Sermon
Sunday, October 9, 2005
The Reverend Pamela Snare

"....I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:11b-13)

Before Katrina, I had two weddings scheduled in October. One was scheduled last week-end; the other was scheduled for next week-end. Both couples decided to go ahead with their plans on the scheduled dates.

The couple scheduled for next week-end had booked an inn in Lafitte for the rehearsal dinner, the reception, the flowers, and the accommodation of their guests. The inn escaped severe damage from Katrina and confirmed their readiness to go ahead with the wedding as planned. That was before Rita. The inn took on 8-10 feet of water with Rita. So the second couple has had to find new caterers and venues for the rehearsal dinner and the reception, a new florist, etc., and the guest list was pared due to scarcity of accommodations in our particular circumstance.

I met with both couples post-Katrina for their final marriage preparation session. My first question to both couples was, "So how are you doing after Katrina? How did you weather the storm?"

The first couple said, "You know, it's been really good. In spite of what we lost, we worked as a team. We helped people cut up downed trees and put the debris on the side of the street. It gave us confidence that if we weathered this together, we can work as a team."

The second couple lives in New Orleans. They evacuated with a couple members of their families. They said, "It reminded us of what is really important." The groom elaborated. "When we were driving around for refuge, displaced, with nothing but some clothes in the car, I thought, ‘All we really need is each other and our families. That is the most important thing. We can live without our 'stuff,' as long as we have each other and the people we love.’"

"I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty... I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
For all of us, living through Katrina has been a trial, a test. But there is a good, a salutary, side to this test. Some have lost more than others, materially, financially, but all of us have lost something, individually, and all of us have lost something collectively as a community: public services, businesses that may not or definitely will not open again, trees, the beauty of foliage, Spanish moss, branches overhanging our streets and roads, the shelter of shade on our homes, in our yards, on public grounds. This has been an experience in learning to live with less. "I know what it is to have little" we can say with St. Paul. We have been deprived of many things to which we were accustomed - so accustomed that, if you are like me, you took them for granted - food, water, electricity, phone service, television. Our deprivation has, in most cases, I would hazard, caused us to spend more time with each other - our families, our neighbors, our friends - the people near us. Father John and I have spent more time together in conversation since Katrina than we probably did in six months time pre-Katrina.

The up side of this, the salutary side of this deprivation of our "infrastructure," is that most of us have probably spent more time together with our spouses, our children, our families, our neighbors, those around us. Human relationships have become more a part of our daily lives - as my two couples observed: "We have worked together as a team." "We can live without our stuff as long as we have each other and those we love." I can add to this the words of one of our parishioners who evacuated for Katrina. The week she returned she came to the Saturday morning eucharist. As she left that morning she said, "We evacuated to Dallas. And the clergy and people of St. Michael and All Angels were wonderful. But I never realized how much the people at Christ Church and our community meant to me. It is so good to be back with the people I love."

Today's Old Testament and gospel readings give us a vision of what it is like to live in the kingdom of God. It is a preview of the future that awaits us as children of God, co-heirs with Christ of the Father's love. The image of the life that God intends for us is that of a feast, "a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines." In the gospel, it is more particularly a wedding banquet, a royal wedding: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son."

Let us think about that for a minute, my friends. The life that God intends for us is not a magnificent shopping mall in the skies, nor a soccer game or a football game, nor dance lessons nor any other extra-curricular activity. It is not even a program for spiritual growth, nor a small group experience, nor a planning meeting. It is a large group of people, from all walks of life - indeed everyone, everyone is invited - gathered to celebrate a joyous occasion of love, shared by all, over a festive banquet. Not just a meal, not just soup and bread, but a banquet of rich food and well-aged wines.

Well, for those first few weeks after Katrina perhaps the food was not so rich, and the wine, well-aged or otherwise - was not purchasable, but if your experience was anything like mine, I found myself sharing meals with people I hardly knew, or knew not at all, grateful to have food, grateful to have water, grateful for the kindness and generosity of those people I hardly knew or knew not at all who had helped to make it possible for me to have food. I found myself thanking God for people - the people who brought food, the people who cut trees and cleared roads and streets, the people who brought water, the people who brought ice. Grace at meals became an extended thanksgiving for people and for the blessings received through them; not only for myself but also for rescue workers and others who were responding to people on the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans in much greater need than I. Indeed, my thanksgivings before meals became so extended that I was told I would make a great Baptist minister!

What this experience of deprivation impressed upon me, my friends, is something that I've often preached about and given lip-service to: our complete dependence on the kindness and generosity of each other and the kindness and generosity of God through others for the necessities of our daily existence. We are made to live in community; we are meant to live in community; we cannot survive without community.

In the wake of what we have experienced, what have we learned? What have we learned about the life that God intends for us? What have we learned about what is most important to us? What have we learned about the necessity of kindness and generosity to each other and to all who are in need? What have we learned about working as a team -in our marriages, in our families in our church, in our communities?

Do we want our lives to get back to "normal", or have we discovered in our deprivation some new and better understanding of how we are dependent upon each other, of how we are meant to live in community, of how God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble?

I have been challenged by this experience. Two young couples I know have been challenged by this experience. How have you been challenged? As we rebuild our family lives, our life in this church, and our life in this community, I believe that it is important that we not forget this experience, that we not forget what we have learned and how we have been challenged. I believe that God has used and is using and will use this to help us learn better how to live with and for each other and him as he intends.

I hope and I pray that we will not forget what we have learned and how we have been challenged, so that we will be able to say with St.Paul: "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty... I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Amen.

 

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