First of all, a very big THANK YOU to everyone who helped build sandwiches or donated money for supplies for sandwiches for our lunch building activities for the Night Ministry last week. It felt really good driving up to the Night Ministry bus and handing off boxes of food that had been assembled with love! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Homelessness is a prevalent issue here in Chicago, but also across the United States. I have firsthand experience with being housing insecure, which I'll be talking about at this coming Sunday's Palm Sunday Service. This whole Lenten series has been about accepting ourselves where we are in life, and this Sunday's theme is "We are a group project." None of us can make it alone. I didn't recover from homelessness alone. I don't think anyone who is housing insecure right now can pull themselves out of their situation without some help of some kind.
Jesus taught “Whatever you do for one of the least of these, you do it to me ” (Matthew 25:40), and teaches that we should love our neighbors, and care for those in need. This is not to say that those who are housing insecure are lesser than other people, quite the opposite. Their lives have been appraised as lesser by the larger society, so in Jesus' worldview, they should be put first.
I'd love your ideas about how we can help our neighbors who are struggling with housing insecurity. That means the faces you don't know, but the faces you do know, like Anderson who is usually out front of Walgreens at Broadway and Belmont. How can we put our values into service for those who are unhoused?
Looking forward to seeing you next week, for Holy Week!!!
