April 6th, 2025 - "Mitigated Disaster: Recovery" - Johnna Kosnoff

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the Sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today or just want to find

out more about the ministries at First United Methodist Church, please visit us

online at FUMCbentonville.org or check us out on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

This week's podcast begins with a clip from a short video that

was aired during Sunday service.

Roy and Shelly Lee: The concept of long-term recovery escapes most

people you think people come in, they get the tree off your house.

You call the insurance company, you get the roof fixed.

And for some people that's how that works.

But for a lot of people that's not that.

It's, the answer's not that easy.

Uh, they live in an older home when the mortgage was paid off, they canceled their

insurance and they have no insurance.

They have some FEMA settlement.

And so what we're doing right now with long-term recovery is helping a long-term

recovery group stand up in this area from business civic church leaders to

help people to give them an opportunity to come in, tell their story, and

get some help with their unmet needs.

And we not only rebuild a house or work on their house and stuff,

we, uh, also spiritual and uh.

Spiritual recovery.

We do a lot of that, you know, talk to the spiritual and emotional care.

Emotional care is pretty important because, um, a loss

like this can be devastating.

Yes.

And it can seem like help is coming to everyone but you.

And we try to be out there to help people remember that they haven't been forgotten.

Rev. James Kjorlaug: Really, a lot of the struggle is finding where can we

start, where can we, where, where can we start having some sort of impact?

Because the, the impact from the tornado itself was so massive.

It's kind of like looking at a, at a, just a crazy difficult task and trying

to figure out where's the starting point, what's the first thread that I pull

that's gonna bring the next five down?

But yeah, that was, that was probably some of the biggest challenges, trying

to figure out what, what step was next?

Uh, how could we still maintain as, as many people in our church were

going through their own challenges with their homes and, and their,

um, living spaces and situations.

How could we keep a sense of hope and still also shine the light of Christ in

the midst of the messiness around us?

It, it's been a long journey and it's still gonna be a long journey.

So even this morning I had conversation after conversation,

walking through the process of what restoring this window is gonna be.

And that is, it gets really nerdy, but I'll just give

you the timeframe right now.

But it's, they haven't, even, the bracing installed is the first step.

They still have to pull out the windows, repair the windows.

And then that bracing is designed so that it can bring the woodwork back

into plane because it's, it's bowed into the room by about eight or six inches.

And so it's all gotta be adjusted.

And that's the original woodwork to the sanctuary.

Um, it's, it's not something we wanna lose.

It's not something we wanna replace.

We want to, we want to preserve it as best as we can for, for future generations.

So that process is gonna be a good six months.

Uh, from start to finish and they're just now the, the bracings in place.

So when they pull the glass, that starts the clock of around six months worth of

work to make all that, all that happen.

Barry and Cindy Moehring: We're nowhere done.

Nowhere near, uh, done with recovery.

I can give you an example.

I'm gonna be, uh, with some folks on the west side of Decatur on Thursday

afternoon going and looking at about 25 different properties that still

require assistance, recovery assistance.

Um, we're still interacting with FEMA on a almost a daily basis in this region.

Combined, we have over a hundred million dollars in, in now outstanding,

uh, federal obligations that we're seeking in reimbursements from fema.

So that's an ongoing daily issue.

If you drive in Rogers, uh, which was the most affected urban area,

there are still lots of tarps.

There are still lots of trees down, there are still lots of damaged houses.

So recovery continues.

Um, and one of the things that's interesting is for about 99% of

the county it is over with, but that 1% that's still out there is

still hurting, uh, tremendously.

So, so recovery's not done yet, and I'm not sure when it'll be done.

Um, you know, we have in Rogers, the city of Rogers, there are

still condemned properties.

They're still, uh, demoing properties.

Um, and so there's still a lot of recovery efforts underway.

Johnna Kosnoff: My name is Johnna Kosnoff.

I'm a certified lay minister here at the church, and I also serve as.

The community development Coordinator.

The last few weeks we've been talking about mitigation, and you've heard sermons

on mitigation preparation response, and today we're gonna talk about recovery.

First, I'm gonna read some scripture to you, but will you pray with me first,

I need to settle my soul down myself.

Lord, please open our hearts and our minds by the power of your Holy Spirit.

That as these scriptures are read and your word is proclaimed, we may hear

with joy what you say to us today.

Amen.

So our first scripture today is from Luke 13, 10 through 17.

Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.

A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for 18 years.

She was bent over and couldn't stand up straight.

When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said, woman, you

are set free from your sickness.

He placed his hand on her.

And she straightened up at once and praised God.

The synagogue leader incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath,

responded there are six days during which work is permitted,

come and be healed on those days.

Not on the Sabbath day, but the Lord replied, hypocrites, don't each of you on

the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink?

Then isn't it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound

by Satan for 18 long years be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?

When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame.

But all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.

Our second passage is from Luke 18.

Jesus was telling them a parable about their need to pray

continuously and not be discouraged.

He said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God

nor respected people in that city.

There was a widow who kept coming to him asking, give me justice in

this case, against my adversary For a while, the judge refused,

but finally said to himself.

I don't fear God or respect people, but I will give this widow justice

because she keeps bothering me.

Otherwise, there will be no end to her coming here and embarrassing me.

The Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says.

Won't God provide justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night?

Will he be slow to help them?

I tell you, he will give them just as quickly, but when the human one comes,

will we find faithfulness on earth?

This is the word of God for the people of God.

Yes.

In our scriptures today, we see two examples of healing.

We also see some opportunity for recovery to begin.

It's kind of left out there, but we're gonna talk about that a little bit later.

The first one, the woman who was bent over and suffering for 18 years.

You know, at this time, people often thought that when someone was ill

or disabled or maybe bent over, that it was a result of sin, either by

themselves or by someone near them.

Now, Jesus, of course, later discredits this way of thinking, but

at this time people thought this way.

So it makes me wonder, did anyone try to help this woman?

You know, did she have access to a doctor?

Was she able to afford a doctor?

You know, was she just left alone?

In this time, we often see that it is the vulnerable and the

poor who suffered the longest.

Maybe she could have been healed before 18 years, but Jesus came

along and healed her when he saw her.

So for her though, it was the end of the world that she had known

before and now she can be fully accepted into society, look at people

eye to eye and see their facial expressions and they could see hers.

What a change that must have been for her.

I'm sure it was a, a beautiful moment, but there was also some recovery

as she adjusted to her new life.

And then the widow's quest for justice.

We don't know exactly how long.

It says a while that the widows suffered, but we do know it must have been something

and we don't know what the injustice was.

We do know it must have been heavy on her heart and heavy on her mind because

she went regularly to that judge.

She didn't have an attorney go with her, though it seems so again, you know,

was she poor and unable to afford an attorney if she would've had an attorney?

Would she have received justice earlier?

These are questions we don't have an answer to, but it's worth pondering

and wondering because we do see, again, maybe vulnerable and poor suffering a

little bit longer in their situations.

You know, we all suffered a loss when the tornadoes hit

Bentonville only 10 months ago.

Can you believe just.

10 and a half months ago, and we are all recovering in one way or

another from the losses we suffered.

And during that time, we've lost other things.

Some of us have experienced death of loved ones, loss of jobs, loss of

health, loss of relationships, and even loss of some of our community as.

You know, our world has become a little more divisive, and while each loss

means an end to the world that we knew before, it's also as we recover an

opportunity to create a new beginning when we lose something, grief is

usually our first natural response.

In the 1960s, there was a psychiatrist, Elizabeth Kubler Ross, who wrote Death and

Dying, and she kind of introduced us to the five stages of grief, denial, anger,

bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Now, this book may not have been a theological book, but it is definitely

a biblical book or supported by our Bible in the Book of Lamentations, the

Book of Job and the book of Psalms.

All carry elements born out of tragedies when Jerusalem was destroyed.

The Book of Lamentations.

As a result of that, when Job suffered, a lot of personal loss of people as well as.

Physical issues and relationships.

He cried out to God.

And then we see David crying out to God in the Psalms.

So I want you to know that denial and anger, and bargaining, and

depression and acceptance, these are all natural ways of healing.

Ways that we recover.

They're how we make sense of our losses.

And there's no right or wrong way to experience these emotions or a

definite timeline to heal from them.

But I wanna share some spiritual practices today that might help us move along

a little bit faster in our healing.

And John Wesley, our founder of Methodism, practiced many of these and

I found a few in practicing the Way a book by John Mark Comer that are small

little group of women who are doing some spiritual formation in the church.

Just read.

These, I hope, will help us recover through our grief, and as we continue

them, after we recover from our grief, they will help us just draw closer

to God and live a more peaceful life.

Or as John Wesley said, a more holy life.

The first one is honoring the Sabbath.

And you all are here or online doing that very thing.

You are present, you are praising God.

You are hearing scripture.

You are resting your bodies a little bit.

And when you leave this place, I hope you will take something from this

morning with you to kind of ponder and think upon this week and spend some

time with God, maybe going deeper.

And while you're here, you are in community with one another.

Community helps us heal and restores.

I've heard God lives in community with the Trinity, right?

Father, son, holy Spirit.

And if we are created in God's image, why wouldn't we wanna live in

community too and support one another?

It's important to be with others who share our faith.

So that we can love one another, encourage one another.

So you might wanna think about joining a Sunday school

class or start a small group.

But you also want to spend time and solitude.

So I mentioned taking something away from worship with you.

Jesus went out alone to be with God.

And it's a good example for us too.

You can take a walk through the woods or wherever and talk with God.

You can go to a room and close yourself in and be with God.

You can just be still.

And pay attention to what you are hearing.

Jesus speaks directly to us when he says in Matthew 11, come to

me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke up on you and learn from me.

For I am gentle and humble and heart, you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

So we can come to Jesus anywhere we are really, but in solitude and with prayer.

When we pray to Jesus or to God, we are sharing our hearts and trying

to listen for what God might be saying to us and wanting us to know.

And even though we don't always get the answers we want.

Prayer is still an integral part of our healing.

There are many passages in our Bible that talk about prayer saying Ask,

seek, knock, and we are invited to cast our cares upon Jesus and cry out.

Whatever's on our heart, we can ask for guidance and wisdom, and

we often get it as we're struggling and praying and asking and seeking.

But know that prayer doesn't mean you're always going to be in

control or understand every aspect of your healing and your loss.

And Lamont says that the three best prayers we can say

are one word, prayers help.

Thank you.

And wow.

Sometimes when we're in the midst of pain, we just can't muster the words to say.

So if we can just say help to God, our Holy Spirit will help us pray.

The Bible says it will intercede for us and pray for us.

So just remember those one word prayers when you don't have more to

say and lean into God's presence.

Psalm 34 reminds us that God is close to the brokenhearted and saves

those who are crushed in spirit.

I am gonna mention fasting, although I'm guessing that a lot of you don't do

this, but it's something to consider.

John Comer describes it as a way to pray with your body.

He says that as we yield our body to God, we break the power of our flesh to

control us, and we open ourselves to the power of the Holy Spirit in its place.

And sometimes it's in this yielding.

That we can experience the healing and hope that we need.

John Wesley practiced it regularly and believed that it helped us cultivate

spiritual focus and dependence on God.

Scripture, of course, is the foundation of our Christian faith.

It helps transform us to be more Christ-like.

As we read scripture, we see the character of God.

We begin to know God more deeply, and we grow deeper in our love and appreciation.

The Bible emphasizes hope and trust in God, even in the midst of grief.

It's a source of strength and comfort for us.

Deuteronomy says, be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid for the Lord.

Your God goes with you.

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

Scripture reminds us to find God in this.

The last practice I'm gonna mention is being generous.

John Wesley described it as Acts of mercy, and he advocated for these

acts of compassion and service to others for both their physical.

And spiritual needs.

He believed that genuine faith should be expressed through our

actions, and I agree with that.

I also think it's a strong part of our recovery, but sometimes that person

we need to help the most is ourselves.

You know, if you're not sleeping well or eating well, or taking care of

yourselves well, then it can be really hard to reach out and help other people.

It can be really hard to heal yourself.

If any of you are struggling with those things, I encourage you to

take some time for yourself and do what you need to to be healthy.

I also want to encourage.

So as I'm standing up here, Psalm 46 reminds us that God is

an ever present help in trouble.

But as I'm standing here, I also want you to know that sometimes we

need more than just God's presence.

We need a professional.

Counselor, um, some help here and if you are feeling like you're really

struggling through some things, I want to encourage you to get help

and do not be embarrassed about it.

You can find if you can find a good counselor to meet you where you are and

walk alongside you through your recovery.

That can be a wonderful thing and be very helpful.

Be generous with others.

Help someone else find ways to help your neighbors, especially

the vulnerable and the poor.

It shifts the focus from your own pain to the needs of others, and it helps

give you a new purpose and connection.

A few little ways you can do that is you can join us in missional prayer

here, so you can pray for others.

We meet once a week.

We pray over our community, our church, our nation, our schools, and so that's

what's meant by missional prayer.

We also have a prayer team that offers confidential prayers.

You know, if you submit a prayer, it goes to our congregational prayer

team, and you can join that and pray for one another in the congregation.

You can join our church recovery work.

Ozark Commission Project is going to be talking about ways to be involved today

to help others recover through that work.

Umcor was here with their chainsaws, right, cutting down trees right

away, helping remove debris.

You can train to be an emergency response volunteer.

With Umcor, you can train to be a long-term mission volunteer.

That can take you to different types of mission work.

You can come to Sager Brown and pack disaster relief kits with

us when we go back next time.

You can also join our Global United Methodist Agencies Work for Justice.

Our denomination offers webinars, newsletters and training on how to

have conversations about the importance of justice, and it's all rooted in

scripture and our social principles.

And then once you receive that training, you can train some of us in the

church so that we can all be better at having conversations about justice and

helping the vulnerable and the poor.

I. These practices can help us work through our denial, anger,

our bargaining, and depression to get to that stage of acceptance.

But it doesn't mean that we never experience those harder stages again.

We will move back and forth between them maybe for the rest of our lives,

depending on how deeply we lost.

It may be the end of the world as we knew it 10 months ago.

But we will be fine.

We are recovering just like Jesus healed the woman who had

been bent over for 18 years.

Jesus wants to set us free from our grief and help us recover.

And Jesus told that parable about the woman who received justice.

He said in there that God wants to provide justice for his people.

Sometimes he uses us to do it.

Psalm 1611 says, you make known to me the path of life.

In your presence.

There is fullness of joy at your right hand.

Our pleasures forevermore.

May we feel this fullness of joy as we continue in our recovery.

Amen.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the Sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you would like to let us know you were here, follow the link below to connect.

To participate in worship through giving,

you can give online at fumcbentonville.org or on Venmo @FUMCbentonville.

FUMC Bentonville welcomes all.

Because we believe the communion table is God's table, we invite

everyone into our church family.

We welcome and celebrate every race, gender, gender identity, sexual

orientation, marital status, age, physical and mental ability, national origin,

economic station, and political ideology.

We come together in action and outreach, aspiring to follow Jesus' example of

radical hospitality, love, and grace as a transformative movement in our community.

Please join us for worship on Sunday mornings at nine and 11:00 AM, both

in person, and on Facebook Live.

All are welcome and we'd love to have you with us.

Grace and peace.