Praying for Louisiana

Two short weeks ago, I was in New Orleans for the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod Assembly. I talked with old friends, colleagues, and strangers about the slow recovery that not just New Orleans, but all of Louisiana has faced in the years since Katrina.


Now, there is a massive oil slick heading for the Louisiana coastline. How will the fishing industry - essential to the area's survival - recover from this disaster? Can you imagine getting the oil out of the bayous and backwaters of the state? And the tourism industry -- Anyone want to take a summer vacation on the beaches of Louisiana this year?

My heart breaks for the people of Louisiana - those whose livelihoods will be directly and indirectly affected by this, the families of those who lost their lives in the rig explosion, those who barely got their feet back under them after being knocked down by Katrina.

And I wonder, is this what God had in the mind in the garden when we were commanded to be stewards of God's creation? Often, the line between our careless stewardship and its effects is blurry and unclear - but here it is pretty unmistakeable. It is our unquenchable thirst for oil - cheap, plentiful, convenient oil - that put the rig in the Gulf. In the days to come, we will, undoubtedly, blame the company - the big greedy company who took safety shortcuts in the name of a profit. But it was not the company who continued to purchase gas-guzzling cars and trucks when fuel-efficient alternatives were available; they did not produce the demand, they just responded to it. They were not the ones - on bumper stickers and from political stumps - yelling "Drill here, Drill now."

No, my friends, the blame is ours - yours and mine. In many ways, we have all ignored God's call for us to be stewards and guardians of this world that has been entrusted to us. And this is what our sin looks like - a black, slimy, sludge, creeping across the beauty of creation. Kyrie Eleison.

Satellite images from NASA of the oil slick approaching
the edge of the Mississippi Delta, taken 4/29/10