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Monday, April 30, 2007
Loving God's Family
Deuteronomy 6:6-9; 1 John 4:13-21
If God created every one of us so he could know and love us, then the most sensible thing to do is love God back with everything we've got. Call it worship. The logical next step is to know and love each other. Because God loves all of us, and we want above all else to love what God loves. And that's called fellowship. Which someone has defined as "two fellows in the same ship" -- We're all in this [good and wonderful] thing together!
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The other day I read the spring newsletter of SafeHouse, a residential ministry in San Francisco for women leaving prostitution. My Presbyterian colleague, Rev. Glenda Hope, runs SafeHouse among scads of other street-level programs of Gospel grace and peace. Her letter reports on a recent gathering of "alums," celebrating the ways their lives have been transformed because of the tough love they experienced at SafeHouse.
One woman said she'd first shown up there only because she couldn't stand to be homeless again. "The last thing I ever expected to be was a college student but now I'm on the Dean's List." Now she's going on to study in a prestigious college to become a health professional.
Another, penniless and homeless back in the day, now holds down two jobs and has been promoted several times. She's also saved enough money to buy her own house.
A third woman recalled how she'd rebelled at the house's firm rules and worked hard at anger management in their program. Now she's the night supervisor at a boutique hotel in the city, where anger management probably comes in handy every once in a while.
On and on the stories went, one after another testifying to the sisterhood of redemption they were "baptized" into during their residency. They've been transformed body and soul, because somebody cared enough to welcome them just as they were, and loved them too much to let them stay that way. Tough love. Patient love. Hopeful love.
One of the women brought with her a hand-carved artifact reading "HOPE." Glenda says the woman herself is "the truest sign of hope there ever could be."
Several years ago, Glenda called me to see if our suburban church could help a new SafeHouse graduate get her footing. She and her two kids lived in a cheap apartment here, with virtually no furniture, appliances, or money to buy them with.
Our deacons mobilized to help the family stock up on the bare essentials for housekeeping, buy some groceries, and take care of practical odds and ends. Christmas was fast approaching, so they even helped with a tree and some presents.
The grateful family felt leery about coming to our church's activities, and we made it clear that wasn't a part of the deal. We were just glad to be of help, and we'd be praying for them.
Not long after that, Glenda informed me the family had moved several towns away and were getting a toehold on employment and schooling. A couple of years later, Glenda reported the mom was on the SafeHouse staff and doing wonderfully in every way. In another year or two, wedding bells were ringing and a brand new family was celebrating God's good surprises together.
SafeHouse, they call it. Sounds a lot like Sanctuary, doesn't it? That's another word for Church. Hmmm...
A few good people with a radical vision of redemption put together a compelling model of how authentic Fellowship does its stuff. "We're all in this [good and wonderful] thing together," they said. "And no one gets out of it unchanged!"
posted by Jack Buckley at
1:10 PM
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