Sermon for March 4, 2007 by Dr. Perry C. Francis

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I am not going to preach on the lessons this morning. Instead I want to focus our attention more keenly on our season of Lent and the actions that we can take to help make Lent a growing season of giving.

It all started like this…a storm system formed at the tail of an old frontal boundary, where convection and low-level circulation around an upper-level low developed steadily for two days. A surface low formed near the disturbance, and the season's 18th tropical depression soon formed east of the Turks and Caicos, a group of islands of the British West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean. Less than a day after forming, the depression became the 17th tropical storm of the season on September 18th and was named Rita. As a result of this creation of a tropical storm, there was a mandatory evacuation was ordered for the entire Florida Keys.

Hurricane Rita, as it become known as, followed closely upon the heals of the devastating Katrina that washed out New Orleans. It made landfall early on September 24th, 2005. Though less destructive than Katrina, Rita caused extensive damage when it roared ashore in an area known as the “Golden Triangle” near the Texas-Louisiana border. As a Category 3 hurricane it had winds of up to 120 mph. Much of the hurricane-hit areas had been evacuated ahead of the storm, including Houston and Galveston. But what you cannot take with you in a truck or car is left behind in the path of a weather juggernaut that neither respects the history of one’s life in that place nor the home where that history is contained. Hurricane Rita apparently caused far lower insured losses than Hurricane Katrina, but it still proved devastating to the people in the “Golden Triangle”.

Communities in the “Golden Triangle” formed by Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange sustained enormous wind damage. Texas Governor Rick Perry declared a nine-county disaster area. In Beaumont an estimated 25% of the trees in the heavily wooded neighborhoods were uprooted. In Groves, the home of Texas' Pecan Festival, an equal number of the pecan trees were leveled. An enormous number of houses and businesses suffered extensive damage from wind and falling trees. Some areas did not have power for more than six weeks. The “Golden Triangle” area was spared a more devastating storm surge by Rita's slight eastward turn just before landfall, which placed most of the coastal community to the left of the eye and in the storm's least-damaging quadrant. And Rita's surge was contained by Port Arthur's extensive levee system.
Mary, whose home we were there to repair, stood about the height of a hobbit and looked to be older than her years. We did not see her on the first day, only seeing her hand come out of her trailer to accept lunch from the lady who delivered “Meals on Wheels.” She would eventually venture out and greet us and tell us a few stories about her family as she walked through her home to inspect what work we had accomplished. Mary’s home, a place that she had lived in for over 4 decades, a place where she raised her children, cooked Sunday suppers, celebrated the many milestones of a family’s history, was probably built in the late 30’s. It is situated in a part of town that is best described as run down and depressed. Even before the storm, the area was not the garden spot of Port Arthur and is located several miles from a bustling retail area. And yet, it proved quite a match for the winds of Rita. While it was still standing, the interior of the home was water stained and areas covered with dried mold that, once gotten wet again, would come back to life causing the many respiratory illnesses that plague the area.

As you walked through the home you would find the physical evidence that people had once lived there. Furniture piled high and the many mementoes of decades of living thrown on top of one another as people moved things around so that work could be done to salvage the home. In one room, the bedroom of the grandkids who lived there, there were pictures on the wall of a 13 year old girl named Alexis in a party gown, obviously taken during a happier time in their lives. The room was filled with those things you would find in a teenager’s room, except covered in the blanket of poverty. In fact, the entire home was covered in that same blanket.

As you drive through the area, you can still find numerous FEMA trailers. In the backyard of Mary’s home were two such trailers where she, her son, and two grandchildren lived. They had been in those trailers since returning after the storm.

This was where you would find me, Casey, Pastor Sue, Karen, and Max. This was where we would be tearing down walls, removing ceiling tiles, floating drywall (although I do not understand why it is called floating when you are struggling with a piece of sheetrock that, at the end of the day seems to weigh more and more), and throwing up joint mud to cover the many screws that hold the sheetrock to the walls. This was also the place where my Lenten journey would begin. Listening briefly to Mary’s story of her home and hoping to restore her to this same home so that she could return to some sort of normalcy of living.

While all this is occurring, the verses in the letter to the Hebrews kept running through my head… “Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters” states the writer as he concludes the letter with final instructions for living. “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering” (Hebrews 13: 1-3).

For many, Lent is a time to forgo chocolate, eat fish on Fridays, or spend a little less time watching TV. All this in hopes that we can focus better on the things that we are called to by God through Christ, or as Jesus once stated, “…to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves…” But I want to invite you to a different Lenten discipline…one that involves a different type of action…one that involves a different type of relationship to God. One that was modeled for us by Jesus.

As you read the Gospel accounts of Jesus, you find yourself confronted by a God who is relentlessly seeking to have a loving relationship with humanity. A God who set aside all the powers of God to reach out and be a part of humanity. This can be your Lenten journey. To do as Christ and set aside more than the chocolate or the fish, or the TV, and reach out to others in loving compassion.
This reaching out can be difficult. I know it was and continues to be for me. I had to set aside my own desire to spend winter break at home and instead practice what I have been encouraging others to do for years. I had to reassure myself that I was doing this not out of guilt, but out of sense of calling to put my faith into action in more concrete ways.

This is what Lent can mean beyond the more traditional denial of worldly pleasures in hopes of strengthening our relationship to God. Instead, do as Christ did and build on the relationship you have with each other and in that building, you will entertain angels.

Now I know that the majority of us cannot leave work for a week and run down to Port Arthur and meet with Mary and rebuild her home. So I invite you to think more broadly. Whose life around you can you have an impact on…whose life around you can you affect in a positive way…whose burden can you make a little lighter…whose sin against you can you forgive…whose sorrow can you listen to…whose hope can you build…whose life can you touch? This can be your work of Lent…to help a Mary whose life can be made better by your presence, just as your life has been made better by God’s presence.

Where might you find courage to do this work…right here…today…in the nourishment of the Eucharist, where we all come to share in that relationship of the table, where we hold hands as one people, equal in God’s eyes and are called to ministry.

This can be your Lenten work, your Lenten journey, your strengthening of your relationship to God in Christ, who has done this for us.

Amen.