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.
No comments:
Post a Comment