Sermon for April 2, 2006

An Extravagant Offering

John 12:1-11

I’m a dead man. Yeah, you heard me right. I’m a dead man. At least I was. Certified, and mummified -- buried in the family tomb. I wish I could explain to you what it feels like to be dead. I just don’t have colorful enough words in my vocabulary to paint it for you. I can tell you this: There was nothing romantic or beautiful about it. Death is an offense to beauty. No matter how hard you try, a corpse is never attractive. No embalmer’s art can change that. So, maybe your wondering how a dead man gets to stand up here and speak to you. Let me tell you what happened. This is going to blow your mind. There I lay - lifeless in a dark crypt for four days (Not that I had any concept of time passing). It was just dark...until I heard that voice–familiar, anguished, and inviting. It was like I heard a whisper in the back of my head saying, “Lazarus, come out,” and I just couldn’t help it. I got up and walked out of the crypt right to Jesus. And let me tell you, did that freak people out! I can just imagine what it must have looked like to others–this linen-wrapped mummy-man lumbering out of a dark tomb into the hot Mediterranean sun. I remember seeing my sisters, Mary and Martha, gape-mouthed and weeping for joy. Most of all, I remember Jesus’ tear-soaked, enraptured face.

Well, as you can imagine, we had a BIG party. When the power of God raises you from the dead and gives you a new lease on life, you don’t just shake hands, go out for a drink, and say, “Thanks man, I owe you one.” Especially when it all happened to someone like me. I mean, I’m not a well-known person in this town. I’m not a politician or a religious leader. Just a regular, hard-working sort of guy. But, Jesus, my friend, came to me and gave me my life back. No, you don’t let that go without having a big celebration.

All kinds of people were there. I’m kind of a people watcher myself. So I just took everything in: Jesus and the disciples, some friends and neighbors. Others were gathering outside, trying to get a peak at me and Jesus through the windows. And my sister Martha was bustling around as usual. Martha is a practical woman. She shows love by keeping busy. Always cooking and cleaning. She gets frantic about details when we have parties, especially when Jesus is here. Everything has to be just right. Usually she’s bossing me around. “Lazarus, go get some more water. Don’t forget to start up the barbeque. Make sure everyone has enough to eat.”–Things like that. She wasn’t bossing me around at this party, though. I was the guest of honor. I sat at the head table with Jesus, just watching everything happen.

My other sister Mary is just the opposite of Martha. She’s not really a detail person. I’ve never known Mary to have emotional outbursts. But you should have seen her at my party. She came out of the back room with a clay pot, about the size of a pint jar. She broke the cap off it, and the luxuriant fragrance of perfume filled the air. This was not cheap Syrian toilette water, either. The stuff cost $10,000, imported directly from India. It was the most precious thing Mary owned.

I was taking a drink from my cup when she broke the jar and poured the perfume over Jesus’ feet. I was so shocked I practically showered everyone with the water in my mouth as I choked on it (which, by the way, wouldn’t have made Martha happy. I can hear her now, “Lazarus, I swear you live in a barn. Use some manners. We have company.”) Anyway --Mary could have splashed a couple of drops of perfume in Jesus’ direction as a token of thanks. My sister Mary doesn’t do things halfway. She went and poured the whole bottle over the Lord’s feet. Not his head, like I expected, but his feet. The odd thing was, she wouldn’t even look Jesus in the eyes. It’s almost as if she didn’t want to be recognized. She just poured out the perfume and then began to wipe it with the hair on her head. You have to understand, in my world, women don’t go around in mixed company with their hair loose. When a girl is married her hair is bound up, and it’s never seen flowing loose in public again. Only immoral women appear in public with loose hair. So, here is my sister, acting like a cheap floozy with the guy who saved my life.

Now that some time has gone by, I realize that Mary didn’t really care what the rest of us thought. It reminds me of when two people are really in love–they are in a world of their own. Remember, I’m a people watcher. I see how people act when they are captivated by each other. They steal quick hand touches and eye glances. They rejoice that the world sees their love. Or have you ever seen a child who is free and uninhibited? She just loves what she’s doing at that moment, no matter who is watching. That’s Mary. At that moment, it was only Mary and her Lord.

Looking back on things, maybe Mary was the only follower who had good focus that night. I remember how irritated Judas was. Judas was always a little critical of others. Judas reminds of a joke I heard:

While traveling separately through the countryside a Hindu, a Rabbi, and a Critic were caught in a terrific thunderstorm. They sought shelter at a nearby farmhouse. “That storm will be raging for hours.” The farmer told them. “You ought to spend the night. The problem is there is only room for two in the house. One of you must sleep in the stable.” “I’ll be the one,” said the Hindu. “A little hardship is nothing to me.” And he went to the stable. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was the Hindu. “I’m sorry he said to the others, but there is a cow in the barn. Cows are sacred creatures and I cannot impose.” “Don’t worry said the Rabbi, make yourself comfortable. I will go sleep in the stable” A few minutes later there was another knock at the door. It was the Rabbi. “I hate to be a bother,” he said, “but there is a pig in the stable. In my religion pigs are unclean, I wouldn’t feel comfortable sleeping near a pig.” “Oh, all right said the Critic, “I’ll go sleep in the stable.” A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was the pig and the cow.

The point is, nobody likes a critic. So we all rolled our eyes when Judas opened his mouth. “What a colossal waste!” he cried out. “Lady, you could have sold that perfume and given the profits to us so we can help the poor. Instead you just dumped it out.” There was nothing but silence in the room. Mary paused only for a moment before she went back to wiping Jesus’ feet with her hair.

Most people knew Judas was a crook. We never knew why Jesus let him hold the money. I guess Jesus saw something in that guy that the rest of us didn’t. Well, Judas was seeing dollar signs. In a sense, I guess I was too. I thought to myself, “Laz, Judas has a point. There are better things to do with valuable perfume than pour it on someone’s stinky feet. It’s really not rational. How are we going to live if Mary wastes our treasures? It’s not responsible to our family. Why not sell it, and give a small percentage of the proceeds to charity? We could feed a few poor people. We could buy a few things we want around the house. We could put it away and send the nieces and nephews to school.” Mary kept wiping the Master’s feet with her hair, almost hypnotically. As I watched her my thoughts were filled with a list of ten more things we could do with $10,000. Then Jesus spoke. “Leave her alone,” he said. Jesus bent down, and lifted Mary’s head up to met her eyes. Jesus looked right at her with discerning eyes and a knowing smile, but he was talking to the rest of us. “She was saving this perfume for this moment. She’s getting me ready for my death. There will always be poor people to give to. Let’s worry about them another time. You don’t always have me here.”

We had no idea what the man was talking about. We said things like, “Jesus, you’re not going to die soon. Knock it off. You’re going to bust up the party.” It turns out that as we were overprotecting Jesus, some priests were plotting how to kill him. I heard they even put a hit out on me. I guess they were a little jealous over the competition. At any rate, Jesus knew he was going to die. He raised me to new life, and the price for it was his own life.

Here I am, a man who has the chance to start everything new. Jesus gave me a opportunity to set a new life in motion. Nothing has to be the same.. You know, there are some things we can do almost any time; and there are some things that we will never do unless we seize the moment when it comes. I have so often been captured with the desire to do something big-hearted and then I put it off until tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, the impulse is gone, the passion has burned out, and the opportunity is lost. If I’ve learned one thing from being a dead man, it’s that life is uncertain. We are moved to share some words of thanks, or praise, or love, but we put it off, and who knows if that person will be around tomorrow to hear it? It’s like what Jesus said. The poor will always be around, but he wouldn’t. The night of my party, Jesus gave us the opportunity to love him. Mary knew it

I guess it’s really not about the money. It’s not the amount of the gift, but it’s what we give. Mary gave more to Jesus than a pint of remarkably expensive perfume. The most costly, the most extravagant thing she offered was her devotion to Jesus. Her love of Jesus made the costly perfume seem cheap in comparison. When I realized how I was holding back, I felt cheap in comparison, too.

I still smell that perfume in the house. Every time I walk into the front room, my nostrils are satisfied with a sweet reminder of what Mary did to show her love for Jesus. I owe my new life to Jesus. And what do I have to offer? What’s my most extravagant offering? My money? My time? My expensive gifts? Mary taught me that those don’t mean a thing if I can’t also express my gratitude through love. Mary’s perfume reminds me to do it now. The chance may never come again, and missed opportunities may bring the bitterest remorse of all

Sermon for March 26, 2006

Disappointment with God
Luke 15:1-3,llb-32

It is said that Alexander the Great conquered Persia, but broke down and wept because his troops were too exhausted to push on to India. His grave marker reads: A tomb now suffices for him whom the world was not enough

Hugo Grotius, the father of modern international law, said at the last, “I have accomplished nothing worthwhile in my life.”

John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the U.S.– not the greatest president, perhaps, but a decent leader--wrote in his diary: “My life has been spent in vain and idle aspirations, and in ceaseless rejected prayers that something would be the result of my existence beneficial to my species.”

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote words that continue to delight and enrich our lives, and yet what did he write for his epitaph? “Here lies one who meant well, who tried a little, and failed much.”

Listen to what the gravestone of the famous poet John Keats
This Grave contains all that was Mortal of a Young English Poet Who on his Death Bed in the Bitterness of his Heart at the Malicious Power of his Enemies Desired these words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone “Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.”

Our modern psycho-babblists would just love these men. They are great candidates for positive affirmation therapy. Can you just imagine Alexander the Great with Doctor Phil: “Alexander, I want you come up with a set of sentences to repeat to yourself, or, for a small fee, you can repeat some of mine. For instance, next time you feel like you have not conquered enough of the world, I want you to say over and over again to yourself, “Every day in every way I’m getting better, better and better. Everything is coming to me easily and effortlessly. Everything I need is already within me. I love and appreciate myself just as I am.” By the way, some new studies argue that positive affirmation therapy may lead to deeper depression.

Sometimes, we disappoint with ourselves. We want to make a bigger impact. We want to achieve more. We find parts of our lives that we don’t particularly like, let alone love. We also become disappointed with people. People fail to meet our expectations. They won’t do what we hoped they would. I think this kind of disappointment is occurring in today’s Scripture reading.

I want to talk honestly this morning about something we don’t like to admit happens. While some of us can relate to the lost son who came home to his father, I believe that many of us see ourselves in the child who felt left out. How do we handle it when God disappoints us? What are we supposed to do when God doesn’t meet our expectations, or even worse, when we feel that we have not been fully appreciated by God?

We tend to focus a lot on the younger son in this story. Many of us are familiar with this parable: the young son takes his share of the family inheritance and goes to the big city to squander his money in the fast lane. Yet, all this time, a responsible older son works at home. He obeys his father. He stays at the ranch, contentedly caring for the family farm and waiting patiently for what’s due him. He is respectable. People depend on him in tough times. Then one day, without a word of notice, his little brother comes back home. He’s dirt poor and looks like one of his father’s slaves. He smells like he has been living with pigs. I can imagine the older brother thinking, “Finally -- now this squanderer will learn some responsibility. Maybe he’s hit rock bottom and he’s ready to learn his lesson.” But the black sheep of the family is treated more like royalty than a wayward son. The Dad throws a feast in his honor. Everyone joins the party -- except for on person, the older son. If I were the big brother, I would be angry too. He works day in and day out, honestly and devotedly. Suddenly, this rebellious waste of a brother comes home, and they throw him the party, complete with a fattened calf. Is this how you thank hard work and devotion? I would feel that all this undue attention on the brother was just a slap in the face. I would be disappointed and angry with my father. The older son says as much.

“Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you,” he says to his father. “I’ve never given you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me or my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up, and you go all out with a fattened calf. You have never even given me an old goat to celebrate with.” He sounds resentful, and hurt that his father has not fully appreciated who he is or the sacrifice he has made for the family.

Have you ever felt like this older son. Imagine a window in your heart through which you can see God. Once upon time that window was clear. Your view of God was crisp. The glass was clean. Like the older son, you knew how God worked. No surprises. You saw God’s will for you, and you followed it. Then the window cracked unexpectedly. A pebble of pain broke your vision. Perhaps the stone struck when you were a child and a parent left home forever. Maybe the rock hit in adolescence when your heart was broken. Perhaps it was a midnight phone call that woke you up with shivers up your spine. Those calls are never good news. Maybe it was a letter on the kitchen table that said, “It’s over, I just don’t love you anymore.” The pebble could have been a diagnosis from the doctor who said, “I’m afraid our news is not good.” Maybe it was the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a reputation. Whatever the pebble’s form, the result was the same-a shattered window. Suddenly God was not easy to see. The view that had been so crisp had changed. You turned to see God and the figure was distorted. It was hard to see God through the pain and through the fragments of hurt. You were puzzled. If God is really in control, why would these bad things happen? Why didn’t God heal him? Why didn’t God let her live? Why do those people get to live happy, perfect lives, and I don’t?

Most of us know what it means to feel disappointed with God, and most of us have a way of completing this sentence: “If God is God, then...” Each of us has unspoken yet definite expectations about what God should do. “If God is God, then . . . "
· There will be no financial collapse in my family.
· My children will never be buried before me.
· People will treat me fairly.
· My prayer will be answered.
These statements define our expectations of God. When pain comes into our world and splinters the window of our hearts, our expectations go unmet and doubts may begin to surface. We look to God but can’t find him. Fragmented glass hinders our vision, and we’re not quite sure what we see anymore.

I don’t think these feelings are bad. The struggle is real. The question is: how do we deal with them? The older son in Jesus’ parable took it too far. He became critical and unsatisfied with his father. Disappointment does that. It can make us bitter and isolated. You begin to lack joy, and love as you focus on your abandonment. It can make you critical of a God who chooses to make others happy while you wallow in pain. It can cause you to be angry with a God who would throw a party for “sinners” rather than rewarding the efforts the “righteous.”

Jesus reminds us the good son does not need the care. The lost son is the one who needs to find life. By the end of the parable we learn this: the one who was lost has been found and has returned home. The one who was secure and self-satisfied is now the one who is lost and needs to rediscover his father’s love.

How can we overcome disappointment with God? How can we see God more clearly, even though the window of our heart has been shattered? God’s message of good news is this: God is for us. Jesus addresses this parable to those of us who feel like the older brother. Jesus says, “Behold the greatness of God’s love for his lost children, and contrast it with your own joyless, loveless, thankless, critical lives. Cease your bitter, isolated ways, and be merciful. The spiritually dead are rising to new life. The lost are returning home.”

Jesus says that when we’ve been dumped and left behind, God is for us.
When we get bad news, God is for us.
When we feel abandoned by God, no matter what we feel, God is for us.
When we grieve . . . when we feel alone . . . when we’ve been dumped on by life . . . when God doesn’t meet our expectations . . . even when we feel disappointed with God, God is for us. God loves the sinners and the saints alike, and calls us all to be as close to him as possible.

We used to drive a van full of youth from Boston to Georgia for a summer camp. We would drive twelve hours each day. I told everyone right from the beginning, “We are stopping every four hours. Not two, not three; but four hours. I am not pulling over unless it is an extreme emergency.” It was easy for me to keep driving, because I knew the destination. Warm water, fresh air, bright sun, and a week of nonstop fun awaited them. We just had to get there without pulling over every twenty minutes. It was not as easy for the teens in the van. They were uncomfortable. The wanted to stretch. The hours were long. It was hard for them to fix their eyes on a goal that they had never seen.

For some of you the journey has been long. Some of you have shouldered burdens that few of us could ever carry. You have been robbed of life-long dreams. You have been given bodies that can’t sustain your spirit. You have spouses who can’t tolerate your faith. You have bills that out number the paychecks. And you are tired. It is hard for you to see the destination in the midst of the journey. The desire to pull over and get out entices you. You want to go on but some days the road seems long. When you feel disappointed that the journey is so long and hard, I want you to remember that God is for us. God is for us. And if God is for us, no one or nothing can stand against us.

Sermon for March 19, 2006

Lost and Found: The Sheep
Luke 15:1-7

(NB: I stole this opener from Dylan at Sarah Laughed, and made a few editorial changes)

Once there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them went astray from the flock. The shepherd's colleagues figured this was probably due to some carelessness on the shepherd's part. After all, when the shepherd used to be a farmer, he had been seen tossing seed in the middle of paved parking lots and seagull hangouts without much thought as to whether anything would actually grow there. He acquired a reputation for being a little impractical.

The ninety-nine sheep, wanting to be helpful, immediately sprang into action ... or discussion, anyway. One loudly announced that the Historic Flock never included more than ninety-nine sheep, and therefore the stray was probably a goat, or perhaps a musk ox, and should not be bothered with. If a wolf got it, that's what it deserved for straying from the flock, or for being a musk ox, or whatever its problem was.

Factions gathered in response to that announcement. Some suggested that perhaps a letter could be sent to the stray that if she were to stop being a musk ox and become a sheep, or at least learn to bleat like one, or perhaps if she stopped making...what noise is it that musk oxen make? Cries immediately went up for a subcommittee to study that issue. Anyway, if she could become more like a sheep, she could rejoin the flock. A website and glossy magazine ads were put in place to further this effort. A committee instituted a series of dialogues, in which each member of a panel of three sheep would present its view of what species the strays were, followed by discussion and concluding with a very nice and moving liturgy.

Another faction formed to try to win over the first group. They poured their resources into a public relations campaign in the flock to celebrate the contributions of all sheep, even the ones reputed to be musk oxen or goats. When rumors arose that the stray sheep was being attacked by wolves and a voice in the flock suggested that perhaps something ought to be done, another of the ninety-nine sheep produced a marvelous-looking PowerPoint presentation documenting the decline in wolf attacks by well over 30% over the last fifteen years. He noted, "There used to be 78 strays per year. The fact that we've got it down to one is most impressive!" The faction responded with a loud cheer and dashed off to a fundraiser to cover the cost of a digital camera to supply graphics for future presentations.

All of this “pro-stray” rhetoric greatly annoyed the planners of the campaign to convince the stray to return to Historic Flock, and the sheep who didn't want the stray back in the flock at all were furious. They threatened to leave the flock. Uproar ensued. If you could somehow manage to listen beyond all of the loud bleating and blaring loudspeakers and committee deliberations and rousing choruses of "Bringing In the Sheep,” you might notice that the shepherd was gone, as one silhouetted figure left to find the stray as some wolf howls echoed in the distance.[i]

In a culture that sanctions every individual's right to seek his or her own path to perfection, self-righteousness can seem like a mere irritating character flaw. One person decides that steaming vegetables is the responsible way to eat and turns pale when her friends order meat. Someone else discovers the aerobic benefits of running and begins to hound all his lazy friends. We all do it on some level. We find something that gives us life and we want everyone else to have it too. We want to share the good we have found, whether it’s as simple as a new way of losing weight or as profound as a new way of approaching God.

But when I turn my good into your duty and judge you for your failure to perform it according to my standards, then my wish for your well-being becomes something darker and more dangerous.

In today’s reading, Jesus dines with tax collectors and other “sinners.” Maybe there are some prostitutes there, or some camel or donkey drivers. There may be a Jewish terrorist or a public activist in the crowd. They have two things in common. They are judged as polluted people by the churchgoers of the day, and they have a good time with Jesus. The religious people also pass judgment on Jesus. Pharisees and teachers of the law sneer, "This man welcomes scumbags and eats with them." The religious people are so full of their precious values and so defended against those who do not share them that even the dynamite of the gospel has little effect on them. So, Jesus tells a story.

"I want you to imagine that you have one hundred sheep and that you lose one of them. Now, wouldn't you go out after the lost one until you find it?" Or imagine it this way: Which Basketball coach among you, will not leave the varsity team to practice on their own for the season, and go, and search out that student in chess club and take him onto the court and spend every afternoon running drills with him and personally coaching him so that at last he is prepared to try out. And when that student makes it onto the JV team, will you not run to the entire coaching staff and all the first-string players and say, ‘Come, party with me! The one who is a klutz has made it onto the team! Be happy! Rejoice and be glad!’ Which one of you would not do that?”[ii]

None of us would do that. (Certainly not if we want to keep our job as basketball coach.) And that's the answer to the question about the shepherd too. Nobody in the sheep business has one hundred sheep, loses one, leaves the ninety-nine to the wolves and coyotes, and goes chasing off after the idiot that wandered away. That would be just plain stupid. You would never leave the 99 sheep unprotected in the wilderness to go after one lost one. You cut your losses, forget about the lost sheep, and go on with the ninety-nine.

At this point, the scribes and the Pharisees smile to themselves. They agree with the story. God always goes out to find the lost. God looks for the people outside their church. God wants people to get their lives in line with the rules and traditions and religious values. “Yes, let’s get these tax collectors and camel drivers to clean up their lives so they will go back to church.”

Then Jesus says, “Let’s just say you go ahead and look for the lost sheep, although everyone you tells you it’s stupid. What would you do with the sheep if you found it?” The shepherd puts the lost sheep on his shoulders and goes to his house. Jesus does not say that the shepherd goes back to the ninety-nine and puts the sheep back in the flock. He leaves the 99 other sheep back in the field, and he goes home. He carries the lost sheep right into the living room and says, “Hey, I just found my sheep.” His wife says, “Get that sheep out of my living room. It’s going to make a mess. I just vacuumed in here.” This is a crazy thing for a shepherd to do with a lost sheep. But he’s so happy, he has to bring it in, even though it’s making a stink. He says, “I want him right in my living room. This is my lost sheep. I just found him.”[iii] And then Jesus says: There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who don’t think they are lost, who don’t think that they have any need to get right with God.

By the end, the people of the tradition wonder, “How many lost sheep are there? One or 99?” The Pharisees sense Jesus directing this parable in their direction, and they don’t like Jesus implying that they are the lost ones. The Scribes and Pharisees are the most religious of the people: they attend worship every Friday night. They make big financial contributions to the synagogue. They don’t eat certain foods. They don’t use four letter words when they hit their thumbs with hammers. They attend all the potluck dinners. They know, without a doubt, that they are the “found” ones. The scoundrels outside the synagogue, outside their church -- they are “lost.” Jesus tells them that God is willing to leave them and put them all at risk just to go save one stray sheep. God is willing to bring one lost sheep home. Meanwhile, there are 99 sheep that God does not rejoice over.

The question is: can you come to church every week, be generous in your offerings, say all the right prayers, show up for all the potluck dinners, and still be lost? Can church actually distract us from our relationship with God? If we become so comfortable with our self-righteous defense of our traditions, will we lose our way?

The story for today is not about the 33% of Trumbull residents who don’t belong to a church and we the church are to go out and gather the lost sheep. It’s not about the lost sheep who live outside the walls of the church and we need to go and find them. The story for today is not intended for someone else; someone like your son or daughter or brother or sister or mother or father or work associate. I’m not preaching so we will leave here and think, “I wish that so and so was in church to hear this sermon. I know someone who needed to hear it.” No, this story is about you and me -- when we get lost from God -- when we wander away from God and we don’t even realize it.

There is a line in Psalm 23 that says, “He restores my soul.” It can also be translated, “God causes my soul to return,” or “God causes my soul to repent.” The Psalm pictures David wandering from the “paths of righteousness,” and being turned back to those paths by the Lord Himself. Jesus leaves the invitation open ended. The pathway begins in front of us. It turns us back to the life God has for us. Or we can choose to stay where we are, clinging to beliefs that feel secure but don’t give us life. There are some Pharisees who refuse to walk the path of new life. They exclude themselves from joy. They would rather not be with a God who chooses to eat with tax collectors and sinners. The story about a lost sheep communicates God’s invitation for us to turn back to God, and hold onto God, and talk with God, and walk with God and pray with God. God gets such great joy when we finally come to our senses, wake up, and return to a loving and living relationship. Maybe it’s time for you and me to be found...again.

[i] http://www.sarahlaughed.net/lectionary/inclusion/index.html
[ii] http://www.pilgrimcongregational.org/Pubs/Sermons/2004/09/26/Page_01.htm
[iii] Bill Lane Doulos, Cotton Patch Parables of Liberation. 50.

March 5 -- Mississippi Recollections

Luke 14:25-35

Bay St. Louis was a weekend casino and golf escape for some, and a lifelong home for others. What was once a beautiful little town now looks like a war zone. Trees and debris are scattered aimlessly around, and several homes only have the concrete foundation remaining. Here’s where the truth begins to confront ignorance. We originally chose to bring a group of workers to MS thinking it wasn’t as badly hit as New Orleans – maybe it was still salvageable. The truth is that fastest winds of Katrina hovered over Bay St. Louis and Waveland, flooding the coast with immense storm surges. Until you’ve been there, it’s hard to grasp. What you see on TV is nothing compared to what it’s really like, Homes were flooded with 6-10 feet of water, which stood on the ground for 6-8 hours. By the time the water receded, nothing was left. Katrina was the costliest hurricane in American history and also claimed the largest amount of lives. More than 1,300 people were killed from Louisiana to Alabama. An early estimate of $100 Billion dollars in damage has been assessed. More than 33,000 families in MS alone are living in leaky FEMA trailers, with thousands more on waiting lists. That is surly a low figure and will likely rise in the coming months.

Hurricane Katrina displaced more than 3,000 of the residents of Bay Sat. Louis and damaged 95 percent of its homes. Katrina left the town with an uncertain future. On August 29, surge waters started quickly flooding homes at about 8 o’clock in the morning. Since MS is flat as a pancake, residents sought high ground on their roofs. Many had to claw through their ceilings with their hands just to get to safety. By the time people got up there, the roofs were blown away. They had to dive into the water, clinging to trees, or grabbing onto debris. We talked to a woman named Paula. When the waters came, her house lifted off its piers and floated away. She survived by getting into a small boat that floated by. Her and her extended family spent the next 8 hours in the boat, clinging to the sides while they lived off candy bars that floated by. Paula owned 15 horses. Before the storm, she led them to roam in a large pasture. After Katrina, 8 were dead, caught up in trees or tangled in barbed wire. Paula’s house cannot be rebuilt. She salvages her house, board by board, so that the wood can be reused at her sister’s house. She lives on a small road, named after her great-grandfather. The property has been in the family for 6 generations, so she doesn’t want to leave.

Recent media coverage has highlighted the ongoing devastation in the area. Up until now, we were under the impression that the area was on the road to recovery. It is not. Roads are cleared, power is back, and debris is being removed. However, now that some residents are returning, they face leveled homes and shattered lives. Emergency shelters still house residents and pass out relief supplies. The town’s mayor sleeps and eats at the fire hall. The school meets in trailers. CVS and the banks operate from trailers. WalMart runs from 1/3 of its store, selling merchandise and groceries from pallets stacked on the floor.

Katrina’s indiscriminate destruction was bad enough. The slowness of the recovery just irritates the wound. Replacing the infrastructure is more than any group of residents can do on their own, and the government has been notoriously slow in helping out. Residents cannot clear their property until insurance claims are settled. The insurance companies bicker with the government and residents over the percentages of wind damage verses flood damage. Some residents got settlements for wind damage only. Insurance companies reimburse them for the cost of their shingles – the only part of the house that didn’t sustain flood damage. A resident may receive 10-13K for shingles, but there is nothing to attach them to. Banks are beginning to foreclose on mortgaged properties. The fear is that developers will buy the foreclosed properties, and build casino resorts along the coast where people used to have their homes.

Many thanks to the TCC volunteers who gave their time and energy to work in MS: Pastor Matt,Tim Burke, Allan Buda, Kevin Callahan, Clark Gingras, Paul Nestro, Andrea Burke, Carolyn Kallahar, Amanda Paolian, Debbi Rosati and Andra Turner. We also thank our prayer partners, and all of the TCC members and friends who generously supported this trip. Make sure to ask them to share their stories and pictures with you! Joining with some friends from Bloomfield Presbyterian Church on the Green, NJ, we toured the massive destruction and ongoing relief efforts. We also worked hard -- painting, roofing, insulating, demolishing, and listening to the stories of those who survived the storm season.

We worked with an orgainzation called Foundation Hope from Bay St. Louis, MS. Foundation Hope is run by Tricia Myrick and Jessica Bean. In her former life, before Katrina, Tricia worked as an independent financial adviser in Hattiesburg. Beane, 26, was an accountant at the University of Southern Mississippi. After seeing the destruction in MS, they quit their jobs and opened up Foundation Hope. They began handing out relief supplies in the days afte Katrina hit. Now they are involved in rebuilding homes and lives. With less than three months before the next hurricane season hits, they work hard to shore up homes and conenct people to the services they need. Thanks to Tricia, Jessica, and Mark for their tireless work. They remain a voice of conscience in Bay St. Louis!

While in MS, we stayed with Pastor Rick from Daily Life Ministry. Our groups also worked with him on work orders that arrived at his house. A travelling evangelist from Iowa, Pastor Rick originally went to Bay St. Louis to pray with people. Six months later he is helping to rebuild homes and distribute supplies. We had a rocky start while staying at his home, mostly due to some theological language differences. However, as the week progressed, we managed to work it all out. I actually think he liked us by the time we left. Much thanks to Rick for his hospitality!

The needs are still great in the Gulf States. When asked what we can do to help, one person said, “We’re so deep in the trenches and the devastation is so great, it’s hard to think.” There are many good organizations working down there that still need financial support and our prayers. We are also considering adopting a family from that area. Organizations also need volunteers to go down and continue the work -- especially licensed builders, plumbers, and electricians.

In today’s reading from Luke, I hear a call to step outside of our comfort zones. Where are the men and women who understand that their purpose in life is to represent God's kingdom on earth? Where are the people who are willing to surrender their existence to the will of God, no matter what the price, because they understand that this is why they are here? A lot of them are in Bay St. Louis, MS, reconstructing lives and shining the light of Christ on those who feel forgotten and abandoned.

Thisis what the Gospel is about. Sure, we can attend church. Sure, we can put money in the offering plate. But if you are serious about your faith, there will come a time when you will be asked to step our of your comfort zone – to do something you would never have dreamed of. It’s a call to stop stumbling over ourselves and to live the life Christ calls us to.

People still look to the church to make a difference by living a different kind of life. And they don’t always see it. Some people come to the church, and they see fighting, gossiping, backbiting, quarreling, and every other kind of sin. Often, we serve Christ as long as serving Christ makes us comfortable. We're eager to serve God if it keeps money in our pockets and smiles on our faces. But we don't want it to inconvenience us. "Yes, I love the Lord, but I'm not really interested in teaching a Sunday school class, and meetings on Wednesday are out because my favorite TV show is on then. Yes, I want to serve God, but my job keeps me too busy to be on the Council or the church finance committee or to go out on visitation. But I'll give God two good hours every Sunday." You know what happens when this behavior continues. New-comers decide that how we behave in here is no different from any other place, and they don't want any part of it. Honestly, neither do I.

I don’t want my legacy to be that I was a church-goer. Iwant to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I want you to be one, too. A disciple is a person decides that following Christ is a priority in life. Being a disciple means arranging our lives in ways that show Christ is of vital importance. Jesus didn't say being a disciple would be easy. He told his followers that they would have to deny themselves and take up their own crosses to follow him. He emphasized that following God would have to be first, even before one’s allegiance to family.

I have to be honest with you. I don’t like to hear that part of the Gospel. I was happier without knowing that part of Jesus’ scandalous expectations. Just like I was happier before I want to Bay St. Louis, MS. However, once you experience these things, you are changed. You can’t NOT want to do something. I feel the same about my faith. When I reflect on God’s faithfulness in my life, how can I allow myself to be lazy about my discipleship.

Lent is a time when we are invited to think about what it means to follow Christ. It might mean forbearance, or keeping our mouths shut when we are tempted to gossip or tear another down. It might mean really listening to another person’s point instead of trying to make your own. It might mean asking someone for forgiveness because you blew it and you were to proud to admit the fact that you might be wrong. It might mean making a choice to stand beside those who have been forgotten and using your resources to make his or her life better. It might mean taking stock of the blessings we have, remembering that there are people in our own country who are living in third world conditions.

As we come to the table today, we remember Christ, who identifies himself with those who suffer, and those who sacrifice. And we try to hear God’s call on our own lives to willing and dedicated discipleship.

Mississippi Still Recovers From Katrina --1

Mississippi Still Recovers from Katrina -- 2

Mississippi Still Recovers From Katrina -- 3