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RSSThe Works of God
by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton
4/24/2005
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do... -- Acts 6:1-7
Miracles of healing, we think, like Jesus did, or turning plain water into fine wine. We'll be able to do things like that. But no: when we're out of merlot, we can wave our arms over a carafe of water all we want -- eventually, we'll have to go to the store and buy some more wine.
The works of God are many and various. Jesus had his and we have ours. Once in a while there is a healing that can only be described as a miracle, and everyone is taken aback by it. But healing and repair happen every day, and these, too, are works of God that help us believe.
Nobody died in Screven when the tornado tore through town in March. Only 700 people live in the little Georgia town, and everybody knows everybody else. Almost a third of the homes and businesses in town were badly damaged or completely destroyed, including the furniture factory where many of the townspeople worked. This was big: it's not that easy to change jobs in Screven.
The first of the works of God in Screven is the miracle that happens on the spot in any disaster: ordinary people rising heroically to the needs of their neighbors, working feverishly to free people from the rubble, to get their neighborsto safe shelter, to count heads and make sure everyone's accounted for. The town handyman, who had lost his own roof, exhausted all his own resources assisting his neighbors in repairing the damage to their homes.
Nine farm families in Screven could no longer live in their houses and suffered damage to their homes. They had a problem unique to farm families: banks won't lend to you if you have no cash income and no crop in. Through the offices of the Diocese of Georgia and the Episcopal parish in neighboring Jessup, St. Paul's, families like these are receiving financial aid from Episcopal Relief and Development to bridge the gaps between insurance and reality or -- in many cases -- to begin rebuilding when there is no insurance at all.
The little town will survive. The furniture factory will reopen and people will go back to work. People will get their roofs back on before much more time has passed.
This work of God was immediate, but it is also slow. It isn't surprising and exotic, faraway in a place like India or Sri Lanka. It is right next door in Screven, Georgia. It isn't magic, but it is profoundly holy in the way the works of God are holy: they take what happens here on earth and, in our response, they show us heaven.
