Loving Folks You’ve Never Met
Loving Folks You’ve Never Met
A Sermon for Pleasant Street Church, UCC
Rev. Reebee Girash
January 31, 2010 (Focus on Haiti Sunday)
Texts:
Psalm 46: 1-3
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present a help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, a but do not have love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9 For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10 but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, b but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
Prayer
Sermon
Three weeks later, we are still stunned. The human suffering continues and we are overwhelmed.
But, hospitals and medical teams are operating now.
International aid workers, soldiers, doctors and nurses are on the ground providing aid.
People are starting to find food, to heal, to find their loved ones or at least find out what happened to them.
The world is trying to help. Donations to the aid efforts are astonishingly generous.
There are still aftershocks. Literal aftershocks, and deep, soul-shaking faith questions.
Why? Oh Lord, why?
I don’t know a word of the answer to that question.
I pray and hope that, as they old hymn says, we’ll understand it better by and by. I pray and hope that, as Paul wrote in our passage, although, “Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.”
Right now I know only that I do not blame God for earthquakes, nor do I blame the victims of earthquakes.
I believe that God is shaken along with us, to see her children suffering so.
I believe also that in this time,
God is
The Strength that goes beyond our power
The Miracle that goes beyond our skill
The Mercy that goes beyond our compassion
The Hope that goes beyond our ability to see.
And with Paul, I believe that whatever we do, the most important thing right now is that we love – that we love the people of Haiti.
If we could move mountains and put the earth back in place;
If we could prophesy and explain exactly why tragedies like this happen;
If we could fly to Haiti with all the wealth of Arlington with us on the plane, ready to give it all away;
Without love,
Without agape,
Without love,
The people of Haiti, and our own souls, would gain nothing.
This must be our focus: agape.
Leave it to the theologians and the geologists to answer the question, why did the earthquake happen?
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, b but then we will see face to face. Now we know only in part; then we will know fully, even as we have been fully known. 13 And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
For now, we can love – and that will abide. Though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult – love will remain. Love never ends.
Let us focus on love.
Let us allow our hearts to break with the people of Haiti.
Let us lament and cry out with them.
Let us stand next to them, pray with them, hope with them, rebuild with them.
We know this is what God does for all of us: God’s heart breaks when we suffer. God stands with us, hopes with us, rebuilds with us when we are shattered. We know this because of Christ.
Preacher David Lose writes:
“The biblical witness urges us to seek God not above tragedy – controlling the fates of nature and humanity – but rather amid tragedy, suffering with us and for us. This is nowhere more clear than in the cross of Jesus, where God was joined to the fullest human experience of loss – suffering an unjust and cruel death – out of love for us. God is present – not causing chaos but entering into it, not sending calamity by suffering through it, not standing over us but holding tightly onto us and promising never to let go. Wherever there is human tragedy and pain, the incarnate and crucified God is there.”
http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=303
This is the way of God: to love her children. This is the way of Christ: to love us, and show us how to love. This is the norm of Christian behavior: to love God, and love our brothers and sisters.
This is not only about loving and serving and helping others. Paul makes two important and interrelated points: first, that we must put the needs of others above our own. And secondly, that if we do so, we ourselves gain from that love. If I do not have love, I have nothing. If I do not have love, I gain nothing.
“There is a circularity to love, starting from God’s love of us, whose love renews us and makes us whole, and moving ineluctable until it gains expression toward others as a way to responding in thankfulness to God’s love.” (The New Interpreters Bible, pg 956). And that love returns to us.
~~
Now, we may set aside the why question when it comes to the earthquake itself, but in the process of loving, in the process of standing beside, of hoping and rebuilding, we must ask, why is Haiti in such dire straits because of this earthquake? There was a similar earthquake in California in 1989 where only a few dozen people perished, and few were left homeless. In Haiti there may be 150,000 people dead, and hundreds of thousands homeless. “This is not a natural disaster story. This is a poverty story.” (David Brooks http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/15/opinion/15brooks.html – although I don’t agree with all his conclusions and proposals, on this point there is no dispute.)
We must pray that this is the darkest moment before the dawn –
That as we stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti, our goal and our work will not end when they are back to where they were before January 12.
This is not a time just for charity-love, but also for justice love. In the short term, our generosity with our money, our missionaries, and our aid shipments will literally save lives. So we will do that until every person hurt or left homeless by the earthquake is healed and housed. In the long term, donating to One Great Hour of Sharing and collecting soap and combs and diapers will not be enough to help what was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
In the long term, love gets harder, and more complicated.
In the long term we have to really listen to the people of Haiti, and help them build the future they envision for themselves.
In the long term, we have to see the beauty of this nation, and support its flourishing.
The ONE Campaign has called for international debt relief for Haiti. (By the way, the US has already done that.) In the long term, the international community has to give Haiti a chance to crawl out from under that financial rubble before they can truly rebuild.
In the long term we have to remember, that as fragile as Haiti was a few months ago, there were really good things going on: the UN and international investors have been targeting Haiti for sustainable development through industries like garment production, coffee and mango cultivation, and tourism. The government is a mess, but arguably better than a few years ago. There are possibilities for partnership and transformation in Haiti. (See especially the New York Times op-eds by Paul Collier and Jean-Louis Warnholz as well as Nicholas Kristof.)
It is true that Haiti is a mess. Before the earthquake it was a poor country, marked by illness and deforestation. Now, it seems half the nation is injured or displaced. And yet, there are signs of hope in Haiti, even now. There is an ethic around food – though people are starving, everyone is sharing. There are people wearing t-shirts with this phrase: We will go on, Hand in Hand. Businesses are reopening. And people are starting to clear the rubble. Indeed, the UN has established a cash-for-work program for the clean up process, which will help to rebuild the economy, too.
In my mind, it’s like this. First, we ensure the safety of the children and the injured. Then, we clear the debt. Then we stick around, get to know the people of Haiti, and ask them: how else can we partner with you?
Do we love the people of Haiti enough to stand with them long after the rubble is cleared?
4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.
Can we love enough to bear all things? This great tragedy?
Can we love enough to believe all things? That Haiti has an unwritten future, filled with potential?
Can we love enough to hope all things? That Haiti can transform herself, with the right support?
Can we love enough to endure all things? To stand with the people of Haiti long after the rubble is cleared?
Let us focus on love. And let us do it in the long term.
Love never ends. Amen.