Admission: In this sermon, I snatched one bit of info from RM's posting the other day, and didn't give her credit in the sermon. I willingly give it now...I would not have found the Columbia Christians for Life reference without RM. Thanks...

Romans 13: 8-11a

Neighbor Love

It was one of the most constantly loving acts of welcome…for millions and millions of children five days a week…”Won’t you be my neighbor?” He asked…Fred Rogers, a Presbyterian minister…who knew in his heart that what Paul said is true…that we are to love one another…to love our neighbors as ourselves….and that if we can do that…we’ve done what God asks of us…

In the past year we’ve had a number of chances to ask the questions who is my neighbor and how can we show love for our neighbors? From the Tsunami to AIDS in Africa, to hunger in Niger and oppression and genocide in the Sudan…we as a nation, as a church, as individual Christians have been confronted with the question of how to make a loving response to our neighbors…

And now, not across the world, but just at the other end of I-55, the interstate that starts here and ends at the western edge of Lake Pontchatrain just outside of New Orleans…we are confronted with that question again…Today, 6.5 days after the hurricane…five and a half days after the levee’s broke our neighbors still cry out…in hunger, in thirst, in pain, in grief and in hopelessness.

The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina, in Southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and the flooding and disaster that has overcome New Orleans is beyond anything we have experienced as a nation…ever.

And there have been such stories of neighbor love in these past days…

First, from many of those very nations we have helped in the past, even some with which we have been at odds over many issues in recent times….Boats, aircraft, tents, blankets, generators, cash assistance and medical teams have been offered to the U.S. from Russia, Japan, Canada, France, Honduras, Germany, Venezuela, Jamaica, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Hungary, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Mexico, China, South Korea, Israel, and many others.

And already the American Red Cross had raised over 70 million dollars…from companies and people across the globe.

And the people of my hometown, who have opened their homes, their churches, thier convention centers, their hotels, and even the Astrodome to welcome those who have no place to go, the many thousands who volunteer to feed them and tend the sick. The city that is known for big oil may now be known for its big heart.

We received more calls here at the church about how people might get involved than at any time since I’ve been here. We so want to be good neighbors…to show love and compassion to our neighbors…and so we will…Through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance…the Red Cross…and other organizations we as individuals and as a congregation have responded and will keep responding… letting the love of God…the sacrificial love of Christ…speak in our actions and our giving. We will not rest…indeed we cannot rest…until all are fed and clothed, healed and treated, or duly mourned and laid to rest.

But we are also chastened. This tragedy revealed in stark, ugly, disturbing, heart-breaking terms the reality of the social and economic structure of our cities. With more people living in poverty now that at any time since the depression….with more disparity between the haves and the have nots than at any time since the days of the Robber Barons of the late 19th century…We have seen that those who have can escape, can find a way out…and those who do not are left to scramble for survival, treated like animals, many in their bitterness, and hunger, and panic and desperation have acted like animals…and not being in their shoes, Christ DARES us to judge them….for to judge them is to condemn ourselves.

We are the richest nation in the world…the most powerful political force the world has ever known….and we have demonstrated…not just our leaders…for they serve at our behest…WE…all of us…have demonstrated that our care for the least of our neighbors, is not a priority…particularly if they are black, poor and unemployed.

Friends, there are many narrow minded and opportunistic people in the church spouting all kinds of condemnations in connection with the events of this past week…Columbia Christians for Life says God destroyed the cities across the Gulf Coast, killing potentially thousands, to close their abortion clinics. Repent America, a national so-called Christian group that demonstrated at this year’s pride parade in Chicago says God destroyed New Orleans because a lesbian and gay festival was going to be there this weekend. I feel the real condemnation that is present in all of this…is on our very culture…and perhaps even the church.

Some ask did God cause this? I can say this...God didn’t build a city below sea level and then leave it vulnerable by failing to keep it’s levees in good repair…WE DID….God didn’t force the poorest communities in that city and others across the south into the low lying areas along the edges of the levees and rivers that overran their banks…WE DID….God didn’t build substandard housing in Gulfport Mississippi for the elderly, exposing them to death…WE DID…God didn’t cut the funding for disaster preparedness and response…WE DID.

Did God cause this? Did God will the death of all of these people from the Astrodome in Houston to the shores of Mobile Bay in Alabama…to the Florida Coast…Surely not…but God is present… with those who suffer…God is present in the countless acts of compassion….in the loving self-sacrifice of so many police officers, fire fighters, national guard troops, and common people…God is present here today as well…in our singing, our praying, and in our rededication to love our neighbors…

Paul tells us…Wake up….for there are neighbors who need our love and our help…but who also need us to transform our way of thinking and being….as individuals, as churches, as a society…

Jesus came to transform the world…to redirect our attention away from the centers of power to the centers of need…to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the lost, befriend the downhearted….Will we turn to them today…not just with our checks and our water and food…but with a hand and heart that doesn’t ask "will you," but says…”You are my neighbor and I will love you.”

Christ stands at this very table and says that to us time and time again…you are not lost…you are found….you are not alone….you are mine….you shall not despair, for I will bring you joy….you shall not hunger and thirst forever…for here I will feed you…Can we do any less?