Christ the King Sunday

11-23-97 Last Friday, I drove all the way to Evanston just so that I could see the lake. And now that I know that it is still there, I'm okay now, my life is centered. Perhaps to return to the place that I call home was a fitting thing to do to prepare me for giving this sermon. I have preached this sermon several times before, because it tells of a very important part of my life and my ministry. I guess it has been more than a few years ago now. I had one quarter left vefore I would graduate from college. and looking into the darkness of the future, I had no idea of where I would go. And more importantly for me at the time, I just didn't have the energy to find out. e daily reports on my activities, and after being told that I would be killed for asking the agency to check on her. Joan was not very happy when I told her that if God ever delivered me from that situation that If I ever saw her again, it would be much too soon. And forever is not hear yet because I could care less where Joan is. But I really don't think that Joan, or any of the other people that I stayed with are around anymore anyplace. Because even though they were a part of the system, I don't think that they ever found what they were looking for. Today is Christ the King Sunday. The day when we acknowledge that Christ the king of our lives and the kig of our church. Revelations tells us that Christ loves us enough to sacrifice himself so that our lives do not hav to be a sacirfice. And that we have been set free from the bondage of our own sin, so that it doesnt have to ruin our lives. That is why he is our King. If we in church need to hear that message, then can you imagine how many peop þ'N ° T› Ð ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ j2 Â4 4 4 4 4 4 4 à=Ð/ Ð 8 d 4 ÿÿÿÿ Ð ,4 – h2 Wesley church 11-23-97 Last Friday, I drove all the way to Evanston just so that I could see the lake. And now that I know that it is still there, I'm okay now, my life is centered. Perhaps to return to the place that I call home was a fitting thing to do to prepare me for giving this sermon. I have preached this sermon several times before, because it tells of a very important part of my life and my ministry. I guess it has been more than a few years ago now. I had one quarter left vefore I would graduate from college. and looking into the darkness of the future, I had no idea of where I would go. And more importantly for me at the time, I just didn't have the energy to find out. I was tired of working, tired of writing papers. I was just tired of going through all of the red tape of life. So on the day that I had to move out of my rented room for the summer, I put all of my things in storage and went to a homeless shelter in Evanston. Men outnumbered women in the shelter about 5 to 1, so it was not a problem for me to get in. We were allowed to stay there for about three months. During that time, I roomed with a woman from Milwaukee named Joan. Joan was about 34, she had been a journalist to support her two children. Once I met her she was addicted to crack and alcohol, and had been diagnosed as mental ill. I never really asked Joan how she ended up in a shelter in Evanston, but as I got to know her, I had a pretty good idea. Evantually, she and I were given a transitional apartment where we could stay free and save up money to get into an apartment. The experience had a profound effect on me because it taught me a lot about how we relate to each other as people. I feel that it is important for me to give this sermon, because we as people depend so much on our imporeesions and understandings in order to form our opinoins about people and about situations. Today homelessness has become almost an obsession in our society. Social service agancies and the media has created this image of who homeless people are and how society should deal with them and what we should do. We treat situations as if they were problems to be solved. Perhaps if we had enough homes, or enough jobs, or enough peple to help then everyone would have a place to go. Or perhaps if we could just raise the self esteem of some people and teach them a "better way" of life then things would be okay. I remember listening to the speech of a man in agony as he spoke about a lady that he had saw on a park bench. He was literally in tears tellling our group of how he should have taken her to a shelter, and how her whole life was ruined because he had failed to stop and show her a better way of life and that there were all of these people who cared for her and would have helped her. And he would live in eternal guilt because he did nothing. I was frustrated because I couldnt help but to wonder why he was placing so much judgement on this unknown women, when all that he had to do was to sit next to her on the park bench and say, I notice that you are crying, is there anything that I can do. He was willing to do what he considered his good christian deed for the day, but he wasnt willing to actually relate to the woman. A lot of people are that way. To be charitable looks good on our christian resume. So people give and give to causes in hopes that they are making a difference. Jesus has told us in the gospels that there will always be poor people. There is nothing really that we can do to change a situation that has been mandated by God. But anyway. To continue on with my story. One of the first jobs that Joan got was to write an article about her expereince for the Chicago Tribune. One night before she turned in her story, we talked about it. So I will use her words, they have stuck with me all of this time. She said, you know, if they were to shut the shelter down tomorrow and told us all to go home. Not one of us would be at a lost of where to go. And we all have our sad story about why are not there. Joan went on to say that the search for a homeless shelter is really not a search for a physical bed, or food or clothing etc. People on the tramp trail, as it is called, are really on a spiritual journey, in search for a spiritual bed, spiritual food, and spiritual covering. Yes it is true that we are commanded by Christ to feed teh hungry, clothe the naked and to provide shelter for those in need. I was not born a methodist. But I decided to become a methodist and to devote my life to the united methodist church because that was the church that provided all of those things for me when I needed them. But the mystery of God was not in the physical things. For the first time in my ife, I understood the meaning of grace from being homeless. I didn't have to be any particualr way, I didn't have to worry about whether I deserved to survive, or whether I had earned my keep or answered any questions. I was taken care of just becuase I asked to be taken care of. One day, a methodist minister brought his capus ministry group to the shelter to worship with is. Afterwords, he came up to me and told me that I appeared to be such a happy, content person with sucxh a glow. After he said that to me, I didn't need to be there anymore. I could finally take the next step forward. I wonder if people who work with the homeless realize that people go to homeless shelters in search of the same things that people who haven't lost their patience with the institutions of this society would go to church. While in the shelter, people tend to form a very tight bond with one another( for a little while) and when we would get together, we would alwasy start by saing everybody here had got their say story to tell about how they ended up on the streets. and it never was a story about houses burning down, or robbers breaking in and taking everything. It was alwasy a story about the breakdown of a signigicant relationship in there lives. Every single person that I met was on a journey in search of something that they lacked either spiritually or emotionally as a result of that loss. Being homeless was called the tram trail, because you jump from program to program. As soon as one agency cuts you off, then you go to another and tell your sad tale all over agin until the too get tired of listening. and when your survivial depends on how well you can get over on people, you get good at it. Some of us can get spiritual fullfillment form going to work every day, or going to church or spending time with family or friends. Jsut dealing with normal human relatiomnships. But when somehting in those relatoinships goes wrong and it starts to effect not only your mind, but your soul, that's when peple see salvation on the tramp trail, on the outside of society. But they start to live a life of seeking help for the sake of seeking help. Not neccarily because they can't help themselves. Have you ever know anyone who is used to depending on others to get what they want in life? They get to t he point where they spend more energy making ohters do for them what they could do for themselves. Which is why, in all due respect, I don't have a lot of sympathy for homeless people. My expereince is not common. I am one of the few people who got into the system and chose to get out of it. Most of the pople who I stayed with in the shelter are still on the trail. And I don't have a whole of of support for the agencies that serve them wither. Because I don't understand who they spend so much time addressing the physical symptoms of a deeper issue. Why are we addressing a persons endless cycle of homelessness, when it is a result of an addiction or other destructive lifestyle. If that person chose to walk away from the lifestyle, then not wole they be able to take care of themselves, they would probably be able to be reconciled back into the home that they were alienated from in the first place. There was a Garrett seminary student in charge of overseeing us. I went to him one day and asked what it meant to be called to God. His response was that I had fallen through the cracks of society and that my concern should be to get my life together. Actually my passion became to make that student eat his words. By going to the same school that he went to and getting the same degree he did and being a minister just like him. Actually my passion was to go back and to ask all of those nice church people who showed me the meaning of grace that in the midst of all of your giving to please give Jesus Christ. If people need a place to sleep, they can go home. If they need food to eat they can save the thirty dollars that they spend on recreation and go buy groceries, if they need pampers for their baby, then shouldn't buy the baby $100 air jordan gym shoes. People criticize president clinton for his welfare reform, but life is really just that simple. If the problem is mandated by God and will always be here, then why not address the attitude that prepetuates it. but it is not muy intention to be political. But my question to you is where else can you go in this society who has been given a license to address the spiritual issues of life but the church? Christ told us to give to those in need, but he also told us to be the body of Christ. He told us to give salvation to the whole world. I dont understand why salvation is something that reserved solely for evangelical churches. Evangelical churches don't give grace. When mainline denomitaions are dying because they don't give salvatoin. There are a lot of people out there who not only need both, but are searching for both and have not found it. While in seminary, one minister asked the question, why is that the only way for people to get help in this society is to fall off of the cliff? Then we can identify the need and rush to help so that we can pat ourselves on the back and say how good we are. But why can't we help people before they even need to walk to the edge? Before that become addicts, before they become disfunftional, before they try to feel the God void in their lives with things they don't need. Why can't we tell them that they do have a place to call home in the church? A place where they can be accepted for who they are and what they rae going through, so that they don't have to do outside of their lives looking? The task of most social service agencies is to maintain people at their present state. Nothing ever changes in them, so they continue to need to services. The job of the church is to tranform with the power of Christ. It scares me that as a society that we build more and more shelters, to allow people to walk away from difficult issues, but the job of the church is to allow reconcilation. People can go to psychologist for years and years and never get any better, but once you know Jesus Christ as a personal saviour problems seem to take care of themselves. Eventually both joan and I moved out of our apartment. I went back to finish my last quarter at Northwestern and Joan went back to Milwaukee. Joan and I did not part on good terms. As a matter of fact, after waking up one morning to find the gas on the stove turned on, with no fire and Joan gone,: after getting an order of protection from my boyfriend only to find out that Joan had been accepting collect calls from him in jail to givle in the world need to hear that message to. Have you seen Joan? If you did, what did you tell her? lter about 5 to 1, so