I saw one woman in a crowd as she struggled to get a meal from one of the late-night food vans. When we asked her if the meals were really worth the fight, she said: "Oh yes, but I don't eat them myself. I get them for another homeless lady—an elderly woman around the corner who can't fight for a meal."
I saw a street kid get 20 bucks panhandling outside of a store and then immediately run inside to share it with all of his friends. We saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate because it was all he had. I met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some young guys who would mock her, curse her, and one night even sprayed Lysol in her eyes as a practical joke. As we held her that night, one of us said, "There are a lot of bad folks in the world, aren't there?"And she said: "Oh, but there are a lot of good ones too. And the bad ones make you, the good ones, seem even sweeter."
We met a little 7-year-old girl who was homeless, and we asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. She paused pensively and then replied, "I want to own a grocery store." We asked her why, and she said, "So I can give out food to all the hungry people."
Mother Teresa used to say, "In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises." Now I knew what she meant.
The sad, but also wondrous, thing is that sometimes those outside of the church reflect the spirit of Jesus better than those in the church. What about us and our church? Do people see Christ in us? Do we care like Jesus? Do we serve like Jesus? Do we live like Jesus? This is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. It isn’t really complicated, but it is hard and it challenges our safety and security. It reminds us how much we need and are dependent on God’s grace. It is easy to fall into the routine of only looking out for ourselves or those who are closest to us. But Jesus calls us to be revolutionary and radical and inclusive with our love. Are we?
