In 587 BC, the nation of Israel suffered a devastating event: the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem and the resulting exile. It was a catastrophe for their society. For fifty years, the people of Israel languished in exile until they were allowed to return by King Cyrus of Persia in 537 (or so) BC. They returned humbled, battered, and significantly fewer in number; the first thing they did was to rebuild the altar that the Babylonians had destroyed when they destroyed Solomon’s Temple. Fifty years of exile taught the Israelites to return to their first Love, the God who delivered them from the Egyptians and who gave them the Promised Land — the God who promised they would return. This is the way our parish should come back. In five or ten years, I would like for us to believe that, as horrible as the hurricane was, this was the time when Saint Thomas’ Episcopal Church re-focused itself around the Gospel. This was the time when we made the Main Thing the Main Thing and the time when God honored that…
