My first blog postings were over 3 years ago. Haywood was already on its way to serving large numbers of people both housed and unhoused, privileged and poor, but the times and the notoriety of our Welcome Table and all the other offerings on Wednesday have attracted more people than the considerably sized Fellowship Hall and Eating Area can hold. By the end of each month when the reduced Food Stamp allotments that have grown smaller and smaller over the last Republican controlled Congress and Legislature years are all gone, we are serving 600-700 people on any given Wednesday and 200+ on most Sunday evenings, even though the missions won't let their participants come out after 4:30 and the buses don't run after 6. However, as our needs have grown so have God's resources. Trader Joe's gives us all their leftovers 6 days a week. We haul away all that our van can manage to hold. Thirty-six of the world class restaurants in Asheville bring their staff and their fare to our kitchens once or twice a month to feed the crowds. We've built a walk-in freezer(money miraculously raised in two calendar months) and we share our bounty with six other non-profits around the city that serve the hungry. Just accounting for and distributing this wealth of food has become more than a full time job.
I've often wondered why this food has not been offered elsewhere. Some other missions have benefited but not like we have. I got my answer recently when a merchant friend told me he would contribute to Haywood because he knew we vetted those who get our resources and those resources would go to the best places. Yes, we would not knowingly pass along our bounty to someone who would misuse or abuse the gift, but we are a church of "yes" in a world of "only if" or "maybe if " you are deserving. We put no qualifiers on our grace anymore than God does. We do have our priorities, however, as does He. Those priorities are something like this: the strangers(might I add aliens) in our midst, the hungry, the naked, the imprisoned, and the sick(in mind or body). God gave us this list in the parable of the goats and sheep and we take it very seriously. Indeed, it is our belief that serving those who are least on earth is all God wants us to do and that proclaiming we believe in Him and accept Him as our Lord and Savior is of little or no significance without the action that reaches out to all children of His that demonstrates we understand what those words mean.
Moreover, Haywood is not about serving to but serving with. There are no grandchildren of God here. We are all His sons and daughters so we need not look down upon anyone as if we have more than they. Yes, we may have become privileged due to our skin color or our inherited gifts or our material possessions, but often we have no idea how poor we are in the gifts of the Kingdom until we have a relationship with those who have suffered from their lack of privilege. I have been given forgiveness for my arrogance and for my inability to fit into their beaten up shoes. They are the first to be generous with one another and to protect one another and me from ourselves. The love of those who are least is so great it can reach into my hardened heart and crack the dried soil that surrounds it with their tears.
These are the lessons I have just begun to learn from Haywood Street Congregation. After over 3 years of attendance, I have just begun. As Andrew said to his brother Simon, I say to you, "Come and see!"
