Welcome Back to the Shit

Welcome Back to the Shit

Kathleen and I were gone last week to Minnesota to vacation with my family.  Monday morning at Manna House, a guest greeted me with a wry smile and said, “Welcome back to the shit.”

            The temperature was already in the 90’s. The humidity was syrupy thick. Guests arrived sweaty, tired, and mosquito bitten after trying to sleep out on the streets.

“I can always put on more blankets in winter,” a guest said, “but in the summer I’m down to my skin. There’s nothing more to take off.”

Said another, “The mosquitos are bad, real bad. Swarms of ‘em. The heat’s bad; they ‘re worse.”

But the weather and the bugs that make up the shit are not the worst of it. Conversation Tuesday morning turned to police harassment. For the first hour we were open a cop car was parked across the street from Manna House. It faced directly into the backyard.

“Why’s he over there?” a guest wanted to know.

“Just trying to intimidate us and make us feel watched,” another responded.

“Like they do when they order you to take off your backpack and then dump all the contents on the ground,” said another.

“I don’t even carry a backpack anymore, a guest responded. “It ain’t worth it. Cops on me all the time, ‘What’s in there?’ I got tired of it.”

Another guest took a different approach. “Cop did that to me once. He dumped out my backpack and I walked away. He ordered me to pick up all that stuff.  I told him, ‘You’re the one who dumped it out. You pick it up.’ I kept walking.”

We all laughed at this story, and this made me think that the guest who greeted me had a wry smile. This laughter and his smile are the power of resistance to the shit. The shit does not define him or any of our guests. Sometimes they're just not going to take anymore shit. They are in the shit but they are not shit. They are human beings made in the image of God.

This is how hospitality resists the shit. Hospitality welcomes guests with respect and dignity. Hospitality offers sanctuary. Hospitality has another world in view, one in which there is justice that reflects human dignity. And that is why hospitality must lead into work for justice. These days that justice work in Memphis means standing with current and former guests of Manna House at City Hall to call again for a Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board. It also means demanding justice for Darrius Stewart, shot and killed by a Memphis police officer.

The prophet Isaiah called Israel out on its shit and in doing so also lived into the laughter and wry smile of God: “On this mountain God will remove the veil of mourning that covers the peoples. The web that is woven over all nations will be destroyed.  Death will be no more. The Holy One will wipe away every tear. God’s people will be freed from shame. This is the solemn promise” (Isaiah 25:6-9). 

Lord in Your Mercy

Lord in your mercy

“Hey Pete! What’s the Word for the day?” I cannot remember how this tradition started. But it is a favorite part of my mornings at Manna House.

A guest will come up to me and ask for the “Word for the day.” I take out my pocket sized New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs and share a short scripture reading.

Most of the time I just open up the Bible and read whatever presents itself. Sometimes I will share a passage I have come across in my own prayer time. On occasion, I will pick a passage that seems appropriate to an issue affecting Manna House guests.

The guests who ask for the “Word for the day” and those around in hearing distance bring to their listening a careful and prayerful reverence. Heads slightly bow down, eyes show concentration, and when the reading is over some say “Amen” or simply shake their heads in agreement.

Some days the sharing of the “Word for the day” leads to a brief Bible study in which we reflect on what the passage means for us; other days we just share the scripture and continue on without discussion.

            Today’s “Word for the day” presented itself as I opened my Bible. Maybe the Holy Spirit had something to do with the selection. There certainly was a strong breeze blowing through the trees. I don’t read Jude very often. It is such a short book that it doesn’t even have chapters. I noted this lack of chapters, as most guests want to know chapter and verse, and a few will write those down for further study.

“But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on some who are wavering” Jude 20-22

“I like that last part, ‘have mercy on some who are wavering.’ I need to remember that today. Lots of shaky people out here wavering. We all need mercy.”

“Faith is a gift and a work. What a gift! God is good.”

“All real prayer is in the Holy Spirit. The Spirit gives us the words.”

“Gotta keep loving, even when I don’t wanna.”

“Can’t save myself. Gonna lean into God. Lord have mercy.”

“This is a hard life. I hope for mercy when I waver and hope I can share that mercy with others.”

I try to remember what guests say and write it down when I step away. They have a strong faith, a holy faith, tried and tested through many struggles, and I learn much them. When I waver, I remember the mercy the guests of Manna House so faithfully offer to each other and to us. And I remember the mercy of God that runs through those mercies, sustaining us in mercy. Who doesn’t waver in life? Who can live without needing mercy?

We prayed at the opening of the day for a volunteer who just had surgery for breast cancer. A few guests fell asleep in the chairs in the backyard. One guest hurried off to a job interview. Another was back after being gone for the last six months. He told me he had lost fifty pounds. I asked him how he did it and how I might lose some weight. He told me, “Put one foot in front of the other and keep going.” Kirk did haircuts and there was plenty of barbershop banter. Coffee was served. Showers and “socks and hygiene” were offered. Guests were patient (for the most part) as they waited for their names to be called. We all enjoyed the cooler weather, the wind, and a cloudy sky.

At the end of the morning we finally got to the bottom of a rumor about a guest who had fallen and broken his back. Kathleen and I went to the Med/Region One. Lord in your mercy.

Jesus was a Panhandler... and homeless too!

Jesus was a Panhandler… and homeless too!

I wore a t-shirt to Manna House Tuesday that says, “Jesus was a Panhandler.” One of the guests who saw my shirt said, “And he was homeless, too.” Then he quoted the scripture in which Jesus said, "Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20).

I was wearing this t-shirt because as of July 1, 2015 a more aggressive policing policy is in effect regarding panhandling. Because of this law, panhandlers are now more likely to be arrested.

When I give talks at churches about Manna House I’m often asked whether or not to give money to panhandlers. My response, “Yes, if you want to. No, if you don’t want to. But whatever you do or don’t do, treat the person with respect. And remember, you’re giving a gift and gifts don’t have strings attached.” I had a guest at Manna House who was a regular panhandler tell me, “I’m not upset with people if they don’t give. That’s their call. Just don’t be mean.”

I suppose for Christians, panhandling presents something of a moral dilemma. Jesus said, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42), and he identified with people in need (Matthew 25:31-46). But then downtown merchants, political leaders, and even a few clergy say, “If you give to panhandlers you’re just enabling drug abuse or alcoholism or laziness.” The new law certainly presumes panhandlers are bad people who should be arrested. It is quite detailed in all of the ways panhandlers can violate the law.

I think most people’s discomfort around panhandlers is that panhandlers are visible and sometimes verbal reminders that our society is messed up. If I’m making a quick trip to the grocery store or drug store, I don’t want to be confronted by some poor person asking me for money. If I’m downtown enjoying myself, going out for dinner and drinks, I don’t want to feel like I am that well dressed and well fed rich guy in the Bible who went to hell because poor Lazarus didn’t even get the scraps from my table (Luke 16:19-31).

This is why Overton Square has no panhandling signs up, and why the downtown area is basically a “no panhandling zone.” Poverty is a real downer when you’re trying to party. Bums asking for money are a buzz kill.

I get that some panhandlers are more than just a reminder of poverty. Some are unpleasant people. And some might just be poor and not homeless. Some certainly tell tall tales when they make their “ask.” I get that panhandling is not a solution to homelessness. What I don’t get is the stupidity of people who say you can make a good living panhandling. If someone really believes this, they should try doing it for a living and see how that goes.

 I also don’t get that anti-panhandling laws are a solution to homelessness. It is important to keep in mind the origin of anti-panhandling laws. They go back to the “black codes” following the end of Reconstruction. All sorts of anti-vagrancy laws were passed to reassert white control over blacks. “Slavery by another name” was facilitated by the arresting of black men and sentencing them to hard labor. Today race still plays a role in the enforcement of these laws. Who is more likely to be deemed “threatening” to white people, a black man panhandling or a white man panhandling?

These anti-panhandling laws are a poor response to poverty and homelessness. In the absence of housing or even shelter, we pass laws stigmatizing those who stand and ask for money. Anti-panhandling laws do exactly nothing to help end homelessness or poverty.

When I wear my “Jesus was a panhandler” t-shirt, I want to remind myself (and others) to evaluate all public policy from the perspective of those in poverty. I also want to express some solidarity with panhandlers, even the unpleasant ones. Their very unpleasantness might just be my salvation. As Paul reminds me, God chose to be and to speak through Someone who wasn’t exactly respectable. “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). If that rich guy who couldn’t be bothered by Lazarus had thought of this, he might not have gone to that gated community where there are no panhandlers called “Hell.”