PAST SERMON 2010 #3
by Reverend Judith Alltree, delivered on Sunday January 17, 2010,
at the Church of the Holy Spirit.
How Will We Respond
“Your steadfast love,
O Lord, extend to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.” (Ps 36:5-20)
“The nations shall see your vindication,
and all the kings your glory…
You shall no more be termed Forsaken,
And your land shall no more be termed Desolate” (Is. 62:2a, 4a)
When I am writing, I walk; I mull things over as I comb the streets around where I live. On Friday, in the early dusk, I went up to Front Street and watched the people hurrying home, some doing last minute marketing for dinner, others picking up videos, and a few folks just warming themselves over hot drinks in the myriad of coffee shops that seem to litter my neighbourhood. Then I returned home, to the complete dichotomy of newspaper and TV reports, and all I saw was the utter desolation of Haiti.
The media reports are so horrendous it’s beyond my capacity to imagine: scenes of the chaos, panic, and horror in the Haitian capital bear a strong resemblance to the aftermath of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so great is the devastation.
Canadians can point to some pretty horrendous disasters in our own country in recent years: fires in BC, floods in Manitoba, tornadoes in Ontario and Alberta, hurricanes through the Maritimes. But we in Canada have a strong infrastructure, combined with a sound central government that could provide money, materials and people to bring aid to the areas and people affected. Canadians are not forsaken here, nor can we for a moment consider ourselves to be desolate; Haiti, however, has none of the benefits we take for granted, and their government is not capable of providing the assistance to its own citizens that Canada can.
I think the Jerusalem Isaiah writes about, the city “desolate” and “forsaken”, would bear a strong resemblance to today’s Port au Prince. The satellite photos of some of the landmarks in Port au Prince look as if a giant had walked through the city, flattening everything in its path. The National Cathedral is now only a series of cross-shaped walls; the roof is gone, shards of stained glass glitter in the grass. Imagine the vast bulk of the great Temple of King Solomon in the same shape: roofless, walls barely standing, artifacts buried underneath tons of rubble. The disaster of Jersualem in the 5th century before the birth of Christ was instigated by humans; this disaster was caused by the shifting of tectonic plates beneath the surface of the earth, but the results were the same. Utter and total devastation. In human terms alone, the loss of life from this earthquake may bring this tragedy into the realm of the 2004 Tsunami. And 1400 of those missing are Canadian.
Unfortunately, even before this disaster, Haiti had suffered through many other disasters, human and natural: recent hurricanes combined with completely ineffective government; poverty of a magnitude that is unimaginable coexists with wealth that is also unimaginable, yet in spite of this, there is still incredible faith in the people, and a will to survive that is also beyond imagining. The number of Canadians working in Haiti for the recovery of the country are testimony to this spirit: teachers, nurses, doctors, missionaries, contractors and builders, police officers from cities like Montreal and Halifax, as well as national RCMP officers, military and retired government personnel, all there to help. Some have survive, others are missing, and now we all wait.
And in the midst of destruction, we also search for the presence of God, God’s “steadfast love” — but for that we don’t have far to look. “God is Good!” and “Thank you, Jesus!” are the shouts from both those freed from the wreckage, and those who have rescued them. One woman never stopped praying, she said, and never lost faith or confidence in God that she would be rescued. “Thank God!” she cried when she was freed, breaking down in tears. The word “miracle” describes every rescue; God’s steadfast love is there: in the miracles, in the prayers, as well as in the death, in the devastation; in the hands that pull away the broken concrete, and carry away the broken bodies.
God is also there in our response to this tragedy; the question is what is our response? Do we watch the news reports, read the papers, say our prayers and carry on? Or do we take action, and what kind of action do we take?
Several generations after the people of Israel had been captured and forcibly marched to Babylon, the Babylonians themselves were overthrown by a king of Persia, Cyrus the Great, who, at God’s urging, created the Edict of Restoration through which the Israelites were encouraged and enabled to return home to rebuild Jerusalem. In addition, Cyrus told the people of his country to give the people of Israel, some of whom had been their slaves for generations, gifts of gold and silver, enough to see them through their journey, and for some time after, as they faced the task of rebuilding their devastated country. King Cyrus is considered a patron of the Jewish people, even today, because of his actions in the 5th century BCE. Cyrus responded to the tragedy of the Israelite people, of their long exile from their beloved homeland, and he responded to God by providing the needed resources for them to return.
When we help provide aid, our hands become the hands of Jesus reaching out to help people in need. Ours is the prophetic voice of Isaiah telling the people they will not longer be called Forsaken or Desolate; we become the Psalmist assuring them that God’s “steadfast love” extends to the people of Haiti. So the question remains: how will we respond, both to God and to the people of Haiti?
I know what I am going to do, and I believe that each of you will make your own decisions about how you may want to help out. I would like to make a suggestion, if I may? Both this Sunday and next Sunday, I would like us to put together a special collection just for Haiti, which we can send to one of the registered charities, such as World Vision, where the Canadian government will match our donation. That’s only one idea, though: if anyone has any other ideas about what we might do to help Haiti, please speak with me, or one of the wardens. Just for example: a group of seven year olds took their dance class and did a little samba demonstration on Queen Street West on Friday, called “Hips for Haiti”, to raise money for Haiti because they wanted to do something to help. And we are told repeatedly that every little bit will truly help.
Because King Cyrus responded to the call of God to support the people of Israel, they were able to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their city, their lives and their entire culture. This is our turn to answer the call of God in helping a country that has been forsaken and desolate for too long. Let’s hope and pray that out of this incredible disaster God’s voice will be heard loud and clear, and that we will witness the vindication and glory of a new Haiti.
AMEN.