Last Sunday night, I attended a Memorial Service for Homeless people who died in Saint Petersburg during the past year. The gathering was held in the fellowship hall at the Unitarian/Universalist Church near Mirror Lake followed by the serving of a hot meal. The event was organized by Rev. GW Rolle who serves with me at the Missio Dei Community. He is a strong advocate for the Homeless and was once homeless himself. Most of the people in attendance were currently homeless themselves.
During the service GW read the names of persons who were found dead on the streets of Saint Petersburg. All of them had been homeless. Before the names were read both GW and and others spoke. David, a friend of mine, who, like GW, once homeless himself, read from Matthew 25, the parable of Jesus that teaches us that true religion and authentic spirituality are measured by acts of mercy and love.
The Gospel according to Luke tells us that Jesus was born homeless. His pregnant mother, was traveling with Joseph to the city of Bethlehem. They found themselves without a place to stay because there was no guest room for them. The baby Jesus ended up in a manger near the animals. Joseph, a carpenter and not a wealthy man, made do that first Christmas evening.
Jospeh, Mary and Jesus weren't the only people in the Bible who faced a crisis like homelessness. The Joseph of the Book of Genesis was sold into slavery by his brothers. Eventually, Joseph rose to a position of great authority in Egypt, but that horrible experience of homelessness and slavery helped make him the wise man that he became.
The Bible says that one day a Pharaoh rose to power who knew not Joseph. The great leader and prophet, Moses, when he was a newborn, was put in a basket by his mother and placed in the River because the Jewish children were being killed by the new Pharaoh. Moses' mother hoped that someone would rescue her child and the Pharaoh's daughter, of all people, was just the one who did that for the little boy. Moses no doubt was shaped by these life experiences which informed his judgement as he led the people through their wilderness wanderings to the edge of the promised land.
Last Sunday night, GW and David spoke with the wisdom and grace informed by their own experiences of homelessness. They spoke a message of hope to the crowd. When GW read the names during the Memorial Service, some of the deceased on his list were unknown persons but not forgotten people. Whether we knew their names or not, we gave thanks for their lives and prayed to God that they would be received into God's everlasting arms.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in God Has a Dream, wrote, "One of the most blasphemous consequences of injustice and prejudice is that it can make a child of God doubt that he or she is a child of God. But no one is a stepchild of God. No one. God's love for us and our love for others is the single greatest motivating force in the world. And this love and the good it creates will always triumph over hatred and evil." (Pages 40-41)
