March 16th, 2025 - "Mitigated Disaster: Mitigation" - Rev. Dr. T. Ray Wheeler

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 FU mc bentonville.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 Kelly Lee: We can reuse and recycle.

We can turn off lights, we can get a more efficient car.

We can do all the things that are necessary for that.

We can vote in the way that helps those things happen.

But mitigation, trying to do what you can.

Sad as it sounds, some houses need to get rid of the big trees

that are around their homes.

Uh, if you can look at a tree and you know that if a tornado came, it would

land on your house, in your house.

The tree probably needs to come down and if the shade is nice in the summer, but

it's not really worth it in the long run, so each home can do an assessment of what

they could do to try to make the next disaster less impactful for your family.

Connie and Brad Anderson: One of the things that we have consistently

highlighted is you can tell that the facility that that the church,

that this physical space has been so diligently taken care of.

Because of how light the damage was.

I mean, that was devastating to find, don't get me wrong.

The, the stain glass window was devastating to find, but it, it could

have been worse if, if 20 something years ago when they restored all these windows,

they hadn't have put in storm glass.

It would've been all in this room.

It, it just would've been pieces everywhere.

And, and now we're talking what, what the restoration looks like.

Our faith has sustained us, uh, in many, many ways.

Uh, so many people showing up and it just shows us that that's

the hands and feet of God.

Everywhere we turn, we had the safety net under us that we

didn't even know we really had.

And then when we needed something, the safety net was there and

everybody just kicked into action.

We had a former pastor one time, um, that said something

that I've always remembered.

Everything that happens is not the will of God, but the will of God is in.

Everything that happens.

We have seen that over and over since all this has happened, and for that

we are very, very grateful and very, very thankful in so many different

ways in so many different people.

The help, the outpouring of love was overwhelming.

Adam and Rebecca Kingree: So how has our faith sustained

us on a journey of recovery?

I think there's.

Yeah, there's a lot and I think there's gonna be a lot.

I mean, it's still honestly a pretty recent experience, right?

And so I think that there's gonna be a lot of lessons that we take that maybe.

Take some time over the years.

Right.

But I think for me, um, one of the first things was, you know, our whole area

was obviously impacted and I, I always, Rebecca would remind me, like I would

be almost hesitant to accept support.

I know the church was reaching out to help us and I was like, well, there's.

There is a lot of people, especially in Rogers, who were much more impacted

than us, who had total losses.

And so part of me was apprehensive to accept help in a way.

Um, but I think that looking back, that really sells short.

I think from a faith perspective, the abundance of God's love, um, there's no

limit on what, what God's level will give.

God's level will give you the people that reached out.

And so for me it was really accepting love and that's okay to do.

And then second, I would say, um, just how fragile everything is.

It's a, I know anybody who's been through a traumatic experience can probably

understand that, but it's really, you understand how fragile everything.

Like right now I'm looking at these trees and I'm thinking When the

wind blows too hard, I can easily see something happening again.

But I think once you understand how fragile everything is in life, you can

look at it as a. Negatively afraid.

But it also, I think, helps you understand the beauty of what you have right here,

right now, and to really experience that as deeply as you can in the moment.

And I think for me, it's embracing the fragility of life that there is,

and to really just appreciate every single moment of every day of what you

have and to really grow a gratitude.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: I love that sentiment of paying attention to what's

beautiful about everyday life and recognizing the fragility in the midst

of it, but finding hope in that as well.

That's a powerful, powerful statement of faith.

We are in this series for lt, in which we're looking at what's

called mitigated disaster.

And just to frame you up, we didn't actually introduce this section of the

series, but over the next four weeks we're gonna be looking at FEMA and

other disaster response organizations.

Kind of how they understand how disaster unfolds.

And so today Ray's gonna be talking about mitigation.

Next week we will talk about preparation.

The following week we'll talk about response after a disaster has occurred,

and then we'll talk about recovery, the kind of long haul work that has to

happen on the other side of the disaster before we get into Holy Week, which is,

you know, a faith disaster all its own.

So have that kind of frame in mind as we're going through the next few weeks.

Rev. Dr. T. Ray Wheeler: So our scripture lesson is from the

Gospel of Luke, chapter six.

It's verses 46 through 49, and I invite you to listen for the word of God

contained in these holy scriptures.

Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and don't do what I say.

I'll show you what it's like when someone comes to me, here's my

words, and puts them into practice.

It's like a person building a house by digging deep and laying the foundation

on bedrock When the flood came and the rising water smashed against that

house, but the water couldn't shake the house 'cause it was well built.

But those who don't put into practice what they hear are like a person who

built a house without a foundation.

The flood water smashed against it and it collapsed instantly

and it was completely destroyed.

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

Thanks be to God.

I would love it if you'd join me in just a moment of prayer this morning

before we get into our message.

And if you feel comfortable, just, uh, close your eyes and let's

take a few cleansing breaths and focus our mind on the presence

of the Holy Spirit in this place.

Holy and merciful God, break your word like bread for your children this morning.

And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts

be acceptable in your sight.

Amen.

So when I read this scripture, there are two things that just leaped instantly to

my mind, and one of 'em is the children's song that we always sing at BBS.

And it's that song, the Wise Man built his house upon the Rock.

Well, you all know that one, right?

And you get so the children love that song.

They have a lot of movements and it's so great.

But mainly when we get to the Foolish Man built his house up

on the sand, we get to sing, and the house on the sand went splat.

And they loved that.

They adore that splatting sound.

And I do too.

It's kind of fun.

So the second thing that comes to mind for me personally is my

wife and I like to vacation at the beach, and we usually rent an Airbnb

that's really close to the beach, as close to the beach as we can get.

And the last one we stayed at.

It was really built so well.

The walls were about two feet thick and probably made of concrete.

It was very sturdy, and the main thing I remember is the patio door.

The glass patio door was very heavy and it kinda had a locking mechanism that

shot a rod into the ceiling and into the floor, and I thought, man, you could

have that patio door on a submarine.

It probably wouldn't leak.

It was so well built.

So that house was built to withstand powerful winds and rain and still

be standing at the end of the storm.

So the theme, as Pastor Michelle said for this Sunday, is mitigation,

preparing, how do I hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

And what I think will be dealing with today is how deep is our faith?

Is our faith dug out and put on a bedrock?

Do we have a foundational faith?

That will carry us through the storms of our life.

So Jesus in this passage sharpens that point more when he says,

why do you proclaim me as Lord, Lord, but then ignore my message?

Good question.

This passage in Luke comes at the end of a famous sermon Jesus gives.

Luke says, on a level place, and it's similar to the sermon that you probably

have heard of the Sermon on the Mount.

And some scholars called this and Luke, the sermon on the plane.

So what I wanna do is kind of look at this sermon on the plane because this scripture

when Jesus says, why do you call me Lord, Lord and don't listen to what I say?

He says a lot of things in the sermon on the plane.

I think we can kind of examine that and see what is Christ talking about there.

So I always thought when I was reading the different gospels.

Okay.

Matthew must have been talking to some different people and, and Luke,

you know, he doesn't always agree exactly, but I read a book recently

about Jesus, and this scholar was saying Jesus was a traveling teacher.

He was an oral teacher.

He taught by speaking, and he did that probably because a lot of the people

he's speaking to weren't able to read.

So he was traveling and giving these speeches and he would've used

phrases and words that were real memorable so people could remember.

And it's likely that the sayings we read in the gospels were repeated by

Jesus more than once and and possibly he repeated them many times, but you

can imagine he knew his audiences, he would change them slightly.

So I think that's really what we're working with here.

Luke is working with a different time when Jesus is basically

teaching the same sermon.

So in both the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew and the sermon on the

plane in Luke, Jesus does and says many of the same things in Luke.

He heals many of the people at the beginning, and then he's instructing them

on how to live in the manner following his teachings, how to live following Christ.

And he gives us the beatitudes and he tells us to love our enemies,

and he gives us the golden rule.

So he's telling us, here's how I want you to live.

Of he tells us to be kind and merciful to sinners and our enemies because as he says

in verse 35 and 36, love your enemies.

Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return.

If you do, you'll have a great reward.

You'll be children of the most high.

For God is kind to the ungrateful and to wicked people, so be compassionate.

Just as your father is compassionate.

That's a remarkable statement.

I think I've read Luke several times and that statement never popped out at me.

Like this time, be kind to the ungrateful, the mean-spirited, and don't judge because

God is kind and compassionate to all.

And to put a cherry on top of this kindness Sunday very next

word in the sermon is don't judge.

Do not judge lest you be judged.

So what does all this mean for us today?

Him.

Jesus is obviously not talking about building houses with fire resistant

shingles or double pane windows.

He's talking about us.

He's talking about our lives, about building strong faith.

Jesus is telling us, don't just confess Jesus' Lord with your lips,

but also do what I'm asking you to do.

So how do we prepare spiritually then to weather those storms of life,

the difficult and the dark places?

How do we build a S firm foundation on faith?

So based on what Jesus has said to us and how we move through

the world, we can think of a few things we can do to emulate Christ.

So I believe the first thing we do building our faith is to

cultivate a strong prayer life.

That's easier to say than it is to do, believe me.

One of the questions that always comes up when I'm in meetings with

other United Methodist pastors, after we get pleasantries out of the

way, some in the middle invariably say, how's your prayer life going?

What are you doing to feed your soul as you're doing this Walk with Christ?

So one thing I can think of is to be aware that God is always with us and to kind of

whisper some prayers throughout the day.

Not necessarily fall on our knees 12 times a day, but.

Be aware God is there and whisper these prayers to God.

Years ago I read a, a strange little book by Paul S. Williams

called Dos Intergy, and it was kinda like a poem, a book of poetry.

So lots of pages just had one line and you turn the page and you had

another line and one page, I'll never forget this, I turned the page.

It says, beware of God.

Turned the page.

And the next page said, and by beware, I mean be aware.

Being aware of God throughout the day is a way to think of this in a way of

acknowledging that God is always present.

I also believe it's, it's very good for us if we can, to set aside time

dedicated to speaking to God and to listening for God, including time

to be quiet and still before God.

And that's not always easy either, especially for preachers or including

preachers, especially for everyone.

We get busy and we forget.

I can't tell you the number of times I've been really busy around here and I've

been doing things, and I get to the end of the day and I think I forgot something.

What did I forget?

Oh, I didn't pray today.

So we know the prayer is important to Jesus.

Of course, he prayed often and just before Jesus comes and preaches the

sermon on the plane, Luke tells us Jesus spent the night in prayer to God.

It was his example that we can follow there.

A second way of building a firm foundation is one you all are doing right now.

We need to find community, seek places where you can support

others and others can support you.

And I would also suggest finding a small group.

I admit I used to think, oh, that's just a waste of time.

Why do we need small groups?

And then I got involved in a small group and I said, this is so meaningful.

It's so meaningful to meet with a few people and to talk

about your spiritual walk.

And so you can do that in a Sunday school class.

A lot of you I know are very committed to Sunday school and Bible studies and

book studies, but you can also just form a small group based on what John Wesley,

our founder, called a class meeting.

John Wesley would get people together.

He would get about 12 people together, and he would say, there's

two questions you need to ask.

How is it with your soul?

And where have you seen God this week?

And that's a very meaningful way to have a small group experience.

Again, we see this more from what Jesus did at this time than what he says,

because right after he prays all night to God, he calls his disciples together.

And he names his 12 apostles in Luke.

So that's a pretty good small group.

So after this, Jesus starts preaching the sermon on the plane.

And just like the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus starts with the beatitudes.

And I wanna think a minute about these beatitudes and how

they're framed here in Luke.

Luke often casts things in contrast, sometimes paradoxically contrasting.

And so the writer of Luke gives us the blessed list first.

And then being Luke, he gives us the woe to list.

So Jesus says, blessed are you who are poor.

For yours is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry for you.

Be filled.

Blessed are you who weep for you will laugh.

And blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude

you and revile you, and defame you on account of the son of man.

But then Luke gives us the woe to list Woe to you who are rich for

you have received your consolation.

Woe to you who are full now for you'll be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now for you will weep and woe to you when all speak

well of you for that is what their ancestors did for the false prophets.

So I believe what Jesus is saying here is He's trying to tell us who's

important in this kingdom of God.

Who should we be thinking about?

And not surprisingly, it's not the rich and powerful.

And then Jesus says that beautiful.

Love your enemies and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

At the close of this section, we hear that remarkable scripture I referenced

early God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people be compassionate just

as your father is compassionate.

So I think that's an important way to prepare our house for disaster.

I believe what Jesus is saying is we need to keep our hearts tender

and make room for compassion.

And I kind of think another word to describe what Jesus

is talking about is empathy.

So what I think is the way to be strong, paradoxically, is to open our hearts

to compassion and to cultivate empathy.

So how do we weather the storms and the disasters that we all inevitably face?

I believe it is to soften our hearts and show the compassion of the heavenly

Father to the poor and to the hungry.

And to the grateful and even to the wicked, we should affirm Jesus' Lord.

And then we should follow the example of the teachings of the Living Christ.

Glory be to God.

I'm in.

Matt Nelson: Thanks

for listening to the Sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

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Grace in peace.