"Then the King will say to those on his
right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the
kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry
and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to
drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you
clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came
to visit me.'
"Then the righteous will answer him,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you
something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or
needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go
to visit you?'
"The King will reply, 'I tell you the
truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you
did for me.'
Matthew 25:34-40
As we all know from watching endless hours of
CNN, the disaster along the Gulf of Mexico is bigger than anyone imagined. Many
hard questions are being asked of our government. It is hard for us to
understand how we can be so efficient at war, but take days to respond in force
when people are in desperate need in one of our own cities. That's a good
question to ask, and it WILL be asked in days to come.
But let's set that question aside for now.
Right now we need to know what we can do to
help. Large agencies will handle the relief efforts in large ways. The Salvation
Army, The Red Cross, and others will be tackling the many large problems that
are coming and are here now. Thank God for them. They need our help and our
generous donations.
As each displaced family begins to try to build
anew, what will be needed are smaller groups of people who can help one or two
families. In the weeks, months, perhaps years to come, each family will have
their own set of needs and challenges. That's where you and I come in.
Tomorrow morning our worship service will
center largely around how our small church is being called to help. I don't know
what we will decide to do, but I'm of a mind to take care of that business
before we take care of the business of praying, singing, and preaching.
I am not the president of our church. I am not
in charge of decisions like this. I am but one of the servants of Christ. So I
can't tell you exactly what we are going to do. I can tell you that my wife went
to her hospital today and worked for 8 hours. (She is a chaplain) She and the
other employees of Southeast Baptist Hospital met individuals, not statistics.
One older man arrived with nothing but the clothes on his back. He has no idea
where his wife and family are. Jeanene opened the plastic bag where his clothes
were stored and was stunned by the awful smell. He hadn't changed his clothes
since the hurricane hit. They got the sizes off the tags and took a quick
survey. One nurse said, "That's my husband's size." She left immediately, went
home, and came back with an armful of clothing.
This is the kind of thing that needs to happen.
And it will happen. We are a generous people at heart. I believe that.
Our church has a building with showers. We
could house people there. Since we live in San Antonio, we are already getting
refugees. Houston has the more immediate and dire needs, but we'll do our part.
I've gotten emails from Real Live Preacher readers, wondering how they can help.
Certainly you can give money to the large relief organizations. You'll have no
trouble finding them. God bless you for that.
Tomorrow I will tell you what Covenant Baptist
Church can and will do. If you desire to help some individuals, there will be a
way for you to do that through us.
I'll write again Sunday evening and tell you
more.
rlp
