Reading:  Exodus 12:1-14

Preached at Beckley Presbyterian Church on September 4th 2005

This is not the sermon that it was going to be. The sermon I had all ready to go was changed by a hurricane. Changing a sermon is but a small thing in comparison to the devastation and turmoil that has taken place in the region of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans in particular.

And we are left with a question. What can we do? How can we respond? I’m going to start this morning by suggesting a few things.

Firstly, we can give financial support. Along with Christians of all denominations, Presbyterians across the country are already hard at work in a variety of ways to help meet very basic needs. On the national level, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance immediately directed $500,000 to the relief effort. In addition, they have issued an emergency appeal, setting before Presbyterians a goal of $10 million.

If you would like to help meet that financial goal simply write a check to the ‘Beckley Presbyterian Church’, mark that it is for ‘Hurricane Assistance’ and we will forward it to the appeal.

In the additional flyer we put out with our bulletins this morning, as well as a letter from the General Assembly, you can find there 3 specific suggestions as to additional ways to help:  providing Personal Health Kits or Hope-In-A-Box Kits, Volunteering to be part of a work crew and offering housing.

Let me speak to each of those in turn.

Personal Health Kits and Hope in a Box Kits are prepared to benefit families that are in shelters. The Personal Health Kit is made up of very basic household items; the Hope-In-A-Box kits have added extras for the kids. They are similar to the Christmas Shoe Boxes we prepare at Holiday Time. The PC(USA) has use of a warehouse in Houston from where these kits can be distributed. All we have to do is make them and ship them there, and the shipping is something we may be able to do in tandem with other local churches.

If you are interested in volunteering to be part of a work crew, then the first thing we are asked to do is to put a team together, and we may or may not have enough folk able to do that. If not, then the Presbytery is looking at pulling teams together, given that in our area there are many small churches that may have only one or two folk able to volunteer. Either way, forming a team or joining a team, let myself or the office know if that is something you feel called to do and we will do our best to make it happen.

Thirdly, I’ve been asked about providing temporary housing for families. Presbyterian Disaster Assistance ask that if you would be interested in hosting a family then the first step of the process is to register what you can provide. Details of how to do that are on the PC(USA) website. Again talk to myself or leave a message in the office if that is something you want to explore.

Another suggestion aside from those three is that we consider adopting a family or families to support, in a similar way to the way we do so at Christmas Time. In the face of such a vast crisis we may feel that what we can offer is but a drop in the ocean, but remember this.. If it were not for the individual drops of water, there wouldn’t be an ocean.

The winds of disaster came in from the Ocean and destroyed. Our call is to respond with a tidal wave of compassion that will redeem what has been taken. As the days go by it may get worse before things get better. The crisis is far from over. But we have to make a start and do what we can for faith demands nothing less than that.

Which brings me to the sermon that I was going to preach, and the reading we had from Exodus that spoke of the origins of the Passover Meal. In the context of where we are today, I want you to notice where Moses was when the Passover was first instituted.

The crisis that had fallen upon Israel was still around them. They were still in the hands of Egyptians, still in slavery, still not free. Although God had been working time and time and again to convince Pharaoh that he should let the people go, nothing had happened. They were stuck in a terrible place.

Then came a deadly angel who took away every first born in every home whose doorpost was not marked with the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Only after this terrible act did the Israelites make their first tentative steps in the direction of freedom.

And that freedom was a long time coming. Most of them never lived to see the Promised Land. Not even Moses got to live there. 40 years in the wilderness were to follow. This was no instant fix or quick solution. Like it will be with the rebuilding of the lives of people devastated by Hurricane Katrina, it took years before the promises took effect.

Yet God was with the people as they headed towards that day, just as God will be with those who are journeying away from a place of destruction and disaster today. There’s a whole lot more I would like to say about this passage, but I really want you to focus on one thing as we come today and share bread and wine around the communion table.

The Passover meal that the Israelites ate was “Fast Food to Go.”  Exodus12:11 “This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD.”

It was a meal that in the future would remind them that the love of God was mighty to save. Likewise we remember, as we gather around a communion table, that God has sent to us his Son, Jesus Christ, the lamb who was slain, through whose blood we are forgiven and through whose resurrection life we are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We meet around a table, we gather to worship, to be empowered by the message of salvation, the message that God’s love is greater than the tragedies that befall us, greater, as the empty tomb declares, than death and undeserved suffering. At the heart of our gospel message is a tragedy, the death of Jesus Christ. But faith tells us that God is able to take tragic circumstances of monumental proportions and God’s love can turn things around.

So we meet in this time of worship to be powered up, to get on the journey towards the Promised Land that God wants us to travel. But we can’t stay here at the table. We are seeking to be empowered to serve.  “This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly."  It was to a Corinthian Church in deep trouble that Paul wrote “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be …new …… For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us." (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Through Jesus Christ hope can be restored, faith can be revitalized and we can set about doing those things that God is calling us to do. Let’s not pretend it will be an easy journey. It will take years. There are dangers and pitfalls ahead and we have a lot to learn.

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters whose lives have been devastated and destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. But as well as praying for them, let us ask God how we can help, and seek to what the things Jesus is calling us to do in response to their need.