This morning is Communion Sunday, a time when we celebrate our unity as brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ.  Just one year ago, on August 29^th of 2005, the Body of Christ was dealt a severe body blow. As everyone knows, first Hurricane Katrina and then Rita devastated large sections of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. What you may not know is that twenty-four United Methodist Churches were completely destroyed, and sixty-seven others were severely damaged.  Twelve parsonages were destroyed, with another 13 having major damage.

That’s the bad news.  The good news, as you’ve heard me tell it many, many times, is that the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) was one of the very first relief organizations on the scene, they are still on the scene, and they will remain on the scene until the job of restoration is done.  You may have seen the recent Newsweek story that ranked UMCOR as one of the “Big Names in Katrina Relief.”  UMCOR raised some $64.5 million for relief and rehabilitation that will fund long-term recovery for the next three years.  In addition to the money raised, 100% of which went to hurricane relief with absolutely no overhead taken out, there have also been and still are many thousands of United Methodist volunteers participating in Volunteers in Mission programs to the Gulf region.  There is a huge amount yet to be done, but there are also miracle stories that warm the heart.

Last Sunday Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, of the Mississippi Annual Conference, spoke at a gathering of about 100 people at the Seashore Assembly, just across U.S. Highway 90 from the Gulf of Mexico. Speaking beside an altar made of two sawhorses topped with a sheet of plywood, the bishop said:  “Faith in God is stronger than the storm.  Nothing is too great for God to overcome.  We give thanks that Katrina is not as strong as God’s abiding love. Wherever we are wiser and more joyful and more persevering and more patient and more confident, we are so because of God’s lifting and resurrecting power.”   

In order to illustrate the point of God’s “lifting and resurrection power,” the bishop told a true story about three people who rode out the storm in a church in Pearlington.  As the waters rose in the church, they climbed onto the altar, which eventually worked loose from its base.  As they prayed, the altar rose with the flood waters, stopping just short of the ceiling.  The people scrambled into the rafters, and then as the waters began to recede, got back on the altar, and it settled back in its place.  “God has lifted us in a way in which we have never been lifted before,” Ward said. “Katrina can’t hold a candle to God’s abiding providence.”   The bishop then turned to the plywood altar and consecrated the communion elements.  After communion, those attending were given an opportunity to write the names of friends and family who had died in the storm, and then attach the names to a banner of multicolored ribbons.

That’s the good news.  Now I want to tell you something that may come as a bit of a shock.  It may not seem right, but this is just the way it is and, if you think about it, it makes the appeal and the integrity of UMCOR even stronger.  Even though the United Methodist Committee on Relief ranked in the top six of all national and international charitable organizations responding to Katrina, contributing over $64.5 million dollars, and even though that money was raised mostly from local United Methodist churches, UMCOR does not just “take care of their own.”  In fact, their whole purpose is to provide humanitarian relief in the broadest, non-sectarian sense, and right in their charter and by-laws, UMCOR is specifically prohibited from showing any kind of favoritism by providing funds to rebuild destroyed or damaged United Methodist churches and parsonages or helping with such needs as replacing Bibles, hymnals, robes, or helping with salary support. 

For this reason the United Methodist Council of Bishops has developed a very special “Bishop’s Appeal for Hurricane Relief.”  Normally on communion Sundays we put baskets out for a free will “love” offering, which I use to help serve the local population that comes to the church for assistance.  This morning I’m going to break with that tradition.  This morning, 100% of this special communion love offering will go to the Bishop’s Appeal for Hurricane Relief, to help restore the United Methodist Body of Christ in the Gulf Region.   

We are all familiar with the words of Jesus:  “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.  And even the hairs of your head are all counted.  So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.”  I want to close with these words, originally written in response to the Southeast Asia tsunami, but I’m sure you’ll agree that they fit this situation as well: 

“What prayer can we say when an unimaginable disaster comes to our community, wreaking havoc, claiming lives; and bodies are missing –never to be retrieved?  What prayer would make a difference to those who remain?  So often we have been taught to pray to change things, to make a difference, to stop a tragedy.  But when the tragedy has already come, how do we pray?  Perhaps conventional wisdom about prayer must be laid aside.  When disaster abandons its heinous child upon our doorstep, we are comforted by the knowledge that the same God who knows when a sparrow falls to the ground knew and loved each of those who died.  Our prayer is one of remembrance: we remember that those who perished are more than numbers, more than statistics, more valuable than sparrows; each was a person of sacred worth created in the image of God.  Let us pray:

Loving God, we pause to remember all who perished in tragedy – both those who will be named and mourned and those who have no one to toll bells in their memory.  They were people who belonged to cities and towns, communities and places of worship.  With their neighbors and friends, families and loved ones, we pause to remember that you gave them life and loved them.  We are comforted to know that you know each person by name.  Lord, have mercy upon this earth and all who mourn.  Amen.” (1)

(1) “Counting Sparrows,” written by Safiuah Fosua, Director of Invitational Preaching Ministries of the Center for Worship Resourcing of the General Board of Discipleship.    Copyright @ 2005