I have little trouble comprehending a home or two destroyed at the hands of a tornado. It is a little harder, but I think that I can even understand an entire neighborhood destroyed in much the same way. What is almost impossible for me to comprehend is the total destruction that today is the city of New Orleans. And, to make matters even worse, the problems and the destruction are not just limited to New Orleans. The pain and heartache, the damage continues east to Gulfport and Biloxi and into Alabama. Then, to a much lesser extent, the path of damage continues up into the northeast.
What we have seen on television and in the newspapers this week is absolutely frightening. The pictures that we have seen should send chills through each of us. One news report that I heard on Wednesday talked of the long term effects and said that as many as 1,000,000 people are now homeless and unemployed, giving this storm far more reaching effects that Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Today we should identify in very profound ways with the residents of the central Gulf Coast. We should, at least on a limited basis have an understanding of what they are experiencing.
In our lesson this morning the psalmist, without question can identify with those who are experiencing this tragedy. Our neighbors, and truly us as well understand his words when he says, “Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! Hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.”
As I hear those words I can hear the deep pain in the psalmist’s voice. It is from the very depts. Of his soul, but I don’t think that he sees it, or at least he doesn’t want to see it as a personal pain that he bears alone. Psalm 130 is a psalm of lament. It is a personal lament for the psalmist, but it is really more than that. It is also a lament for the whole community. Yes, he cries out to God for himself, but he also cries for all of Israel. Yes, he is in pain. But, so is all of Israel. The psalmist’s cry is a personal cry but it is deeper than that. It is a cry for the nation.
The past week has brought many tears from many people that were so personally and dramatically affected by the storm and its aftermath. But, those were not the only tears. We too feel their deep pain. They, and we too, may even cry out to God. The good news that is implied by that cry is that we know we don’t go through this alone. Our neighbors need to know that they don’t go through this time alone. God is with them and as children of God we stand with them as well.
Today people are waiting for the Lord. Perhaps some are waiting patiently, while others wait far more impatiently and still other don’t even realize that they are waiting for the Lord. Still others may even ask if God is really there, if God really exists and if God really loves us, how could he have ever let this happen. In the news reports there have been those who have said as much when asking what is a simple question without a simple answer, “Why?”
I would say to you today and I would say to them as well, I don’t have an answer that would probably satisfy that deep part of their soul that is trying to search for meaning in all of this. In moments of tragedy words don’t usually bring much comfort.
It isn’t really difficult to see how one could question God in moments like these. When many fill out their insurance claims in the weeks to come the insurance companies and others will refer to this as “An act of God.” Others might say that the problem is that God didn’t act at all. And, still others would use these events as evidence that there is no God at all, working or otherwise.
Some of what we have seen shows the worst in the human creature and would lend itself as support for any of those arguments. Those that would take advantage of the misfortunes of others always seem to rise up at times like these. Within hours of the storm moving out of the hardest hit areas there were stories of wide-spread looting. I also heard reports in the Houston area of price-gouging at area hotels. Looters shot a New Orleans police officer. The list of problems could go on and on. Even if you get past the storm itself, it is easy to see why some might ask the question, “Where is God?”
On the other hand we have also seen some of the best we humans have to offer. During the past week I have had numerous telephone calls wanting to know how people could help. What is the United Methodist Church doing to aide these people? People weren’t asking to accuse, they were asking how they could help and be a part of relief efforts. An area furniture dealer that opened his store to refugees to spend the night for free, churches that are serving as shelters, others who are preparing meals, and still others who are collecting or contributing money or food to help with the very real needs of people.
Here is the deal. Do you want to construct a scenario in which it would be impossible to believe in a God who is touched with compassion, and burdened by the sorrows that attend the human condition? Then think of a hurricane that crashes in upon the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and elsewhere, hundreds of miles from the original point of the disaster. See cars, with their occupants swept off roads, see husbands and wives clinging together and then torn apart, possibly with their children, as they float in the flood waters, see buildings collapsing with people inside, see houses that are marked with black because they have dead bodies inside and there is no place to put them – see all of that.
And then see no one stopping to help, no one risking their own lives to save someone else, see no communities like ours rushing to provide aid, see not a dollar pulled from the hands of potential donors, see no relief agencies or churches spring into action, see no one offer the suffering the milk of human kindness, see no one acting in the name of God to offer help, aid, expertise and prayer. If you can honestly tell me that is what you see, then you can tell me that there is no God, and I will agree with you. Until then, I will remain unconvinced.
I cannot explain why this tragedy happened. Could it be a part of the natural laws that God put into effect with the creation of the universe? Sure it could. Could it also be that we are suffering so many storms because of some other phenomenon, possibly of human origin, that could be the case as well.
Whatever the cause, I cannot, and I will not blame God. One of my colleagues, I don’t know what church he was from, on Monday made the statement that obviously God couldn’t find 10 righteous people in the city of New Orleans so now New Orleans is the most current example of Sodom and Gomorrah. That is just plain ludicrous. Some of my colleagues have no business in ministry. They use and abuse the Word of God. I know, they probably say the same about me.
The long and short of it is, the God I believe in is a God of love, no better is love. That is what the Bible I read tells me. It also tells me that love never fails. That would logically lead to the conclusion that God never fails. Is God hard to see for some folks right now? Absolutely. Any time when there is pain, difficulty, and heartache in our lives it can be difficult to see God.
But, God is there and where God is there is always hope. The psalmist knew that. The psalmist concludes our lesson by reminding Israel to hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him there is great power to redeem. That could never be more true than it is today for the people of the Gulf Coast. Hope is in God and it comes from the helping hands of God, our helping hands at work to make a difference in the lives of people who this time last week were much like us, but today are hurting in ways that we can hardly comprehend.
Today the specter of a living God is arising all over our country as people of faith and people with no faith nonetheless are mobilized by the most basic instinct – to be a Good Samaritan – to help those in need. The hearts of men and women all over our country are filled with a God-friendly impulse that reaches out to those who are suffering. Hearts are broken, prayers are offered, help is volunteered, and pocketbooks are opened. There is something all of us can do to help. From giving food or money or clothing to HIS or making health kits or flood buckets for UMCOR or some other agency that is helping to going and helping with one of the relief shelters to making preparations to go to the effected area when the time is right, there is something that we all can do. And, it is all-important because we are being God’s hands at work in this situation. We are being God’s hands bringing healing and hope to those in need.
We could go on. The point is that in this present crisis, we see that our hands become the hands of God, and or feet the feet of God, our words the words of God. As my colleague Stan Purdum, a writer and Methodist preacher puts it, “This is a time to urge the church to be the church, and to remember that when Jesus told us to love our neighbor, he had a REALLY big neighborhood in mind.”
Today we are being the church. Most every denomination is gearing up to provide relief and aid to the suffering. People from virtually every walk of life are contributing and getting ready to work in the effected area even as we speak. In other words, we and others like us are responding to Hurricane Katrina with a faith storm of our own, a storm of love and compassion that will touch the bodies and souls affected to this great tragedy.
And we are also reminded that in our own community, there are disasters as well, though on a much smaller scale, that occur every day. People all around us are hit by the storms of life. They are floundering emotionally, spiritually, and financially. Their lives have been torn apart. Their relationships are in tatters. They look for help. They look for love. They look for hope.
And the church must be the church. We are the people who right now know where God is. We are the people who know what God’s love is. We are the people who know that where God is there is hope. Through the hurricanes and heart aches of life, we as the church must be about sharing what we know with the work of our loving hands.
