Sermon thoughts and other musings

You couldn't have a better text for preaching after a week of work in New Orleans than a text about tearing down the Temple. We worked on homes that have been sitting untouched since Katrina hit 14 months ago. To see what has happened to New Orleans is as unthinkable as the predictions of the destruction of the Temple must have seemed to Jesus' followers.

Every house we gutted was a house full of memories. Every owner and family were in tears as they watched us haul their lives to the curb as a moldy heap. One house was particularly memorable: she was a self-confessed "pack-rat" - and wow was that an understatement. As we brought out load after load after load of moldy, mildewed, rotted items that she had collected for decades, she would desperately look for something salvageable. An item here or there could be salvaged in her eyes. Nothing could be saved as far as we were concerned. Finally it was just too much, and she just sat down in front of the heap of debris, a pile taller than she was, and she broke down in tears.

But as the coordinator of our work team, I got to do the final walk-throughs with our on-site coordinator and the owner. I got to be there when the owners walked through their homes, freshly gutted down to the studs. I got to see the looks in their eyes when for the first time in months there was hope. I got to see it in their eyes as they finally saw possibilities again.

Maybe, just maybe, the things that fill our lives blind us to the possibilities God has for us, and what we really need is to gut our lives down to the studs. Just once in a while.