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?
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