I heard about this tragedy from my friend Rev. Matt Titus while sitting next to him at the North/West Lower Michigan Synod Assembly.* He suggested that we pause our Assembly to pray for Oklahoma victims, and because I was the worship song leader I ended up leading that prayer before our Mountain Vespers worship on Monday evening. As an unexpectedly public voice in response to this situation, I feel some particular connection to what happened, as though my public prayers put me on the spot to respond in some more tangible way.
What am I talking about, you ask? Well, conveniently my friend and colleague Rev. Tim Brown has already written an excellent piece explaining the relationship of prayer and giving in response to tragedies.*** The crux of Tim's article is that "prayer must always lead to action," and he takes on both religious people who think prayer is sufficient in itself and atheists who think prayer is an entirely irrelevant response.****
I guess I would say that I am living proof of Tim's point: I prayed about Oklahoma, and that prayer has spurred me to action, to a tangible response designed to alleviate some of the suffering of people there.
If you come to Lutheran Church of the Savior this Sunday, you'll receive one of these inserts from ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response in your worship bulletin. People will donate to LDR to help, and my donation will be among them.
But we're not done yet: then on Facebook today I saw this excellent post from my friend Heather Lunde, who I know through my less-jet-setting-than-it-used-to-be lifestyle as a roller derby announcer. ***** She shared this excellent article about the stages of disaster response, and how the United Methodist organization operates in these situations, including being sure that 100% of donations go to relief efforts. When I liked her post, she invited me to share similar information about the equivalent Lutheran organization, which led to my posting the following on her Facebook wall:
Thanks. The ELCA equivalent, Lutheran Disaster Response, has the same 100% story. Great article about stages of relief.
I'll add that the reason orgs like UMCOR and LDR can give 100% of donations to relief is because their overhead is completely covered by offerings and other regular church income. For all the problems of "institutional church," times like this make me thankful to be part of a structure designed to maximize assistance to folks in need.
And while I'm at it, I notice the Lutheran version offers two options: you can donate to funds for "Tornadoes - United States" or more generally for "Lutheran Disaster Response, US." The Lutherans, like the Methodists, are at their best in Stage 3. Donations to the LDR Tornado fund may sit dormant for months or years (hopefully collecting interest) before LDR can actually use them to do the most good in Oklahoma. Money given to the general LDR-US fund may be used immediately to cover part of Stage 3 for something like Hurricane Sandy or flooding in Minot, ND, while next year's unfortunately-inevitable natural disaster will spark people to give money again to LDR-US, which will then be used for Stage 3 in Oklahoma.
Finally, I'll quote another roller derby friend from Facebook, the inimitable Jack Ripple: "Lots of people are helping in Oklahoma - not everything and everyone is bad in the world."
In the face of the worst circumstances, so many people revert to one of the core aspects of our humanity: caring for one another. We help one another because we see ourselves in the face of another. We give of our money, time, and prayers because we are thankful to be in a position to give at all, and because we know the randomness of such tragedy could have as easily affected us as it did the victims in Moore, OK. For myself, I would say that I give because I know that everything my family has is a gift and a blessing. I know money is not mine to hoard but God's for me to steward in providing for my family and for all of God's children in need. I'm happy that my wife and I each give 10% of our pre-tax income to our congregations, where that money trickles up to pay for the overhead of Lutheran Disaster Response so they can be ready to dive into communities in crisis.
I pray, again, for the people of Oklahoma, for the children rescued from their own school, for first responders and second-and-third responders and farmers and families and all of God's children, and I take heart in the knowledge I am part of a community making a difference in rebuilding these communities today and in years to come.******
* Find out more about our new NWLM Synod bishop-elect here. The main thing you probably need to know about him is that he really respects my wife from their time together at LSTC. So obviously his judgment is sound in matters of greatest import.
**I was surprisingly nervous to pray ad lib at Synod Assembly. As I was praying, I became increasingly worried about the awkward angle at which I was holding my arms. I have to trust that God heard us anyway.
*** Seriously, I do not spend enough time being thankful for all the great colleagues I'm blessed with as a pastor. Just so many wonderful, passionate, caring, thoughtful people dedicate their lives to following Jesus and daring to lead others along that path. People like Matt, Craig, Sarah, and Tim inspire me to be a better pastor and a better human.
**** And this may not even be the best thing I read today by a Christian talking about atheists: see this quotation from Pope Francis from Sunday. Even my best raised-Catholic-now-atheist-or-at-least-thoroughly-agnostic cousin shared it on Facebook, so I'm not the only person impressed with it.
***** Yes, there are other church-affiliated people in roller derby, obvs. Derby tends to create a very all-are-welcome community, which is another conversation for another day re what we in the church can learn from that.
****** Who knew this would become a post about stewardship? I guess I should've seen that coming, but as these ridiculous endnotes indicate, I'm really flying by the seat of my pants here. Maybe my brain will return to its regularly-scheduled programming if I finally eat lunch / dinner, now that it's already 4:30pm.
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