a surrender - 28

(Continuing "a surrender," chapter four, "the anawim")

On rare occasions, however, when someone responded especially badly, I did say something. One night I arrived at a church after dark. There were lights on and cars in the parking lot; some kind of meeting was going on. So I waited. When two men came out, I introduced myself and asked if I could sleep in the covered area beside the church. They sounded doubtful. One of them went to ask the pastor. When he returned, he was shaking his head.

“I know this doesn’t sound very Christian,” he said. “I know it sounds like we’re sending you away….”

“It doesn’t just sound unchristian,” I replied. I couldn’t believe they wouldn’t even let me sleep outside on their sidewalk. “It doesn’t just sound like you're sending me away. You are sending me away.”

He started talking about insurance and the sheriff, and said something vague about vagrancy laws.  

I said I would leave. But I reminded him that Jesus had said, “When you did it to the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”

That seemed to bother him. “The bible says we should obey the authorities, who were instituted by God,” he shot back. 

“It seems God has put you in quite a quandary, hasn’t he?” was all I said. 

“Yes… he has…” the man replied quietly, as he walked away with his head down.

As I was gathering my few things, a group of people came out of the church, including an older man in a wheelchair, the pastor. “You understand the situation…” he began, when he saw me. He also mentioned insurance, and said he was concerned about what the sheriff would do if he found me sleeping there.

“What the sheriff does is up to the sheriff,” I replied softly. “I’m more interested in what you will do.”

Then another man stepped up boldly. He said he was in charge of church security and was quite willing to take responsibility for sending me away. There are laws against vagrancy, he said. Then added, “I don’t mean to insult you.”

“Jesus was not ashamed to be homeless,” I said, looking right at him, “and neither am I.”

Right then, an older woman stepped up behind the pastor and asked me, “Do you need a place to stay? We can take you to the place down the road….” Apparently she was the pastor’s wife, and she had just figured out what all this was about. She looked at him. “You know, the motel down there….”

The pastor immediately agreed. The man in charge of security went silent, and seemed to fade from the scene. The pastor and his wife drove me to the motel. When she took me inside to pay for the room, I thanked her.

“He really is a good man,” she told me.

“Sometimes our advisors lead us astray,” I replied, with a smile. “I’m just glad for him and for the church that he has you for an advisor.”

Continued...