Freedom

     The Scripture this week was Luke 17: 7-10. The question was how is this Scripture about freedom?

     This Scripture is about what the Master expects of His servants. Masters don't sit down with their servants when they come in. Masters expect their servants to serve them. They don't thank them either. So Jesus tells His disciples that when they have done everything they have been told to do they should say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty."

Now perhaps we should back up a verse or two.  The parable of Lazarus and the rich man precedes these verses. It is a cautionary tale of serving the poorest of the poor, being present to those around us. Then Jesus warns about the ones through which sin comes to children or those new to the faith. The disciples have asked Jesus to increase their faith. He tells them how little faith it takes to move mountains, faith the size of a mustard seed. Then he tells them about their role as servants and unworthy servants at that and how they should look upon the wonders of what their faith can produce.

What does this have to do with freedom? The congregation had lots of answers from knowing what you are supposed to do and doing it to being aware of our role as a servant. Brian confirmed those to be true, but I have a feeling it is more, much more.

Brian began the sermon asking have we ever wondered why news stories are about Christians who find a lot of money and turning it in is considered news. It should be the Christians who don't turn it in that is news. Then he quoted a chaplain of the Senate who said that Christianity began in Palestine as a fellowship. Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy. Then it moved to Italy and became an institution. Then to Europe and became a culture. Then Christianity came to the United States and became an enterprise. That is a provocative description of Christianity, especially in the United States, but something about it rings too true.

Someone mentioned that we shouldn't expect a reward for what we do. Brian said we certainly should not expect anything we do to be as worthy of praise as what God has done for us. Would we be Christians if there were no rewards?

So how many of us do what we do for God without thought of anything but a relationship deepening with Him through loving and serving other people? Does that free us from trying to please? Does that free us from thinking we have been anything but unworthy servants? Does that free us to bring about His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven because we recognize our brokenness, our lack of faith, our inability to do anything worthy of the Grace that God has given us, yet we can't help but act as His Body on earth because it is the only way we can be fulfilled? He made us for Him. He is the Hound of Heaven bringing us to Him. We realize that being His Hands and His Feet completes us and allows us to rest in His love.

Engaging

This week at Haywood was full of abundance, abundant flowers, abundant shared blessings, abundant joy at having Shannon back, and abundant gratitude for Brian’s recognition at Emory University. Trader Joe’s, the newest grocery in Asheville, has blessed Haywood Street Congregation for the last two weeks with buckets of fresh flowers. I hope the managers at Trader Joe’s were around to see the excitement of the congregants as they took bouquets of flowers with them to their homes and camps. There is just something about fresh flowers that brings such a boost to spirits. As we head into the cold months, I hope the remembrance of this gift will warm hearts. “Remember the lilies” will be our motto for the winter.

All of us were so glad to have Brian back from Emory after receiving an Alumni Award from the Candler School of Theology. Through him, all of us received note and that is very important for so many reasons.  Also, Shannon Spencer, who has been on maternity leave, was back in the middle of the Holy Chaos at the Welcome Table. Her consistent concern, care, and enthusiasm have been missed and everyone was thrilled to have her back.

Two among us had prayers fulfilled. One of us had a dog that needed a new home due to the owner’s illness. Her dog found that home with one of our Companions. Another Companion shared his happiness at having just signed a contract for a home. He is a success story of persistence in the face of difficulty. Who could help but return his smile?

Now in the midst of all this good stuff there was a note of sadness. Manna, who supplies much of the Welcome Table’s food during the winter months and some of it year round, has been notified that because of the government shutdown it will not be receiving its funding for food. This will affect Haywood Street, but many other agencies and churches who are supported by Manna will be affected. We are especially grateful at Haywood Street for the restaurants that are providing food for meals for the Welcome Table, for Trader Joe’s that is giving us their unsold fresh groceries, and for Dough, a new restaurant on Merrimon Avenue, who gives their unsold bread to Manna. Many churches continue to support Haywood either part of a meal or a whole meal. We thank them also.

That has led me to ask many questions about the place of government and churches in helping people. Jesus was clear throughout the Gospels. The poor, the sick, the hungry, the widows, the orphans, the imprisoned, and children, in general, were deeply and intrinsically connected to Him. When we do for them, we do for Him. I used to think that if there were enough people who were doing well, the “trickle down” theory would work and the less fortunate would be cared for, but that has been proven wrong in such a big way that it is more than obvious. Sinful human nature has won over Grace.

I believe that those of us that want to meet the living Lord do so when we look into the eyes of the suffering and we become God’s arms and legs and bodies to serve them. Now some of my fundamentalist friends would say that we deny the connection between God and His blessings when they come through the government. I have come to believe something very different. In order for me to live my faith with integrity, I have to support caring for the sick, the children, the widows, the poor, and the imprisoned in all ways that I can. Therefore I must support a government that makes healthcare available to all, feeds those who are unable to feed themselves, and educates all children regardless of who they are or where they live. In a democracy it means I vote for people who share my concerns for those people, actually who share my concerns for all people. What I have just written is simplistic, but Jesus doesn’t put any “if they are deserving” on any of his blessings because all are loved in His eyes.

Our Scripture this Wednesday was the parable of Lazarus and the rich man found in Luke 16. Jesus makes clear His point. Brian asked, “Why is the rich man in Hades?”

The rich man is in Hades because he didn’t engage with Lazarus who laid suffering at his gate. He is there because the rich man has made a chasm between himself and Lazarus, a chasm of his own making because he didn’t want to engage with him until the rich man needed something from Lazarus. He first wants Lazarus to drip cool water on his tongue and then he wants him to be his errand boy to tell his brothers about what has happened to him. It is interesting that the rich man did know Lazarus’ name even though he had done nothing for him in his lifetime. If you want to understand more about the chasm, you might enjoy reading C. S. Lewis’s THE GREAT DIVORCE.

Jesus even explains why the rich man will not be helped. He has Abraham remind him of the chasm which no one can breach in either direction, but Abraham tells the rich man that he had a good life while Lazarus suffered so now Lazarus is with Abraham and no longer suffers. Abraham also tells the rich man that even if he sent someone from the dead, the brothers would not believe him. The rich man himself didn’t know he needed forgiveness for his acts of omission.

It is another cautionary tale, but not one about the attributes of heaven and hell. Instead it is a continuation of Jesus’ explanation of the attributes of the values in God’s Kingdom.

What are some of the things we must ask ourselves? Are we engaging with those who need help? Do we not only acknowledge that we need forgiveness, but do we act in such a way as to show that acknowledgement? More importantly, however, are we really neglecting to engage with Jesus when we don’t accept that forgiveness and act in love and with integrity?

Children of the Light and Children of this Age

The Scripture this week at Haywood Street’s service was Luke 16:1-13. It is the parable of the shrewd manager. As Brian Combs said in his introduction to the sermon exchanges, most ministers either don’t preach from these verses or they ignore them altogether. They are full of irony and difficult to understand, but why?

On Tuesday evening I had a conversation with Brian Hooks and some of the Tuesday afternoon Clothes Closet workers. I made the comment that trying to explain to other people what Haywood Street was all about was impossible. You have to be at Haywood Street. It is like Copernicus trying to explain to his Inquisitors about the sun being the center of the universe, not the earth. They had to look through the telescope to see that the earth was not the center of all things and, in fact, the earth revolved around the sun.

I come every week to “catch” what the congregation at Haywood has and to work there on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning is to be exposed to the “sneezes.” However, learning to live the Gospel is a process, a process of learning Jesus in the most intimate sense. We must not think we can get it any better than the disciples who lived and breathed the same air as Jesus until we come into contact with the risen Lord. He told us where to find Him, with children, with the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, the hungry. Of course, you have to cherish the little children, cloth the poor, heal the sick, visit the imprisoned, and feed the hungry to meet the living Lord. That is the first place to be if you want to learn the Gospel. You must have ears to hear and eyes to see, too.

The parable of the shrewd manager adds another dimension to learning Jesus. There was a manager who was called in by his master. The master had heard that the manager had been wasting his possessions and told the manager to bring his accounts to him. The manager was worried. He couldn’t do manual labor because he was too weak and he was ashamed to beg. Instead he went to all the master’s debtors and reduced their debt so that they would be grateful to him and would help him when he lost his job. The master heard about it and he was impressed. He commended the manager for his shrewdness.

Parables are supposed to have one truth they are teaching. So what is it in this one? What on earth was Jesus trying to get across? Jesus explains that the children of this age are shrewder in dealing with one another than the children of light. So he tells his disciples to use wealth to help other people so they might be welcomed into heaven by the people they helped. Jesus further explains that if you are not to be trusted with someone else’s wealth, how can you be trusted with wealth of your own and if you are dishonest with very little, you will be dishonest with much. You cannot serve God and wealth, simple but hard to understand – and even harder to do. Money is only useful if it is helping others.

We did not discuss the last paragraph in this Scripture. Luke 16:14-15, but Jesus brings the point home in the strongest of language. Listen.

‘The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.  He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.”’

The question all of us rich and poor must ask ourselves is are we children of the light or are we children of this age like the Pharisees? Do we walk in fear or do we walk in faith?

God's Lavish Love

A few years ago my husband and I went to the Folk Art Center for the Fall Festival. There was a shepherd at the Festival shearing sheep. He demonstrated separating out a sheep to shear. The sheep were in a tiny fenced area. When the shearer entered the area all the sheep ran to a corner as far as they could get from him and faced in the opposite direction. He grabbed the nearest sheep and left the area. None of the sheep did anything to help their baaing brother as the shearer pulled him away nor did they even look his way.

You see sheep have been over-domesticated. They are totally dependent on the shepherd for their care and survival. You can never leave sheep unattended. Should one accidentally lie down in a field such that his shoulder is against a rock, he won’t get up – ever. He’ll starve to death first. A shepherd has to pick him up for him to move. To shear a sheep the shepherd places the sheep’s shoulder against his shin, almost in a sitting position, and the sheep is totally immobilized just by the positioning. That way the shepherd has a free hand to shear with.

Brian preached about the Pharisees seeing Jesus eating with tax collectors, prostitutes, and other undesirables. When they objected, Jesus reminded them that the shepherd would leave the ninety-nine of the flock to find and bring back the one lost sheep. Indeed, the Shepherd would celebrate the return of the one more than the presence of the ninety-nine. Then Brian asked, what was the crisis in the Scriptures?

There were lots of answers. One was the loss of a sheep was a crisis. Indeed, when a sheep is lost and found, the shepherd often breaks the legs of the sheep and carries it on His shoulders while it heals. That way the sheep learns not to stray and it forms a relationship with the Shepherd.

But the real crisis was the frustration, disillusionment, and anger of the Pharisees over Jesus spending so much of His energy and time on those that according to the Pharisee’s measure were unworthy. The Pharisees were like the sheep at the Folk Art Center. They were used to hiding behind their religious dogma, in a group, in a corner. They were not interested in their lost brothers and sisters. They had become so used to feeling safe by following rules on their own that they couldn’t save themselves by following the Shepherd’s lead, even when He was there to pick them up and set them aright.

Brian described God as a Shepherd with lavish love for His sheep. He was willing to give His life for them. He doesn’t wait for a prodigal son to beg forgiveness. He rushes to that son with His ring and a robe to embrace him. He does not wait for the sheep to come home. He goes out and finds him, brings him home, and celebrates his return. He is a Hound of Heaven. We can leave the Shepherd, but the Shepherd will not leave us.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son and the story of the lost sheep Jesus ends with a celebration. The world will know us by our love and by our party. At the end of the service yesterday we had two tiny liturgical dancers who reminded us what love and party looked like. If you missed the dance, be sure to join us next week. God’s grace is spontaneous at Haywood Street Congregation and it pops out in the most magnificent ways.

A Cautionary Tale

Grace. That’s what Haywood Street Congregation is about. So what do we do with difficult Scripture that talks about sheep and goats and disasters that the Potter is devising for His rebellious people. That’s the question that I have been coming back to over and over recently. This week Brian brought it to us through the Scripture according to Jeremiah, the Prophet, in Jeremiah 18: 1-11.

The part about the Potter shaping a spoiled piece of clay was easy enough to picture. God takes me, a sinner, and reshapes me into a more useful vessel. However, if I, like the house of Israel, don’t turn from the evil I do, then, He will devise an evil plan against me. Whoa! My forgiving God, full of Grace, would do that? To me? That’s what Jeremiah said. Looking back at the history of the Israelites that is what God did. Israel didn’t turn from its wicked ways.  And God let Assyria overtake them and later Babylon did the same and banished the wealthy and powerful to another land. There was a remnant that survived and remained in the Promised Land, but they were mostly the poor and the unskilled.

So what does that mean for me? I returned to the whole idea of Judgment and Grace. God warned the house of Israel what would befall them, but He left redemption open if they would come to Him. God is the only One who is good and therefore He is the only One who can judge. What is Grace? Is it forgiveness? No, Grace is more. Is it an absence of Judgment? No, Grace is more than that. We are free to do or not do whatever we wish, not because God will excuse our lack of concern or outright selfishness, but because He wants us to choose His Way and His love. So Grace is acting in the Way that leads others to God and brings us closer to Him.

What does that mean in daily living? At Haywood Street it means we offer food for everyone once a week so that we can have fellowship with one another and can meet a basic need. It means we have clothes available to adorn the body to keep it warm or dry and comfortable. Clothing is offered with only availability as a limit and with all the choice that we can afford. It means we have haircuts and vaccinations and acupuncture to bring additional boosts to our wellbeing. Most of all it means we listen and care and welcome one another without judgment because we are all imperfect pots that the Potter is still working on.  We gather at His Table for Communion in the Sanctuary and we praise Him with music and prayers. All of this takes tremendous trust in God and faith in His Presence among us, but the more we practice Grace the more likely we are to turn around and discover God is next to us passing the bowls of food, hanging up the shirts and jeans, serving the bread and wine, and sitting nearby loving every minute.

The Moral Arc of the Universe

Yesterday, August 28, was the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Across the nation many people commemorated the event that hastened the changes of the 1960's, which were changes long overdue in the United States. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech was remembered. Two past presidents, President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton, and our current Commander-in-Chief, President Barack Obama, along with Martin Luther King III and many other dignitaries and relatives of the great orator, minister, and leader of the Civil Rights movement spoke at the Lincoln Memorial about where the nation was in the 1960's, where it is now, and where it needs to go.

At Haywood Street Congregation Reverend King was remembered also. Brian began the spoken part of the service with a quote from Dr. King, "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice." He repeated it three times.  Our first hymn was "This Little Light of Mine." His message was on Psalm 140:12, "I know that the Lord maintains the cause of the needy, and executes justice for the poor." We read it three times also. Let's hope all our little lights will shine and bend toward justice because the Lord cares so much for the poor.

We had two congregational singers. I wish I could recall their names. One sang a spiritual I had not heard but hope to again and the other was from Edward's church who sang, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring."

Prayers were offered for the people of Raleigh. Word had come from those who serve the poor and disenfranchised and homeless in the capital city that the workers had been told if they proceeded with their plans to feed the homeless on the streets they would be arrested. The missions are closed on the weekends and there is no where for the homeless to go for food. Prayers were also offered for the homeless of Columbia, SC who were picked up and taken to a field outside town this week and told if they return they would be jailed. (One of the news reports I read on-line said they were told they could enter a "program" at a mission, could be jailed, or would have to leave town. What the article didn't say was that the mission programs are not as readily available as one might believe.)

Barbara Bates Smith, a Companion at the Welcome Table, then put on her hat and her vest and became for a little while, Doris Haddock, Granny D, that grand great-grandmother who walked across America in the early 2000's to bring the message of election reform to the nation. I can't find the exact quotes that Barbara recited from Granny D's address before the Little Rock First Baptist Church, August 22, 1999, a church where Dr. King spoke in 1960, but I am supplying some of the quotes below that are on-line that are excerpts from Doris Haddock's speech.

"There can be no true equality in America so long as only the rich are represented at the table of power. That is no democracy. There can be no true justice in America so long as only the privileged make the rules and build the jails for those outside the rooms of power. That is no democracy. 
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This is an agenda of love. These things will happen if we are all at the table of power.
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Only when we sit together at the table of power can we do the right things by our communities.
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For when we are in the same room, looking eye-to-eye, speaking heart-to-heart, it is hard for us to deny each other justice and equality as Americans. If I tell you what my children need, you will help me provide for them. If you tell me what your children need, I will help you provide for them. That is the essence of self-government in a free land."

Jeff Sebens who accompanied Barbara as she spoke played "We Shall Not Be Moved" and the congregation joined in and sang along. 

There are many more memorable quotes listed for Granny D. The speech she gave before the judge in the District of Columbia brought tears to my eyes. She was a force to be reckoned with, a force of love, not fear, a force of grace. Thank you, Barbara, for introducing Granny D to us.

Karen and Edward played a moving duet of "Amazing Grace" during Communion. Karen is a gifted flute player and a Companion in the kitchen at the Welcome Table.

Coincidentally, we had something else to commemorate yesterday, Edward's birthday. At Haywood Street we enjoy celebrating the life of Christ given for us, great moments of justice in history, and small moments of joy. Happy Birthday, Edward, and thank you for your glorious music.  

 



 

The Day the Lights Went Out or Seeing the LIght in the Dark

Yesterday at Haywood Street the lights went out in the Clothes Closet and the Library where the haircuts were being offered just as the first hymn was sung upstairs in the service. We have daylight from the glass brick windows, but it is still quite dark in the CC. Customers continued to pour in during the service. I guess this is a good time to discuss the workings of the Clothes Closet since I missed the service this week.

Haywood Street Congregation is unique in so many ways. It is difficult, if not impossible, to explain how it is different and what makes it so, but  the Wind of the Spirit blows through the place, surrounds the people, and emanates from the people. The ministry is based on radical hospitality which is centered around choice, free will, if you would. People are accepted just as they are, right now, in this moment, no questions asked, except how can I help you or what do you need? That is what being a Companion in Christ means. Sometimes we can't meet the need. We can't offer a ride or pay a bill or find a place for someone to live or a job that pays money. We can listen, though. We can explore options. We can offer a way for someone to help in the ministry, but most of all we can just be with people, help them know they are heard. Sometimes we fail. Most times at Haywood Street we learn how not to fail in that most important way because we have good models around us who have been doing this for a long time. I told my husband when I first started going to Haywood Street that I wanted to "catch what they had." This Spirit you can catch is seeing more clearly the Christ in others.

Yesterday in the Clothes Closet business was brisk. It has been raining for days, as it has done all summer, and it began raining during the hours Haywood Street is most busy. We had record numbers of people looking for clothes, especially jeans, t-shirts, underwear, and socks. Halfway through the morning we were nearly out of t-shirts, which is unusual. AHOPE used to have a place for people to wash their clothes, but funding was cut and they no longer are able to offer that service. Therefore many customers to the Clothes Closet needed fresh new ones, especially since it was raining. There were many needs that went unmet for umbrellas, rain ponchos, and blankets, now that the nights are getting chilly. We only had one blanket and one sleeping bag to offer and no umbrellas or ponchos. Paper products like toilet paper, diapers, and feminine products were in short supply also.

The lights went out in the Clothes Closet during the service, a fuse blew or someone flipped a breaker, I am not sure what, but we continued to serve people during the service. In fact, one of the miracle moments happened in that dimness. A woman who is going through her third round of chemo came in to get new clothes as she has lost forty pounds. Just as she entered one of the Welcome Table Companions came in with a small bag of clothes from her teenage granddaughter and a man came in with three bags of women's clothes, all beautiful and very stylish. The woman had five teenage children to dress for school as well as herself. Another woman came in who was just shopping. She liked what we were hanging up also. The two began to share the clothes. As it turned out, we were able to outfit the woman who needed clothes for herself and her children with enough for the girls, at least, to start school in style and for the woman to have new clothes that fit. The woman said she felt like God had given her an amazing gift. The real miracle was the interaction between the two women. The one who was not in great need deferred to the other as we put out new items, but the woman with the children began asking the other woman to choose first because of her generosity. In the end they both left items for us to hang up "for someone else" because someone else might need them more. The lights were out, but the Light of the Spirit was burning bright.

People have the choice to attend the service upstairs or to continue to eat or to shop downstairs as they choose. Sometimes the living of the Gospel is as appropriate a praise of God as worshipping Him in song and prayer. Our souls require both. I felt God smiling over Haywood Street despite the rain and the darkness.

Prayer

Today at Haywood Street there was a very large crowd, more people than we've had recently when we opened the Clothes Closet. The Tuesday folks had put in some new round rods for shirts and moved out some of the long rods. They used up all the hangers, which was good because there were lots of clothes hung, but then we didn't have any hangers to use to hang the bags and bags of clothes still not hung up. The newsletter is requesting more hangers again.

We had two families who had 8 children between them, all under 10, I'd say. At lunch there were other people with new babies. The Clothes Closet had a good stock of children's clothes and we got a new bag full as I was going to lunch. That was a good thing. As school starts I am sure we will need more clothes.

A group from Birmingham Southern College in Birmingham were visiting. Six young men who think they want to become ministers were there with Susan Clopton's sister. They were attending a conference in Junaluska and had heard about Haywood Street and had to come. It was good to visit with Susan's sister and to send good wishes back to B'ham and Trinity and Jill Layne and Susan.

Lunch was delicious, as usual. It was all comfort food today, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, cabbage, biscuits, salad, and ice cream. My table had two young mother's and a dad with his daughter about 7 or 8 and some other men. One of the babies was only 7 days old. She was so tiny.

At church I sat next to Jody, who is heading the organization of the respite center, and Susan, who is organizing the Walk of Awareness. Brian's parents were both there and they served communion. Thomas was there and he had served the folks in the CC water and brought me back the recorder which I will listen to later this afternoon and see if we can begin on the book.

The sermon was on the Lord's Prayer, how shall we pray? We sang the Lord's Prayer, we said The Lord's Prayer, and then we studied it. Brian said that we are to "bother" God with our constant prayers. Indeed, Jesus often talks about prayers by those who don't give up. The Lord's Prayer is an example of our side of the conversation with God who is our Father, not some distant, condemning being. We keep his name holy, we want his Kingdom to come and we can do this by doing  His will(though this was not discussed in the sermon), we ask for our daily bread, no more, no less, we ask to have our debts forgiven. We don't want God to come repossess us. We have to forgive everyone else's debts, however. We ask that we not be led into temptation and that we be delivered from evil. All of these things are corporate, not singular requests. We are all one in this relationship with God.

I have not written in a long time, two weeks. I have been at Haywood Street for Journey Group, Walk of Awareness meetings, Holy Chaos of Wednesdays, and to hear Brian at Mars Hill. I think I am still thinking through all these activities and meetings and will have to come back later and revisit them.

Out of the Belly and Who is My Neighbor and Why I ask

Last week I brought Mandy, Lucy and Jack to Haywood Street for the service. I didn't work. I was able to introduce them to some of the Clothing Closet companions and to Ann Merritt and Edward Smith. Lucy loved the service. There were not as many dogs there as I had promised, but she was excited by the movement and openness of the service. I don't really know what Mandy thought about it all, but she told me she hoped there would be lots of ways I could get involved there. She found the sermon meaningful and liked the woman minister who offered it, she said. Perhaps it was because Mandy has been in the "belly" of the whale of illness for the past nine months. Perhaps it was something different. We didn't get a chance to really discuss any of it. Jack was overwhelmed by it all. He and Lucy had not been going to bed early enough and he was very tired by the time we came to Haywood Street. I hope to talk to Mandy about it sometime.

These were Brian's comments(http://haywoodstreet.org/2013/07/newsletter-updates-for-the-week-of-july-8-2013/) about Jonah on the website. I identify with Jonah's difficulty with forgiveness. Sometimes I wonder if Jesus had Jonah in mind when He told the parable of the laborers, the ones who got paid as much for only an hour as the ones who worked all day. My sense of fairness has always had trouble with that one. However, as a parent I understand God's overwhelming desire to pull His children, all His children, near Him whenever they want to come. I don't want my need for justice to keep me distant from Him. I'd be missing out on the best part, much like the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son.

This week at Haywood the Clothes Closet was packed with people and fortunately a good supply of clothes. Judy, Linda, Lora, Kimora, Gina, Sally and some companions I don't know were there helping. We could hardly keep up with the needs. Toilet paper and feminine supplies and diapers remain high on the list of things people requested and we ran out of them early.

Lunch was a mix of new people and old friends. A young woman sat next to me who had just arrived from Florida. She had a little boy with her, but he sat at another table. She said most places wanted you to sign your life away to get a meal and though there was one mission in Jacksonville, FL where she felt welcomed around the tables, there were no places as spacious or as welcoming as Haywood Street.

Brian preached on the Good Samaritan as had Linda Kelly at Weaverville UMC last Sunday. It must have been the topic for the week. Brian's take was different as usual from the normal way of viewing the parable. He started out with a quote from an Eastern religion that said, "If you see a man trying to climb to heaven on his own, you should reach up and pull him down as he is doing nothing good for himself." Often we miss the prologue to the parable where the Jewish scholar asks Jesus how he can obtain eternal life "for himself." Jesus answers him with a question, what is the first commandment? The man answers to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and your neighbor as yourself. But then the man seeks to justify himself and asks who is my neighbor and Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. Brian asked the congregation what they understood about the parable. The first thing was the neighbor was the man who showed mercy. Then others in the congregation discussed who a Samaritan would have been to a good Jew of that day and how offensive Jesus' story was to them. It was so obvious that the Samaritan had done what we all would have wanted someone to do for us if we had been beaten and left on the side of the road, but the man could not even acknowledge the Samaritan by name but could only say it was the "one" who showed mercy. To speak of Samaritans was an offense.  They were the traitors to the Jews. They didn't worship the same God as the Jews, yet Jesus was holding this man up as a neighbor and told the man to follow his example--go and do likewise. Brian followed this up with comparing Christ to the good Samaritan who finds us beaten on the side of the road, doesn't care who we are, but knows we need Him, and carries us to a place for care, pays for it with His life, and says He will return one day in His glory for us and to pay the caretaker(inn keeper) anymore that He may owe for our care. Then Brian quoted Niebur and Tillich. Niebur was asked what was the circumstance of his knowing he was saved, the when, the place, the how. Niebur answered it was 2000 years ago on a hill called Golgotha. Tillich said we can do nothing for our salvation except accept that it was done for us. The Good Samaritan is our neighbor and we are His. Even as we have done it unto the least of these we have done it unto Him. Lots to think about between last week and this. Lots to accept.

After the service I spent some time with Ann Merritt and Thomas Lockwood. Thomas and I may collaborate and tell his story on paper. He has spent a lifetime in the open and wants to tell the stories of his callings to new places to be with people who God wanted to help. We only got started, but it was an interesting beginning. We'll see where it goes. I am not at all sure I am up for the task of doing it properly for Thomas.

Then I made it home in a huge hailstorm and flash flood. When I made it to my mountain, it was only drizzling so our creeks were not raging and the roads were clear. The clouds did move in and swallowed the mountain across the way by dinnertime. This morning it is clear again.

The Greatest Moment of Temptation

Being a companion at Haywood Street is not without its challenges. Personality clashes can and do exist. We are all there because we want to be and because we are drawn by some Invisible Hand to serve one another and God, but that does not mean that strong individual preferences for how things will be done don't exist.
I was away last week so I don't know who was there in the Clothing Closet, but this week we had a full team of people. Phyllis, who is getting ready to leave town to receive more training at Emory in being a Deaconess, was absent and Lora and her little girl were not there, but the rest of the workers were there. We were so glad to see Marie back. We've missed her. Due to rain we had a smaller group of shoppers than usual, but that allowed the room to be made straight.
Asheville has been receiving bands of tropical rain from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Serious flooding has resulted during the last two weeks all through the mountains. The ground is saturated and the rivers and their tributaries are over their banks from time to time. Sink holes in my part of the mountains have resulted. Wild life seems to be disoriented by the extreme amount of water. There have been bear sightings in downtown Asheville and deer in our neighborhood, something we haven't seen for two or three years. I hope the chickens, new additions to our mini-farm at the church, don't become prey to some hungry larger critter that finds itself in town by mistake.
The meal this week at Haywood Street did not include chicken, but it was a cook-out of hamburgers and hot dogs, typical 4th of July fare, along with beans and slaw and pink lemonade all served on the lawn under the big tree despite the off and on showers. Fortunately there was no thunder or lightning.
Many of the shoppers exchanged their clothes, which had gotten soaked in the rains, for new ones. We bag the old ones and throw them away. The facility in town that had washers and dryers for the unhoused has closed due to a withdrawal of funding by the state. It sounds wasteful to throw clothes away, but fortunately we have enough to redress many people and they need to get out of those soaked by the rains during the nights on the street. It is a mistaken idea that the unhoused want to be dirty and have no care for personal hygiene. Even those with mental illness and drug addictions respond to clean clothes with pleasure. Sometimes it is this and other little things that begin to restore their dignity and know that God and His people care about them. I am making toilet paper holders out of large plastic coffee cans so when we give them a new roll which we do as long as the supplies last they can keep it dry until needed.  I understand there are only two public restrooms that the unhoused can use in town and they are poorly stocked.
One of the companions who I do not know, but who has been serving at Haywood Street for some time now is very ill. She has cancer, but the doctors won't treat her until she has stable housing. They were removed from the storage facility where they had been staying last week so now they are on the street. I don't know her full story, nor do I need to, but I can't imagine being sick with anything, let alone cancer, and not having a pillow on which to lay my head or a dry place to rest. We are working on helping her find solutions. One would think there would be one, but homelessness issues are complex and help is few and far between. I pray for guidance.
Shannon has gone on maternity leave and we have a new companion who is filling in for her. He came to introduce himself on Wed. He has kind, caring eyes and a sturdy demeanor.
I want to describe two of the people we served this week. One was a man whose speech was what my son who provides therapy for psychotic young adults calls "salad speech." It comes out as gibberish, not like a stroke victim, but in a strange singsong with some words that are recognizable and some that are whispers and some that are nonsense. This man, about the age of my older son, wanted a larger shirt like the one he was handing us, a golf shirt in a deep purple. We don't have inventory that is not hanging up and our need for men's clothing is always great. We've all agreed that men wear their clothes out and by the time they are ready to discard them, they are fit only for the trash, not for donation often. We finally figured out what he wanted and explained what we could and couldn't do for him. Eventually, we found him a shirt, a husband of a companion literally took one off his own back, and we found the man outside and gave him the shirt. I wasn't there so I don't know if it was well received by then. It wasn't the pretty purple of the one he showed us, but it was the correct size. As an interesting aside, we have a companion in the Clothes Closet who sometimes pushes the limits on what she takes out of there for herself, but she was the one who stepped up and worked very hard to understand the man and his needs. I think he frightened some of the rest of us. She was the one that kept asking people in the building if they knew where we could get what he wanted. You have to love how love can change people in small ways.
The other individual was a young woman who was in withdrawal. She asked for prayers in the service. She was experiencing the physical and emotional pains of withdrawal. Finally toward the end of the service she put her head on her arms on the pew in front of her and cried. The two women on either side of her who may or may not have known her put their hands on her shoulders and back gently and just sat with her. A young man came up at the end of the service and put his hands on her head and prayed for her in whispers. She became quiet. That is not an unusual occurrence. Healing is slow, but Haywood Street is a safe place for those who are in need of it.
Brian preached on "Ordinary Time" on Wed. The Scripture was from Luke 9:51-62 and also Mark 6:1-13. The Scripture from Luke takes place after Jesus and Peter and James and John have been on the Mount of Transfiguration where Moses and Elijah came to Jesus and spoke with Him. God tells those who are there that Jesus is His Chosen One and He is well pleased. Jesus in Luke is now headed toward Jerusalem and asks His disciples to go and prepare a way through Samaria. However, when the disciples get to Samaria the people tell them they don't want Jesus there. The disciples are incensed and ask Jesus if they can call down fire upon the Samaritans for their rejection just as Elijah called down fire on the believers in Baal. Jesus rebukes them and says no, He and they will go elsewhere. Now Jesus doesn't often rebuke his disciples, the Pharisee, the Sadducees, and the priests, yes, but not the disciples. But the disciples, even Peter, James, and John are not getting it and Jesus doesn't have long for them to begin to understand what He is about. Just after they came down from the mount James and John were fighting about who was the greatest among them. Jesus has to bring a child before them and remind them that only those who welcome a little child, those who are the least among them, will be the greatest. Then other disciples come up to Him and ask him how they can enter the Kingdom. He tells them how difficult life is for the Son of Man. That he is homeless. They must give up their lives, their ordinary lives, burying their dead relatives, even ignore saying good-bye to family and friends, if they are to follow Him.
Brian said that theologians believe this may have been Jesus's greatest moment of temptation, greater than the 40 days in the desert, maybe even greater than the hours in Gethsemane. You see Jesus has just received affirmation by God of His pleasure over Jesus' successful ministry. However, Elijah and Moses have talked with Jesus about how He must fulfill their missions, one to complete the Law, the other to reestablish the relationship between God and His people. Although they both left someone to work on their missions, Aaron, Moses brother, and Elisha, Elijah's protege, when they were raised into heaven(neither of them died, we believe), their work was not complete. It was Jesus' mission to complete the work. And yet Jesus was near home, Capernaum and Nazareth, and could have at this point turned toward home, gone back to stone masonry and building(the translation is not carpenter but builder) like his father Joseph, taken care of family and been with friends and said I've done all anyone can do. Instead He sets His face toward Jerusalem, knowing full well the fate that awaits Him. He even tried for the last time to offer redemption to the Samaritans on His way south and down the mountains, a distance of some 17 miles and 2500 feet. They are not interested, but he is not mad at them. He simply says to ignore them and move on. He even tells the story of the good Samaritan just after these encounters to illustrate who is the neighbor of one of His disciples who is following Him.
 Now Brian quoted two theologians during his question and answer time with the congregation. He quoted Henri Nouwen and said something like this, "when disciples ignore the utter essentials, they end up doing only the important." I cannot find this quote yet, but I think what he meant was that the men who wanted to go bury the father and say farewell to family and friends were ignoring the utter essential of following Him. Instead they were doing what they deemed important. Again it was a matter of law, the rules of burying ones parents, over love of God. Then Brian quoted Charles Craddock who said "the ways of the cross are always interrupted by cares of life." Yes. It would have been far easier for Jesus to return to His ordinary responsibilities, important responsibilities of honoring His mother, caring for His family, leading the reading of the Torah in synagogue, instead of going to Jerusalem to die. But where would we be if He had? Where would the world be if we ignore the utter essential?

Living by the Spirit or Living by the Law

I can't find my bulletin from yesterday so I am guessing that the Scripture was Galatians 5:1-26. I hope I am correct. I like the translation that Brian and Shannon use for scripture. It is contemporary and very understandable.

Today at Haywood Street there was a little extra craziness. The weather is hot and Asheville has gotten too much rain this year. Everyone was grateful for a dry day and a cool place to gather and eat. The meal was Native American fare, turkey, squash, cranberries, salad, hominy, apple bread, and grape cobbler with whipped cream. It was all yummy as usual. Unfortunately, one of the guests got sick during dinner. They had to call the paramedics. It was all well in the end, but it made for quite a concern.

There were less of us in the Clothes Closet than usual. Only Linda and Judy from Mars Hill, Gina, and a new companion named Jordan who is one of the youth from the area who want to participate in Haywood Street's mission. We missed Lora, Marie, and Phyllis.

There was great need for toilet paper and diapers. Those are supplies we can't get enough of. I can't imagine what living on the streets requires, but those two commodities are definitely in high demand.

I sat with Jordan at lunch and with a woman Presbyterian minister from Brevard who was there to "catch" the Spirit. The minister asked so many questions that I forgot to go relieve Judy so she could come and eat. Fortunately she came to eat without my taking her place, but she missed the service because of that. I am sorry.

The service was led by Shannon because Brian is in Oklahoma City attending a conference. She did a wonderful job in his absence.

The question she began with was whether it was necessary to be circumcised or not. It seems there was much being made in the church in Galatia over requiring the Gentiles to be circumcised like their Jewish brothers in order to be true Christians. Paul set it straight and quickly. It was of no matter. They were bogged down in a petty thing, a matter of the law. But if we go back and look at why the Jews were circumcised, we find that it was very important to them. It was a sign of the covenant they had through Abraham with God that they would be fruitful and inherit the earth. That sounds pretty big, though Shannon didn't go into that. Also we are talking about grown men who must undergo circumcism, not babies. That sounds pretty big, too. But Paul said it wasn't important. Paul is concerned for the Galatians because they are headed down the wrong track and are being divided over matters that had no real importance.

Hence Shannon asked, "Isn't the Law important?" What about tradition? What did Paul mean about following the Spirit? The congregation responded. I thought the response that I liked the best was that it was both simple and complex. It is. We are free through the Spirit to choose life with God, but the Law is still important. "Jesus came not to do away with the Law but to fulfill it," said Shannon. What does that mean? Someone else in the congregation quoted part of the Scripture from James that says you call My name and you cast out demons in My name and you pull at my robes, but you do not do the will of the Father and I will not save you. I like that verse because I have lots of Christian friends who talk a lot about God and yet do nothing for the poor, the imprisoned, the sick, the widows, and the orphans. In James we find in the next verse to the one quoted, the work that those people who were calling out Jesus' name should have been doing. But we are not justified by works. We are justified by faith. They are both empty as Paul reminds us in Corinthians one without the other. Because if we are God's children and have faith, we have no choice but to choose to care for one another as if we were all one and to serve one another.

I am not sure we ever got to the heart of the matter yesterday. In my own experience I have been called by God sometimes to do things that I thought were against the Law, now not to hurt someone or to deny God, but to break the absoluteness of the Law. Yet, when I did as He told me to do and acted in love, it turned out to be in His will and the wrong was made very right. It is like Jesus gathering the wheat from the field and healing the sick on the Sabbath. Both of those were against the Law, but they were done in love and ended up bringing people into relationship with God, not putting them off. Shannon was trying to make that point. That relationship with the Spirit was the important thing. I'd add listening to the Spirit carefully with much discernment and then acting according to love. Rules were made to be broken, but love, agape love, was not. When weighing the two, Law and Love, acting in Love wins every time.

Another quote by C. S. Lewis, one of my absolute favorites:
“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

A Man who was the One

“God can't give us peace and happiness apart from Himself because there is no such thing.”
― C.S. Lewis

The lesson for today was from Luke 19. It was about a man of small stature and big purse named Zacchaeus. Now Zacchaeus was in charge of all the tax collectors and though he was a Jew he was hated because of his profession. But Zacchaeus wanted more than anything to see Jesus when he came through Jericho where Z lived. He wanted to see Him so much that he was willing to humble himself and climb a tree to do so. When Jesus walked beneath the tree, He called out to Z to come down and take Him home with him for dinner. Z did. Z was so moved by Jesus that he gave half of everything he owned to the poor and paid back everyone from whom he had stolen four fold, according to the law of Moses. Jesus pronounced Z a good son of Abraham, a good Jew, and told him that because of what he was doing, Z and all his household were saved.

Brian started out his sermon with this: Zachaeus' wealth could make him safe, but it couldn't save him. He repeated it. Then he asked what Z had to do to be saved. The congregation responded. He had to give away half his wealth. Yes, but what else? He had to give back what he stole when he collected the taxes. Yes, but what else? He had to seek Jesus. Yes, but what else?

I have thought about this all afternoon and evening. What else? He had to be willing to humble himself and admit that he needed to meet Jesus more than he needed to keep his dignity. He had to be willing to offer Jesus his hospitality when Jesus asked for it.

Then Brian told a Christmas story. It was about a pageant in a church where the head of the Official Board played Scrooge. At the end he stood in a window and called out to an actor, a young boy, in a street. A little boy on the first row responded instead of the actor and came on stage. The man playing Scrooge came down out of the window and looked at the boy and said to him, "You are the one, the one I wanted."

Brian then let Jesus use his eyes and his fingers to point to everyone in the congregation as if they were the little boy, the One He wanted. And we are. It was a powerful moment. Amen.

The Banquet

Luke 15: 4-7 and Luke 14: 16-24 and Matthew 22: 2-14

“God is the comic shepherd who gets more of a kick out of that one lost sheep once he finds it again than out of the ninety and nine who had the good sense not to get lost in the first place. God is the eccentric host who, when the country-club crowd all turned out to have other things more important to do than come live it up with him, goes out into the skid rows and soup kitchens and charity wards and brings home a freak show. The man with no legs who sells shoelaces at the corner. The old woman in the moth-eaten fur coat who makes her daily rounds of the garbage cans. The old wino with his pint in a brown paper bag. The pusher, the whore, the village idiot who stands at the blinker light waving his hand as the cars go by. They are seated at the damask-laid table in the great hall. The candles are all lit and the champagne glasses filled. At a sign from the host, the musicians in their gallery strike up "Amazing Grace.”

― Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

Buechner paints the wonderful picture of the stereotypical homeless who God invites to His Banquet because all the Chosen people are too busy to come. But in Luke we hear that even the poor were not enough to fill the hall so he sends his messengers out to the country lanes and city streets to bring in anyone who will come.

As I read Buechner’s and Luke’s descriptions of the wedding banquet, I cannot help but think of the Holy Chaos of the dinnertime at Haywood Street Congregation on Wednesday. The tables are dressed in white linens and everyone is served on china. No one is left out and the food and welcome are plentiful. The folks around the tables are the people who have responded to the invitation by God and Brian and Shannon to come, eat, and receive the blessings of being a child of God.

Not everyone is wearing their wedding clothes, however. In Matthew 22: 2-14 we read a continuation of the story of the invitation to the banquet. It is interesting to note that we have to accept not only the invitation to come, but we must also wear the attire the Host provides. Yesterday I sat with a young woman who I overheard telling another youth who had on her wedding clothes, a T-shirt saying she was a “Youth in Mission” that she didn’t believe in God. I could not hear the reply of the young woman in the T-shirt so I don’t know if she said what I’d have said, but the young woman who doubted had good reasons for her doubts, mostly her experience with people in her life who had not been trustworthy so her belief in this loving God was shaky at best and non-existent yesterday.

I understand. I wish I could have sat nearer. I’d have told the doubter not to fear putting on the wedding clothes of faith because her honesty and doubt were acceptable to God. He invited her to His feast, but she had to take the courageous step into believing He cared. It is not easy, if you have suffered abuse or neglect by your family or the world, to believe in the goodness of God. All of us who have put on the wedding clothes have to continue to provide support and caring until those who have answered the invitation to the banquet know in their hearts that they are truly accepted and that putting on the wedding clothes, acting in faith not wearing a T-shirt necessarily, is the way to eventually trust the love of God.

Bother the Home Front

Brian began today with a story about a church that wanted to build a new sanctuary in a neighborhood. They went to the zoning board to get permission and were told they were not allowed to build a church that looked like a church and certainly not one that had a cross in view. The neighborhood didn't want to look out its windows on such a thing. The church went back, decided to comply,  and told the zoning board they were going to build a house like all the other split levels in the neighborhood and they would put a small 2 inch tall cross over the front door. They didn't want to bother the neighbors.

The Scripture today was from Mark 6:1-13. It was Jesus' return home to preach. Mark does not tell us what he says, but instead he comments on Jesus' comments to His sermon. Then he tells what Jesus told his disciples to do, their mission and how to pursue it. Jesus comments that a prophet is honored except among his own community and his family. Now it was interesting that the early comments of the congregation that listened to Him was amazement at his wisdom, but soon it turned grim. Jesus was unable to perform many miracles because of their lack of belief.

Maybe it would be helpful to look again at Luke's account of this visit home, Luke 4: 16-30. Jesus reads first from Isaiah and says he is the One who God has "anointed to preach good news to the poor. He was sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." He goes on to quote the Old Testament accounts of Elijah helping the widow and her son who were from the region of Sidon and Elisha helping Naaman, a Syrian, none of whom were Jewish. In Luke's account the congregation tries to throw Jesus from a cliff they are so mad at him for saying that God chose a non-Jew, not once but twice, to help instead of some of His chosen people. Jesus walks away from the situation.

In Mark he goes on to tell his disciples to take nothing with them when they go out to preach and heal. He is telling them not to be like the magicians and fortunetellers of that day who had a special pouch under their outer garment to take bribes for telling fortunes or doing magic for people. His disciples were to wear one tunic, not two. There would be no question about their taking bribes. They also were to take nothing with them and wear only sandals. Upon coming to a town they were to enter a home and stay in that one place, but if they were not accepted, they were to dust the dirt from their sandals signifying their disdain in a peaceful way.

The point was Bother the Neighbors, Anger the World, and Claim your Power in the Lord. We are not to be invisible to the world, but invincible to the world. It is important to recall what Isaiah said about this Messiah, not a man of worldly power, but a man of Godly power whose priorities were to the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed, not the wealthy, the religious, or the comfortable. Those are hard words to digest because most of us are wealthy by the world's standards and all of us are comfortable, if we are not religious by our fathers' standards.

I am reading a book by Luke Timothy Johnson. I'll be commenting on this book for several weeks. It is called SHARING POSSESSIONS. Luke Timothy says that how we treat other people shows how we treat God and vice versa. This book is about idolatry and faith. Possessions he defines with a much broader stroke than one would usually think as all things we say we "have." Since we "have" thoughts, a body, beliefs, and time, as well as things, we make lots of idols. It is only when we can truly share these things that we are living in faith. I think that Mark and Luke are discussing a big "have" the people of Jesus' hometown had, they had an idea of who the Messiah or God's Chosen would be and how He would act. That idea was not Jesus. I wonder if many of us really "have" faith or if we really have an idol of our own making who we like to think of as Jesus.

Just a few thoughts on today. There was a church youth group visiting from Brentwood, TN Presbyterian Church. I grew up in Nashville and went to Brentwood United Methodist Church so I felt like I had a connection to these youth. I sat with some of them at lunch. I felt like they didn't quite know what to make of the church and the people who are members. It was interesting. I'd love to be a fly on their walls tonight as they discuss their experiences. Also, I had a chance to see Cody and say "Hello!" He smiled the sweetest smile at me. Penny, the church lady dog, came and got a pat under the pew during the service. Shannon's little girl was at the service. She looks like Shannon. It won't be long before she has a little sister. I know Shannon will be glad. Ann asked me if I'd like to write a memoir of one of the unhoused who wants to tell his story. I told her I might. He wasn't there today so we didn't get started, but I think it might be important to tell some of their stories.  

Family

It is Thursday morning. Yesterday was very, very busy and I didn't make it home in time to write before my fatigue overwhelmed me. Perhaps I needed more time to reflect on the day also.

I missed the sermon yesterday at Haywood Street, but Judy and Karla summarized it for me as being about "family" as personified in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The church is family also. I look forward to listening to Brian's sermon on-line.

I spent the majority of my hours at Haywood Street in the Clothes Closet. What a great group of companions! Phyllis and the ladies, Judy and Karla, from Mars Hill were there, Marie from Waynesville was there, and Lora and her little girl, Kimora, were there. Nicole from South Asheville rounded out the group. Mary, one of our companions from several weeks ago, stopped by. She looked great, new haircut, smile on her face, life is getting back to something like normal for her and her husband since their long distance move. The children's corner was full, a nice difference. Often the pickings are slight there, but there have been lots of donations. Yesterday it was the men's department that needed to be restocked and we had lots of men who are volunteers in the kitchen or upstairs at the service who brought in great finds for the men's department. God provided.

During a quiet period when most of the companions were eating, one of the people I met several weeks ago came in to look at the clothes. She said something interesting that I need to remember. She said that everything was taken away from her, but that God was returning the things she really needed. I know she was a professional who lost her job and then her home due to the economy. Since she is an architect, losing her home was big. I didn't get to talk to her for long, but it was very important to hear how her faith walk had provided. From what she has said previously, she was not a woman of faith before and she has been fascinated to see how the present has unfolded. For her it has been an adventure. I don't think she has children. I think adventures are scarier for mothers perhaps, but then should it be?

I sat with my friend from Candler UMC and her 5th grade daughter at lunch. She and Nicole were my luncheon buddies. Molly, the 5th grader, had just graduated from elementary school and had tied with her best friend for the math award. She said she liked the game playing that they did in math to learn. Yes, children used to learn a lot of math at home playing Parchesi and measuring while they cooked or sewed or built something with their parents. Now it is all left to school, so little time to play games or do things with parents. I was glad to hear she enjoyed the fun part of math. Her favorite part of school, however, was D.A.R.E. They had a female D.A.R.E. officer who was great at initiating role playing. Nice. Nicole could hear some of the conversation and recalled her aunt who was an elementary teacher.

After lunch we went to the service, but as it began, Brian asked who drove an Acura. I was embarrassed to raise my hand, but I was wanted in the parking lot. I felt badly when I saw what happened. A man who had come to lunch with his mother had pulled around my car and in an effort not to hit an SUV had scraped my car. The police officer who often comes to lunch saw it all and was writing it up when I arrived. I missed the entire service while the business part of the accident was taken care of. That made me sad. Also, the man who scraped my car had some sort of a leg problem, his right leg, and I think it may have affected his ability to handle his car. The police officer suggested I discuss with him handling it without his insurance. The man said he didn't have money. I told him we'd see what the repair would cost and then discuss it. However, as I was leaving, the police officer came over and said the man told him to tell me to call the insurance.

I went to Hendersonville to visit Shug and Bob after the service. They are not well. I stopped on the way out there and got an estimate for the repair. It was better than I thought, but still it is probably more than the man can afford. I thought about the way to handle this all the way to Hendersonville and back. I prayed about it which seemed very important. I pray all the time TO God, but I've been short on listening time. Lately, I've worked more on listening. I decided after talking with my insurance company to do as they suggested and call his insurer, report the claim, and wait and see what they said about handling it. When I got home, Ken and I discussed it and decided that was the best way to go. I await a call back about what they will do to handle the claim. What helped me decide is the thought that the man's inability to judge distances and navigate within a parking lot might have resulted in something worse if he had not been going so slowly or if my car had been moving. I worry that the man and his mother might lack transportation to come for lunch if his insurance goes up and he can't afford it, but perhaps I could pick them up instead of his driving should that become a problem.

This is a dilemma I had not reckoned with before. I suppose, however, in an effort to hold "family" accountable, one should do as they ask. Does that make us equal? I know God loves us all the same, well, as much as one another. This is one of those Thomas Merton times when I hope that God is happy with me because I want to do what He would have me do. Whether or not I did it is another question.

My Kind of God

“God is the comic shepherd who gets more of a kick out of that one lost sheep once he finds it again than out of the ninety and nine who had the good sense not to get lost in the first place. God is the eccentric host who, when the country-club crowd all turned out to have other things more important to do than come live it up with him, goes out into the skid rows and soup kitchens and charity wards and brings home a freak show. The man with no legs who sells shoelaces at the corner. The old woman in the moth-eaten fur coat who makes her daily rounds of the garbage cans. The old wino with his pint in a brown paper bag. The pusher, the whore, the village idiot who stands at the blinker light waving his hand as the cars go by. They are seated at the damask-laid table in the great hall. The candles are all lit and the champagne glasses filled. At a sign from the host, the musicians in their gallery strike up "Amazing Grace.”
― Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

This God's Kingdom is the true home I long for. Could it be that Haywood Street is this small taste of Heaven? 

Courage

I am on the road this week, not in Asheville and therefore not at Haywood Street tomorrow. I shall miss my time there, but the distance and the drive have given me time for reflection about the community at Haywood Street.

I feel compelled to write about the courage it takes to live unhoused. There are many stories. Last week I met a woman who had just arrived in Asheville five days before. She and her husband had ridden a bus across the country from Montana to North Carolina because they heard there was work in the mountains. They arrived on Friday night only to discover that there was no shelter open and they had no where to stay. They had to sleep outside and on the street. Somehow they heard about Haywood Street and found their way to us. They had also found a place that would house them since Monday. She wanted to be a companion and put herself to work immediately in the Clothing Closet. One of the benefits of the Clothing Closet is that the inventory turns over rapidly. One of the other companions had brought some beautiful knit shirts in many colors for us to put out. Our new friend from Montana found a lovely yellow one that set off her tan and suited her sunny personality, but she wanted to leave something in exchange. She left a beautiful pastel lilac backpack. Someone wanted it and she went upstairs to tell her husband that she had exchanged it for another bag so he wouldn't think someone had stolen the backpack from her. She arrived with a smile on her face and left with a bigger one. It was clear she has a spirit of open trust and generosity. I am hoping to catch some of that from her when I go back next week. I know she and her husband want work, but I hope she finds something to do that allows her to come back for Haywood Street's lunches and services.

Another worker that I met recently is not unhoused now, but she has faced the threat of it and has made her way without losing heart. She has a job and she lives in a community a good distance away, but on a bus line so she can come to Haywood Street to work. Her car had an expensive repair she couldn't afford so she gave up her car. That meant she couldn't keep the job she had as there wasn't public transportation to it and therefore could not make her housenote. She lost her house as well as her car. What a change in her life! She had never been without a car since she was a teenager or a house since she was an adult. She has a friend who helps her do heavy shopping on weekends since trying to carry groceries  on the bus is difficult if she has more than a bag or two. I thought of my grandmother who never learned to drive a car. She worked as a secretary after her husband died of TB leaving her with four young children. Every day she rode the bus to town and back and when she got off the bus she went to the butcher and the green grocer for that night's dinner because that was all she could carry. Then she walked down an alley to her back door. My new acquaintance reminded me of that determination. If I wanted to make it sound romantic, I could say they were both very European, but I know what it is like to carry heavy groceries after a hard day of work from a car into a house. It is not romantic. I can only imagine what it was like to carry food many blocks.

Yes, it takes courage to sleep outside in sub-freezing temperatures, to endure thunder storms without shelter, to travel across the country on a rumor of work, and to restart life without transportation and a home. What they find at Haywood Street is an appreciation of their strength and a loving community that wants them to succeed.

Ankle holders

This day at Haywood Street was a trip to Hawaii complete with leis and a luau, pig's head and all. The meal was fun and the food, as always, was abundant and delicious, barbequed pork, rice, potatoes, mixed green salad, fruit salad, and corn bread. To drink was mango punch and tea. Lots of people enjoyed seconds of the pork. It was barbequed at the church yesterday.

I went to the Clothes Closet to work when I arrived. Anthony had unloaded the boxes of clothes I had dropped off on Saturday and the clothes closet looked great. We had some baby things to unload and put away, but except for those, there was very little to do until other donations started arriving. We had two new companions in the closet, Nicole and Mary. Nicole has lived in Asheville for quite awhile, but Mary and her husband had just arrived on Friday from Montana. Along with Lora and Marie we all worked hard. To have just arrived, Mary fit right in. It was a pleasure to meet these two new workers.

I am learning what happens to some of the people who end up without housing. Most of the time it is losing a job that starts the dominoes falling. Finding another is often very difficult from a state of unemployment. Sometimes losing a job happens because a mode of transportation like a car is too expensive to repair or keep up and there is no means of transportation to reach the old job. From there a house may be lost. Illness also precipitates loss of a job and then a place to stay. So far I have not encountered addiction as a reason for losing a home. Instead addiction came after the string of losses. Many at Haywood Street have climbed out of their spiral with the support of the community. Everyone rejoices when someone gets housing, but being homeless is not something to hold anyone back from being loved and cared for. The stories of the whys and how comes are myriad. The simple stereotyping of those who are unhoused is a way to distance ourselves from the possibilities that it could happen to us.

Brian's Scripture today was Acts 1: 1 - 11.  Luke begins to tell the story of Jesus's Ascension and what happens to the Apostles afterward to Theodophilus. I am disappointed to say that I had no pen or paper to take notes today. Brian had so many choice words to say and metaphors he used.  However, he began by discussing that every church has some ankle holders that try to hold Jesus down and attempt to make God smaller and less powerful and loving than He is. They limit other Christians from letting their "faith have feet." We can't just study the Word and think and pray about the Word; we have to live the Word. The question today was why was the Ascension important? There were many answers. Jesus had to ascend to the Father so the Holy Spirit could come.  His physical presence did not allow his followers to expand their faith. He went to prepare a place for us. He showed us how he'd return and what we would do one day. The congregation was totally immersed in understanding the Ascension, something we rarely study in Sunday School. Brian shared that it is the Holy Spirit working within us and through us that brings about the Kingdom. The Apostles, even though they had spent 40 days with him learning everything He knew about God, still asked Jesus when the Kingdom was coming. They did understand even then that He would give them power, but it would be His kind of power to heal, to bless, and to spread the Word that God loved them and was always with them through the Holy Spirit. So rise up was the call before Brian spoke and afterward.

I met Brian's father today. He and the church lady dog, Penny, sat behind me. I said, "I bet you are proud of Brian." He said, "Yes I am proud, but it is most important that he is doing what he loves." How wise he is! Though Brian's father has blue eyes, I see a deep resemblance in their souls.



 

Holy Disruption

This is May 12, not May 8, the last day I visited Haywood Street Congregation. After spending the day doing my usual and then some of hanging clothes at the Clothes Closet and scrubbing the stainless steel appliances and walls in the kitchen, I thought about the sermon I heard in between. Brian talked about Acts 16 and the story of Lydia. In it Paul experienced a "holy disruption" that sent him to Macedonia instead of to Ephesus, as he had planned. When I got home, I experienced my own disruption, hopefully a holy one. A good friend called and reported that an upcoming visit would have to be postponed - the friend will have to have surgery instead.  We are sad our friend can't join us to fish, but we are even more dismayed that our friend would have to go through surgery. He has been through much in the last five years. This has stopped me in my tracks and I didn't get this blog written.

What is a Holy Disruption? It is when you are going about doing what you think is God's will and suddenly God taps you on the shoulder and sends you in a different direction. Frederick Buechner says that these disruptions are desirable, in fact, they should be sought. I am beginning to understand that some disruptions are easy to feel and see as blessings, and some are the catastrophes we try to avoid but can't. What makes them "holy" is the attitude of the one who experiences them. Looking for God where you least expect Him is what it is all about. Disruptions give us a time to stop, look, and listen more carefully.

Paul had a dream of a man in Macedonia pleading with him to come, so Paul reported to Timothy and to Silas they were going to change their plans and go. They did. When they got there, they were told the worshipers were outside the gate by the river. There he found a group of God fearers, Greeks who believed in God,  and they were also women. Lydia, one of the women was a woman who dealt in purple cloth. The Spirit of Jesus opened Lydia's heart after listening to Paul preach. She and her household were all baptized and she invited Paul to meet in her home. Lydia had the first home church in Europe.

It is important to know some things about the Scripture. First Paul listened and responded. It is really important to hear that the worshipers were outside the gate which probably meant they were not allowed in the city. There were very few Jews in the area so there was no synagogue. The group were women. That is unusual because in order to meet and expect God to be there in the early church  ten men had to meet together for God to be present. Paul ignored that they were women which for Paul was unique. Then there is the matter of who Lydia was. She dealt in purple cloth. It takes 12,000 sea urchins to make a few drops of purple dye. Therefore purple cloth was only sold to the very, very wealthy and powerful. Lydia dealt with those people daily. Her entire household was baptized. In the early church if a man was ordained his wife was also so family baptism would have been another extension of families worshiping together. Not only that He remained with them as they met in Lydia's house church. This holy disruption led to the founding of a church and the baptism of a group of Greek women. God appears in unlikely places and doesn't follow man's rules. It is important to expect the unexpected and open to the presence of God.

 

Everyone Gets to Eat at the Table

     I ran late today. This was the third morning when I got up at closer to my old wake up time. My body just didn't want to move very rapidly so I got away from home late. However, there was help at Haywood Street when I arrived and others brought in the three big boxes and one large bag filled with clothes.

     Phyllis and Karla and Linda were there from Mars Hill. Lora and Marie were back and busy. Someone had changed everything the day before. Phyllis took the overflow of winter clothes to Goodwill. I won't bring anything like a coat from now on even though we had several people come asking for coats. They sleep in them. It is still cold here at night. Phyllis went to her car and looked for the right size since she had already loaded the winter boxes into her trunk. We found a big plastic box full of children's shoes and a few adult women shoes and a few athletic shoes. The shoe lookers are looking for sandals now and there were only two or three pair of them.

     The bags were gone and boxes of Kleenex went quickly along with toilet paper. Diapers and ladies'sanitary products were in much demand as were socks and hats. There are no socks in the drawers except infant socks for newborns which I brought. So much to provide . . .

At 11:30 I went to the dining hall to find someone to ask about the pink purse luncheon next Friday. Dee told me she'd connect me with someone. The lady who looked so familiar and I discovered how we knew one another -- she and her husband used to go to Weaverville UMC. She said they liked Linda very much, but that the church was not involved in much mission work at the time and they wanted a contemporary service. I told her the church was now very much involved in mission work, had lots of young families, a great youth group, and had started a contemporary service. She said her husband was committed to the choir in the church they attend so they wouldn't change now, but she was glad that WUMC was moving in all those directions. We never discovered the woman responsible for the Pink Purse affair so I asked Shannon to put me in touch and she said she would.

Lunch was delicious, as usual. It was a Greek meal, Greek salad, wild rice, braised fish, marinated veggies, pita and tzaziki, and peach cobbler a la mode. I sat at the table of Sarah in the back and around me gathered quite a group. The young black man with the great colored glasses came first. His glasses are just frames, no glass in them. They were orange last week. Today they were lime green.  He was very sweet. He had eaten with the first seating and was back for more. That is not encouraged, just because there are limited chairs for each seating, but no one cared. They encourage people to get second and third helpings instead of going away and coming back. This young man was a strapping youth and I am sure it took two plates of food to fill him. Around the rest of the table were several women and quite a few men. One young woman reminded me of my aunt Margaret except she was prettier. I was confounded to discover that there were two young women that reminded me of Margaret. I am going to have to study their features so I don't get them confused.

The chair to my left was empty until just before the blessing. A nice looking young man of about 30+ took it eventually.  He had on a University of GA t-shirt with a ballpoint pen stuck in the collar. He was not clean shaven, but he was clean cut looking. I asked him how he came to be there this day. I expected him to say he was a friend of Brian's and had been out of town and hadn't been to lunch for a couple of weeks. Instead, he said he had been to get food stamps and the man had told him how to get to Haywood Street and that they had lunch every Wednesday. He said he was just learning about how to get along without money. Something about that rang true. He said he was working out of town, had his laptop and phone stolen, and then the company he worked for couldn't pay him for his orders because they were not sent in when he lost the laptop. He barely made it to Asheville with the money he had. I told him about the Clothes Closet, the library, the haircuts upstairs, and the acupuncture that would be back next week. We could see the garden out the back windows and I told him they were going to have chickens soon to supply fresh eggs. He asked about the table names. I said something to him about Emmaus Walks and how the tables there are named. He said that it was funny. He had talked to his dad in Florida and he was going to an Emmaus Walk service at Asbury Lake this past weekend. He wasn't familiar with it beyond that, but then he wondered if it was like the Criseo(that may be misspelled) that his Episcopal church sponsored when he was younger. I said it was. I said that the tables remind us that these meals are like Emmaus Walks where we encounter Christ in strange and new places. I even said who would have thought he'd be having a wonderful meal at a church on a Wed. at lunchtime. He laughed and said he certainly wouldn't have. He wanted to know what time the service was on Sunday. I explained it wasn't on Sunday. It was today a few minutes from then.  I described the service and Brian and told him I hoped he'd come upstairs when he'd finished dessert, but I never saw him again. I hope he comes back. He's searching. Losing his laptop, though very awful, may be a blessing if he lets it be. I told him about Brian taking a group to Habitat on Thurs. Maybe he'll come back and help there.

Then I went upstairs for the service. Edward was playing and the church slowly filled. It was full soon, but it took it awhile. The first hymn was "Spirit of the Living God" and Edward played it once with the singing and then he conducted the congregation a capello. It was very lovely. The liturgy was about being a friend of Haywood Street Congregation. It was a commitment to claim it, covenant before God and our neighbors to walk in Jesus footsteps, pledge to share our divine gifts in this fellowship of manna and mercy, and promise to welcome all with the love of Christ.

Then Brian passed the church registry, a piece of paper on a clipboard. This was new to me.

Prayers were offered and Shannon directed that. Then a man sang the Confession of Faith and the congregation repeated the song. Shannon reminded us that we confess so that we can release all the burdens of our sins and those that others have put on us and feel the love of God.

The Word was from Acts 11:1-18, "Why did you go and eat with them?"

It was about Peter being called before the mother church in Jerusalem to explain himself. He had been eating with Gentiles and the church was upset. Good Jews did not eat with Gentiles and the early Christians were mostly Jews, especially those in Jerusalem. He didn't deny the charge, or explain it, or argue about it. He told a story about his own experience, seeing in a trance God telling him it was okay to eat whatever was offered, that there was nothing profane. Then a man, Cornelius, had sent for him and he had gone to him in Caesarea. The Spirit told Peter to go to Cornelius and when he arrived the Holy Spirit fell upon his household just as it had fallen upon the Apostles at Pentecost. When the church heard this, they were silenced. They said, "Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life." Brian told his story about being a boy who ate with his father and he started picking up trash at McDonald's on his way out the door. A man stopped him and told him a black woman with a uniform was being paid to do that and black people were put on this earth to clean up after whites. Brian's father told the man the woman was certainly doing her work, but that it was okay for Brian to do what he was doing and for him not to denigrate the woman. He also told the man not to ever say such a bigoted thing to his son again. There are no colors in God's eyes that separate us and no food that defiles us. The Church was converted that day by Peter's story.

A man was in the congregation who wanted to thank the church for baking the cookies for the prisoners at Marion. They baked 2700 cookies over the weekend and they are going to be delivered this next weekend.

In Haywood Street there is no East or West or North or South. It is one great fellowship of love. They feed the hungry, cloth the poor, visit the prisoner, and proclaim the love of God to everyone. It is a strange and wonderful place.