It takes some time to get all the cylinders firing. All the synapses in my brain feel just a bit groggy, just a little sluggish. I was surprised, then, to receive a telephone call from a local newspaper, inquiring about any efforts we might be making to help the victims of the tsunami. I paused, because all we’re really doing is encouraging people to give to the ELCA’s Disaster Response Fund. I think that’s an important response, but we aren’t having bake sales or anything. We’re calling upon each person to give generously.

The caller then asked if I could give a quote about why a response is important.

I paused. Many thoughts came to mind. I tried to say that it’s important for people of faith to respond because they are people in need, desperately clinging to life. We are connected to them, and in responding, we can be the face of Christ. It wasn’t great; certainly not the stuff great quotes are made of. Nor was it exactly what I meant.

And so I will try again: we are called to respond because they have been through a disaster of such proportion that we truly cannot comprehend it. We are called to reach out, to give, so that through our gifts others will be able to help directly, and in so doing, they will incarnate God’s healing presence. We are called to reach out because, in their suffering, they are the face of Christ to us.

Also, while many people have come to fear “Muslims”, through this disaster we are able to recognize them as fellow human beings. We feel the ache of parents losing their children, children losing their parents, and family members being forced to leave others – we feel that ache deep in our guts. We can glimpse that for such people, the destruction of home and property is insignificant. The disaster is most profound in their hearts.

We can understand this. We can recognize that these are people, people suffering. Regardless of the color of their skin, the name of their religion, the wealth they do or do not have, they are people. And we grieve with them.

That is why it is important to give, why it is important to respond.

And maybe, just maybe, by opening our hearts to these particular people in their suffering, we’ll see all people differently. Maybe we’ll live this new year a little differently. Maybe.