JUNE 15, 2008
In March, April,
May, and now in June we have watched TV news in both fear and fascination as
tornadoes have hit parts of our nation - 500 in May. The night of June 5th produced 35. This week four boy
scouts died in a tornado in Western Iowa. We saw the destruction; but here in
the East we really cannot comprehend the loss that occurs in those few minutes
of whirling winds: winds that bully their way across the land and everything is
swept up and away. Nothing is too large
to escape the wrath and nothing is too small to be ignored as they travel paths
of destruction.
Where there had been order, now was chaos. House and farm buildings scattered piles of rubbish. Huge combines and tractor trailers tossed
like toys over the landscape. Kitchen
appliances thrown about as if Julia Child had gone insane. Trees lying like broken toothpicks. Animals and people killed and injured. It was terrifying to all. It was frightening even to us who only saw
it on a TV
A tornado and its aftermath is a parable of life in these recent
decades. Forces move through our
culture and all seems to be changed.
There is nothing left untouched.
There is an atmosphere of fear.
What is going on? Those of us
who are over 40 were sure that there would always be cheap fuel for those gas
guzzlers we drove. But that ended
Some were sure that the children would sow a few wild oats and then
return to maturity and normalcy as had the previous generation. Little did we suspect that the generations
of the last 60’s and 70’s would question our values and passionately reject
them.
We were sure that our national arsenal was only for defense. But our leaders seem to seek out places to
send our troops. Since the 60’s we have
sent soldiers into foreign countries on the average of every 18 months.
We thought that jobs in well established companies were secure. Then came downsizing, we were left wondering
whether anything had meaning or permanence.
Like a tornado, forces move throughout our culture with a wrath that
will not be denied. Those forces touch
each of us. We survey the destruction:
chaos where there had been order; the scattering of what had been cherished;
the indiscriminate ravaging of homes, communities, and people.
Looking out over the crowds, Jesus saw similar things. The people he spoke to had been tossed about
by forces they could not understand or control. They were only pawns in the Roman world. The Temple priests had
made religion into a burden instead of a blessing. Basic questions of survival were the constant companions on the
pilgrimage from cradle to grave. They
were sheep without a shepherd caught up in a storm that was as powerful as it
was capricious.
Others must have seen the same things that Jesus saw. They saw and heard the plight of the people,
but said and did nothing. But Jesus had
not come just to observe. Jesus had
come to be God among people – Emmanuel – God with us.
Jesus came to enter into that whirlwind of life and to share it as it
was experienced by all the children of the earth. As part of Jesus’ living among us the text says that Jesus did
two things: he had compassion and he
hoped for laborers for the world.
Jesus came to be God’s love for us.
Jesus came to say that one of the marks of God’s love was compassion,
and that God’s compassion would reach to the ends of the earth and to the end
of time.
Yet it must be admitted that among some folks there is a deep felt
suspicion that God’s compassion and three bucks and six bits will get you a cup
of cappuccino. But the Lord’s
compassion is more powerful than that.
Have you ever looked at the kids here in church and wondered what will
become of them? I hope that there will
be quality to their lives. But how can
any of us insure it? Where will the
constant winds of change take them? Is
there any way to protect them – to guarantee their health and welfare? To all who know such fears God’s compassion
is a gift that assures us that we all belong to the Lord no matter regardless
of our fears; no matter what are the changes and chances of life.
Jesus came to say that the creator of all was compassionate to all and
that God would not abandon creation or the creatures of creation. Through the
Messiah God would be with his people.
God’s gift of compassion would always be present to help folks to
survive the whirlwinds of life.
But, Jesus wanted more than to say that God was compassionate. He also called women and men to work in the
world so that all might know and rejoice in the compassion of the Lord. The harvest was great: who are the laborers
to go into the harvest?
God created us and God invested us with responsibility. We are called to be God’s representatives in
the world – to show forth the compassion of the Creator.
You are the only ‘you’ that God has in the world. You may also be the only one that God has in
the places where you live and work that has a conscious knowledge of that
loving compassion. The Lord needs you
to represent the length, breadth, and depth of his love.
God calls laborers for the harvest.
The Lord of Life calls each of us to represent his compassion in this
broken world of ours. God has you and
God has me. There are two of us. And that’s enough if we both do something
today and tomorrow and each day. For
God has called you and me to the ministries of listening and doing as the
Lord’s representative in the world so that the world will come to know and rejoice in the compassion that you and I
have come to know and experience.
A tornado struck. A Roman army
invaded. Everything was changed. Forces
move through our culture and all is changed.
People become fearful and seek a leader – a shepherd. When Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion
on them. With his very life he bore
testimony to the compassion of God. He
spoke of God’s love. He lived God’s
love; a love so great that it could touch the fearful, the hurt, the guilty,
the confused of our time, of every era.
We have been touched by that compassion: you and I, just the two of
us. We have been called to represent
that compassion to the world. The Lord
has chosen us, just the two of us, to listen and to act. So that all might know that they are loved
by the One who would be shepherd to the worried and helpless sheep passing
through these whirlwinds of life.