Sermon in Response to Hurricane Katrina 2005 Mike Buford, pastor Fellowship Baptist Church, Viera

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The Pastoral Prayer this morning is from Isaiah 58:10. Bow with me:

“In this time of darkness, let us serve as the light
That brings comfort and strength, hope and redemption.

It is our hands that move stones
And our hearts that move mountains
Sowing the seeds
Of unbroken tomorrows.

If you offer your compassion to the hungry
And satisfy the famished creature
Then shall your light
Shine in darkness
And your gloom
Shall be like noonday”

Grant that spirit to us in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

This week we have all been mesmerized by the images on our television screens. In that light, I had no choice but to set aside the sermon I had prepared for today. The preacher’s job is to be prophetic – to speak to the needs of today with justice and hope. His job is to stand in the space between destruction and hope.
Today we will focus on scripture. In fact, much of what I say today will simply be reading scripture. So I invite you to take the this scriptural journey through our collective heartache.

What I have seen this week has touched me deeply:

• Images on weather screens of a powerful red swirling mass named Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico…
• Blowing rain and lapping waves…
• Later we saw the ragged roof of the Super Dome and heard voices of reporters telling us that the Big Easy had dodged a bullet. Our attention turned to the Gulf Coast and places like Biloxi and Gulfport. The next morning we knew better... The water was rising in the city.
• Over the next few days we saw things we never thought we would see in America….. All because the water was rising in the city.

Ezekiel 47

1Then he brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, water was flowing from under the threshold of the house toward the east, for the house faced east. And the water was flowing down from under, from the right side of the house, from south of the altar.
2He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around on the outside to the outer gate by way of the gate that faces east. And behold, water was trickling from the south side.
3When the man went out toward the east with a line in his hand, he measured…, and he led me through the water, water reaching the ankles.
4Again he measured …and led me through the water, water reaching the knees. Again he measured … and led me through the water, water reaching the waist.
5Again he measured; and it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen, enough water to swim in, a river that could not be overcome.

There have been many prayers offered this week. We have pleaded for a part of the human family that we did not know. We prayed for folks living in squalor, chaos and filth that we could not imagine. We all prayed for a fresh, cleansing intervention of God.

This is the anniversary week of 911. I need to remind you that the people of God also had a week of tragic memory. In 587 BCE the city of Jerusalem fell into squalor, chaos and filth. Buildings were destroyed and hundreds of thousands of its citizens became refugees hundreds of miles from their home. They had nothing but the clothes on their back.

The texts we read today were written surrounding their struggle. As always, the Jewish stories are used over and over again, in different ages and with different names to mark the truth. They serve us so now.

We begin with hope. The God who watches the tragedy is also the God of promise. Here is the city beyond tragedy:

Jeremiah 31:31-34

31"Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,
32not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them," declares the LORD.
33"But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I will put My law (Read that Torah – and for Jeremiah Torah meant the book of Deuteronomy.) within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34"They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

God promises homecoming and restoration – but the new city needs to be built on the Torah. Jeremiah was the prophet most infatuated with Deuteronomy. Jeremiah is from the priestly family of Anathoth. Anathoth is a village about three miles northeast of Jerusalem, where Solomon exiled Abiathar (1 Kings 2:26-27). It is probable that Jeremiah belonged to the priestly family of Abiathar. Many scholars believe that for four hundred years that family of priests, in their frustration with the banishment of their family, poured over Deuteronomy and recognized a mantra in the law. We can see it today. Over and over again the mantra appears. If you care for “the widow, the orphan ands the refugee” the Holy One will bless.

He wanted the people to know that homeland security lay in a formula found in the teachings of Deuteronomy. What does that mean? It means that the heart of the new city must be attention to care for the downtrodden – the widow, the infant, and the refugee – those who lack social power.

The plaintiff cry of the church is that the economy must be made to serve the neighborhood. All that is deficient is the public will. And the public will must be driven by the people of God. In the process of rebuilding the church must stand in the gap and insist on being the representative for those who have no social power. We must be the vehicle of reconciliation.

In Isaiah 65, after the long silence of the exile and the plaintiff pleas of “Comfort, Comfort my people” we read:

19 I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.
20 "Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days, (Have you seen the video that I have seen this week?)
or an old man who does not live out his years; (Have you seen the video that I have seen this week?)
he who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere youth;
he who fails to reach [a] a hundred
will be considered accursed.

What is the writer taking about? He is talking about adequate healthcare… Can you imagine a city where the unprotected and the vulnerable are valued. Can you imagine an infrastructure that values those who can provide nothing to the market?

Read on – he talks about adequate housing...

21 They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
22 No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the works of their hands.
23 They will not toil in vain
or bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the LORD,
they and their descendants with them.
24 Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.

Are you getting this? Walter Brueggemann, relating this passage at Stetson last year, used an amusing illustration:

Here is the picture of the parent who pokes his head in the room of the child and says, “Did you call? Are you all right?” Before they call I will answer…”

Why do you think the church picked this out of Isaiah 65 and put it in Revelation 21 to portray the city of hope.

Listen to what the prophet says in Jeremiah 29:

11'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare (it is no accident that the word is translated welfare – You could not make this up. It’s right here in the text) and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back …

God’s optimism: Jeremiah 33:

10"Thus says the LORD, 'Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say, "It is a waste (think – the putrid waters of the ninth ward), without man and without beast," that is, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate (read that – evacuated), without man and without inhabitant and without beast,
11the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, "Give thanks to the LORD of hosts,
For the LORD is good, For His loving-kindness is everlasting"; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,' says the LORD.
12"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'There will again be in this place which is waste, without man or beast, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds who rest their flocks.

Out of disaster, God’s vision is refurbishment. God’s vision is always restoration. But remember, this is Jeremiah. Jeremiah is tied to Deuteronomy. So God’s vision of restoration is always justice. It is always the mantra – “widow, orphan, refugee.”

There was a prophet among the refugees. He was a priest named Ezekiel. He was a refugee. Ezekiel got a good look at what the refugees were suffering along the way… Do you want a picture of what is happening right now”?

Turn to Ezekiel 34:

"Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock?
3"You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock.
4"Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them.
5"They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered.
Read that, “exorbitant gas prices…”
Read that, “ridiculous hotel bills…”
Read that, “excessive food costs…”
6"My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them."'"
7Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
8"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "surely because My flock has become a prey, My flock has even become food for all the beasts of the field for lack of a shepherd, and My shepherds did not search for My flock, but rather the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock;
Read that, “corrupt charities…”
9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:
10'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them."'"
11For thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. God says that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.
12"As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.

Do you hear the distant echo from the lips of Jesus:
John 10:

14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.

I am the good shepherd – we are to follow his model – we are his hands and feet… Finally the sheep are cared for – even when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And many of us would say in our humanness – I’m not sure some of those folks deserve restoration. I think the prophets humanity spoke to that as well.

Ezekial 37:

22"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.
23"I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst Then the nations will know that I am the LORD," declares the Lord GOD, "when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.
24"For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.
25"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. – now skip down to verse 32 -
32"I am not doing this for your sake," declares the Lord GOD, "let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!"
33'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt.
34"The desolate land will be cultivated instead of being a desolation in the sight of everyone who passes by.
35"They will say, 'This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.'
36"Then the nations that are left round about you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted that which was desolate; I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it."

I will do this for you but not because you deserve it but because you have profaned my name.

Have you ever made the mistake of taking a child to a nice restaurant… When you walk in with this little tike in tow, all eyes follow you to your table. They are whispering, “Can you believe they brought that kid here?” Everybody is watching you to see if you can deal with this… And the child notices and thinks, “I’m going to get something out of this…” In the midst of the child’s testing, you lean over and say, “I will get the dessert for you but not because you deserve it but because I will not allow you to profane my name.”

They did not deserve it, but God will intercede for them. And the intercession is a powerful vision.

Vision of the Valley of Dry Bones: Ezekial 37:

1The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones.
2He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry.
3He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know."
4Again He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.'
5"Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause [a]breath to enter you that you may come to life.
6'I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'"
7So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
8And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.
9Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."'"
10So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
This is the language of resurrection… This is the language of hope… This is apocalyptic… The news is – we can start over…

Go back with me to the place where we started – remember the waters were rising – ankle deep – knee deep – waist deep… Ezekiel 47:

8Then he said to me, "These waters go out toward the eastern region and go down into the stagnant repulsive waters of the Sea of the Dead; and the waters of the sea become fresh.
9"It will come about that every living creature which swarms in every place where the river goes, will live. And there will be very many fish, for these waters go there and the others become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes.

There can be healing. There can be restoration. The names and places and ages may change. But the truth never changes… And we see it played out at the table this morning. He who died on Friday is alive on Sunday…

(All scripture is copied from the internet site BibleGateway.com using the New American Standard Version.)