September 11, 2005

Seventeenth Sunday of Pentecost

"Search and Rescue"

     When Hurricane Katrina blew through our southern shores two weeks ago we witnessed the greatest unnatural disaster in our country’s history. What we saw was an act of man that created a tragedy of epic proportions.

     Now...perhaps what I just said confused or surprised you a bit. Shouldn’t I have said it was a natural disaster and not an unnatural disaster and shouldn’t I have said it was an act of God and not an act of man?  But I didn’t make a mistake - the disaster we witnessed and which continues today in Mississippi and Louisiana is not a natural one, it is of our own making.

     Certainly, people don’t cause hurricanes, but then, God doesn’t either. God allows them. God designed the world as it is, perfectly suited and delicately balanced for sustaining life. It’s the only place in the universe we know of that is like this. Storms are part of the design as are clear skies and calm seas. As intelligent inhabitants of this good earth, it is up to us to live in harmony with each other and God’s creation and this includes making wise decisions about how we live and where we live.

     But we are often short-sighted and forgetful people, so our most expensive real estate tends to be in the most vulnerable of places, like Hurricane Alley or on top of the San Andreas fault. We hope there won’t be any serious consequences for such choices because we like the scenery or the status or the financial opportunities being in such places provides. So, cities like New Orleans are built on the fastest sinking land mass in the world and as a consequence, 80% of the city ends up below sea level. And when a big storm approaches we hope it won’t be as bad as they say it will and allow denial or fear of losing what we have to keep our feet firmly planted until there’s nothing left to stand on.

     Hurricane Katrina’s sweeping ashore is not the reason there was so much loss of property and human life. This tragedy has much to do with human choices, false assumptions and denial.

     In the span of just four years, we have witnessed three disasters that have significantly altered the world in which we live. More than three thousand lives were lost on this date in 2001 as the result of terrorist attacks on this country. 282,000 lives were lost in a tsunami in late December of 2004. Now, perhaps many as 10,000 lives have been lost to Hurricane Katrina.  God’s creation hasn’t changed, but human choices in this evermore crowded and often conflicted world have increased the likelihood that people will be in harm’s way.

     When the French first established New Orleans, they built the town on high ground. It was a wise decision. Nearly 300 years later, it was that old French Quarter that survived the flood. When New London was founded, the center of the town was also established on high ground, where our original church building used to be, not far from where Second Church now stands.

     Hopefully, coastal cities around the world will now rethink their use of waterfront areas. Hopefully, better evacuation plans will be designed and better levee systems will be engineered. Hopefully, greater attention will paid to the needs of the poor so they can be moved to safety. Hopefully, in the process we will also learn to live together on this planet in greater harmony, in cooperation, in peace.

     We have a lot to learn. We need to be reconciled with God’s creation and with each other. We can no longer assume that what happened to the other guy won’t happen to us. There are more people in the world than ever before and so it’s a lot harder to stay out of trouble or out of harm’s way. We must be reconciled with one another and the earth and learn to live in the good and delicate balance that God intended, the balance meant to sustain life on this planet.

     Peter’s question to Jesus so many years ago was about reconciliation. When someone has done us wrong, or as Peter put it, when they have sinned against us, how many times do we have to forgive them until we finally cut them off...seven times? Some would say even seven times is way too many. Jesus’ answer is not an easy one to hear. He says we must forgive one another seventy times seven times (that’s 149 times, by-the-way). It was his way of saying that God intends for us to always be in the process of reconciling our relationships.

     God doesn't intend for us ever to be cut off from each other. God doesn't intend for us to be at odds with the creation, either. We are to live with an attitude of reconciliation, seeking always to give and take and understand and learn and grow fruitfully on the earth together.

     By this, the Lord isn’t saying we should allow ourselves to be victimized any more than he says we should stand on the beach as a hurricane blows in, but that we need to see the bigger picture of the delicate and good balance of the creation and be diligent in our efforts to live in harmony with our neighbors and the earth.

     Jesus frequently called upon people to be reconciled with each other, as he did with Peter in today’s lesson. The Apostle Paul went on to explain how this is possible. In the fifth chapter of Romans he talks about God reconciling the whole world to himself through the gift of Jesus Christ, that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were all about reuniting us with God and with each other.

We are forgiven through the grace of Jesus Christ. Christ overcame sin and death and promises the same to all who trust him. Reconciled to God in Christ, we are equipped, empowered and called to be about the same work in God’s world.

     A great search and rescue operation has been underway in Mississippi and Louisiana these past two weeks. Thousands of people have been working hard to help thousands more get to safety and shelter and medical care. Healing is already going on there and those of you who are doing what you can to help our neighbors down south are part of the helping and healing process, part of the search and rescue.

     But the search and rescue mission cannot stop when this current tragedy has passed. Called to reach out, to be reconciled with one another and the earth, we must continue to seek to bring one another to the safety, to the shelter, to the healing of God’s love.

     Thanks be to God for the life-sustaining balance of the good earth. And may our thanksgiving be evident as we seek to live in harmony with it and one another.