A Chance to Rebuild on Rock
The Alpena News, November 1, 2005
At the very end of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew quotes its preacher. Jesus says, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell – and great was its fall!” (7:26-27) There are many words the foolish person might disregard. Jesus’ sermon fills three chapters, beginning with the Beatitudes, continuing through the Our Father, and closing with a warning that when we pray our Father’s will be done, we had better act on it.
As a wannabe wise person, I want to begin this column by regarding Jesus’ injunction, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged.” (7:1) In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and now Rita, judgments have been flying in every direction. “They should have known better than build there.” “This is what you get when political cronies are appointed.” “This turned out as badly as it did because Congress cut the Corps of Engineers’ budget.” “They need to take global warming more seriously.” “They should not have allowed developers to build on wetlands.” And on and on, with considerable grains of truth in each judgment, but also with a lot of finger-pointing. The operant word, even if disguised, is mainly “they” rather than “I” or “we.”
When Jesus tells us not to judge, he calls us away from this “blame game” to the field of personal responsibility. So, in the aftermath of a rain-soaked, wind-blown, largely collapsed Gulf Coast, what is showing itself to have been my responsibility? I might excuse myself as having been unaware of so many things – of the role of wetlands in protecting shorelines, of the greedy carelessness of developers and politicians, of the inadequate planning for mass evacuations, of the way warmer water produces stronger hurricanes, of the government’s budget cuts in critical areas, and so on. But ignorance of the law is no defense, and so I am to be held accountable – accountable for things done and left undone in what was more an act of man than an act of God. Actually, since it appears the cost of reconstruction will be passed along to future generations, I might not be held as accountable as I believe I should be.
More and more, I am feeling myself complicit in building a house on sand. The reports and scenes from New Orleans, in particular, exposed our nation’s similarities to third-world countries with their sharp contrasts between the privileged and impoverished. As a citizen, I deeply regret that my nation’s foundation seems so much comprised of the seven deadly sins – pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Greed and the lust for power to feed it seem to be especially large blocks of sand. Frankly, were it not for former-but-diminishing American virtues, I would be surprised that so many other nations have come to our aid after Katrina. Or maybe they practice a grace that we practice less and less – giving others more than their just desserts.
The hurricanes do not represent God’s judgment. But, their aftermath is a judgment upon our collective foolishness. So many drowned or otherwise killed, so many displaced, so much destroyed property, so much cost! Why? A war on Iraq instead of on poverty, tax-cuts for the wealthy instead of services for the needy, pork-projects instead of maintaining and improving infrastructure, vote-seeking instead of environmental concern, protecting political turf more than literal turf? The dots connect, and the picture isn’t pretty.
Judgment, though, never comes without an opportunity to repent. I and the nation in whose deadly sins I am complicit can rebuild, this time on rock. It’s my personal responsibility to do whatever I can toward this end, and not just point a finger.