Proper 21, Year A
September 25, 2005
Christ Church, Covington
“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord God. Turn, then,
and live.” (Ezek. 18:32).
These days it’s hard to get a grip on what’s happening. Someone called Pamela
Snare the other day, and at the end of the conversation, the friend told her it
was time to get back to the daily grind. “I wonder what’s going on in the
‘Hurricane World’ today?”, the friend said. “The Hurricane World”. When Mother
Pamela told me this story later we both laughed. For me, something clicked, both
humorous and true. If we can allow our imaginations some play, it’s almost as if
at the end of last month we left South Louisiana, kidnapped perhaps, and were
transported to “Hurricane Land”, a sort of parallel universe that resembles the
one we knew, but which is also very different and distorted. “Hurricane Land”:
everyone knows what I mean.
So what does “Hurricane Land” look like? We have to say that loss is a part of
this alternate world: grief, good honest grief. Part of the challenge to us as a
Christian community right now is to live with this sense of loss, to bear with
it and not to skate over it. Whether it’s your house, your trees, your
neighborhood, your community, or just something as basic as your daily routine
of school or work or what have you, there is something precious lost with this
move to “Hurricane Land”. Maybe you’ve lost your sense of safety or innocence.
There’s bewilderment as well: how could such a thing happen? Whether you’re
thinking about the images from the Superdome, pictures of your neighborhood, or
what you saw from the windows of your house, the question is there. Whether
we’re from Orleans Parish or Saint Tammany, it’s a rough transition, and we’re
right to feel it.
Then there is displacement, which is built into the whole notion of our
transportation to “Hurricane Land”. Everybody here is a displaced person. You’re
not where you were a month ago. It’s really obvious if your home address is
Uptown New Orleans or Lakeview or the Ninth Ward, but it’s also true for Saint
Tammany residents whose homes are uninhabitable. It’s true for people who
evacuated and for people who didn’t. We’re displaced because we’re now living
with a different topography (things look different), a different scale (things
take longer), and different issues (When will that electrician/contractor/claims
adjuster turn up? When will the power/cable/phone service work? When can I get
home or back to work?). We’re displaced psychically, because stresses of all
sorts make us unsure of “where we’re coming from”. And if we don’t know “where
we’re coming from”, we don’t know where we are, which makes us displaced.
Welcome to “Hurricane Land”.
Loss, bewilderment, displacement: our experience in Hurricane Katrina is a more
acute version of old issues that have been with us since the human race left the
Garden of Eden. We’ve known grief, confusion, and exile before; but it is to
this condition that the Gospel message speaks. God does not desire death for us,
but life instead. “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, says the Lord
God. Turn, then, and live.” That’s the word to the prophet Ezekiel, struggling
for understanding in the midst of grief, confusion, and exile. God promises
Ezekiel that there will be restoration, of the Temple and the Holy City, and a
return to the land that was promised. God’s call to the People is to turn from
death to life.
Of course, this is God’s call to us as well: to live. “Hurricane Land” won’t
always be our home. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, we will adapt to new
situations and challenges. Life will become more regular, more familiar, more
“normal”. One morning we will wake up and we won’t live in “Hurricane Land”
anymore. The loss will still be there, but we will have learned once again in
South Louisiana how to live. Jesus gives life over and over again, life in the
face of death, and in God’s good time we will discover this to be true for us as
well. That’s the promise.
John Bauerschmidt is Rector of Christ Church, Covington.
Home | About Christ Church | Schedule of Services | Newcomers | Sermons | Clergy & Staff | Vestry | Contact Us