Rise & Shine - October 15

Communication is key in our everyday lives. Communication is key in our prayer lives. How can we keep listening when, sometimes, God seems so silent?

The Rise and Shine discussion group meets Sunday mornings at 9:00 am in the Parlor. Adults from the 8:00 & 10:00 services gather for discussions that are relevant to their lives through the lens of a current topic and scriptural references. This week's story can be read or downloaded below.

Destruction of Communication Infrastructure Hinders Recovery in Puerto Rico

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In the News

When Puerto Rico was struck by hurricanes Irma and Maria during September the island was devastated. So far, the death toll stands at 34, but officials fear that figure may well rise as many of the more than 3.4 million U.S. citizens in the territory struggle to cope with lack of water, food, power, fuel, shelter and essential medical care.

Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said normal telecom infrastructure throughout the 78 municipalities was pummeled by the hurricanes, hampering coordination of damage assessment and emergency response teams. Nearly 100 percent of cell towers were still not operational last Saturday.

The authorities are seeking alternate, sometimes old-school methods of communication, such as equipping cars and helicopters with loudspeakers, sending runners to deliver messages by hand and in person, securing satellite phones, relying on word-of-mouth, and using short-wave radio.

"Cell, internet, TV, landline -- everything was down," Mikol Hoffman, a San Juan business consultant, said. "For literally days, the only form of communication for 90 percent of the island was a single radio station, WAPA, that was broadcasting nonstop, 24 hours."

The station relayed messages from residents to loved ones they were unable to contact directly as well as requests for assistance.

Others used whatever they had to help others in whatever way they could. Zuania Capó and her husband drove to and from remote areas, volunteering to use their working cell phone to relay messages to people for residents who didn't have a connection.

Rosselló acknowledged that some residents may not access the help they need simply because they are not receiving information due to the breakdown of communication.

But the loss of routine methods of communication wasn't all bad. "I met my neighbors for the first time," Hoffman said. "I met more neighbors in two days than I have in two years."

Communication was hampered not only by physical barriers such as roads blocked by fallen trees and debris left by the hurricanes, but also by comments some officials made that others perceived as tone-deaf at best and callous at worst.

On Thursday September. 28, acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke called the federal response "a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people and the limited number of deaths that have taken place in such a devastating hurricane."

Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz, shot back: "This is… damn it. This is not a good news story. This is a 'people are dying' story. This is a 'life-or-death' story."

Kathleen Blanco, who was governor of Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, reflected on what she learned from that experience: "When people are in pain because of a disaster, leaders need to acknowledge that pain. Don't take it personally. It's not personal, it's pain. Acknowledge the pain, but try to get the resources there."

Mayor Cruz said one man pleaded with her: "Tell the world we're here."

"If anyone can hear us," she told reporters last Friday, "Help." Her eyes welled with tears. "People are dying in this country. I am begging, begging anyone that can hear us, to save us from dying."

Communication is key in our everyday lives. Communication is key in our prayer lives. How can we keep listening when, sometimes, God seems so silent?

More on this story can be found at these links:

Radio, Word of Mouth, and the Fleeting Cell Signal: How Puerto Rico Struggled to Communicate After Hurricane Maria. New York Magazine
Puerto Rico Governor Blames Communication Problems for Slow Relief Efforts. Mother Jones
As Puerto Rico Struggles to Recover from Hurricane Maria, US Rushes in Military Assets. nola.com
Lack of Communication Endangers the Lives of People in Puerto Rico. Metro USA
Officials Describe "Apocalyptic" Conditions in Puerto Rico, Where Residents Lack Water, Electricity, Communication.KTLA.com

Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:

Acts 2:4-8
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?" (For context, read 2:1-13.)

After Jesus ascended into heaven, his followers waited in Jerusalem for the Spirit he promised to send them (John 16:7, 13). On the day of Pentecost, the promise was fulfilled. One of the signs of the Spirit was that the believers were granted the ability to speak in various languages "about God's deeds of power" (v. 11).

It is worth noting that the Spirit does not remove the distinctive languages put into place in Genesis 11. Even so, the communication barriers those languages had presented before no longer divide the people, who all hear the same good news in their respective dialects.

Questions: How does the work of the Holy Spirit overcome miscommunication and misunderstanding that separate and divide people? When have you seen the Spirit overcome communication barriers in your own experience?

Matthew 27:45-46
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (For context, read 27:38-50.)

Perhaps the most heartbreaking breakdown in communications in the Bible comes in the crucifixion story, when Jesus, quoting Psalm 22, cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Jesus knew very well what it felt like to have communications cut off. This he endured for the joy of restoring the broken lines of communication between God and humanity.

Isaiah 59:1-2 tells us:

See, the LORD's hand is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.
Rather, your iniquities have been barriers
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear.

By taking our sin upon himself (Isaiah 53:5-6) and becoming sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21), he removed the barriers that stood between us and God, so that we might be made right with God.

Questions: When have you felt distant from God, as if your prayers hit the ceiling and go no further? When have you longed to hear God's voice, only to experience what seemed like an eternal silence from God? What do you imagine it was like for Jesus, who had never been separated from his Father before, to feel forsaken by God? What does it mean to you to know he endured that separation from God with you and for you?

Ephesians 4:29, 31-32
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. … Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. (For context, read 4:25-32; see also Colossians 4:5-6.)

In addition to the logistical problems presented by the loss of communication infrastructure in Puerto Rico, people have struggled with how to express their honest feelings about the crisis in ways that did not cause more pain and misunderstanding.

Paul counsels the Ephesians to endeavor always to speak truthfully and graciously to others, treating them as "neighbors" and as "members of one another" (v. 25).

His words echo Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan, who was a neighbor who showed mercy to the injured man by caring more for his needs than he did for his own (Luke 10:29-37). The reference to "members of one another" recalls Paul's use of the metaphor of the different parts of the body that care for each other, to represent members of the church who care for other members who are different from themselves (Romans 12:4-5).

Questions: If you were a victim of a natural disaster, or suffering for some other reason, what kind of message would you want to hear? What words would give you grace? How do you hear God in the disasters of your own life??

A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis (BCP p.833)

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is
hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where
there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where
there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where
there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to
be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is
in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we
are born to eternal life. Amen.