I often feel such overwhelming guilt when I pass by the homeless on Skid Row. I often feel so helpless to offer any meaningful way to help. What exactly do they need? Do they need more money, more food, more access to shelters or rehabilitation centers? How can a small emerging church make a difference upon the thousands that live in such desperate need?
I came across this statement by a lifelong worker for the homeless, “We have offered them bread without giving them the bread of life.” On the surface this statement seems obvious. We give homeless physical bread without offering them any meaningful spiritual nourishment. I think most of us know that what the homeless need most is Christ. But if you’ve ever been on Skid Row you know that most of them are professing Christians. Many of them can quote Scripture and pray regularly in their times of need. So have we really refused homeless the bread of life?
It depends upon how you define bread and how you define life. Life for us does not consist in simple survival. We will not be found in a happy estate if all we did in a day was to eat the same cheese sandwich and have a bare bed on which to sleep. Life for us consists in meaningful relationships, humor, art, music and beauty. These are the components that make life meaningful. A life devoid of these things wouldn’t be a life worth living. Yet we think the needs of our homeless friends consists simply in terms of basic food and shelter.
We offer them bare necessities that include bare biblical teachings. Imagine if you went to a church service where the pastor had the same simple points in every sermon. Imagine if he preached out of a tract and ended each teaching by saying, “So Jesus loves you.” Do you think you would grow and be nurtured? Or would church seem like a bare ritual and would you feel spiritually undernourished? But this is what we seem to offer homeless Christians when we minister to them: a sandwich and a tract.
One of the things we want to do at our church is to fill in the small but meaningful details that many of the service providers may miss. What our homeless friends need in addition to a meal is a glimpse of beauty, art and the joy of life. We had some other church groups visit our last outing in which many of them asked or gave me looks like, “Is this all you are doing? What are cutting people’s hair and giving them manicures really accomplishing?” It’s easy to understand this perspective. But when you look at your own life it is the small joys that accumulate to the pleasures in life. We find small joys in looking in the mirror after a haircut. We find delight in looking our best after months of feeling unattractive. We all often forget the beauty of being made in God’s image. We should offer our homeless friends nothing less than that.
Malcom Gladwell wrote a bestseller a few years ago called, “Tipping Point.” He argues that little things can come together to “tip” a greater movement. We often think with the great problem of homelessness we need massive reforms which require exorbitant amounts of manpower and money. But this need not be the case. Jesus talks about “mustard seed” faith. The little seeds can sprout to become the greatest of plants. The small and foolish things of the world go on to shame the wise and powerful. It is the small church doing small ministries that can potentially fill the dark gray of Skid Row with the bright love of Christ. We need only start planting these small seeds with faith.
Filed under: Uncategorized
