I've
been in school a lot. This is not self-promotion. I'm not trying to
say what a great, studious priest I am, as is plainly evident to
anyone who reads what I write. I just mean in my thirty-six years on
the planet, I cannot remember a time when I am not in school. I hold
three advanced degrees and am close to two more. Again, don't be
impressed. I spent seven-and-a-half years in undergraduate education.
I also like to have a lot of fun. Despite all this schooling, I'm not
a a scholar.
But
no place are the deficiencies in my vast education more evident than
at Southside Abbey. Those experiencing homelessness and hunger on the
Southside of Chattanooga don't care that I've got letters after my
name. Their needs are far more immediate than that.
And
so, as it turns out, are mine.
I
have written before about how my faith has been changed by the faith
of those I serve. I remember vividly the interaction of a man
experiencing homelessness for twelve years who handed me a money
order for $250 – the exact amount we budgeted for weekly food at
the time. I was so worldly I tried to talk him out of it. He said,
“Don't take this gift away from me! I want to buy dinner for my
friends this week!” Hmm. Clearly I still had a lot to learn about
faith.
And
it turns out, I still do.
A
few weeks ago, we saw one of our regulars at worship on Friday night.
He had been away for several weeks and I was starting to worry about
him. Also, he lived in an abandoned building that was recently torn
down. So, I was more than relieved to see him. As I was talking to
him, I noticed that he was a little scuffed up and had more than the
typical bruises. Like any good seminary-educated-pastor, I asked him,
“Where've you been? We've been missing you.”
He
told me that he had been in the hospital, because he had been thrown
off a bridge where he was staying. He also told me that the two guys
who did it added insult to injury by stealing all his stuff as he lay
there injured. Then he dropped quite a bombshell... The two guys who
perpetrated this dastardly act were in worship with us that evening
at Southside Abbey. They were withing twenty or thirty feet of this
conversation as it was happening! I went into papa-bear mode and
wanted to know who did this to our friend. He wouldn't tell me no
matter how I pressed. Then he laid it all out:
“I
can't tell you who they are, because I know you and you'd ask them to
leave. I don't want them to leave, because they need Jesus just as
much as I do.”
They
need Jesus just as much as I do. That's faith. I don't lament my
formal education by any stretch of the imagination – clearly I've
loved every expensive minute of it. But now, I've got some new
teachers, and they're the best teachers money can't buy.
This
post
was
originally published on the
Episcopal
Church Foundation's Vital Practices Vital Posts
blog
on November 11, 2015. It has been reprinted here with permission.
