Helping the helpless

Last Sunday, we had an interesting situation. There was a vehicle parked in our parking lot that appeared to house some itinerant people passing through the area. It was Sunday morning and crowds were arriving for church. Someone suggested we should call the police out to speak with the people about moving on.

That struck me as odd, so I said no. After all, they weren't harming any one, just looking for a spot to rest. I started to think about what Jesus would have done, concluding the last thing he would have done would be to call the police. But that's what our society tells us we should do.

I was fascinated when Graham told me the story of another church in another area of the country that actually sued the city because they had forcibly removed homeless people from the steps of the church. I admired that as a rare display of practicing Christian love in a tangible way.

I will never forget the story my mom told me once about why she and my dad left a church they had been attending. It was a small congregation that met in the fellowship hall for Sunday school before transitioning to the sanctuary for Sunday service. As they left one Sunday for the sanctuary, my mom noticed one of the elders locking up the fellowship hall. When she asked why, he said they didn't want the homeless people wandering in and eating all the cookies they laid out for snacks. My mom was saddened, and my parents decided that wasn't the church for them.

Hopefully most of us would feel the same, but sadly that's the world we live in today. We need to make more of an effort to live out the Gospel, because that's how you change hearts and minds for the kingdom.