9-04-2005

Celebrating the freeing, supportive presence of God. So your experience of God may become your experience of life. It is wonderful what God can do!

"The Old Ball And Chain"

(Part 2 – National and Personal Disasters)

September 4, 2005

Good Morning!

    Imagine yourself waking up one morning and finding very smelly water almost up to the edge of your bed, which happens to be in the upstairs bedroom, and the water appears to be rising. Your first anxious thoughts turn to — higher ground and survival. You make your way through the polluted water to the attic or crawl space area, and must begin knocking a hole through the roof or air vent, so that you can get out and on top. Once on top, alone without food or potable water, you realize you are on a wooden island with floodwaters all around. Days turn into a week and light-headedly you wonder if the sounds of distant helicopters will ever make their way to where you are. To you, it appears as though the world has come to an end because you have no evidence that it has not. You are in a life or death situation, and very little else matters at this point. The principle question is, “Will you live to see another day?”

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;

When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea,

Thou who rulest wind and water, stand by me.

    Imagine yourself turning on your television and hearing that you are in the direct path of one of the strongest hurricanes on record and they are ordering evacuation of your town. You are fortunate enough to have a vehicle with a full tank of gas and relatives in a neighboring state who are willing to put you up. When you arrive, you are unable to get specific details, but all reports are that your neighborhood has been totally annihilated by the power of winds clocked at 145 miles per hour. Although in a state of shock, you begin to realize that everything you left behind is gone—demolished—except for your polluted and flattened property. You have no idea whether or not you will have a job to return to, but you are certain that it will not be soon. It feels like life, as you have always known it, is over.

In the midst of tribulation, stand by me;

In the midst of faults and failures, stand by me;

When my life becomes a burden, and I’m nearing chilly Jordan, Thou who never lost a battle, stand by me.

    What a shocking and unimaginable week this has been. Stories and pictures that we usually would have imagined as being from Sudan or Bangladesh are now being broadcast from devastated areas in the United States of America. For most of the people stranded on their roofs, the nightmare continues to this very moment. But as of Friday, the government finally has joined the throngs of individuals and organizations in delivering hope.

    Our hearts are additionally burdened because we are aware of the many requests for funding, over the years, to strengthen the levies so that they would be able to withstand a hurricane 4 or 5. But the powers that be left the levies at hurricane 3 level, and now say, “Who would have known that the levies would give way?”

    It is the current flooding caused by the levy failures that continue to bring misery and death to the people of New Orleans. It is the current flooding that has caused the relief agencies great difficulty in accessing those in trouble. It is the current flooding that brought New Orleans to its knees and powerless to prevent looting and gunfire at rescue helicopters. It does seem, however, that it was not the current flooding that caused the food and water to be delayed until Friday. No wonder President Bush called the federal response “unacceptable.”

    We could spend our time raising the age old questions like, “Why me?” or “Why now?” or “Why do bad things happen to good people?” or “Why does God allow this to happen?” … OR we can ask, “How will I allow God’s presence to help me to help others?” and “What lessons about my life and attitudes can I learn from the catastrophic times?”

    The Psalmist tells us this morning that “God is our mighty fortress, always ready to help in times of trouble. And so, we won’t be afraid!” When God is with us, and we yield to his presence, then our perspective is empowered, and we slowly begin to see past our trouble, to the other shore where a new sense of hope is born.

    We may not know on which shore we eventually will land, but we know for sure that God will bring us there. God says to us in these times, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” What a powerful sense of enduring hope!

    The great prophet, Isaiah tells us this morning that God “gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who seek and wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

    The old story of the two sets of footprints on the beach tells it all. When the man in trouble observes the Lord’s footprints and his own footprints, he notices that when the tide gets the highest and the difficulties the greatest, there appears only one set of footprints, and he assumes that the Lord has abandoned him. But the Lord comes to him and asks, “Do you see the one set of footprints remaining? That is when I carried you through the storms.”

    Luke, that great gospel writer, tells us the story of a fishing excursion that the apostles took while allowing Jesus to rest and fall asleep in the corner of the boat. That boat was the apostles’ real life. They were fishermen, well accustomed to sailing the choppy waters. It was a very real part of their lives. One day, however, the choppy water raged into a terrible storm, and the apostles found their lives disrupted and filled with danger and fear. Water was entering their boat. They were convinced that they would capsize and drown.

    In a last ditch effort, they woke Jesus and cried, “Master, we are perishing!” But Jesus was dismayed at their lack of faith. Here they had the literal presence of the Son of God in their midst and all they could think about was the trouble around them. (Jesus called it a lack of faith among his apostles.) Trouble comes our way, as it surely will, but the presence of Jesus can carry us success-fully to the other shore. And once we get to that other shore, the presence of Jesus will sustain us and help us adjust to whatever circumstances in-which we find ourselves.

    Jesus, on this occasion, did the very unusual and caused the universal laws of God to speed up. He raised his arms and caused the storm to dissipate instantaneously. [Now] some will ask, “Why can’t or won’t Jesus do that all the time—stop the storms, winds, and floods and regularly do other good miracles?” Next week we will address that very question.

    But for today, the apostles’ response to Jesus’ stilling of the storm was to ask the profound question, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?” This is the power of faith—not that God will always stop the treacherous winds—but that God has the power to command them. And if God has the power to command the winds, how much more so does God have the power to be a life-giving presence in our midst, carrying us through the rough winds and waters until he sets us safely on another shore. Our waiting is never without hope!

    We in Western New York are supremely blessed, because we do not usually have to deal with earthquakes, floods, or hurricanes. It has often been said by many, “I’ll take a snow storm over an earthquake any day.” This blessing should challenge us, move us, and motivate us, to provide help for those in trouble. The United Methodist connection makes this possible for us so that every dollar we contribute goes to people and not administrative costs.

    The Rev. Larry Hollon, chief executive at United Methodist Communications, issued this statement just yesterday,

"It's important for us as a church to say to the people of the Gulf Coast that we are concerned, and that we are praying with them and will be with them through the entire long recovery process."

    In these next days, when you reach the point of discouragement or depression and can easily forget the power and presence of God in your midst, then PLEASE turn off your television, and put down your newspaper. Instant news can be a wonderful blessing. That very blessing, however, can also be a curse. But remember New Orleans the next time our local and national leaders place their priorities in areas that do not serve the urgent needs of people and the poor.

    Let us ask the Holy Spirit for the continuing, compassionate presence of God, which will cause us to once again become new creatures in Christ … new creatures in our thinking and planning … new creatures in our diligence to urge new priorities in our national life. For our life and our hope is in you, O Lord.

    Let us now turn to our worship folder, and read, the last four lines of this morning’s Call To Worship responsively:

Leader: Our God says, “Calm down, and learn that I am God!” All nations on earth will honor me.”

All: The Lord All-Powerful is with us.

       The God of Jacob is our fortress. Amen!

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