Happy the man

אַשְׁרֵי  הָאִישׁ  ash-re  ha-ish
Happy the man
   that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked ...
for Adonai watches over the way of the righteous:
   but the way of the wicked is doomed.

Today’s Bible readings contrast good guys and bad guys, wicked versus righteous, blest & happy versus Woe be unto you - - Who, What, Where are you in this? I’m going there now, so listen up because I may need an Amen!

Maybe made up, an urban legend originated online and making the rounds on social media, as the story goes,

The airline agent at the boarding gate announces to those in the waiting area that Flight 718 has been cancelled and passangers will need other arrangements. Immediately, an irate business man storms up to the counter and shouts, "This is unacceptable! Do you know who I am?" To which the agent picks up her microphone and announces to the entire airport, "We have a lost person alert. Anyone who can provide assistance in identifying an older male wearing a blue business suit, please report to Gate 17. He has no idea who he is." 

What about you? God knows who you are, but do you know? If someone asks who you are, what will you say? Me, I’m a husband, a daddy, a naval officer, a parish priest. If you retire and lose your jobs, as I have done, and my children grown and gone, will you lose who you are, and your purpose in life? In Time we lose all that. Once that happens, who are you?

The gospel question this morning is “Who are you?” Over against the contrasts in this morning’s scripture, who are you? And not good or bad, righteous or wicked, saved or lost, but Who are you? 

Who and What are you? Who and What were you before Wednesday, October 10th, to bed Tuesday night expecting a diminishing tropical storm, wake up Wednesday morning to a god-awful category 5 hurricane. Who and what were you before - - and who and what and where are you now?

Early in the aftermath, uprooted oaks and debris and snapped-over pines blocking roads and lying across crushed homes - - places of business in shambles all over town, people moving away in droves, all of us in shock and tears, Father Steve published a chart “Emotional Life Cycle of a Disaster” (copy in this morning’s bulletin). I’ve been spotting myself on it ever since, and I’m up and down, good and bad, depressed and encouraged. I was born and grew up here, Panama City is my home town, the horror is overwhelming, the anger and grief are deep, I may be climbing out slower than you.

The house in StAndrews that Linda and I gave our daughter thirty years ago was crushed, a total loss and sentimental family contents ruined. Our own condo with the total view of StAndrewsBay, and looking out over Shell Island across the Gulf of Mexico, was messed up by water. In our sixth temporary quarters and moving again in April, we are across the Philips Inlet Bridge in Walton County. It’s more than four months, I should be healing, but even this morning, driving back into Bay County, across Hathaway Bridge and through Panama City, beloved and beautiful to me all my life, the emotions kick in, and - - “Who and What and Where am I?” - - “Panhandle Strong,” optimistic bluster evaporates and I slide back down the jagged line on the graph, not healed or healing, alma mater, beloved mother savagely raped, ravaged, beaten and left for dead - - and my rage stirs all over again. It’s an exhausting climb up this side of Wednesday, October 10th, Who am I? And, as you present yourself to God in worship, Who and What and Where are you? Who are we?

In spite of it all, we are the Jesus People, “Jesus calls us, o’er the tumult, of our life’s wild, restless sea,” my God, what an apt hymn, Jesus calls us to love God by loving our neighbor. And I see Jesus in you, looking after others before yourself through this endless nightmare. I’m trying to do as you do, but mine’s a smaller undertaking than all the love you share in the community since Hurricane Michael.

Hurricane Michael ripped away my schoolhouse. Looking after family-only, I gave up trying to look after the Cove School building where I went to school from 1941 to 1949, and which for the last twenty years I’ve exercised “landlord” responsibility as officer of the Holy Nativity School Foundation that owns the property (we lease it to the Diocese for use of Holy Nativity Episcopal School). You want to change something about the building? this is Foundation property: you have to get Father Tom’s consent! One weekend fifteen years ago, a classroom ceiling collapsed: it’s Father Tom’s building, you better call him right now! You want to cut down a tree? I don’t think so, you have to ask Father Tom! Termites swarmed in here last night, call Father Tom and see what he wants us to do! 

For many years, I was “The One Who” when an issue came up about the school building! Now where’s Father Tom? Because of the storm, I’m “Father Absent” which eats at my soul, but others are into reconstruction and the property will again be home to Holy Nativity School, on the disaster chart A New Beginning, better than ever. Who am I? I am proud, happy, blest.

Who and What and Where am I? We are having a new house built for our daughter - -who during the hurricane was in hospital for her third brain surgery and this time is slow coming back - - a new home for Malinda and her family, a new beginning in a new location, smaller but better than ever.

Water mitigation? I never heard of it, but now we’re on hurrication there, our condo is dried out, new insulation, new sheetrock on walls and ceilings, new HVAC system, rooms will be painted and new flooring (waterproof to not warp and buckle). We hope to move back in this summer. Meantime, we live comfortably in South Walton. Who am I? On the chart I am Coming to Terms; Who are You?

Sunday Bible readings are worthless if your eyes glaze over and you doze off. But when we - - maybe because a sermon turned on a light bulb over our head - still Epiphany, you know, light bulbs are meant to come on all season long - - when we see ourselves in the Scripture, and realize it’s about us, then the Word of God comes to life, and Easter dawns, and Jesus comes present, and we are saved in spite of ourselves.

I dislike talking about myself, but the question is “Who are you?” and I only know Who and What and Where I Am: I’m still the man on the Disaster Chart, climbing the graph line, slipping, falling, and climbing back up again. Who are you, look for yourself on the graph, you may discover as I do, that you are further along than you realized, and that God is still good and Jesus still loves you. 

You are not the lost man in the blue suit at the airport gate asking “Do you know who I am?” You are good and righteous, blest, happy - - and Saved. God is good (all the Time). “Jesus loves me, this I know.” And Jesus loves you too, can I get an Amen on that?

And can somebody shout Hallelujah!? 

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Sermon in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on Sunday, February 17, 2019. Epiphany 6. The Rev Tom Weller