Home For the Holy Days
by Pastor Bruce Ray
“Home” is a powerful
word. It connotes warmth, safety,
security. It is a “heart”
word that brings to mind family, rest and a place where I can be myself
without fear. So, I cannot
imagine not having a place I call “home.” To be homeless is to be without
safety, without rest, and without hope.
To be homeless is to live in fear and isolation. Which is why I find it so interesting Isaiah
identifies “providing shelter” for the wanderer as an outcome of
righteousness (Isaiah 58:7). To
be homeless is to be disconnected from community and disconnected from God. Homelessness is a social condition
that God’s people must not tolerate.
This Lent, we are joining Faith
E. C. Church in Lancaster, PA, to address homelessness in our
communities. We are going to
embark on a Fast that will result in creation of “home” for
people who have lived in isolation and fear.
Faith’s pastor, Joel Kime, has identified Lancaster as a wealthy area—yet
even there, many people struggle with homelessness and housing instability.
In fact, they were recently shocked to discover that so many families are currently
living in a Super 8 motel that their school district has a bus stop on
site!
Homelessness is more visible in
Chicago. We see the homeless begging
at the bottom of expressway ramps and sleeping beneath viaducts. We are confronted daily by men and
women pushing shopping carts or pulling luggage. However, just because we see homelessness
on a daily basis doesn’t make us “feel” more. In fact, sometimes we see it so much
that we tune it out entirely.
Homelessness often happens in
stages. Housing instability is a
problem for many people that are not living under the expressway. Between unemployment, increased rents,
foreclosures, etc, the line between a “home” and “homelessness”
is becoming thinner and thinner.
During our 40+ days of the
Lenten Compact, we will work at “feeling” compassion for the
homeless. But acts
of charity toward the homeless in our midst does not go far enough to “provide
shelter”. We need to act
justly—advocating for safe, affordable housing for all income levels, for
housing regulations that protect those experiencing unemployment and income
instability and for laws that curb greed and abuse of the poor.
Let’s make the prophet
Micah’s vision a reality where everyone sits under his own vine and his
own fig tree (a home) and no one lives in fear. (Micah 4:4)
end