Sermon reflection on Typhoon Haiyun

Sermon on November 17, 2013 by
The Rev. Debra Low-Skinner
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Saratoga, California

They say that a woman shouldn’t reveal her age.  Well, I’m all about “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”!  So I am proud to say that, last month, I celebrated my 61st birthday.  One thing about living some three score years is that one has seen and experienced a lot of stuff, some of which were pretty traumatic.  Beyond family of origin issues, there were political crises like the intractable gridlock in Congress and the recent Government shutdown; economic crises like the Great Recession; and international crises like the continuing Mideast conflict and War on Terror.  But, in polite company, one is not supposed to talk about politics or religion.  So, let’s talk about the weather!

Having lived on the East Coast and in California, I have been through some pretty serious climatological disasters:

• There was the Big Northeast Power Blackout that took place in August 2003.  Don and I had just moved to Long Island when, during a particularly oppressive hot and humid summer day, a software bug at a power station in Ohio—yes, Ohio, the home state of our Rector Channing—took down the entire power grid of the Eastern Seaboard.  It affected some 55M people living in the Northeast, upper Midwest, and Ontario.  It was the second worse widespread power outage in the past 25 years.  Don and I didn’t have air conditioning or lighting; we couldn’t charge our computers and cell phones; and, because the rectory had an electric stove, we couldn’t cook anything for nearly 24 hours.

• There were a few notable winter storms that we saw on the south coast of Massachusetts and New York. But one particularly nasty Nor’easter dumped 18-24” of snow in one day in Feb 2010.  It was named by pundits at the “Washington Post” and by Jon Stewart of the “Daily Show” as “Snow-mageddon” or the “Snow-pocalypse”.  For hours, Don and I checked the snowfall outside and periodically went out to shovel snow from beyond our front and back doors, to keep a path open out of the house and to the car.  We couldn’t drive anywhere because the roads hadn’t been plowed for hours, and stores and offices and local transit were shut down for a day.

• Then, of course, like most people who lived here in the Bay Area at the time, we lived through the Loma Prieta (or so-called “World Series”) Earthquake that took place In October 1989.  How many here experienced the Earthquake?  It was a 6.9 magnitude geological shift/jolt along the San Andreas Fault that leveled houses, caused power and telephone outages and gas pipeline explosions, collapsed part of the Bay Bridge killing 42 people, injured thousands of others, wreaked $6B in property damage, and disrupted all our lives for days and weeks afterwards.   With a slight case of PTSD, how many of us remembered shuttering with dread with each aftershock that came?

Yet, throughout all these traumatic events, we persevered.  We made adjustments and learned new things.  We repaired and replaced what was damaged or lost.  We got to know our neighbors better, as we pulled together and helped each other out.  We discovered how strong and resilient we are, as we eventually recovered our equilibrium.  And, by the grace of God, we survived and recognized how truly blessed we are for our lives and having our loved ones still around us.

So, those of us who have been through such disruptions and disasters have some inkling, some sense of understanding, of what the people in the central Philippines are going through, after being struck over a week ago by Super-typhoon Haiyun (also known as Yolanda).  Officials have said that this is the worse cyclone in 25 years.  With 195 mph winds and 230 mph gusts, its destructive force was 1-1/2 times more powerful than Hurricane Katrina and over twice as powerful as Super-Storm Sandy last year.  It is estimated that some 4,000 persons are dead, 2M have been displaced, and there is at least $14B in damage.

Looking at photos in the news, the devastation is massive and mind-bog-gling, with miles and miles of villages and coastlands flattened and debris everywhere.  Aside from a nuclear blast of human origin, one wonders if such widespread and horrific destruction could have been an act of God?

We read from the Book of Job (38:1, 17-18, 25) that “God answered Job out of the whirlwind.  ‘Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Who has cut a channel for the torrents of rain, and a way for the thunderbolt?  Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?  Declare, if you know this?’”  Then we read, later on in Job (42:1-3), “Job answered the Lord: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.  Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.’”

In today’s Gospel reading from Luke (21:9a,11), Jesus said, “…do not be terrified…there will be great earthquakes and, in various places, famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”

Certainly, for the Filippinos suffering mightily from the Super-typhoon, it must seem like the end of the world and the apocalypse has come.  They must be asking themselves, “What have we done deserve this?  Have we angered God (or at least Mother Nature) in some way?  Is God teaching us a lesson?”

And yet we know, from our previous personal experiences of disasters, that by the grace of God and through long hard work, communal cooperation, perseverance, and the charitable generosity and kindness of multitudes upon multitudes of strangers, the survivors of Tacloban and Leyte Province will come through this.  Like Job, they will gain a much better appreciation of themselves, and an appreciation of the sanctity of human life, and an appreciation of the awesome and all-powerful love and mercy of God, our Creator and Savior and Sustainer.

I urge all of us, who have been through our own share of traumatic events and have made it through “to tell the tale”, to be generous in giving to the Episcopal Relief and Development Disaster Fund, which is helping to aid the victims of Super-typhoon.  Let us pray for help and healing for the survivors, and for the safety of those who are traveling there to bring them food and medical aid.   Let us pray for those who may have lost their faith in the face of catastrophic loss.  And let us stand with them, with our hearts open and compassions stirred, as we together sing the words from today’s Canticle 9/Hymn 679:

Surely it is God who saves me; trusting him, I shall not fear.
For the Lord defends and shields me and his saving help is near.
So rejoice as you draw water from salvation’s living spring;
In the day of your deliverance thank the Lord, his mercies sing.

Amen.

DebraL@st-andrews-saratoga.org
Office:  408 867-3493 ext. 244

Pastoral Associate
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
13601 Saratoga Ave.
Saratoga CA  95070
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References:  Wikipedia:  “Northeast Power Outage 2003”, “Snow-maged-don”, “Loma Prieta Earthquake”; “Time” magazine, 25 Nov 2013 and www.CNN.com on “Super-typhoon Haiyun”.