Have you seen Jesus lately?
I was just talking to a small group panel. One of the members mentioned that the Church needs to be a part of the reconciliation with Nicaragua for the injustice from the Reagan era. I told them that I was thinking about Reagan and his part in homlessness just last night. I saw a homeless man leaning against his shopping cart, compliments of the local Safeway. He looked just like Jesus. Holding my wife’s right hand after a lovely dinner with two friends in San Francisco, I noticed the homeless man from a distance. He was across the street and perhaps 30 yards away. I watched him hover his cart in order to brace himself to prevent falling from the apparent big buzz from his cheap whiskey. Just as we approached our car, which was directly across the street from him, he fell to the ground and his cart toppled over him. I have justified walking past him and leaving him lay for the past 20 hours. Yet, I know that when I left him lying in on the sidewalk and I drove away I saw Jesus in my rearview mirror. It was Jesus that I left in the street. So much for the "least of these". Nicaragua or San Francisco, it would be much easier to blame Reagan or to debate politics and theology with a few grad students about the sins of government, than it would to embrace the leper in my midst. I too want reconciliation. I want to be reconciled to the Jesus that I left lying in the street last night.
12 Comments:
Rick, one day - very, very soon - you're going to not settle for merely being a Christian anymore.
Soon, Rick. Very, very soon.
Wow....
I wonder how many of us (myself definitely included) have stories just like that one. And if so, how can we reconcile those stories and give them different endings in the future. I can wrap myself up in the guilt once again for NOT helping the "least of these", but how do I get beyond the guilt and actually do something? How do we get to the point where we're "not going to settle for merely being a Christian anymore"??
Rick,
If you're going to besmirch a President, at least spell his frickin' name right...
It's Reagan...
And if you're up to being respectful, it's President Reagan...
It's also nice to know that homelessness is solved whenever a liberal gets elected...
Just ask Clinton... make that President Clinton...
Sigh...
Thanks for your comments.
Thanks to Rick in Virgina for correcting me on my spelling. An easy mistake to correct. Heck, you'd think I would know that since I vioted for him. And thanks to Rick in Virginia for being a master of missing the point when it comes to undertsanding the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not the Gospel of any political party. Read deeper for the message and try not to allow your prejudices to get in your way only reinforcing a narrow mind. It was Jesus on the cross, not George Bush or is that President Bush or Busch, as in the beans... Rick, I invite you to grow... with Christ.
Hey Rick, thanks once again for shining light on the simplicity of the gospel," have you seen Jesus." I'm always astounded as Jesus ecountered people, he never real saw a alcoholic, a prostitute...he always encountered the sacred, this hidden image of God in each person.
The challenge for me, do I do the same...do I look for Jesus in the least of these I encounter in my walk.
Rick,
Not sure how you arrived at the conclusions you've drawn from my comments other than to make assumptions and judgments that are simply incorrect.
My understanding of the Gospel is rather simple.
Grace.
Grace that is surely extended to the least of these.
Grace that is also extended to people you might despise or blame for homelessness.
Perhaps it is you that needs a reminder.
Rick, if I might be allowed the indulgence of posting a second response....I've been drawn to NLE for some time because I sense the heart of a disciple struggling to live out a real world faith and wrestling with real world issues. I also sense the calling of leadership on your life, and this post was such a perfect example - even in your struggle you show the way - that to not settle for merely being a Christian really can be as simple as getting out of the car and walking across the street. I've also sensed (and I'm not sure why) in your last few posts that God has you on the cusp of a spiritual sea-change. I'm no guru on these things, it's just sense I have.
As an aside (and as you know) I work with the homeless and every single day - every single one - I am reminded of how inadequate I am to live out love to the least of these. Any such expression I have is surely the work of God because I am a selfish oaf. What amazes me about all of this is that you *did* look in the rear-view mirror. I'm not sure I would have.
Alas, 99% of the Christians I know would do just as you did, only they wouldn't think twice or look back. I've seen a lot of people trying to "win souls" and carry out "programs", and build buildings. I've seen an untold number of people completely envelop their Christianity in Republican beliefs and politicians. Seems to me God is mostly concerned with feeding the poor, and caring for widows and orphans in their distress. From what I read from Jesus’ life, he didn't care much for politics. I left my church months ago and just haven't had the strength to join another one because I know I would just find more of the same--not to mention the church politics that are just lethal! If I can find a church where the focus is the poor, widowed, orphaned, and needy (i.e. one that focuses on social justice) then I would love to attend it. Unfortunately, in my neck of the woods Christian = Republicans. The non-Republicans are forced into silence. It is no wonder so little of the population here does not attend church. If someone were to start one for those outside the Republican Party that simply wanted to follow the teachings of Christ, I bet it would burst at the seams. --And oh, yes, we should repent the sufferings we've caused around the world. I agree. As Jesus would say, "Repent, before something happens to you!"
without reading any of the responses - how is it that i am so late, at times? - the first step is at least *looking* in the rear-view mirror. many of us wouldn't even look. we'd simply drive away and not give it another thought.
i've been posting on and off for days about how we see Jesus in others, especially the hard to see Jesus...and then just yesterday, a blatant admission that i couldn't find Him even in myself! that thread took a wierd turn, so i have not gone back for a revisit, but i was half-joking, half-serious. i hate it when i recognize He is missing in my words or my thoughts; but at least, like in the rear view mirror, i realize He is missing.
we all need to be on the look-out for Him, at all times.
peace, bro.
There is a strip-mall near where I work in Garfield Park (a rundown neighborhood on the west side of Chicago). There's a Subway, and a Chinese restaurant there, and lunch is relatively cheap, fast, and convenient.
There's a lady there working the strip almost every day, panhandling and trying to sell toddler clothes. And, God help me, I struggle with what the hell I'm supposed to do with folks like her. The sad answer is, I just would rather not be bothered...
One day, I'd gotten two sandwiches (to take one back for dinner) and when she came up to ask for money, I gave her the other sandwich. But then, like the self-centered moron I can be, I turned back to my book, content in having done my good deed, and she went on her way. Nice, eh?
I didn't think (until much later) about talking to her, welcoming her, seeing her as a person. Just pinned my own gold-star on the scoreboard and went on my way. Later in the evening, that voice came whispering, By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. Then of course, I thought to myself, "What a piece of work YOU are, Steve..." :::sigh:::
When I read your post, brother, the thing I heard most was that you were drawing from a distant-and-theoretical issue to a very real issue in your own back yard, and confessing your own struggles in that area. It's what I love about your writing. It's just sad when people can't hear that.
It continues to make me crazy that we are glad to evangelize people in China and India and in South Africa, but somehow our own backyards don't have quite the appeal, do they? The folks in recovery say, "Take it home, yo-yo - that's where you did your damage, that's where you make your amends." It's been good advice, when I've been willing to take it...
While I agree with RickInVa that ignorance of the poor and the cast-off is an equal-opportunity sin across party lines and administrations, I sure didn't think that Reagan was the point of your post - although I did get derailed a bit, hunting for where it had been misspelled. (You know, the important part of the post, giving deference and reverence where it's due.)
And I admit I get a little annoyed when any time someone points out flaws or errors in another person, that the intent is obviously to "besmirch" them. We need to grow a little thicker skin on some of this stuff, I think.
You continue to instruct, convict, and challenge me, brother. Thanks for this.
You are on the Path sweet brother. The next time you will sit with Jesus in the street.
I once had a man approach me who was hungry. He asked me to give him money. Instead my freind Bob and I walked him to the AM/PM for food.
He bought this huge burrito and microwaved it. I paid for it and a drink and we walked out into the midnight air.
He was very matted and smelly but we walked and talked. He gorged into the burrito.
When we got to the corner he looked up at me sweetly, held up the drippy thing and said "Here...You have a bite".
To be continued...just like you Rick. You are beautiful.
Jesus?? yes you are right, that nite you did leave Jesus in your review mirror. It must be understood that Jesus is less of a man then a spirit, a spirit that lives inside all of us, that dark nite, you denied that spirit. a man lesser then you stood helpless, and you did nothing to improve his situation. But the question must be asked wether or not it is your responsibility to shepard every miss lead soul on our planet? how do you choice wether a man deserve's to be helped or not. Does an alcholic like the man you left on the street deserve an equal amount of help as a baby left on a sidewalk? this is a poignant question, and it is in answering this that you know wether you left Jesus on the sidewalk or not?
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