Meet them where they are

By Rev. Thomas Zaworski

"I had a little tea party this afternoon at three. T'was very small, three guests in all, just I, myself and me. Myself ate up the sandwiches, while I drank up the tea. T'was also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me." (Author unknown to me).

That little rhyme is cute but it is so true in today's world. It is a tragic way to live when self is the center of our lives. There is probably no surer guarantee of personal wretchedness.

During the recent discussions and, yes, even arguments about the Hooters restaurant, I was anonymously identified as a police chaplain by one of the feature writers a man for whom I have great respect. I began to wonder what was happening in the local church scene as I read the letters to the editor.

Are we, the local church, just too comfortable sitting next to the person in the pew that we turn our heads and hearts away from others? I am reminded that Jesus included Matthew among His disciples not a promising candidate in the minds of the religious purists. He was a tax collector representing a hated regime; he was legally impure, socially outcast. He was the victim of established prejudice.

How could Jesus be a reputable religious leader and keep company with the likes of Matthew? Jesus turned the criticism back on His critics: "People who are in good health do not need a doctor; sick people do" (Matt. 9:12).

When I was a police chaplain in the city of Atlanta, I worked in Zone 3, in an area filled with porno parlors, strip joints, cheap bars, fleabag hotels and hundreds of pimps, hookers, criminals, ex-cons, derelicts, and drug and alcohol addicts. It was human drama that I had never seen and most people never experience first-hand.

I found, while trying to disentangle the good from the evil, the worthy from the unworthy, that I had a kinship with these people in that I am a sinner as well, looking for the mercy of God.

When talking to these people, I understood that my life stood in sharp contrast to theirs. I heard expressions of cynicism, fatalism and despair. In the final analysis life meant nothing at all to these people.

I came to understand that it is
easy to think that way if life is totally based on the present scene. They lived every day in poverty of spirit, incurable disease, social humiliation, and, yes, even religious persecution. They were some of the loneliest people in Atlanta and yet there were people all around them.

I learned that the greatest gift to be given to people is the gift of kindness which brings expectancy and hope into their lives. That is exactly what Jesus did in His ministry. He reached out to people regardless of the circumstances of their lives. He did not isolate Himself from people because they were different, because they were thought to be sinners.

Jesus seemed to have an affinity for ordinary people. In fact, his first two disciples were very ordinary one whose name is not even mentioned in the Gospel of John. The other was Andrew.

I love the way the gospels portray Andrew. He was not a genius or a giant in the early church. He was not a brilliant theologian or eloquent preacher as far as we know. He never wrote a line in sacred Scripture or preached a sermon that is recorded. He was a fisherman, just a very plain and probably uneducated person. Yet Jesus called him to be His first disciple.

He didn't become part of the inner circle of the apostles like Peter, James and John, yet one was his brother, the others his fishing partners. It wasn't Andrew who witnessed the raising of the dead child nor was he present at the Transfiguration. Why? We don't know. But there was simply no room in Andrews' heart for petty jealousy, resentment or self-centeredness.

But you know, everytime Andrew is mentioned in the Scriptures he is doing something, personally bringing people to Christ. This was Andrew, always doing the simple but significant things with extraordinary spirit. He had the courage to just be himself and do his own work in his own special way.

The great qualities of human life are always in short supply. There is never enough love or courage or unselfishness. These things cannot be bought or sold. They just don't happen. They are built within our hearts and within reach of all of us.

The message is simple: we don't have to remain mean, lazy, indifferent, selfish or greedy. We can reach out to others with friendship, kindness, empathy and compassion. We can lovingly accept into our presence those who have been ostracized and rejected.

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