We Give You But Your Own
Second Sunday after Epiphany – Year C
January 17, 2010

Let us pray: God of the feast, Holy One of abundant joy and overflowing grace, open us to you. Open us to trust in love that never runs out, open us to follow your leading to amazing renewal. Open us to the Christ who comes to make all things good. Amen.

     Today was supposed to be a day we had informally dubbed “Celebration Sunday”. The story behind this moniker is that it would be a day to recognise the “Celebrations Jar” and what it has done for and to our congregation over the past few months. In light of the horrible news from Haiti that continues to dominate the newscasts it seems just inappropriate to consider any kind of “celebration” when the lives of so many people have ended or have been forever changed. I expect like me, your conversations since Tuesday have dwelt most often on the story coming from Haiti – the devastation, the unfathomable stories of human misery, the concern for loved ones, the depth of difficulty being experienced by this country in which difficulty was already even before last Tuesday afternoon a daily concern.

      How can we talk about gifts and extravagance when there are so many stories that seem to speak against such things?

      There are no specific answers to the inevitable question “why”. Why Haiti – wasn't it suffering enough. Why did some people survive while others perished? And how can people thank God for the saving of the life of a loved one, when so many more people have no such stories of miraculous escape. Some news reports have focused on the fact that the people who died spanned all income levels, all classes of Haitian society, that foreign nationals, including we know a number of Canadians, were among the casualties. However, we also know that this is an assessment which belies some other truths. More people died because of the situation Haiti was in before the earthquake. Yes, people from all levels of society perished, but I know it is safe to say that people living in ramshackle housing brought on by the conditions which made Haiti the poorest nation in the North American hemisphere suffered proportionally more deaths. In other words, Haiti's disaster was compounded by the situation that existed before Tuesday's earthquake.

      Well, I'm sure that all of this and many more concerns and issues are something that you've thought about and that they have been part of your conversations over the past few days. Admittedly it is difficult to find any source of hope for so many people in the situation which one UN official described as the decapitation of a country. In fact, I've wondered how the country might survive this catastrophe. We've already heard the stories of desperation as people turn to violence as an outlet for all that is happening for them in their barely tenable situation.

      There are very small stories of hope and it seems to be part of the human psyche to cling to these stories, even though they are completely dwarfed by the immensity of the tragedy. But cling to them we must to bring even the smallest bit of consolation for us as we try to deal with all that is happening.

      And that's how I am going to link the original plan for this Sunday's worship with what has become the focus for all of us this week. Since the very beginning of the disaster on Tuesday, the news news stories have primarily been focused on getting aid to Haiti. We've heard how monumentally difficult that has been – with roads destroyed, with little in the way of local organization in place to assist the aid agencies coming into the country, with an airport jammed by so many rescue flights and a concern that not only food but aviation fuel might run out. We know that many of the foreign nationals in Haiti were there as part of the UN involvement in the country and as part of the vast web of aid agencies, NGOs, and faith based groups working to bring hope to a country which has suffered from economic and political disaster for so many decades. Haiti has unquestionably been a focus for many people who take seriously the call from God to support the brokenhearted, to speak out for justice, to value the lives of poor people everywhere, to look after orphans and others who are unable to care for themselves.

      Anyone who has spent considerable time in those kinds of situation, working in the face of incomparable heartache, will tell you that the thing that keeps them going, the one bit of hope in what seems like a hopeless place, is the community that people find when they work together. People bringing aid to needy people will tell you about what they've received in the process. We know there will be stories from the rescue teams on the ground of stories of survival as people are pulled alive from the rubble of toppled buildings. We know there will be stories of heroic action, and the kind of relationships that are sealed by people using the best of their abilities – perhaps finding strength beyond what they thought were their abilities – as they work together to perform vital help and support.

      In other words there were many people in Haiti who were there because of their belief and who wanted to walk their faith with the people there, and who also found faith among the people of Haiti. The same thing is happening right now – with and among the rescue agencies – whether they are faith based, or armed forces members from any number of countries, whether they are finding ways to hand out water and food, providing shelter or working against time to rescue people who have been buried alive. These people are there because of their God given gifts – the same gifts that Paul wrote about to the Corinthian Christian community. And whether it is those gifts that took them directly to Haiti on this occasion or whether it was their gifts that led them to sign up as an armed forces member which has led them to be in Haiti right now as part of the team sent by their government we know that God is there in this way – with skilled people using their God given gifts to do what they can in the situation.

      And here, briefly is a connection with our local situation. When the Stewardship Committee first talked about the Celebrations Jar, I admit to wondering how it would work. I'm always in favour of anything that will raise up the Mission and Service Fund – especially having heard lately at how over the past few years the M & S Fund has flatlined and in fact decreased in relation to the cost of living index, but I didn't know how the Celebrations Jar would be embraced by people of the congregation. I am grateful to say that my expectations have been tremendously exceeded. In my opinion and that of others, it has become an important part of who we are – most importantly not because it is another way to raise funds for the Mission and Service Fund, but because it has provided an opportunity for us to become a more closely knit community. We know more about each other, and I think we care more about each other because of the stories that get told when we share the celebrations of our lives. And for me that is the strongest element of what church or community of faith means to me – namely the community of believers. Now don't get me wrong – I think the theological basis for our community is also important, but first and foremost it is community that ties and binds us together. All the hopeful stories coming out of Haiti will be ones that have a basis in community. It will take tremendous strength of spirit for survivors and aid workers alike to find the hope, but I am absolutely confident that whatever hope we manage to find will have a community aspect to it.

      When Paul wrote about the gifts of the spirit he imagined a working body of Christ – a body that functioned well because of all the different parts relying on each other to make it all work. It was more than lovely metaphor – it was a divine imagining of God at work in us.

      May God continue to be with us as we grow in strength as a community of God's people – sharing our pain and joy together. And may God's presence continue to be known in the horror of today's Haiti, for there is no place else in the world right now that is more in need of God's presence and care. Amen.