The servant role
The Interfaith Rotational Shelter provides the chance for believers to live out the command to "love your neighbor"
Some 25 years ago and before my church hosted the annual Interfaith Rotational Shelter, my son and I stood in the kitchen at First Presbyterian in Oceanside drying dishes with a homeless couple.
The man asked about my day and I replied that I had done yard work, mowing the lawn. He looked at me for a moment and said: We used to have a kitchen. I used to mow my yard.
His remark touched me.
Many of you know that I am a church-going Christian. The beliefs and practices of my religion are (I hope) the bedrock of my life and worldview.
In pursuit of those ideals – I admittedly fall short too often – I and dozens from my church help host the Interfaith Shelter Network rotational shelter program for a few weeks.
The non-profit, founded in 1986, works with about 100 congregations across the county each winter (eight churches are in our north coastal section). Last year, they provided 3,000 bed nights or nearly 90 people and served nearly 9,000 meals.
Dozens of congregants will pitch in. We will rearrange furniture in several education building rooms to make way for temporary cubicles for our guests (right now that would be four adults and seven children) for two weeks.
Congregation members will stay with the folks overnight. Others will bring dinners and desserts. We’ll bring in toothpaste and deodorant, hand cleaner and razors. The church has bathrooms with showers and laundry facilities for the peoples’ use.
Roger and I will come in the mornings, make coffee and set up breakfast and sack lunch stuff before the people leave the campus for the days. We’ll come back and account for everyone each evening.
The guests are people screened by a Vista social services agency – generally, the people will be “transitionally homeless” like the man I talked to years ago as opposed to the chronically homeless. The agency’s caseworkers will provide a variety of services helping to move people to permanent shelter, jobs and the like.
Over the years, I have met many delightful people with fascinating stories and others not so much – yet each I have met needed help. Some were easy and a joy to talk with. David showed me his chalk and pencil drawings, easily art worth savoring and displaying.
Some people, I could do without. A teenager several times held the men’s shower hostage for an hour in the morning, driving the impatient me (who wanted to lock up and go home) crazy. I suggested his clothes would be dumped in the courtyard and he could dress in the cold if he wouldn’t get a move on — my bad.
As I think of sheltering, I am reminded of three scenes from the Gospels.
First, in Luke 7, the narrator tells us that a sinful woman came into a dinner party and wet Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiped his feet with her hair and anointed him with perfume.
Jesus turned to his skeptical and critical host and said:
“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
Remember John 13?
12 When Jesus had finished washing the disciples’ feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. 13 “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14 Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16 Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
And finally, in Matthew 25, the parable reads:
35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Your service is a great example and encouragement to me. I hear an echo of the Master's words, "Well done, good and faithful servant..." Keep pressing on!