Help That’s Helpful: Do’s and Don’ts After Disaster

A wonderful blog post everyone should read:

Help That’s Helpful: Do’s and Don’ts After Disaster
Posted by: revjmk on: May 21, 2013

 

You can read it here.

And of course, we pray:

God of love, whose compassion never fails; we bring before you the griefs and perils of the peoples of Oklahoma; for the necessities of those left homeless; the helplessness of those torn apart by tornadoes; for the pains of the sick and injured; for the sorrow of the bereaved. Comfort and relieve them, O merciful Father, according to their needs and draw near to each; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Based on a prayer by St Anselm (1033-1109))

Loving Father, you comfort us in times of affliction: Our brothers and sisters in Moore, OK have suffered a great tragedy and they need your healing. Send your Holy Spirit to soothe the anger, fear, and sorrow of their broken hearts. In the darkness of this moment, shine the light of your radiant love. Be their companion in their grief. In their pain, make them strong in courage, dry their tears, mend their hearts, and gently call them to newness of life. We thank you for the assurance of your love, shown in your Son Jesus, who suffered for us, died, and rose again to prepare our place in your eternal home. Amen. (From an unknown source)

What Jesus didn't say

According to a report, Tony Perkins, the head of the Family Research Council claimed in a fundraising letter, "not only did Jesus tolerate weapons, he instructed His disciples to buy them!"

His reference is Luke 26:38.  I will not go into great detail about how absurd it is to pick one passage out and make it mean something that goes against all the other references Jesus makes to peacemaking, etc.

Look at the whole passage, what is Jesus saying.  Armed rebellion?  Weapons for everyone?

I rather like this prayer instead of Perkins idea:

Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen. (from the Book of Common Prayer)

Let the dead bury the dead

The furor over the bombing suspect's burial has subsided as new tragedies have befallen our nation.

The best response that I saw and heard to this furor was by Thomas Lynch (a poet and undertaker) on NPR:

THOMAS LYNCH: ...There is this sense, with evildoers, that we'd like to do some evil to them; and their deaths prevent that. So the people in Worcester who are making much of this, I think, are speaking to an old, sort of tribal frustration that we can't desecrate the corpse. All we can do is observe that the dead don't care...   This is the man who did an evil thing. But his body, his corpse, should be tended to because humans do this. Humans are sort of accountable to the corpses of the dead - not because it matters to the dead but because each of us, as humans, expects to be tended to properly. I mean, this is what separates us from other living things that breed and breathe and die.

The burial of the dead, Audie, is sort of Humanity 101.

Listen and read the transcript from NPR here.

Prayers for OK

For those communities affected by the Tornadoes:

Merciful God, in your hands are the caverns of the earth and the heights of the hills: our times also are in your hands. Hear our prayers for those suffering in the aftermath of the tornado in Moore, OK and throughout the US; soothe those in distress; watch over those trapped and hoping for rescue; comfort the bereaved; strengthen those who labor to help others, lift up those who cannot help themselves; and in every danger be their very present help by the power of your Holy Spirit; we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. (The Rev. Jennifer Phillips)

God our refuge and hope:
Hear our prayers for those whose lives have been overturned by disaster.
Direct relief to the desperate,
comfort the injured and bereaved,
calm the fears of those who do not know where to turn,
cheer and protect the downhearted,
strengthen those who lend help,
and in all things increase compassion and care for the commonweal;
through Jesus who knew our sufferings
and opens for us the gate of new life. Amen. (The Rev. Jennifer Phillips)

For our distress:

O God, when all the world looks gray and dirt shows everywhere and nothing is as it should be, you seem very far away. O God, help me to remember the days when you were near and I knew it. Even when you seem far away, help me never to turn my back on you. Set me on the path to you and help me hold fast until I find your light once more. Amen. (Avery Brooke)

O Lord, when I am bewildered and the world is all noise and confusion around me and I don't know which way to go and am frightened, then be with me. Put your hand on my shoulder and let your strength invade my weakness and your light burn the mist from my mind. Help me to move forward with faith in the way I should go. Amen. (Avery Brooke)


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Pentecost Sermon

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and we shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy Your consolations; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Holy Spirit was with each of us from our beginnings.

It all began at the first breath, that first cry, and the Spirit of God came into each of us.

Like the Genesis account that talks about God breathing into the nostrils of the first humans, Desmond Tutu reminds us that, “God is continually breathing into our nostrils.”

The Spirit that gave us life, is the same Spirit that enlivens us for what God calls each of us to do every day of our lives.

But sometimes we forget. Is God with us? How can we do what we feel called to do?

After Jesus had ascended, the disciples had gathered together but they wondered how they were to continue the ministry of Jesus in the world? To proclaim the Good News in their words & deeds?

At that 1st Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles, the Spirit came down upon the disciples, giving them the ability to speak so all could hear the Good News in their own language. Some thought the disciples drunk, but God gave the Spirit to the disciples to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the earth and on that day in a symphony of voices, they spoke in many languages so that all could hear the Good News of salvation had come to all people.

The Day of Pentecost is a reminder to us that God continues to give each of us the Spirit for the common good, to speak the Good News, of hope & salvation. That Spirit helps us connect to God’s story, that is, the story of our birth and our lives are connected with God’s story as we hear it in scripture. And one way we connect our stories is through the sacraments…

Today we will welcome Mark Salerno into the Body of Christ, as he is baptized at 10:15 AM. In Baptism, each of us was sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever. In Baptism, we become part of the body of Christ, for there is one Body and One Spirit, and we enter into that great story of freedom, salvation and love in the Bible.

At Confirmation yesterday, we recognized those baptismal vows and again the Spirit was prayed for and proclaimed as a force in our lives. The Spirit that is upon each of us at our baptism, is called upon again at confirmation, the Spirit of God that fills us with the fruits of the Spirit (gifts). Yesterday Nicole Remillard, Jenna Carpenter and Julia Fitzpatrick were confirmed and we were reminded of the Spirit of God that is alive in their lives, and how through the Spirit their story is connected to other Christians as we walk together.

Our God who created us and sustains us, who we call upon at baptism and confirmation, is like a glassblower making glass…

In a process that has changed little in 3 millennium, a long, narrow metal tube is dipped into a pot of sand, soda, lime and any number of metal and chemicals. Then the artisan blows carefully into the tube to create a bubble - and glass is formed. As the artisan continues to blow into the tube, the glassmaker will shape and form the bubble into the final piece: a vase, a bowl, a pane of glass. During the shaping process, the piece is frequently returned to the furnace in order to keep it soft enough to work with...

By the breath of the glassblower and the fire of the kiln, sand is transformed into glass - glass of beautiful color and transparency, glass that protects and preserves, glass that warms and illuminates.

In the story of Pentecost, the Spirit of God is experienced in images of breath and fire. Pentecost is the "breath" of God blowing through communities of faith, re-creating us and forming us into the Church of the Risen Christ. In the Pentecost story in the Acts of the Apostles we hear of "tongues" of fire resting on each of the Apostles. Such "fire" impels them to articulate what they had seen and heard and experienced in their encounter with Jesus. And so it is with us, that breath of God upon us, the fire of God within us to use those God given gifts..

On this feast of Pentecost, We gather together despite our doubts and questions, our struggles and disappointments. We come together despite the world telling us that there are better things to do today, but we gather as they did that first Pentecost to pray, to listen, to bless and break bread in his memory, to resolve to take on the next chapter of our story, a story that begin at the first Pentecost.

So what is the Spirit calling us, as a Church and as individuals, to do this Pentecost? The miracle of Pentecost is re-created every time the Church gathers; what happened to those disciples happens to us; what began with them continues with us. Once again, the Spirit speaks to us, breathes into us, as individuals and as a community, brining life, as it has & will for Mark, and Jenna, Nicole & Julia, to bring his Word to life through the fire of our lives. Amen.

What is Pentecost?

 A quick video review here (and remember Episcopalians also have Confirmation!):

How Austerity Kills

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/opinion/how-austerity-kills.html


It is well worth the read...

Excerpts:

As scholars of public health and political economy, we have watched aghast as politicians endlessly debate debts and deficits with little regard for the human costs of their decisions.

One need not be an economic ideologue — we certainly aren’t — to recognize that the price of austerity can be calculated in human lives. We are not exonerating poor policy decisions of the past or calling for universal debt forgiveness. It’s up to policy makers in America and Europe to figure out the right mix of fiscal and monetary policy. What we have found is that austerity — severe, immediate, indiscriminate cuts to social and health spending — is not only self-defeating, but fatal.

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