IT ONLY TAKES A SPARK
Cooke’s-Portsmouth United Church
Sept 6, 2015
Mark 7:24-37
Last Saturday I had an interment in Lillie’s Cemetery in Seeley’s Bay prior to the celebration of
life at James Reid Funeral Home. As I made my way back from the cemetery I was listening to
the CBC radio. It was the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated much of the
city of New Orleans. Brent Bambury was interviewing an American hero named John Keller, a
former marine attributed with saving the lives of 240 persons trapped in his building, the
majority of them elderly and infirm.
The situation was bad. The American Can Apartment Building – Keller's home – was under 11
feet of water, and the flood level was rising a couple inches every hour or so. There were 244
people sheltered inside the structure – 170 residents, plus 74 people from the low-income
housing projects nearby who took refuge in the five-story American Can building when their
own homes were flooded. Of this group, about half of them were over the age of 65, a quarter of
them were confined to wheelchairs, and another quarter of them were sketchy dudes from the
projects who couldn't really be trusted. His people desperately needed oxygen, insulin, and other
medications, not to mention basic food and water. As the most charismatic, imposing,
resourceful man in the entire building, they all looked to Keller for support and guidance, and he
knew the people there wouldn’t make it through this disaster without his help. He wasn't about
to abandon them.
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John Keller's first step was to collect all the guns in the building and organize a group of people
who would defend the building against marauding bands of armed looters. His chief concern
was with the restaurant located on the ground floor of the building – the walk-in freezer there
was still operational, and since all of their perishables were housed there it needed to guarded at
all times – and on more than one occasion John Keller needed to kick his Marine Corps training
into high gear to fight off bands of guys trying to steal from his food supply. Then he painted
requests for aid on the roof by cracking open a fire extinguisher and using the powder to scrawl
notes that could be seen by passing aid helicopters.
Still, despite mentioning that he needed food and water for 200+ residents, there were no supply
drops for 4 days. If Keller wanted to keep his people alive, he needed to resort to drastic
measures.
With medical supplies and food dwindling, and resupply looking further and further like a pipe
dream, John Keller swam to the grocery store, tied together nine coolers filled with food,
charcoal and supplies, swam back with the stocked coolers strapped to his back, set up a couple
charcoal grills, and cooked food for everyone there. Then he collected all the prescription bottles
from his tenants, broke out his kayak, and paddled 7 hours through ultra-deadly waters filled
with unseen dangers to get to the local hospital and have the prescriptions filled. The hospital
told him there was nothing they could do. When he heard that, he paddled over to the US
military aid station and tried to sweet-talk a Blackhawk crew chief into coming and taking a look
at the situation for himself, but that didn't work out either. Orders were orders.
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He tried his best to keep his tenants optimistic and hopeful, routinely telling them that help was
on the way even though he knew it wasn't. It was becoming painfully obvious that the only way
to keep his people alive was to get them out of the disaster area as soon as possible.
Unable to get the attention of the National Guard, on the fifth day John Keller started picking up
all the old people in wheelchairs, carrying them up five flights of stairs to the roof, and then
setting them out there so the Guard could see exactly what was going on. That did the trick –
once he started putting old folks in wheelchairs up there, the Army started dropping medicine,
food, and potable water. Keller got the crew chief's attention, convinced him the urgency of the
situation, organized a complete helicopter evacuation, carried 70 disabled and elderly people up
to the roof for evacuation, and then learned that the roof was set at such a weird angle that it was
impossible to land a chopper there, and that a helicopter evacuation would be impossible
This, still failed to stop John Keller from saving the lives of all 244 people under his control. He
swam over to a nearby home, hotwired a speedboat, and spent 12 hours ferrying every single
person in the apartment complex to a staging area so they could be airlifted to safety. When he
ran out of gas, he siphoned it out of cars and other boats. When he got tired, he fought through
it.
Thanks to his fearless efforts and unlimited resourcefulness, John Keller saved 244 people from
what would probably have amounted to certain death. He did it not because he had to, or
because it was his job, but because he felt an obligation to help those in need – and nothing was
going to stop him from keeping his people safe.
"It sure wasn't for money. It wasn't for recognition.
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It wasn't to be a hero. What made me stay was the old people.
I just realized that nobody else in here could have gotten those people out.
They would have sat in here for five more days.
And they didn't have five more days." For all of his heroic effort as the interview was ending this
strapping six foot three 250 pound former marine was in tears. He said, “I did a lot of things in
Desert Storm that I am not proud of. I am just trying to get back into heaven.”
I was deeply touched and moved by the tenacity, resourcefulness and the humility of one who
refused to give up even under extreme circumstances. Like the heroes and heroines of the gospel
this morning, he too was motivated by something outside of himself and he is a living legacy that
reminds that desperate times demand desperate measures. Like the unnamed woman in the first
healing story and the unnamed friends in the second, people sometimes need to advocate and act
for those who cannot do so for themselves.
Friends and devoted mothers advocate on behalf of another. Neither the possessed child nor the
deaf mute could do so on their own. They needed someone to act for them, and out of
desperation and a heartfelt faith in Jesus they asked for his help. In the first story we are rather
taken aback by the seeming callousness in Jesus.
We expect him to always act to make a difference for anyone in need, regardless of their creed or
race. And yet this Jesus is harsh, impatient and seemingly exasperated by one more request. But
equally as tenacious is the desperate mother who was able to rise above insult and demand to be
treated with fairness. She reminds Jesus that his mission is not to a select few. God’s love
expands beyond perceived borders. Rather than scolding her for her brashness and shunning her
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for not adhering to the strict mores of the day about a woman approaching a man, Jesus does for
her what she wants.
In the latter example he sighs before pronouncing the healing words, but still he acts to open the
ears and unstop the tongue. And Jesus acted when called upon to do so by concerned family and
friends who want only the best for those whom they love. It only takes a spark to ignite a fire.
In Montgomery Alabama on December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks got on a bus that had restricted
seating for whites and blacks. When white passengers got on she and three other persons of
colour were told to move further back in the bus and to stand if necessary to allow whites a seat.
Rosa Parks refused.
In her autobiography, My Story she said:
People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not
tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old,
although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired
I was, was tired of giving in.
When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. As the officer took her
away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?" She remembered him saying,
"I don't know, but the law's the law, and you're under arrest. She later said, "I only knew that, as I
was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this
kind. Her refusal to collude with outdated and prejudicial laws sparked the bus boycott and
helped to advance the issue of civil rights.
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The challenges faced by persons of colour and refugees have not all been addressed; racial strife
and bigotry are still rife throughout the world. But we continue to live in hope and do what we
can to advance justice and equality for all.
There are still some that are perceived to be “dogs” in contemporary society: the homeless; the
mentally ill, some members of First Nations; persons who wear a niqab, burka, hijab or turban.
People in need of tolerance, patience and understanding and at the very least this is available to
us to give. And we should be accommodating not to make a name for ourselves; not for fame or
fortune but because to do so is to live the tenets of the gospel and to reflect the light of God’s
grace. It only takes a spark to ignite a fire. May God grace us with vision, inspiration, strength
and courage in the living of our faith. Amen,.
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