The Face of Homelessness

Yesterday I saw the faces of homelessness in east Orlando. They did not look the way I expected them to.
Every Saturday, our church, University Presbyterian, provides breakfast in the park for homeless people, through its Manna Ministry. Our small group volunteered to help this week. I expected the group would be primarily men--it was; older--it wasn't; unkempt--some were, but by no means all. I'm not entirely sure how I expected them to look. I guess I assumed it would be obvious by their attire and demeanor that these folks were down and out. But it wasn't. Yes, some had obviously not had access to a shower for several days, perhaps weeks. But the majority actually appeared pretty put together.
I did not expect to see a young couple with a baby, a young bare-chested man, barely 20, a young attractive woman who could have been a coed sporting the latest grunge wear. She told us she works part-time at a local university, only recently got a telephone and has no means of transportation. I'm not sure all these folks are homeless in the sense they have no permanent address or a place to sleep at night, but obviously, they are marginalized. If not homeless, living on the edge. Each must have their own unique story of misfortune, poor choices, or the impact of the recession on their life.
I have not really stopped to analyze my motivation for helping yesterday. Our pastor has been preaching a series of sermons on living missionally - actually living out the gospel. A few weeks ago, in a message on social justice, he made the point that guilt is really not an effective, long-term motivator for getting involved in issues of social justice. Most of us will soon weary of doing good only out of guilt. Gratitude, he said, is a much more effective motivator. Gratitude for God's grace and mercy in our own lives ought to prompt us to share the blessings of life in Christ with those around us. If I'd done much thinking at all about my motivation before yesterday I think I saw my involvement as a feeble effort to be Jesus to people who needed a tangible demonstration of a loving God.  I hope they saw and heard that in my service.

What the people we served yesterday likely don't know is the impact they had on me. I saw Jesus in them. Jesus told a would-be follower, "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but I have nowhere to lay my head." Forget creature comforts if you're going to be my disciple. Ouch... because it's my creature comforts that keep me from totally relying on and trusting God  - not just for my next meal, but for the very air I breathe. But the folks I served yesterday - at the end of their resources - are utterly dependent on the grace of God, rendered through the kindness of others. Maybe learning - and relearning that lesson -  is sufficient motivation to continue serving the least of these.

4 Sale!

Since I started working from home more than a  year ago, I had used the kitchen island as my work space while we mulled other options for a dedicated work space for me. A couple of months, ago I ran across an office layout that we decided we could make work for us, with a minimum layout of cash. It meant having an L-shaped desk top custom made and getting rid of the computer roll top desk we'd bought four years ago. While I'm still tweaking the new office layout and mostly loving it, we have not yet been successful in selling the desk. A craigslist posting generated only one inquiry, and that, apparently, a scam - a gentleman inquiring while on his honeymoon in Hawaii. Yea, right. May I suggest your marriage may be happier if you focus on your new bride on your honeymoon, rather than prowling craigslist. Sheesh.
Saturday was community rummage/garage sale day in our neighborhood, so we decided to see if we could make a sale. It was barely daylight when potential buyers began perusing the goods in the neighbors' driveways, so we quickly set up shop with the desk and a defunct sewing machine. Yea, I know, not much of an inventory.
Interesting experience, though. Amazing the number of people that do drive-by rummaging. Obviously, they are on a mission for one, presumably large, item that can be spotted from the road. I will admit, that when I took a morning walk to check out the other garage sales, I could determine from a glance, whether it was worth my time to cross the street and check out the goods. Mostly I attribute that to the fact that since we shifted into downsizing mode a few years, we rarely rummage. There's just not much we need or have room for anymore.
One woman took the opportunity to proselytize - after all -- she certainly had a captive audience. She opened our encounter with an admiring comment about the desk. Warm and friendly, she quickly turned to her mission - giving me a copy of her church's magazine. I was able to politely decline. Must admit I'm shamed by her passion and commitment to testify to her faith at every opportunity - even a garage sale.
The defunct sewing machine - free for parts - generated little interest and no takers. We decided to take a chance on leaving it at the end of the driveway and hope that someone might take it off our hands. It worked. When we returned after being gone for a few hours, it was gone. I guess people feel better about taking something for free when no one is around to see them take it?
Of the three items on our driveway (besides a vehicle) - the desk, sewing machine, and the bench we were sitting on - guess which one got the most inquiries? The bench, naturally. If we'd have had half as much interest in the desk as we had in the bench, I think we might have made a sale. I guess rummagers figure anything is fair game. If bargaining is the name of the game, perhaps you can even convince people to sell something that isn't nailed down.
Anyway - strike 2 on the desk.  Next stop for the desk - a consignment shop. Here's hoping for a quick sale.

Seeds of Turmoil

In Seeds of Turmoil, Bryant Wright, the recently elected head of the Southern Baptist Convention, traces the roots of the Middle East conflict beyond Israel's 1948 establishment as a nation, to its Biblical roots. He asserts that Abraham's decision, suggested and encouraged by his wife, Sarah, to sleep with her maid, Hagar, in an effort to produce an heir, demonstrated not only a serious lack of faith, but is the source of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Abraham and Hagar’s union produced Abraham’s first-born, Ishmael. Yet God’s promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many, was to be fulfilled with Sarah. When Abraham and Sarah were long past their child-bearing years, God blessed them with Isaac, the child of the promise, setting up the sibling rivalry that continues today.
Wright provides an important service in surveying the biblical and historical events that produced Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and tracing the history of the area from biblical times to present day. Yet, Wright reads Scripture through different lenses than I do, and it colors his understanding and interpretation of both ancient and modern history.
I mention only two of several points at which I take issue with Wright: the nature of God’s covenant promises to Abraham, and political reality.
Wright argues that God’s covenant promises to Abraham  - to make him a great nation and to give his descendants the land he inhabited - continue to this day. Thus, he maintains, Israel, as Abraham’s divinely appointed heirs, have a right to the geographic boundaries laid out in the Old Testament. This is a significant point at which Wright and I differ in our understanding of Scripture. I believe that the New Covenant, promised throughout the Old Testament, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ and supersedes the Old Covenant. God did, indeed, choose to reveal his purposes for humanity through Israel. He placed them in a strategic crossroads between two major continents to be salt and light to the nations around them. At the same time, throughout the Old Testament, God continues to point to a new and better covenant - a covenant to be written on the hearts of all believers; a covenant not bound to a geographic location, but lived out in the lives of those who recognize Jesus Christ  - in his death, resurrection, and eternal reign, as the fulfillment of the covenant. The covenant or God’s Kingdom is no longer confined to a geographic area in the Middle East, but is carried on in the redeemed people of God. Thus, to argue, as Wright does for Israel’s God-given stake to the land is, in my opinion, a misunderstanding of God’s intent and purposes.
Wright’s view of Scriptures leads him to view history through blinders. He sees what he wants to see. He points repeatedly to Israel’s miraculous survival since 1948 – surrounded by and overcoming enemies twice their size and capacity. He sees Israel's success in the Arab-Israeli War which established their independence and the 1967 Six-Day War as evidence of God’s purposes and desires for Israel. He completely ignores the political reality that without U.S. military aid, Israel would hardly be able to withstand the assaults on their nation. One-fifth of the United State's entire foreign aid budget goes to Israel. That hardly makes Israel David to their neighbors Goliath.
The Middle East is a complex situation for historical, geo-political and economic reasons. Wright touches only the surface of the problem, and hence, in my opinion, offers a rather simplistic solution. There will be no peace in the Middle East until the Lord returns. In the meantime, we should pray for peace (agreed),and love Jew and Arab alike (agreed.) But to assert that Israel is God's highly favored nation with a divine right to exist, is misreading Scripture.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”