Do not disturb . . .

I love Star Wars. I am no Matt Smith, mind you, but I still watch whichever episode that is running on Spike TV or TNT. Last night I ran across the original episode. Needing to gather my strength for the coming week, I settled down with peanut butter and crackers and watched the whole thing, which lasted about six hours when you add in commercials.

That first episode inspires me now just as it did when I first saw it a hundred years ago in a galaxy far, far away. Sure, Luke and the Princess look a little hokey now. Hans Solo aged pretty well, actually. Chewbacca is timeless. And Obi-wan Kenobi, what can I say?

As an idealistic youth I was blown away by the religious undertones of the first movie. And while not blown away, I was still troubled by the message last night.

During the past week tornadoes took the lives of twenty plus and the homes of hundreds in the U. S. Earlier in the week more than 6,000 died in Myanmar as the result of a cyclone. Today, at least 10,000 died in an earthquake in China.

Every day, thousands of children in the world die for lack of food, water, and simple vaccinations or other medical care.

Every day, children in the U. S. kill or maim each other with guns.(This week-end in Birmingham about 10 or 11 people were shot)

Every day, lives are destroyed by the use of methamphetamine.

Every day, children in some parts of the world are enslaved.

This year, China has killed or persecuted untold numbers of Tibetan monks.

In Haiti, just a couple hours plane ride from Miami, poverty and violence are unchecked.

In Africa, civil wars break out because there is no water, a problem which could be partially solved by the simple drilling of wells.

When did we put out the big "Do not Disturb" sign? Why don't we feel the disturbance in the force?

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, particularly New Orleans. Lester Memorial UMC, my church, has continued to go to the Gulf Coast to work on houses since that time. Sometimes it seems a little like the old starfish story. You know the one where the man was walking down the beach and saw a figure far down the shore picking something up and throwing it into the surf. As the man continued to walk toward the figure, he saw what looked like hundreds of starfish, stranded on the beach. The figure was a little boy, picking up starfish, one at a time, and throwing them back into the ocean. The man said to the little boy, "You'll never make any difference, there are just too many of them." The little boy picked up another starfish, looked at the man, and said,"It'll make a difference to this one."

There are thousands of houses to be repaired in New Orleans. Sometimes you wonder if working on a couple of houses every 3 or 6 months makes any difference. But, having had the blessing of meeting the owners and inhabitants of the houses we work on, we know it makes a difference to them. We still feel that huge disturbance in the force that occurred because of Katrina in August, 2005. But Lesterines are not Jedi. We just had the good fortune to meet and share the lives of a lot of displaced New Orleaneans who lived with us awhile in Oneonta. We didn't have to feel the disturbance. We saw it in the flesh.

It is astonishing to me that here we are in a Presidential election and no one speaks of New Orleans. We are less than three years away from that horrible tragedy. Where is the outcry for the failure of we the people and our elected government to offer real help? Is the problem solved in New Orleans for the thousands of people who suffered deaths in the family or loss of home and property? No.

We just have a tendency to forget. We work to pay our mortgages, we take care of our children, and unless disaster affects us directly, our memory is short-term. We convince ourselves that we can't make any difference anyway. The problem with most of the people who can't recover from a disaster is, they are the ones that had no voice before the disaster; the poor and the powerless. Their plight becomes a victim of our rapidly moving news cycle. They are probably not going to vote or make political contributions anyway.

I believe that we have the desire to do good. Our government makes extreme efforts to assist the rest of the world in times of disaster. That is a truly wonderful thing.

But we individuals are the ones who can, or should feel the disturbance. Our government will and probably should only respond to those things that we deem important. So why is New Orleans not on the radar? It is not because our government is unfeeling. It is because we the people are. And instead of encouraging our government to continue offering help to victims of disaster, we use our government to insulate ourselves from the disturbance which might disturb us as individuals, as groups, as churches, to offer ourselves as part of the solution.

Katrina is just an example, a model fairly close to home. I don't know the answers. I do know a couple of things. First, I know I am not spiritual enough to simply "feel" the disturbance in the force. But, when I am forced to engage the victims of disaster or prejudice or injustice on a personal, individual level, I am disturbed and it is very hard to forget.

Second, that is not going to happen if I sit and wait on the victims of disaster, prejudice or injustice to come to me, or to walk into my church, home or office. I must go to them.

Jesus said a couple of pertinent things on this subject. You can ferret them out for yourself. But the simplest version can be condensed into a few words, "Come follow, go into the world, serve and love."

May the force be with you. And may it sometimes disturb you.