GATHERING THE FRAGMENTS

 

A sermon by Donna F. Wenger

Fifth Sunday in Lent—March 9, 2008

Ezekiel 37: 1-14 and John 6: 1-14

 

When Hurricane Katrina formed off the coast of Florida in August 2005, who could have predicted the damage that would result.  Eventually becoming a category 5 hurricane it made landfall twice—first in Florida, and then took direct aim at New Orleans, Louisiana.  Just before making its second landfall, it veered slightly to the east.  Instead of hitting New Orleans directly, Hurricane Katrina roared ashore over the little settlement of Pearlington, Mississippi, making it ground zero for this hurricane. So, why, you might be thinking, am I talking about a hurricane?

 

Because I am a member of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) advisory committee, and have been asked to preach on the work of PDA.  This is the group that works for the entire PC(USA) alleviating the suffering of people all around the world when disaster strikes.  We meet twice a year to plan for and oversee the work of the dedicated staff located in Louisville, KY.  We held our last meeting in October, 2007 in New Orleans.  When friends learned I was going to New Orleans they gladly gave me advice:  you must visit the French Quarter, or make sure you eat some beignets, or make sure you get to . . .wherever.  Well, I did NOT see any of the recommended places.  What  I did see was the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.

 

It is most fitting that we are focusing on the work of PDA today.  Two Sundays from now, on Easter Sunday, we will dedicate our One Great Hour of Sharing offering.  This is one of the special offerings we have each year, and it goes directly to support the on-going work of PDA, along with two additional important programs of the PC(USA).

 

With this background in mind, I want to turn to our Gospel lesson for the morning.  I chose this passage specifically so I can talk about disaster relief. 

 

While there are various possible scripture passages I could use to lead us in talking about disaster relief, I have decided to focus on the story of the feeding of the multitudes, which tells of the miracle of the loaves and fishes.  Here is the story as we hear it in the Gospel according to John, beginning at verse 2 of chapter 6:

2 A large crowd kept following Jesus, because they saw the signs that he was doing for the sick. 3 Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples. 4 Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near. 5 When Jesus looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 Jesus said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. 7 Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." 8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, 9 "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" 10 Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all. 11 Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as they wanted. 12 When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." 13 So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. 14 When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."  Amen.

Other than the Resurrection, this is the only miracle story that all four gospels tell.  This event must have been significant for all four Gospel writers to tell it.  But John’s account of feeding of the 5,000 adds a singular description that the other three gospels do not have—the detail of the boy with loaves and fishes—and that adds a most human dimension to the events.

 

I read this story as a kind of primer on how to respond to disasters and have extracted seven lessons in this story for how we should respond to disasters:

 

These are the 7 lessons:

  1. You can’t anticipate what disaster will demand your attention;
  2. It is easy to become overwhelmed with the scope of a disaster;
  3. During a disaster, it is important to calm people;
  4. The first thing that should be done in a disaster is to meet people’s basic needs;
  5. In the midst of a disaster, we can still pause to give thanks;
  6. Don’t overlook what the seemingly insignificant; it may hold the solution;
  7. It is always essential to gather the fragments.

 

Let’s take these one by one:

Who could have prepared for the enormity of impact of Hurricane Katrina.  Oh, sure, there were weather forecasts.  But what was not anticipated was the enormous damage of the storm surge.  In fact, the greatest extent of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina occurred not because of the storm winds but because of the attendant storm surge that overwhelmed the levees, causing the extensive flooding.

 

By any standard, Hurricane Katrina was an overwhelming problem—the damage costs exceeded $125 billion; the amount of land affected was equal to the entire United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland); the number of people displaced was more than during the entire Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

If Hurricane Katrina had been the only disaster in a year’s time, it would have been enough.  But it was just one of several major disasters in a 12 month period.  From December 2004 to December 2005, there were 4 huge disasters worldwide.  First, there was the December 26 , 2004 tsunami that killed almost 300,000 people, caused by a 9.3 magnitude earthquake near Indonesia; then there was Hurricane Katrina in August, 2005; next there was a 7.6 magnitude earthquake which killed nearly 90,000 people in Pakistan in October; and lastly there was another Category 5 hurricane in late October, Hurricane Wilma.  Who wouldn’t feel overwhelmed?

 

This is one lesson clearly missed at the beginning of the post-Katrina impact.  Who can forget the scenes broadcast on television?  All the people trapped on roof tops, or stranded at the New Orleans’ Super Dome.  The passage that we read today from Ezekiel sounds like a description from the horrific scenes of any disaster—and the cry “how can these dry bones live” a most fitting response.

PDA knows well the lesson of helping people to be calm.  On the first mission trips to go to the Gulf , some people went along for the express purpose of listening to the stories of the people whose lives had been disrupted by Katrina

In fact, in all the disasters that PDA responds to—one of the first things they try to do is be a calming influence for those affected by the disasters by sending in people with special training. 

 

Let me illustrate how PDA attends to basic human needs by two examples.  In responding to Hurricane Katrina, PDA has focused on one of the most basic human needs—the need for housing.  PDA volunteers have helped muck out, clean up, tear down, and rebuild houses.  In rebuilding houses—PDA does not ask people to be Presbyterians or even church goers—just people in need. 

A second example comes out of PDA’s response to the December 2004 tsunami.  The island nation of Sri Lanka was particularly hard hit, especially along the eastern coast of that island.  People there manage subsistence living by fishing, but the tsunami had washed away all the fishing boats.  So PDA helped buy fishing boats so the island people could earn their daily living.

 

It may not seem like there is much to give thanks for following Hurricane Katrina.  Even 2 ½ years after the hurricane, people are still not back in their homes.  But during my recent trip to New Orleans, the PDA committee had occasion to pause to give thanks. 

We were invited to dedicate a rebuilt home that had been damaged when the levees were breached. This house is now the home of Carol and Rudy.  After the hurricane, their single story home was flooded with 11 feet of water. It was damaged beyond repair. So they were moved into a FEMA trailer. They tried to rebuild a semblance of their former lives, but the situation simply overwhelmed them. By his own words, Rudy suffered a near break-down. He would go to his sister-in-law’s house, and say—I just can’t stay in that trailer anymore.  Then Carol and Rudy found a storm damaged house—for sale. This house had 18 inches of water inside it, so it could be rehabbed. Here is where PDA stepped in. Because Carol and Rudy met the financial criteria, they qualified for rebuilding assistance. After they bought the house, and it was gutted, Rudy, still unable to stand staying in the trailer, would go into his new but damaged house and just sit on the floor.

After all the trauma of the storm, it was a moment of sweet grace to stand with Carol and Rudy, their family members, PDA advisory members, volunteers, visitors—all joining hands and singing “Amazing Grace”—and giving thanks.

 

During our trip to New Orleans, we also visited Pearlington, MS.  Ground zero—where Hurricane Katrina came ashore.  We visited Pearlington because it is the site of one of the PDA Volunteer Villages.  PDA uses Volunteer Villages (really semi-permanent camps with basic conditions) to house hundreds of volunteers. 

Pearlington is a small place—about 1,600 people live there—with more than a half dozen churches.  When Hurricane Katrina hit this little place, every building and vehicle in the town was either destroyed or severely damaged.  One of those 6 churches—the  First Missionary Baptist Church—suffered the complete loss of its sanctuary.  Immediately after the storm, this seemingly insignificant little church wondered  what they could do.  Led by their pastor, they decided to feed the town.  So every day since then, in their undamaged Fellowship Hall, they have served lunch to all-comers. 

The day we were there for lunch, they fed church members, community members, young men on a prison detail doing recovery work, and us—the PDA advisory committee.  Where does the food come from?  Well, wherever they can get it, including the pastor who goes out fishing.  Our lunch that day?  Fish and corn bread.   It is a present day example of feeding of the 5000 complete with loaves and fishes. 

 

There are so many ways that I could illustrate this point, but I will use just one—the judicious use of resources that PDA receives.  Presbyterians have been extraordinarily generous in giving to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, over $20 million.  Because of the lessons learned through an earlier Category 5 hurricane—Andrew—we know that it can take years to rebuild.  So PDA has laid out a long term recovery plan including not spending all the money contributed in quick fashion.  As a result of this careful planning, Presbyterians are still in the Gulf Coast with resources to continue the rebuilding.  Many other groups have had to withdraw, because they have run out of funds.  And with so many of the homes still not rebuilt, we know the need yet exists.  This is surely the equivalent of gathering the fragments, letting nothing go to waste, so the on-going needs can still be met.

 

The words “gather the fragments” served as inspiration for a poem I wrote during Lent several years ago.

 

Gathering the Fragments

 

We have followed this Jesus

From an urge born of our curiosity

To see what he will do next--

And from a love of the thrill of the crowd

 

We throng and jostle

Bumping up against the miserably ill

And sometimes he lifts his eyes

Then looking through us speaks of sin

 

But this day, this day by the sea

Is different somehow; we are too many

And we have come ill prepared

In our zeal we have wandered to the sea

 

The day wears on and the sun swings high

Our stomachs grumble and jealously we hide

Our meager loaves of bread and bites of salted fish

We will eat our lunches secretly

 

We watch the meddlesome disciples rush about

Diverting his attention to tend to hungry mouths

Suddenly a boy stands up and with shaking hands

Holds out his bread, his fish--ashamed we sit in silence

 

And then a faint murmur moves through the crowd

As one by one, we draw from the folds of our gowns

Bits of bread, bites of fish--and slowly share

Our fragments with the world.

 

My friends—there is an 8th lesson to apply—we are the ones who now must address the disasters at hand.  When we respond—whether in this country where hurricanes, tornadoes or floods wreak havoc, or around the world where earthquakes or other tragedies devastate lives—through our efforts, we show the reality of Christ’s love to the whole world.  Christ still feeds the five thousand today, but He requires of us our loaves of bread and our fishes.

 

Gather the fragments.  AMEN.

 

MARKET SQUARE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Gathering the Fragments