Vicissitudes and Hope

Vicissitudes and Hope

Larry was back today.  He showed up, as he always does, with a question about a word.  “Vicissitudes” he asked, “what does it mean? Use it in a sentence.” 

“Troubles,” I said, “like ‘Nobody knows the vicissitudes I’ve seen, nobody knows but Jesus.’”

The backyard at Manna House was closed today.  The morning air was too chilly.  Guests’ hands were cold.  So we gathered inside the house, on the front porch, and in the front yard.  These gathering spaces are warmer, though also not quite as expansive as the backyard.  We all had to adjust to the closer quarters. 

Jenina and Lynn, as they brought sugar and creamer out to the front porch (where the coffee line was located), had to walk through a sea of humanity.  Carrying a replacement coffee pot through the crowd required a loud voice to announce, “Hot coffee!  Hot coffee coming through!!”  Kathleen, as she worked the list, had to call names both in the house and in the front yard to find those guests on the list for showers or socks and hygiene.

            Meanwhile there were other small adjustments to be made in the details of hospitality.  When we first opened, we took out a small pot of coffee along with the larger first pot in order to create two coffee lines.  The line at the big pot gets a bit backed up with more people milling around.  With Paul and Kim serving at two coffee lines, and two sugar and creamer stations going the lines weren’t too bad. 

One guest asked about charging his phone.  So Ashley and I ran an extension cord out the front window of the laundry room to plug in a power strip.  This way multiple guests could charge at the same time.   

A few guests had to be gently reminded to not smoke on the front porch.  Thomas who was “working the door” of the clothing room had to make sure only those whose names were called came into the room.  He also had to announce who was coming in for a shower or who was coming in for socks and hygiene.

            Despite the early chill, it didn’t take too long before the sun warmed up the brick patio area in the front yard.  The combination of benches, picnic table, and chairs brought from the house made for plenty of comfortable seating.  Folks took to reading, talking, playing checkers or Scrabble, and a few settled in for a nap.

A man came up onto the porch for coffee.  He was very agitated, and mumbled continuously about people who had done some wrong to him and he was going to get them back.  “I will wreak vengeance upon them; then they shall see!”  He wandered off once he had his coffee, still mumbling threats as he pushed his shopping cart.  As the man walked away, another guest observed, “The devil never rests.  The devil is always busy.”  “Yes,” I agreed, “But God takes a Sabbath, and so should we.” 

            Larry and Moses got into an intense theological discussion.  Was Melchizedek, the mysterious figure who appears in the Old Testament, one and the same person as Christ?  Larry argued that he was; Moses argued that he was not.   Larry emphasized that Melchizedek had no genealogy and was a high priest, while Christ was in the order of Melchizedek.  Moses argued for the uniqueness of the historical figure of Jesus as the incarnate Word of God, and that Melchizedek may be seen as a spiritual forerunner of Christ but was not actually Christ.  I stayed out of this one, but I liked Moses’ line of argument better.

            Not much later, a man like Melchizedek (or was it Christ?) showed up with Kate.  He had come out of no where to appear at Outreach, Housing, and Community (O.H.C.). Kate as part of her work at O.H.C. had brought him over to Manna House.  He was a very quiet man.  His clothes and other belongings had been stolen.  He needed some pants, a shirt, and a few additional items.  When he came into the clothing room he offered a poem that he had written.  The poem told of how as he had walked, the rain had come down upon him, a river of rain, but then at the end he was promised that the sun would come out.  Take hope in the promise, he concluded. 

This afternoon, spurred on by the argument between Larry and Moses, I read the section of Hebrews about Melchizedek in relation to Christ.  Through all the vicissitudes of history, including this morning, along comes Christ, “the introduction of a better hope, through which we approach God” (Hebrews 7:19).