03 May An Empty Building and The Mean Season

I spent the past 26 Sundays with anywhere from 50 to 110 friends. This past Sunday, I said goodbye to them. As strange as this might sound, I pray that I will never see them again; at least not the way I’ve seen them for the past six months. You see, my friends are unhoused. I pray they don’t stay that way. Our Sunday afternoon program at Samaritan’s Heart Mission Church, Warming in the Heart (WiTH), ended Sunday, April 26. That coincided with the impending April 30 closure of the “shelters of last resort” in Green Bay, operated by St. John’s Ministries. My heart is heavy for two reasons.

First, I will genuinely miss the time I spent with them. We love them all. Some have become members of our church family. Others have become special friends. Second, my heart is heavy because the next six months can be fairly described as “the mean season” for my friends. The meanness will come in two forms.

The elements will be mean. Stifling heat, unseasonably cold nights, rain and wind. More heart-wrenching to me is that the second source of meanness will come from people. Oh, these people don’t intend to be mean and don’t realize they are being mean. The meanness can be subtle; turning the other way when they see my friends, making demeaning comments about my friends on social media, encouraging policies designed to make my friends invisible, treating my friends as one homogenous entity rather than individual human beings. Forgive me if that sounds harsh. It’s simply reality.

Most who pass by my friends won’t see someone with severe mental health issues, or addiction, or a criminal record that closes doors. Most won’t see someone to love.  Many will try not to see them at all. Many will be unaware of how many pedestrians they see are unhoused. Some will be angered by seeing them; not righteous indignation anger at their plight. They will be angry because they had to see them. My friends are more aware of all these things than you might imagine. Of course, some people will respond with love, compassion and understanding. Where will you stand in this mean season? Let us remember where God stands.

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:37-40 (NIV)

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” Isaiah 58:6-7 (NIV)

We as a church are working with other like-minded people on a plan to meet our friends, and friends we have not yet met, where they are this summer. Please pray for my friends this summer. And if God blesses you richly enough to have an opportunity to share a Matthew 25:40 moment with them, I pray that you listen and say yes.

Pastor Jerry Bader