Greetings,
The weather has turned colder. Sunday night after the service we took some blankets to the homeless, which were quickly taken. There was a crispness in the air which was invigorating for a few moments. After a while, it just becomes cold, and colder. It is expected to be a little warmer Monday night, but then hover around freezing for the rest of the nights this week.
We had a meeting Friday to talk about finding emergency shelter beds for the cold weather nights. Quite correctly, everyone stressed that the answer is to provide homes first, low income housing and the wrap-around services needed to assist people to remain in a home. Certainly we must solve the systemic problem of homelessness, and low income housing is the key. However, as Christians we also have an imperative from Jesus to not leave anyone out in the night without a place to sleep that is warm and safe. The plan and purpose of God is to solve both the long-term and the short-term problems by the power of God to move even us to action today.
I think of a Fourteenth century poem for this winter/Advent season:
Winter wakeneth all my care;
Now when leaves waxeth bare,
Oft I sigh and sorrow sore
When it cometh into my thought
Of this world’s joys, how it goeth all to nought.
Now it is, and now it is gone,
As if it had never been.
What many say, sooth it is:
All goeth but God’s will!
All shall die, though we like it nil!
All that grows forth into dust,
Now it fadeth all at once:
Jesu! Help that it be seen,
And shield us from hell!
For I know not whither I go, nor how long I here dwell!
“Winter wakeneth all my care.” “Of this world’s joys, how it goeth all to nought.”
Awakened, I think of those in need, and I become aware that all of my possessions are but fleeting things, which will sooner or later go to nought. If I can in some measure bring comfort and succor to those in need surely I have gone a long way to fulfilling “God’s will!”
Yours & His,
DED
No comments:
Post a Comment