Preaching in the Shadow of an Earthquake

How does one preach the good news of Jesus Christ in the shadow of a 7.2 earthquake that, within seconds, destroyed 200,000 plus lives, tore apart families, leveled buildings, made those who were already economically poor even poorer? How do we sing the Lord's song in the midst of such devastation and heartache?

The answer is to be found in the people of Haiti whose incredible faith allows a woman buried under a building for six days to come out singing; another to be rescued from under the rubble, proclaiming "I'm alive!" The answer is to be found in the people all over the world who have joined in prayer together for a country to which most of us have never been and for a people we have never met.

Before this earthquake, my connections to Haiti were limited to the French tutor Jean Max Sam who taught me enough French to get me through my language requirements in college; to the four people in one of my churches I served who went to Haiti to do some work at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital; and to the Haitian start up church in our annual conference. All in all, Haiti was simply not on my radar. It most certainly had little impact on anything I might preach. All that was changed last week when, at 4:53 in the afternoon, Haiti was altered forever.

This week I am wondering how one preaches in the shadow of an earthquake. A small child, after being rescued, offered me an answer. When asked what she wanted, she replied that she "hoped for something to happen, to happen tomorrow." Ah, I thought to myself, in the shadow of an earthquake we need to offer the expectation of a favorable future under God's direction. We need to offer hope and we need to be able to offer, to anyone who asks, the reason for the hope we have. We need to tell our brothers and sisters in Haiti who are listening, we need to remind ourselves, that hope is eternal. It makes all sorts of things possible, even the rebuilding of a city and a people who currently seem beyond help.

What does this hope look like, this good news of God? How does this sermon end? You tell me.
We've all been invited to tell the story.