Manna House, I wrote last week, is a sanctuary, a holy
place, which is to say a place set aside from the ordinary, a place to
encounter God, and as a sanctuary Manna House is also a place of refuge and
protection. Last week I did not address
why sanctuary is needed. Why do we need a
place for encounter with God, which is also a place of refuge and protection?
A few weeks ago, near the end of
the morning at Manna House, I was sitting with some students from the Southern College
of Optometry who had volunteered with us.
They had to leave a bit early to get back to classes, so we shared a
time in which they could ask questions about Manna House, and also reflect on
their experience.
As we sat in the living room, a
guest came to the door. I invited him in,
and he began to say that he wanted to speak with me in private. I told him we don’t do private conversations
at Manna House, but he could tell me what he needed. Just then a man came up the porch, rushed into
the house, and began to slug the guest about the head. I quickly moved between the two, and pushed
the aggressor toward the door. Meanwhile
others in the room pulled the guest away and into the clothing room. I guess the aggressor saw that he was out
numbered, as he took off.
After he
was gone, I talked with the guest. He
had been on the run that morning, and was scared; so scared that he had crapped
his pants. That is what he wanted to tell
me in private. So, we got him a shower
and a change of clothes. The streets can
be violent. There needs to be a place where
someone can run to and be safe.
Sanctuary.
Guests at Manna House have been
beat up, run over by cars, arrested and jailed, told to “move along,” assaulted
by security guards, verbally abused, and turned away from restaurants when they
have wanted to use the bathroom. People
experiencing homelessness are often feared, hated, despised, rejected, mocked. There
needs to be a place where everyone is accepted and treated with dignity.
Sanctuary.
Last week,
I came across an article that detailed a national problem of young people who
are gay, lesbian, or transgendered being rejected by their parents and ending
up out on the streets. We continue to
welcome all people to Manna House, as we have from the beginning. Over the years we have had many guests who
are on the streets because their sexuality meant they were kicked out of their
family’s home, and shunned by the churches in which they had grown up. Some have shared how those experiences led to
suicide attempts and other forms of self-destructive behaviors. God too often gets presented in a way that is
hateful, violent; anything but One who offers love and welcome. There needs to be a place where God is not
the basis for hatred of others, but where God welcomes all of us in the name of
life, liberation, and love. Sanctuary.
We all need sanctuary, guest and volunteer
alike, where we can feel safe, be accepted and treated with dignity, and where
God is experienced as compassionate rather than as dominating and oppressing
control.
I know
Manna House offers a limited sanctuary, and also fails from time to time in
offering sanctuary. For one, we’re not
always open. And, on occasion (very rare
but it happens) violence has so overwhelmed hospitality that we had to close
for the day. I’m also sure, not everyone
who comes to Manna House, whether guest or volunteer, gets the sanctuary they
are seeking. Personalities clash,
disagreements erupt, relationships end.
But the
most important way sanctuary is limited at Manna House is that finally it is
never enough. Beyond sanctuary we need
to be engaged in ongoing agitation to change a world that requires sanctuary
into a world that is just and therefore welcoming of all. To be the change we seek to see, yes, but we
must also seek the change that needs to be.
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