The Church, The Homeless, and Jesus

Maybe you've seen this photo circulating on facebook with a story about a pastor masquerading as homeless man and being rejected by his church. I have seen it several times recently.

First off, this story is MADE UP.

Also the photo is an art shot of a REAL homeless guy, being used without the photographer's permission.

(Photo credit to Brad J. Gerrard, for what it's worth.)

Still, it makes you think. What do we, both as individuals and collectively as The Church do about the homeless?

The short answer is: We do what we can to help. But this can be discouraging.

I was talking to a friend yesterday who told me about a homeless man, an addict, who had been a regular attender at their church. She said the church had helped him get a place to live, a car and a job, and that he had faithfully stayed sober for nearly two years, coming to church every Sunday. Then he stopped coming. My friend recently saw him downtown, back on the street, obviously "off the wagon." She spoke to him and he seemed pleased to see her. She was glad he was still alive but discouraged that he hadn't managed to "go straight." She wondered what more the church could have done to help him.

This reminded me of a similar story that had played out at my church, years ago in another state. We'd had many homeless people in and out of the church doors and given them various levels of assistance, but mostly just food and clothes. But there was one man the church considered a real success. He'd been clean and sober several years; he had an apartment and a steady job (as a janitor for the church); he was doing really well. Then he started drinking again. Eventually he lost the job, the apartment, all of it. He drifted away from us. We shook our collective heads, thinking we'd given him every chance. We wondered why some people just can't help themselves.

I don't have the answer to this question. The truth is that addiction, homelessness, and poverty in general are sometimes just too big for anyone to handle.

In Matthew 26:11a, Jesus says, "For you have the poor with you always."

Sometimes people quote this verse as an excuse to do nothing for the poor. After all, even Jesus said the problem will never be solved! So why bother, right? Isn't that what these stories of people who "can't be helped" teach us?

Um. No.

I don't think He meant it that way at all. Maybe He meant we will always have endless opportunties to help the poor, not to "fix" them, whatever that means, but simply to serve them, and to show them compassion.

After all, we love because He first loved us, and we have compassion only because He first extended compassion to us.

Psalm 103: 13-18

¹³ The Lord is like a father to his children,
tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
¹⁴ For he knows how weak we are;
he remembers we are only dust.
¹⁵ Our days on earth are like grass;
like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
¹⁶ The wind blows, and we are gone—
as though we had never been here.
¹⁷ But the love of the Lord remains forever
with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
¹⁸ of those who are faithful to his covenant,
of those who obey his commandments!

 

We serve a God who remembers that we are dust, and loves us anyways. What can we do, but love our fellow creatures with the same open heart?

 

No one said this was easy, by the way. In fact, it's impossible.

 

But God is in the business of doing the impossible, of saving the unsavable, and fixing the unfixable. We can only trust Him.

 

Matthew 19:25b-26

[The Disciples] said, ‘Then who can be saved?’  But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.’