Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I found myself driving around the ruins of the Gulf Coast of Mississippi this week wondering how these words of Jesus could possibly be true. Here I was in the middle of the Bible belt – surrounded by God fearing people – looking three years removed at what was left after one of the most destructive events in American history. Alexander, Ian, Joiner and I spent last week in a Quonset hut on the concrete slab of what was once the Christian Education building at Christ Episcopal Church in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. On both sides of the 9 acre property were empty lots where homes had stood and been passed down from generation to generation for over 150 years. We worked at two sites; both of which sit at least half a mile north of the train tracks – water had never breached those tracks before Katrina.
The first site we were sent to was the where Katrina Relief of Waveland had been housed since the storm. Led by a woman named Kathleen Johnson, Katrina Relief of Waveland is a umbrella organization charged with keeping the local churches from fighting with each other so much that they become unable to reach out. Its head quarters is a house at 700 Tabor Street that sports new drywall that has yet to be taped and mudded everywhere under 8 feet from the floor. Kathleen lives in an RV out front while she houses recovering drug addicts and a few homeless in the bedrooms of the main house. The three car garage serves as a tool shed and the backyard was just big enough to hold two Quonset huts 20 feet wide by 50 feet long. Our task was to dismantle one of those huts and move it, its foundation of rotting pallets and 4 foot by 6 foot osb slabs, and the 30 hand made bunk bed from the back yard to their new site across the bay in Pass Christian. There was nothing easy or light about this two day task. Yet our group of 20 or so from Alabama, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Massachusetts never complained, not once. It wasn’t what any of us expected when we came to help with Katrina rebuilding, we thought we’d be helping people get their lives back, but it was no less rewarding. Somewhere along the line it became clear that by helping Kathleen move her camp and get the grant she was up for we were helping thousands of others come and help out. Our task – strange as it seemed – was doing a lot more good than we could even imagine. Tuesday was a nine hour work day, but we finished setting up the Quonset hut at the new site. It was locked up and dry with all the beds inside and the much smaller group of Alasconsinukians were glad to have accomplished such a big task in such a short period of time.
Our second assignment was at the new home of Rose Nelson. Working with Catholic Social Services and Camp Coast Care Rose was using an MDA grant to rebuild her home on the lot next to her brother. Olivari Street welcomed us with what looked like a pavilion on the corner. I later came to realize that it was in fact a home that had been gutted to the exterior studs. It was a community center of sorts – a place where the men of the neighbor hood came to share stories in the shade – a semblance of life as it once was. Doug, the construction supervisor took us to Ms. Nelson’s house and as we entered it became quite clear that here too, nothing would be easy or light. Ms. Nelson lived in a FEMA trailer in the front yard of her new home which stood some five or six feet off the ground. Drywall had been hung on the master bedroom ceiling and improperly on the walls. Our job - to finish hanging the drywall in the approximately 1000 square foot home. Things got off to a rocky start when the very first ceiling piece that we cut was “without the vision” and most certainly backwards. Eventually, however, after two and a half days and thanks to some great teamwork between our strong backed crew and half of the team from Massachusetts we left at lunchtime Friday with the ceiling in the living spaces completed and 90% of the walls done. Our little group of 4 really worked hard and accomplished a lot. I am very proud of what we were able to do.
Still, I left on Friday finding it hard to believe that Jesus’ promise that his yoke is easy and his burden is light could possibly be true. Our work last week was never easy or light. It was hot, dirty, heavy, and slow moving. Life post-Katrina for the people of Bay St. Louis, Waveland, and Pass Christian has not for one day been easy or light. It has been frustrating, dangerous, and depressing. But I found myself hoping and praying that it was true. I knew deep down that Jesus wasn’t lying when he said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light.
By the 4th of July 2008 Mission on the Bay had housed over 6,800 volunteers from various denominations and churches. According to Butch Jones, Director of Mission on the Bay, what these 6,800 people have given to the Mississippi Gulf Coast is much more than new homes, but a real sense of hope. Hope was lacking in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. News agencies focused all their attention on the flooding in New Orleans. Communication systems were completely destroyed. FEMA was overwhelmed. Things looked desperate. Then, people started coming. Kathleen Johnson came down from the Midwest immediately following the storm for a three week stay and is about to celebrate her third anniversary on the Gulf Coast. 6,800 members of the body of Christ have come through the doors of Mission on the Bay offering their help, their open hearts, and their listening ears. In so doing the Body of Christ has eased yokes and lifted burdens and offered hope.
Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” and he spoke the truth. The work to which he calls us my difficult and heavy. Our lives may be disrupted by events that are frustrating and depressing. But by living together as the Body of Christ – spreading his love, care, and compassion to the hopeless and voiceless – we the Church can help make the promise of Jesus a reality. We are called in this passage to learn from Jesus. “He is calling us not just to read further in the Gospel or to mull over theological ideas but to incarnate for ourselves the virtues demanded by his speech and exhibited in his actions. We learn of and from Jesus by doing, by adopting his spirit and living his imperatives. The truth of [this promise from Jesus] is in the living. To read about feeding the hungry is one thing; to feed them is quite another.”[1]
There is something miraculous in all this. Hard and heavy work combined with frustrating and depressing situations equals hope. By doing the work Jesus exampled for us in his lifetime we are given the opportunity to make true his promises. This week I learned that despite appearances to the contrary hard work in Jesus’ name offers rest for our souls. Where will your soul find that rest? How will you allow Jesus to lift your burdens? Whose yoke do you carry? Amen.
1 comment:
Congratulations - on a great sermon, but also on a week of work well done. With your skills you must have been a remarkable asset.
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