Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
I spent an awful lot of time this week trying to figure out what to do today. Every day this week was totally different. As the week unfolded, so did the magnitude of the disaster in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. On Monday, many thought that that New Orleans had been spared, by Tuesday, we began to realize that things might be worse than we thought. By Wednesday, we knew we had a catastrophe on our hands. On Thursday and Friday, it was only getting worse.
So I had to think about what to talk about today. Very often the first question we tackle when any tragedy hits our lives is “why?” This becomes a theological and a practical question as, for some, it raises issues about the sovereignty, benevolence and power of God, while for others it raises questions of blame.
After last December’s Tsunami people often asked two question, “Why would God let this happen?” and “Why wasn’t there a tsunami warning system?”
But you know what, there will be plenty of time to ask why, so today, I am going to ask “what?” I am going to tackle the question of “what do we do now?” Now I could just stand up and answer that question myself, but I believe in the power of scripture to inform us. I was wrestling with this piece of scripture long back before Katrina was even a worry for Florida. I almost dropped it in favor of a standard post disaster text, but I realized that today’s appointed reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans is most appropriate.
Romans 13:8-10
Now people argue about this sort of thing, but one of the biggest love story movies of my generation is Titanic. At its core, it is a passionate love story about a young man and a young woman and their budding love that is fired and cemented in the terrible tragedy of ill-fated voyage of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic. It is a story of a love that surpasses even death itself as Jack, played by Leonardo DiCaprio leaves Rose, played by Kate Winslet floating safely on a raft of debris as he sinks away as the music swells
Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that the heart does go on
Once more you open the door
And you're here in my heart
And my heart will go on and on[1]
If you went to the theatre and saw that movie and what you left with was the thought that the White Star Line was blatantly negligent in not doing more to insure the safety of the passengers that we need to think more carefully about cruise ship safety, I think you missed the point. If you walked out of the theatre thinking about transportation safety and inherent risks of international travel, I think the moviemakers missed the mark with you.
And so it is with Paul’s immensely complex letter to the Romans. There is so much theological depth to this letter that I cannot begin to understand. I cannot begin to understand the nuances of Paul’s experiences and the struggles those early Christians faced. I cannot begin to understand everything that Paul says. But through all the complex arguments and references to things that fall outside my context I can feel the main theme come together as we come to the end of the letter. It is a love letter. A story of the nearly irresistible love of God and how it is calling us to love each other in an extravagant, nearly impossible way.
8Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
Love. What an interesting topic for today. I am trying to talk about the “what” after a disaster and here I am talking about love. Well, today may be a perfect day to talk about love. You see as Christians, we need to take love back from Hollywood. You see in that Titanic movie I just mentioned, there were two kinds of love going on. There was the Hollywood, romantic love between Jack and Rose, two star crossed lovers whose passion is so hot, it makes us look at our own relationships and wonder if something is missing. Then, there is the love of a man who gave up his seat on a lifeboat to someone he never met. That is the kind of love we are talking about today.
Sometime when I talk about love in sermons I bring up the different Greek and Hebrew words for love and how sometimes different words are used for God’s love than for human love. I am going to leave that for another sermon and go about this another way.
8Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Paul is making the same point that Jesus makes over and over in the Gospels,
“Love one’s neighbor as oneself.” Impossible. Because love, is an emotion right?
Every time our eyes meet
This feeling inside me
Is almost more than I can take.
Every time you touch me,
I can feel how much you love me
And it just blows away.
I’ve never felt this close to anyone
Or anything
I can hear your thoughts.
I can see your dreams.
I don’t know you do what you do
I’m so in love with you.
It just keeps getting better.
I want to spend the rest of my life
With you by my side
Forever and ever[2]
No matter how it is said, when we think about love, we think about romance. We think of love as a feeling, as an emotion. I see this with married couples who want to end their marriage because they are not “in love” anymore.
My marriage?
When we see love that way, Paul’s commandment seems impossible. I cannot fall in love with my neighbor. Especially when that definition of neighbor is so difficult. When Jesus was asked who “my neighbor” was,
30Jesus answered by telling a story. "There was once a man traveling from New Orleans to Houston. On the way he was attacked by robbers. They took his clothes, beat him up, and went off leaving him half-dead. 31Luckily, a priest was on his way down the same road, but when he saw him he angled across to the other side. 32Then a Levite religious man showed up; he also avoided the injured man.
33"A Samaritan driving down the road came on him. When he saw the man's condition, his heart went out to him. 34He gave him first aid, disinfecting and bandaging his wounds. Then he put him in the front seat of his SUC, led him to a hotel, and made him comfortable. 35In the morning he took out his American Express Card, gave it to the innkeeper, saying, "Take good care of him. If it costs any more, put it on my card--I'll settle the bill on my way back.'
36"What do you think? Which of the three became a neighbor to the man attacked by robbers?"
37"The one who treated him kindly," the religion scholar responded.
Jesus said, "Go and do the same."[3]
If we think of love solely in the Hollywood way, Paul’s command becomes impossible. You can’t just decide to feel all warm and fuzzy about someone. Paul’s commission is much more difficult than that. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
So often we read the text of Romans and miss this main point. It is like leaving Titanic and heading off to Washington to reform the shipping industry. I can’t tell you how many times I hear the words of this beautiful love letter used to condemn others, to judge others, to make others seem less than human. No matter what Paul says, some want to use his words to take commandments, rules and judgements out of the context of love:
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
And
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
There are moments when everyone seems to get that. There are moments when we are so shocked and dismayed by the events around us that Paul’s message and the message of the gospel become crystal clear.
In the days following 9/11, after last December’s Tsunami. There were no questions about religious affiliation, race, socioeconomic status. There were no judgments about whether the victims had followed the commandments. There was just a sudden and irresistible urge to help.
I cannot think of anyone, looking at television images of people stranded without food or water in the middle of a flooded city, people who had to wade through polluted flood waters to get there, people who were not sure if they would ever be rescued, I cannot think of anyone, looking at those images whose first reaction was to judge them, it was to help them.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Some of us had our moments, looking at looting and lawlessness. It wasn’t until the desperation of the situation became more clear that even that became not a reason for judgment but more evidence of the need of a whole new depth of compassion.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Times like these can be so overwhelming that we just don’t know what to do, but Paul tells us what to do. “Love one another.” “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I look I the thousands of displaced people who have absolutely nothing, perhaps not even their families anymore. I think about what Paul says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That is my neighbor, what I want me to do for me? Help.
You see Paul’s commission is much more demanding than even the impossible directive to feel all warm and fuzzy about someone. Paul wants us not just to love our neighbor, but to love our neighbor as ourself. Now, I don’t feel all warm and fuzzy about myself, but I do a pretty good job of loving myself. I make sure I have plenty to eat, a safe place to stay, clothes to wear. I make sure I am properly educated and entertained. I have hot coffee every morning, a comfortable bed to sleep in at night. I take pretty good care of myself.
Am I supposed to love my neighbor like that? If I take Paul seriously, when faced with a situation like the one we are faced with today, I can no longer consider the minimum amount of pity that will do, I need to consider what I would do for myself.
Bishop Janice Riggle Huie of our neighboring annual conference, The Texas Annual Conference, which includes Houston wrote in an open letter this week:
“This disaster truly invites extravagant generosity.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We need to not consider the minimum amount of pity we can get away with, but the ultimate amount of extravagant generosity we can bear.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
We need to pray for our brothers and sisters, but we shouldn’t stop there.
My friend Jen wrote on her weblog on Thursday:
The heaviness I felt yesterday left me as soon as I started doing something about it. I should have known. James 2:16-17 says, If one of you says to him, "Go. I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." Faith in action is incredibly fulfilling, and it will be what heals all of us.[4]
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
You see this is what the church is. The church is a place where lives are changed. The church is a place where people come not just to be changed but to change the world. We are not a prayer club; we are an agency of action.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
What do we do now? We can talk about the “why?” question later. Right now, we will act. Here is how.
Give money. There are a number of relief agencies already helping and the number one thing they ask for is money. There are ways to help physically and we will talk about that in a moment, but what is needed most right now is money. Today our entire communion rail offering will be going to hurricane relief through the United Methodist Committee on Relief. If you want to give by check just write Hurricane in the note. Because of our connectional giving throughout the year that supports this agency, they are able to send 100% of these funds to relief of the aftermath of Katrina. UMCOR will not leave when the floodwater recede. Rebuilding is what they are good at. I will talk more about that in a moment.
Some people have asked me about giving more locally. When we printed the bulletin insert, we were mostly concerned with displaced persons in Houston and so we came up with a way to get money there. Now, there are people in Houston, San Antonio and as of tomorrow, right here in Corpus Christi. If you would like your money to go to immediate relief efforts in Texas, I suggest you just mark your check Hurricane – Local. If you want to give at a later time or collect for the effort, you can bring checks and cash to the church throughout the week.
Flood buckets and health kits. Sometimes we need to work with our hands. It not only helps victims, it helps us to cope. As I quoted Jen earlier, “Faith in action is incredibly fulfilling, and it will be what heals all of us.”
There are a few things we can do. We can make health kits that will be distributed locally and throughout affected areas. If groups want to work on this, I have handouts with all the information.
I mentioned the UMCOR will still be there when the flood waters recede. They will need flood buckets, the most basic necessities that are needed when trying to clean out a flooded home. UMCOR will be heavily involved in the heartbreaking backbreaking work of making homes livable again. We have a chance to put these buckets together and have them trucked to The Sager-Brown Depot in Louisiana. Once again, I have all the details.
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
People have already asked me about going. Some want to go to Louisiana, some to Houston, some to San Antonio. We can help make that happen, but it will take a little patience. There will be an immediate need for help here in Corpus Christi this week. There will be need once the flood waters recede to help begin cleaning up. This is going to be a long process. Our neighbors will need us long after the media forgets this ever happened. So please, be patient.
“Loving your neighbor as yourself.”
My friend Jen ended her weblog entry on Thursday with this:
It's time for benevolence and overwhelming love. We have the opportunity to be part of one of the largest humanitarian efforts in history. Let's make the most of it.
And through all of this, let us remember our neighbors sitting right next to us. As we deal with a national tragedy, lives will go on, babies will be born, parents will die, people will continue in the day to day struggles and joys of life and through it all, we will all look to God to uphold us and comfort us and lead us in the daunting task of loving each other like God loves us.
Amen
