September 11, 2005

(Genesis 50:15-21)

A Sermon by Gordon E. Simmons, Pastor

Reformation Lutheran Church

     September 5.  The winds of Hurricane Katrina blew onto the Gulf Coast.  Our nation hasn’t been quite the same since.  Nearly everyone has been effected.  We didn’t like the stories we were seeing on TV, but we had a hard time turning them off.  The violence of the storm, and its devastation.   The twisted, blended buildings along the Mississippi coast.   The broken levees around New Orleans.   The anarchy and the violence.  The babies without formula or diapers.  The sick and elderly without medical care.  The bodies floating in the water, and hidden in houses.   Police officers, after days and nights on duty, committing suicide.   The poor and the sick and the weak were left behind, and for endless days, no one came to their rescue.  It has been a hard week in our nation.

     Destruction came from the storm.  Heavy winds.  Pounding rains.  Rushing floods.  Rising waters.  Then heat and humidity that snatched life away from people exposed to the sun without shelter or water.  There was destruction that came from the storm. But there was also destruction that came from people.  People were distressed and they sought safety in their guns and ammunition.  It didn’t make them safer; it only added to the destruction.  And even worse was the destruction caused by an unprepared and inactive government.  As is too often the case, those with more means, more connections, can find ways to escape, but the old, the young, the sick, the powerless, are left behind.  This week the “left behind” was graphic; the whole world watched.  And it was days before anyone came to their rescue.  Long days and longer nights.  Days made longer by no food or water.  No one was prepared to rescue them.  No one gave the order for the rescue to begin.  No one understood the magnitude of the relief effort that would be required.  And hundreds of lives were lost during those tragic days.  It was evil at its worst. 

     And we saw the people crying out in despair.  We heard the screams of the children.  We watched while the elderly and the sick called out for bread.  We heard the chants of people shouting out “Help us, Help us.”   Some people just gave up.  They could find no reason to be hopeful.

     And in the midst of this, we asked ourselves, “Why did this happen?”  Some asked “Why did God let this occur?”  There were some people who gave answers.  One prominent American Muslim said the hurricane was God’s punishment upon America for our treatment of Muslims, in Iraq and in Afghanistan -- now at last God had come with vengeance.  A well-known Christian evangelist said the storm was God’s punishment on New Orleans, for its acceptance of gay lifestyles.    These didn’t sound like the right answers, but we would like an answer.  Why has all this destruction occurred?  What does it all mean?

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     There’s a story in the Bible about a man who found himself in what must have looked like a hopeless situation.  His name was Joseph, the son of Jacob, the one with the eleven brothers – the brothers who were jealous of him, the brothers who came to hate him, the brothers who decided to get rid of him.  They were going to kill him, remember, that was their plan, but they only sold him into slavery.  That was bad enough!  Put yourself in the place of this young man on his way to Egypt.  Young Joseph must have been asking himself, “Why did this happen to me?” 

     Joseph was sold as a slave to Potiphar, an officer of the Pharoah.  He served his new master faithfully.  But Potiphar had a wife, and she had her eyes on that young,  Joseph.  She tried to seduce him.  Every day she would come to him and invite him onto your bed.  Every day Joseph turned her down.  One day Potiphar’s wife grabbed hold of us garment, and when he ran away, she kept the garment in her hand.  She called out to her guards, and accused Joseph of trying to rape her.  When Potiphar heard of the story, he was outraged.  And he had Joseph thrown into jail.  Joseph probably figured he would never get out.  And he must have asked, “Why, why is this happening to me?” 

    Well, of course in the story of Joseph, eventually things turned out pretty good.  Joseph used his dream-interpretation skills to find favor with the Pharaoh.  And the Pharaoh elevated him to an important position, more so, when a  great famine came, and Joseph was given a job as the administrator of FEMA, or something like that.  He was to see to the distribution of the food.   Meanwhile, his brothers and their families back in Israel were getting hungry too, and their father, the aging Jacob, sent them down to Egypt to get food.  The brothers didn’t recognize Joseph when they saw him, but when he finally revealed himself to them, they figured they were in a whole lot of trouble.  But the story about Joseph is a story about forgiveness.  (This is the theme of our Men’s Day this year:  “Men Crusading for Christ Through Forgiveness”)  Joseph forgives his brothers.  He welcomes them.  He feeds them.  He sends for his father, and together they live with favor among the Pharaoh and his people.  This is a story about forgiveness. 

     And then in Genesis 50:20, when you get home, mark this verse in your Bibles, because this is what the message of the Bible is all about:  “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”

Joseph was saying, “I understand what your intentions were, they were for evil, but God is working things out for good.”

     Now this is the answer to our questions about the destruction and the evil that occurred in the Gulf last week.    First of all, let’s not blame the destruction or the evil on God.  It is not God’s intention that people find their homes and lives in devastation.  There is a natural order of things, there is wind, there is rain, and sometimes they come in mighty ways, but that is not some plan of destruction made up by God.  More importantly, the evil that we saw last week, the looting, the violence, and the neglect of a government, that evil was surely not caused by God.  In the midst of tragedies, the Devil gets busy.  People do things to hurt one another.  That’s why there is evil.  Don’t blame that on God.  But in the midst of these tragedies, we can hear God saying to our world, “I understand what your intentions were, they were for evil, but I am working things out for good.” 

   So that is what we want to look for – in the midst of this mess, what is the good that God can do?  And there have been plenty of signs of good.  People are stepping up to help.  All over the world, people are stepping up to help.  All over our nation, people are stepping up to help.  Funds are being collected on-line and at the WaWa.  Congregations, like ours, have taken up collections.  Churches, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, have been down at the Gulf from day one to distribute aid.  People are opening up their homes – I think this is the most incredible part of the story – people are opening up their homes – You know what it’s like to have a bunch of strangers in your home? – You know what it’s like to have people come and you don’t know when they are going to leave? –  people are opening up their homes to strangers.  Tell me that God is good!  Churches have opened up their buildings to evacuees, they’ve let them sleep on their social hall floors, they served them meals.  Tell me that God is good!  And now the city of brotherly and sisterly love has opened up its doors to welcome in some strangers.  You know, our city doesn’t have much, and many of our people are poor and destitute, but you have to say that it is a good thing when we step up to take in the homeless on a day of their need.  Tell me that God is good!

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     Here is my dream.  Joseph was a dreamer, and here is my dream.  I hope that when our nation learns more about sharing that it will become more of a habit.  I hope that when we practice reaching out to those most in need that it will be something we don’t stop doing.  I hope that we will learn to organize our society so that the most vulnerable will be the ones receiving the most protection, that those who are the weakest will be given the most help, that those otherwise forgotten will be the most remembered.  I hope that we’ll get so good at this that it won’t take a hurricane to get us to see the need for justice.   My dream is that our nation can learn more about building up rather than tearing down.  And surely that is God’s intention for our people.    “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”

     In these days, God will multiply our efforts to help other people.  Tell me that God is good!  In these days, God will make us strong in our generosity. Tell me that God is good!  In these days, we will feed the hungry, people sitting on rooftops for a week with no food, in these days we will feed them.  Tell me that God is good!  In these days we will give drink to the thirsty, people surrounded by water, but water that is contaminated, in these days we will drop bottles of clean water from the skies.  Tell me that God is good!  In these days we will visit the sick, finding our ways into darkened hospital wards where doctors and nurses have worked around the clock for a week to preserve lives, in these days we will visit the sick and take them out to safety.   Tell me that God is good!  In these days we will clothe the naked, people left with only the clothes on their backs, now ragged and soiled with filth, in these days we will clothe the naked.  Tell me that God is good!  God can make good come out of the worst tragedies.  God can overcome the most devastating evil.  God can overcome the most hopeless catastrophes.  God is good.  All the time.  This is Good News.  Thanks be to God.

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