garbage dump

Two weeks ago, I returned from a mission trip to the gulf coast region with a new appreciation for what I have and what "really" matters. It was amazing to look at the piles of garbage and imagine that anything had been done since Katrina hit seven months earlier. There seemed to be an endless pile of rubbish as we entered the New Orleans area and finally St. Bernard parish---stop lights out, signs broken, people living in condemned homes. The people left behind were, for the most part, those who because of insurance problems or limited resources were stuck with what was left of their homes and lives and making due. It will take years to clean up, and that's if they don't get hit again.
Today as I reflect on those garbage piles, I am reminded of another garbage dump called, "Golgotha." The mound on which Jesus was crucified was not just a hill, it was a garbage dump at the edge of the city where the poor sifted through garbage for food and wares that could be cleaned and hawked in the market--they were people without resources or recourse. Jesus made his stand in this unlikely place against the powers of the Temple and Rome in clear solidarity with those who had sinned, taken ill, were worn out or just plain poor.
Those garbage piles were the leftovers of a possession-infested culture that was losing sight of the orphan and the widow, of what really mattered. Jesus came, to remind us that people matter to God. If people matter to God, then we matter to God. If people matter to God, then people must matter to us.
As we wind our way through holy week, taking the last few steps toward Golgotha with Jesus, I pray we will lift our eyes to the hills--hills of garbage and marginalized ones, hills of possession and misplaced values, hills of suffering and sacrifice, hills of mercy and love.
Jesus lived and died, so that we might live a lives that matter to God and others, approach death with dignity and hope.
I pray that the garbage piles of Louisiana and Mississippi will continue to haunt us--reminding us at the deepest level of what matters and pressing us to work daily in the cause of hurting people. Jesus reminds us that to help others is to help him. To bring hope to others, brings hope to him. Helping others proves our love for him. If Jesus could climb the garbage pile to prove God's love for us, shouldn't we return the favor?
p lou