Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 17, 2010
Texts:  Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

This is one of those weeks,
In which I could have written
And actually did start to write several different sermons in my head.

As I started the week,
I was delighted to find out that the Wedding at Cana
Was the Gospel for the week.
After all, who can pass up a chance to preach
On Jesus’ miracle of abundance in a time of need.

And then I started to reflect
On Saint Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians
And thought about how a sermon on spiritual gifts
Would mesh well with our Annual Meeting this morning,
Not to mention how well the concept of Spiritual Gifts
Sheds some light on our understanding of passionate spirituality.

But as the week wore on,
Further events of this week,
Virtually demanded that my preaching take a different turn.

The wedding at Cana will just have to wait
Until this text comes up in the lectionary again---
Three years from now.
And contemplation on Spiritual Gifts will have to take a different form.

The urgency of the situation in Haiti after the 7.0 earthquake,
And the desperation of the people in that poor country,
Leave me no choice but to reflect
On God’s presence in the time of this crisis.

I’m typically not much of a TV watcher.
So, I usually get my news from the Internet or newspaper,
And I can always count on my mother to alert me
To any breaking world news.

True to form, it was my mother
Who informed me that there had been a highly destructive earthquake in Haiti.

On Wednesday, even I turned on CNN to try to get a sense
Of the magnitude of this disaster.

The pictures and commentary coming out of this devastated country horrified me.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it is like for a survivor
To be camped out in the streets of a destroyed city,
Surrounded by dead bodies,
And lacking basic supplies of water, food and first aid items.

I heard the prayers of the Catholic Cardinal in New York
As he mourned the death of the Arch Bishop in Haiti.

I saw the pictures of the dead bodies lined up in the streets.

I saw the complete devastation of homes, hospitals, public buildings and churches.

I thought about the all of the injured people
With no available hospitals or supplies to treat them,
And all the survivors with no homes to sleep in
And no churches to seek refuge in.

I felt the pain of the family of Ben Larson,
A senior seminarian from Wartburg Seminary
Who was serving in Haiti during winter term,
And is now presumably crushed in the rubble of a Guest House. 

I heard the poignant prayers of the woman in Haiti,
Who called out,
“God, we know that you are the strongest,
God, you didn’t have to do this to us to prove your strength.” 

In my morning prayers,
I called on God,
With as much passion as a northern New England Lutheran can summon
To show Godself in Haiti,
And do SOMETHING for these desperate people.

And then I thought about this morning’s text from Isaiah,
And the words of the prophet:

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
Until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
And her salvation like a burning torch.

In these lines, the prophet calls on God
To save God’s people
Who are despairing in the midst of a destroyed Jerusalem.
Earlier in the book of Isaiah,
God promised to redeem the people of Judah,
To restore them to Jerusalem and to re-build Jerusalem.

God had delivered on the promise of freeing the people
From exile in Babylon,
But when the people returned to Jerusalem,
The destruction they found
Left them in the depths of depression.

Every where they looked they saw destroyed homes and buildings.
The walls of Jerusalem were in a shambles,
And their glorious temple was an now empty broken shell at the top of a hill.

They did not know how to begin to re-build,
And they had little hope for survival,
In such a burned out land.

They felt Forsaken
And believed that their land was looked upon as Desolate.
They had a sense of humiliation at their situation.

As we hear at the beginning of this morning’s Isaiah text
The prophet is not willing to just let things be,
But calls on God with a vengeance.

As I reflected on this text,
I thought about the prophet’s words
In the context of the earthquake in Haiti.

The people in Haiti
Are experiencing a destruction
At least of the magnitude of that of Jerusalem.

These were poor people in a poor country,
Barely eking out a subsistence living before the earthquake.

Post earthquake they have nothing,
They are a grieving people,
Mourning their dead,
And lacking even the basic means of survival.

Hearing the words of the prophet in the book of Isaiah
Moved me to pray:

For Haiti’s sake I will not keep silent and I will not rest,
Until her vindication shines out like the dawn
And her salvation like a burning torch.

Like the prophet,
I feel compelled to call out to God for help,
Because the magnitude of this devastation
Exceeds mere human intervention.

As a Christian, witnessing devastation
Among my fellow Christians and fellow humans
I, like the prophet, must cry out to God
For God’s direct intervention in Haiti. 

Few of us can sit still and see the magnitude of suffering in Haiti
Without sending passionate, heartfelt prayers to God,
And listening for God’s response.

The prophet in the Isaiah text
Had complete confidence
That God could deliver on God’s promises.

He assures the people, newly returned to Jerusalem
That no longer will they be forsaken,
And no longer will their land be desolate.

Because of God’s relationship with them,
They will be re-named,
With a name that shows God’s relationship with them.

God will not rest until they have been restored
And God can rejoice over them.

Today God wants the very same thing for the people of Haiti.
God does not want destruction, death and despair for God’s people.

Yet, when a disaster like this happens,
You might be tempted to cry out to God,
Why, Why did this happen?

Like Job, you might want an audience with God
And demand some answers to the your questions.

You might want to know why God let this happen
Particularly to a people,
Who had almost nothing to begin with.
God would probably tell you,
Like God told Job,
That you are asking the wrong questions,
That with our limited human comprehension,
We simply cannot comprehend why things happen the way they do.

Instead God might call you to recall God’s saving deeds of power.
Or God might call on you to remember the gift of God’s son
And God’s own presence at the cross.

God might even remind you of Jesus’ sign at the wedding at Cana,
From the Gospel story you heard this morning.
Of a young couple facing the collapse of their wedding feast,
Due to lack of wine.
This shame would have marked their marriage for their entire lives.

Although a sign or miracle was not yet on Jesus’ plan,
God intervened in this hour of need for these young folks.

God might also remind you what the psalmist has to say:

Your  love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens
And your faithfulness to the clouds.

All people take refuge under your wings.

For with you is the well of life
And in your light, we see light. 

God wants health and wholeness for God’s people.

Just as God wanted the people of Jerusalem to be restored
God wants the same thing for the people of Haiti. 

God hears the prayers from around world,
From people of all nations and faiths.

And God is indeed calling to people all over the world to be God’s hands in Haiti. 

God is calling those with the skills and resources to share those gifts in Haiti.

A medical team left Dartmouth Hitchcock yesterday to minister
To the physical needs of the sick and wounded in Haiti.

A search and rescue team from Virginia
Left with their dogs, supplies and tools on Wednesday.
Hillary Clinton has been sent to bring the power of US diplomacy
Into this almost war-like situation
And to be a visible presence assuring the people
Of the US’ intention to help.

Even the power of the US military has been marshaled
To deliver food supplies and water.
Helicopters have been dropping supplies of water
Into areas with where the people are parched and thirsty.

As God said, I will turn your swords into plowshares!

God does not want God’s people in Haiti to feel forsaken,
Or their land to be seen as desolate.

The God who brought Jesus Christ from the dead,
Is a God who can bring life out of death
And hope out of hopelessness.

From the midst of death and destruction,
God hears the prayers of the people of Haiti.
God hears also the prayers of our reflected anguish
For the people of Haiti.

Like the prophet,
You are to continually call to God.
For Haiti’s sake you cannot keep quiet.

For Haiti’s sake, you are also to listen for God’s call
For the ways in which you can be God’s hands in the midst of this disaster,
For the ways in which you can use your Spiritual Gifts
For the sake of the people of God.

God has a plan for Haiti,
A plan that the people will no longer be forsaken,
Or the land called desolate.
God wants to be able to rejoice over this land,
To restore health and wholeness to a devastated people. 

Amen