Walking with the Homeless Jesus

I was struck this morning, once again, by how exhausting it is to be without a home.  The homeless panhandler Jesus once said, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Mt 8:20, Lk 9:58).  I imagine Jesus, like our guests, got quite exhausted from not having a regular place to stay.  During the course of a morning at Manna House, at least three or four guests will fall asleep on one of the couches while all sorts of activity takes place around them. Sometimes the sleep is so deep that the melodious sound of snoring will fill the air.  This morning I didn’t hear any snoring, but I noticed our sleeping guests again, sitting up, but with heads down and eyes closed.  One guest told me as we talked about being tired from the streets that he once got so tired that he fell asleep while he was walking. 

“Seriously?” I asked.

“Seriously.  I wouldn’t have believed it myself except I did it.”

This gives a whole new meaning to sleepwalking.

Later, while I was doing laundry, I came upon some further evidence of how exhausting it is to be on the streets.  A guest has traded in his worn out shoes for another pair of shoes.  The old shoes that he had traded in had ended up in the laundry basket (we actually use a large trash can).  When I fished them out as I sorted the laundry, I took a look at the soles of the shoes.  The soles were so worn that there were large holes in both shoes, both in the ball of the foot and the heel of the foot.  The holes were so big that I found it hard to believe that some one had actually been walking in these shoes.  I couldn’t help but think that being on the streets isn’t just hard on the soles, but is also hard on the soul. There’s the physical exhaustion, and then there is the spiritual exhaustion of trying to keep some sense of one’s dignity while wearing worn out shoes and dirty and smelly clothing.

The miles add up as a person on the streets goes through the day.  I know we have guests who come from as far as five miles away to get to Manna House.  They walk those five miles each morning we are open.  And, of course, when we close, they will not only walk another five miles back to the cathole where they sleep, but more miles in order to get a meal or two from different soup kitchens spread out around town.  Even for some one who has a cathole near Manna House, there will be eight to ten miles of walking on a typical day.  That amount of walking alone would be exhausting enough, but then add on sleeping on the ground or on a piece of cardboard on concrete.

            There is an old Merle Haggard song, “He Walks With Me” which refers to walking with Jesus, and the refrain is:

“And He walks with me and He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known “

            I have a sense that Jesus walks with our homeless guests, just as Jesus himself walked as a homeless person with no where to lay his head.  I hope we welcome our guests as Christ has welcomed us (Romans 15:7).  I hope the rest our guests get at Manna House gives some joy in the midst of exhaustion.  But I more deeply hope for a time when the words of the Psalmist will come true, in which, “God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; gives dignity to their lives, a place of honor with all the faithful” (Ps 113:7).  

Let Those With Ears Hear.

You can hear a lot at Manna House if you listen.
"Put me down for a shower today and for Room in the Inn."
"I just need socks and hygiene and Room in the Inn."
"When you gonna start serving coffee?"
"Bless the coffee.”
“Make it hot!”
“Bless the sugar.”
“Make it sweet!”
“And please Lord, bless the creamer.”
“That it may take all life’s bitterness away.  AMEN!”
“I’m fixin to hit the water.”
“All of my prayers have been answered—soap and hot water.”
 “My sister died last week.  I went to the funeral.  Now I’m back here and I’m just tired of these streets.”
“You see this?  This is my banana bread creamer.  I bring my own.  No offense, but I like mine better.”
“Mike B., here for his Manna House baptism.”
“Had my two cups of coffee and my vitamin, and I’m ready for my shower.”
"Jerry's here for his shower."
"What size underwear do you wear?"
"What size pants do you wear?"
"What size t-shirt do you want?"
“This really is the best coffee in Memphis.”
“I like the mixed drinks here.  Coffee with the creamer and sugar as I see fit.”
“Big Country, why you all dressed up today?”
“I’m his lawyer.”
“So, he’ll get twenty years for his misdemeanor?”
“Where you been?  I haven’t seen you here for a long time.”
“Locked up.”
“Well, liberation for the captive!!  Thank you Jesus!!”
“Is Miss June coming today?”
“Can I get on the list for a shower?”
“Is there still room on the list for socks and hygiene?”
“Any room left for Room in the Inn?”
“Where am I on the list?”
“When do the Tigers play?”
“You see where they’re planning on spending millions on Peabody Place downtown?”
“That place was worthless.  Are they going to make it more worthless?”
“What’s the word for the day?
“For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out.  But if we have food and clothing we will be content with these.  But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” (1 Timothy 6:7-10).
“True.”
“I don’t love money, but I could use some.”
“I’d like a million dollars, but today, I could just use ten.”
“I’m studying about how Israel went into the Babylonian Captivity.  They didn’t follow God’s ways, including the way they treated the poor.”
“How about asking, how has the United States abandoned God’s ways?  You can see it here.”
“You got a pair of shoes for me?  These are worn out and are making my hips hurt.”
“Hey, you students from St. Agnes look like nuns with those dresses on.  Are you nuns?”
“Can I get a pair of socks?  I know I’m late for the list, but that’s all I need.”
“Sure.”
“Last call for coffee.  Last call to use the bathroom inside.  If you need to pee for free like Jesus did in Galilee, now is the time to urinate and feel great.”

A Man with a Brown Hat and Two Other Stories from Manna House Today

A Man with a Brown Hat     
The morning had started cold, but by 10am or so it was warm enough that a number of guests were outside sitting at the chairs and picnic tables in the front yard. At one of the tables, two guests were playing a chess game, and this had caught Kathleen’s eye as she looked out the laundry room window. As she watched, she saw another guest, one who struggles with mental illness, begin to have one of his “episodes.” When this happens, this guest gesticulates wildly, and yells at people, sometimes incoherently, sometimes in very threatening language. Kathleen quickly went outside, hoping to settle him down.
A man with a brown hat, who sat watching the chess game, intercepted Kathleen as she approached the agitated guest. He reassured her, “Don’t worry,” he said, “He’s ok. He’s having one of his times. He just needs to work it out.”
Kathleen stood by to make sure, and the man in the brown hat continued, “He’s a good one. When I was first on the streets, he stopped me one day and said, ‘I see you’re walking a lot, going here and there. You need to get to the pawn shop and get you a wheel [a bike]. I’ll pay.’ So, I went with him and he bought me a bike. He’s definitely a good one.”

The Paradigm Shift
Larry comes to Manna House about once every two weeks. He used to come more regularly, but now he has a place and he doesn’t always feel like making the walk. Just as in the past, when he was at Manna House almost every day we were open, he continues to come with vocabulary words to ask me about. These are words he has come across while reading, but of which he doesn’t know the meaning. He carefully creates a list of words and asks me the meaning of each. Today when he came he said to me, “Tell me what paradigm means again. I don’t know if I’ve been using it right.”
So, I said, “A paradigm is a model, a way of seeing things or understanding things. Like, in a previous paradigm people believed the sun revolved around the earth, but in our present paradigm we see that the earth revolves around the sun. We had a paradigm shift.”
Larry responded, “I think I get it. A paradigm shift is like when we say on the streets, ‘the script has been flipped.’”
“Exactly.”

The Chess Game
Ray comes to Manna House to play chess. He brings his own chessboard (it rolls up, so maybe it should be called a chess “mat” instead of a “board”), and his own chess pieces. Ray takes on all comers and Ray usually wins. Pete comes to Manna House so rarely that I didn’t even recognize him at first, and I had to ask him his name. Ray arrived around 10, and he and Pete began to play. 
At first only Moses took an interest (he’s often played Ray and if I remember right he’s only beat him once). But soon others gathered around the picnic table where Ray and Pete were playing to watch, and to perhaps learn some of Ray’s moves or some of Pete’s moves. At times the game went fast and furious with knights and rooks taking pawns, and at other times the pace slowed, with each move of increasingly fewer pieces requiring intense deliberation. 
I tried at one point to engage Moses with a few questions about the game. He politely but firmly said, “Quiet, masters at play.” Just before last call for coffee, Pete announced, “Check mate.” Ray, with gentle grace conceded, and they shook hands and both said, “Good game.”

St. Patrick’s Day.  I was reminded today as I read in Daniel Ellsberg’s book, All Saints: Daily Reflections on Saints, that when St. Patrick was a youth he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave.  After many years in slavery, in which his faith was tried and deepened, he escaped and returned to his homeland.  But there, he discerned God’s call to return to the land in which he had been enslaved and to bring the message of Gospel liberation.  This he did, returning to Ireland to preach and teach the Gospel to his those who had enslaved him.  As we opened at Manna House today, this story was shared, and we prayed, “Loving, Life-giving, and Liberating God, may the descendants of slaves who stand here today continue the liberating work of St. Patrick, to bring those who have stood with the slave masters to the true freedom of the Gospel.”

Two short stories from Manna House this morning.

Two short stories from Manna House this morning. 

Cecil is a veteran of the streets. He was homeless for many years, but now thankfully has his own place. I like to call him the hardest working man in Memphis, because he is often up early “canning.” This means he goes up and down the streets collecting aluminum cans. He pushes a grocery cart, filling it with cans, and when that begins to overflow, he starts to fill large garbage bags with cans. As those bags fill, Cecil attaches them to the sides of his cart and even piles a few bags on top of the cans that fill the cart. It is quite a site to see Cecil’s cart by the end of his collecting work. Cecil let me in on a little secret today.
“I don’t keep the money that I make from canning. I have enough from the little check that I get.”
“Really? What do you do with that money?”
“I give the money to Le Bonheur for the children.”

A tall black man came through the front yard gate at Manna House. He was walking very slowly, using a cane. I had just finished a conversation with another guest when I turned and saw him. He said to me, “You don’t remember me, do you?”
“Well, you’re right. I remember your face, but not your name.”
“Trent…” he began to say.
I finished, “Jones. Trent Jones!”
He smiled and said it had been a long time since he’d been to Manna House.
The last time I had seen Trent, he was panhandling outside the Walgreens at Poplar and Perkins. He didn’t have a cane then.
I asked Trent, “Did you have a stroke?”
“No. I was hit by a car three years ago. Best thing that ever happened to me.”
“What?”
“Yup, God blessed me that day, because that accident got me off the streets. I got the help I needed. I’ve got a place to stay. I even got a car!”
He pointed to a car in the parking lot across the street.
“I just wanted to stop by and say ‘hi.’ You all were always so good to me.”
“Well, thanks Trent, it’s great to see you! Can I get you a cup of coffee since these stairs seem a bit much for you to climb?”
“Sure, make it two spoons of creamer and three spoons of sugar.”
I went and got him coffee.
“Yup, God has blessed me. Never thought a blessing would come through being hit by a car.”

The Struggle and the Full Armor of God

The Struggle and the Full Armor of God

I was going to write today about Loeb Properties and their decision to festoon the businesses in Overton Square with “No Panhandling” signs.  I am angry and disappointed by this decision, and I don’t believe the corporate-speak that promises that panhandlers will be directed to helpful services and not be arrested or otherwise hassled.  I will continue to boycott all the businesses in Overton Square until the signs come down.  This will probably mean I won’t be going to those businesses ever again.

            But instead of focusing on Loeb Properties and their racist and classist ugliness, I want to focus on the beauty and goodness of the guests who come to Manna House.  Today was a typical Monday morning at Manna House.  We offered showers for men.  Twenty three men took showers and left wearing clean and well-fitting clothes.  Another fifty-one men and women came into the clothing room for “socks and hygiene.” 

Meanwhile, a hundred or more came through the house and were served coffee, took the time to read the paper, or talk with friends, or play scrabble, or catch a quick nap on one of the couches.  They were people from a variety of places and backgrounds, some white, some black.  They weren’t all perfect, some used bad language on the front porch and had to be told to stop, some were a little impatient making their way through the crowded house.  But nobody acted like a jerk or got violent or even raised their voice in anger.  And this is the way things usually go.  Our guests, as Kathleen says, “give us their best.”

At various times in the morning a completely new guest came in, looking lost, and asking for either Pete or Kathleen (word on the streets lets people know who to ask for).  One needed a pair of shoes (which he got).  One needed a complete change of clothes (which he got).  Another just needed a pair of socks (which he got).  From time to time we “transcend the rules” to welcome somebody new, and then we tell the guest how Manna House typically operates so if they need something in the future, they need to “get on the list” for either a shower or socks and hygiene.

As the morning progressed I was asked for “the word for the day.”  The word for the day came from Ephesians 6:10-13,

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the Lord’s mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

The responses to the reading from guests: 

“I know about those powers.”

“I need that strength.”

“The devil is alive and well, for sure.”

“That armor sounds good.”

And though I’m not writing about Loeb Properties, I couldn’t help but think of the legacy of “No Panhandling” signs that have been part of the vagrancy laws that came into being following slavery.  Vagrancy laws were directed at freed slaves and poor whites, both of whom were out of work and relied upon handouts to survive.  Vagrancy laws sought to either move them along or criminalize them.  The struggle truly is “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  And it is the beauty and goodness of our guests that affirms where God stands in that struggle.  

“O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord: praise and exalt God above all forever” (Daniel 3:70).

Memphis doesn’t get ice and snow very often. So such winter weather sends many Memphians scurrying to the grocery stores to stock up on supplies (which for some reason means bread and milk). 
For folks on the streets, such a cold and dreary night means seeking refuge in the various shelters around town, or hunkering down with extra blankets and maybe a fire, under a bridge or in an abandoned building.
Manna House opened its doors this Monday morning at 6:45a.m. (We usually open at 8:00a.m.). One by one guests arrived with snow-covered shoes. Moses arrived with his Bible carefully covered with a plastic bag to protect from the still falling snow. Several guests also had snow on their backsides. “I fell five times,” one guest explained, “this ain’t no fun.”
The weather, not surprisingly, was the topic of much conversation.
“That ice is messed up.”
“This ain’t nothing compared to Colorado or Minnesota.”
“It’s cold enough to send a bear back into his cave.”
Some reminisced about sledding in the snow when they were kids.
“We’d take a piece of cardboard or garbage can covers, and down the hill we’d go.”
“The hill would end at the street and we’d hope to stop before heading into traffic.”
“Kids probably still doing the same thing we did years ago.”
There was plenty of time to talk before the coffee was ready. The warmth of the house made several sleepy and they nodded off while sitting on one of the couches.
Volunteers slowly started arriving with their own stories to tell of slippery roads or car doors that were hard to open because they were frozen shut. One volunteer walked all the way from Rhodes College. She got the “Volunteer of the Day” award.
By the time 8:00a.m. rolled around the house was full, with every available seat taken.
As the morning passed we gave out hats, gloves, and scarves to those who needed them. A few people needed shoes, and a few others needed coats. We were able to meet their needs.
It was a typical morning at Manna House. We gathered and shared what has been shared with us. We talked about the weather and sports and politics and religion. A few games of checkers were played. People showered and got freshly laundered clothes. Lots of hot coffee was served.
So, in the midst of the ice and snow, we enjoyed the blessings of this place; we felt together the grace of God, and we gave thanks.