March 9th, 2025 - "Mitigated Disaster: Disaster Is Coming!" - Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris

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.

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

was aired during Sunday service.

It kicks off our Lenten series, "Mitigated Disaster."

Rev. James Kjorlaug - Pastor at FUMC Rogers, Arkansas: So the actual day itself, for the

most part since the tornado happened really early in the morning, Uh,

it wasn't exactly a long day.

It was, in my experience, what a lot of people's in town was, which was emergency

alerts going off on phones, uh, had to get my kids out of their bed from

upstairs, brought them downstairs, got them in a safe place while we listened

to the wind and hail and everything beat against the house, trees falling

down all around the house, that kind of thing, all the animals in the closet.

You know, that, that was kind of the immediate experience of the storm.

We knew that there was potential for it, just as it got closer, it,

it turned into what it turned into.

Barry Moehring, Benton County Judge: We'll start with the day, because it actually

happened in the middle of the night.

Um, the day before, that Saturday, was a great day.

Uh, we were at the lake, had a great time, had a relaxing evening, and

really didn't, um, didn't think there was too much to be too concerned

about, uh, with one exception.

Here at the county, our public safety administrator, called me earlier that

day and said this storm that's coming in, I'm a little concerned about it.

I'm going to be paying attention to it.

And that was kind of the first clue I had that there might

be something more significant.

But all in all, we had a really good day on that Saturday.

We did.

It was our first day back out on the lake, Table Rock Lake, to sort of open

up lake season and it was our wedding anniversary and we had a great time.

So that night, um, you know, we turned in for the night at about normal time

and we're not really late night people and started getting some warnings,

you know, very, very early morning Sunday, very, very late Saturday.

And, uh, we knew a storm was coming in, didn't know exactly

how severe it was going to be.

Got up when the warning, first warning started coming in on, on, uh, on the

phone and saw that we were under a, uh, tornado watch, not yet a tornado warning.

And, uh, I got up and started paying attention like a lot of people do

to the, the folks on television.

Dan Scoff telling us about what weather was coming in.

And that's really how, um, that night started as we started to

go into the, the evening itself.

Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: That

song was what I was trying to sing when I had thrown down the gauntlet to God.

And I remember trying to sing words.

on Jordan's Stormy Banks.

I stand when I was really standing on some stormy banks.

And, uh, ultimately, my faith carried me through that.

Ultimately, God carried me through that.

Ultimately, God called me to ministry as a result of that.

But really powerful, taking me back to that place.

Y'all.

Thank you.

So we are in this series called Mitigated Disaster, and we're going

to be in this for the season of Lent.

We are basically looking at how our faith, how the faith that Jesus teaches us about,

will shore us up and carry us through whatever life's disasters confront us.

And so today we're going to talk about, there's this looming

possibility that disaster is coming, and how do we get ready for that?

And so to put us in that frame of mind, we're going to hear

These words from Luke chapter 4.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Jesus returned from the Jordan River, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led

by the Spirit into the wilderness.

There he was tempted for forty days by the devil.

He ate nothing during those days, and afterward, Jesus was starving.

The devil said to him, Since you are God's son, command this

stone to become a loaf of bread.

Jesus replied, It's written, People won't live only by bread.

Next, the devil led him to a high place and showed him in a single

instant all the kingdoms of the world.

The devil said, I will give you this whole domain and the

glory of all these kingdoms.

It's been entrusted to me, and I can give it to anyone I want.

Therefore, if you will worship me, it will all be yours.

Jesus answered, It's written, You will worship the Lord

your God and serve only Him.

The devil brought him into Jerusalem and stood him at the

highest point of the temple.

He said to him, Since you are a God's son, throw yourself down from here.

For it's written, He will command his angels concerning you to protect you, and

they will take you up in their hands, so that you won't hit your foot on a stone.

Jesus answered, It's been said, Don't test the Lord your God.

After finishing every temptation, The devil departed from him

until the next opportunity.

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

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray.

Lord, open our hearts, our minds, and our eyes.

that we might see and know the word you have for us this day.

In your holy name we pray.

Amen.

I have a fascination with the weather.

In fact, if you asked me if I was going to be a scientist, my first

choice as a scientist would have been to be a paleontologist or geologist.

But my second choice would have been to be a meteorologist.

I absolutely love information about weather, and I think it must drive from

The fact that when I was a year and a half old Living in Stillwater, Oklahoma,

our town got demolished by a tornado.

I think it must have imprinted on me the power of weather and

created in me this fascination.

So, I love to read stories about weather events, I love to watch

documentaries about weather events, and I love a good disaster movie.

For instance, I love the Twister movies.

Now, the thing about the Twister movies is they're working with a classic trope

of scientific knowledge versus gut, right?

And they're always putting the two against each other, like what's gonna win out the

scientific knowledge or the gut, right?

They have all this complicated machinery and they're trying to get all these

readings on the weather and then there will be that one person that just stands

in a field and maybe picks up some dirt and lets it Blow in the wind and

then goes the tornado is that way the truth of the matter is When it comes

to dealing with things like tornadoes a good storm warning system is made up of

both things It's made up of knowledge Concrete knowledge and it's made up of

gut I can tell you as a child growing up in Tornado Alley Doppler radar changed

the game It meant many more minutes of notice that a tornado was coming and

much more likelihood of surviving it.

But I can also tell you as a kid who grew up in Tornado Alley that I can step out on

some days and go this is tornado weather.

It feels different.

Both knowledge and gut are at work here with Jesus.

He has the knowledge, having studied the scriptures and knowing it deeply,

it has shaped who he is, it is who he is and can be used as a defense against

all of the words that the devil has.

But he also has gut, represented here by that supernatural

nudge of the Holy Spirit.

That's our gut, y'all.

The Holy Spirit directing our path.

And the Holy Spirit does that for Jesus here in sending Jesus out

into the wilderness and being with Jesus in the wilderness, having

him go through this temptation because bigger tests are coming.

It's sort of a training ground space.

And Jesus will need both to resist the devil, both knowledge and gut.

And he will need both to avoid disaster.

And that's really the work of a prophet.

A prophet is called to know God's story, to study it deeply, to

be shaped by the words, to, in some ways, consume the words.

And also to know God's people so deeply as to know what words

that people needs to hear.

But also, a prophet has gut in the form of God's guidance.

God's urging as to what needs to be said.

The prophet is our faith storm warning system.

It is a prophet who sounds the alarm.

When disaster is on the horizon.

And an important distinction about prophets.

Sometimes people talk about prophets as if they know the future.

It's not about fortune telling.

What is true about prophets is that they really understand God's word, God's

people, and the moment before them.

So that they can predict.

They take in the knowledge and gut and assess and say this is

the storm on the horizon, this is what we need to prepare for.

As I mentioned, we're going to be in the Gospel of Luke for this entire series.

And one of the things that's fascinating and amazing and wonderful about our

Gospels is that each one of them takes a particular emphasis in how they

understand Jesus so that all together, all four, give us a very complete picture.

So in Mark, Jesus is really emphasized as the supernatural healer.

In Matthew, Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

In John, Jesus is the Son of God.

And in Luke, Jesus is God's prophet.

So, as we make our way through Luke in this series, what we are

going to see is Jesus trying to prepare us to avoid disaster.

Or if we have to go through disaster, Jesus is trying to

shore up our faith enough that we'll be able to make it through.

Because faith does not protect us from the storm.

Faith does not keep disaster from coming.

What faith does is minimize the damage in the midst.

So, we are going to center down on that prophetic warning and

preparation that Jesus has for us.

Now, spending all this time thinking about prophets this week has caused

me to think about What prophetic word is needed in this moment?

All of us who are ordained are ordained in part to the role of prophet.

And I will say that there has been more pressure on this pulpit in the

past few years than I have ever seen.

We've been through a lot in the last few years.

So much.

We're still going through a lot.

And as I think about God's Word, and as I think about the people that you are, and

as I think about what is really needed in this space, and as I kneel before

God and pray and seek God's guidance, seek that gut nudge, I know that the

prophetic word we are to proclaim in this place is that we will love all.

We will love all.

That is what we will stand on and say over and over and over.

And we will say it in many ways, but that is the heart of who we

are called to be in this moment.

Because if we don't learn to love each other, then everything gets worse.

The storm gets worse.

The disaster piles on top of itself.

Now, does this mean we never address things that are happening in our world?

No, of course we do.

What we don't do is be pushed around by the demands of the world.

That's standing in that place of temptation.

Here are the pressures of the world.

That's what the devil puts before Jesus.

Here are the things of the world that'll push on you.

We don't have to be pushed by those things.

We can see beyond those things.

And we can do the work that needs to be done to love our neighbor.

So we will work on shoring up our faith, listening to the words of Jesus.

And then, having done that, you can think for yourselves.

How about that?

You can use what you have learned.

from Jesus to help you address anything that you're confronting in your life.

And you can act out of faith, a faith that is centered on love.

The mission of this church is to be a mission station, to equip disciples,

to go out and love those who are far from home or far from God.

That's who we are.

That's what we'll do.

And also I want to say that as I've prayed for God's guidance for that gut nudge

of what we are supposed to say in this moment, I've also very clearly been told

your people don't just need a profit.

They also need a pastor, because if there's anything I'm hearing

over and over and over from you all, it's your exhaustion.

You need a place of refuge and recovery.

You need a place to rest and re center.

We will talk about big ideas and challenging things in this place,

but hopefully at the center of it is God's peace and God's joy.

That will let you breathe deep.

Breathe deep in a world that's trying to steal your breath right now.

We need a place to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

And to hear it clearly.

And it's hard to hear the good news these days.

Because there are a whole lot of sirens going off.

A whole lot of sirens going off.

It's hard to remember that knowledge that we have of who God is and God's

story, and it's hard to hear our gut with so many sirens going off.

That tornado that I was in at age one and a half years, it

took place on Friday the 13th.

Very ominous day for a tornado.

You'd think people had been paying more attention, but they weren't because

For a week leading up to the day of the tornadoes, the sirens went off every day.

People quit paying attention

and more damage happened because the sirens quit mattering.

We saw in the video though, people who paid attention to sirens, to James, who

got his children to safety, and to Barry Mooring, who paid attention, and as

you'll see over the course of the weeks, he's our county judge, he helped, you

know, get all of the county response out.

They were paying attention, and good things will come from that.

That's what we're gonna center down on, y'all.

Learning how to hear the good news in the midst.

Let the good news be the siren.

Let the good news be the siren that causes us to jump into action.

Let our faith be the driving force.

Once we do that, we'll be able to cut through this noise.

We will hear clearly the voice of Jesus Christ, and we'll be ready

for any disaster that comes our way.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks for listening to the Sermon Podcast from First United Methodist

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