WHEN YOU’RE HERE YOU’RE FAMILY

A sermon by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk

Harundale Presbyterian Church

Glen Burnie, Maryland

March 11, 2001

Text: "Our citizenship is in heaven." (Philippians 3:20)

First Reading: Genesis 15:1-12

Luke 13:31-35

Some of you have heard this story before, but it bears repeating for those of you who haven’t. Last Sunday, as you came to worship, if you happened to come in from the parking lot, you may have seen David Martin asleep in the corner. Now that’s not his real name, of course, but the situation is as it happened. David was still in the corner on Monday when I came to work. Since we were feeding the homeless that day, I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to extend the offer of lunch and then suggest that he be on his way. His presence was, after all, beginning to have an effect on some of our young mothers bringing their children to pre-school and on some of the ladies coming for their circle meetings.

I went outside, woke him up and suggested he come in for lunch. He told me he couldn’t move, since his motorized wheelchair wouldn’t take a charge. Also, he said that he couldn’t eat because he had to go to the bathroom, which he couldn’t do, since his wheelchair wouldn’t work. David, you see, has no legs. A train hit him when he was eight years old. I came to find out later that he used to have legs until someone stole them. It was then that he sort of gave up on life and has existed ever since on the street.

I came inside, got one of our wheelchairs, went back outside and in we came so that he could use the bathroom. He then went to the fellowship hall where he seemed to enjoy the lunch and, in fact, had two portions of everything. After lunch I began to realize that we had a problem on our hands. He couldn’t stay inside the building. He was content to return to his blankets outside the door of the church, but that wouldn’t solve anything. A couple of people suggested all I could do would be to call the police, which I hated to do, but was left with no other solutions.

The police came and were very helpful. They called Social Services and found that David had a caseworker who knew of his condition and had had the battery on his wheelchair charged just this past week. Social Services had also assisted him with housing for a few days. The police also knew David and had worked with him before. They didn’t want to arrest him, but also understood that he couldn’t stay outside the door of the church. What they did was to wheel him, blankets, wheelchair and all to the street in front of the church and left him there.

The next thing I saw was, David had turned his wheelchair over and was under the blankets lying in the street. Needless to say, he quickly drew a crowd. People stopped their cars to see what was his problem. Some of them must have called the police, since soon three police cars arrived followed by an ambulance and a fire truck. It didn’t take long for the police to come into the office and I was afraid of what they were going to say. But they quickly assured me that they knew all about the situation and could I take care of his wheelchair for awhile? They were going to admit David to the emergency room rather than arrest him, so that he would be cared for through the night and not be left in the cold. So, off they went and I had a wheelchair to care for.

The next day I called Social Services, told them who I was, referred to yesterday’s phone call to them by the police and asked if I could speak to David’s case worker. She was soon on the line. I explained my situation. She was very helpful, told me how she had worked with David and whom I could call to get the wheelchair charged. By that time Ron Thomson was in the office trying to remedy the situation and help with the wheelchair and I asked him if he would follow through with Chesapeake Rehabilitation.

It was then that Ron asked me the questions that vexed me the rest of the week. "By helping all these people aren’t we just enabling their lifestyle? Shouldn’t we be doing more to help them become more self-sufficient? To be honest, the answer to both questions is "yes." Yes, we are enabling their lifestyle. Yes, we should be doing more to help them become more self-sufficient. But what we do for them we do for a very specific reason and that reason is, when someone enters this building they’re family. As the ad for Olive Garden reminds us, when you’re here you’re family!

Paul is very specific on that point. "We are citizens of heaven." We can’t be responsible for what David does on the street. We can’t be responsible for what any of them do after they leave our soup kitchen on Mondays and Thursdays. We can’t be responsible for what they do when they leave our pantry on Tuesdays. We can’t be responsible for what David does with the help we gave him. But, as long as he is at our back door under a blanket, as long as someone sits on our chairs in the hallways and sleeps, as long as we keep 24 men during the winter shelter, they’re family. For as long as they’re with us they are our responsibility to see that they are clothed, fed and sheltered, since that’s what God would have us to do!

Paul says it quite clearly. When they enter this building they, too, are citizens of heaven. It is our responsibility to show whoever enters what that heaven will look like. We may not like their lifestyle. We may not like the way they look. We may not necessarily want them hanging around, but as long as they are here they’re family! Paul writes that they will have to account for themselves. They may live as enemies of the cross. Their end may be destruction, but that’s not for us to judge. That’s God’s business, not ours. Our business is to see to it that we stand firm in the Lord.

Two other events happened with David that I didn’t mention. When the officer asked if I could keep David’s wheelchair he explained that if he impounded it it would take two weeks for him to get it back. This way he could have it much sooner. The second was when I told the hospital case worker it would take me a couple of days to get the wheelchair fixed she agreed to have him stay in the hospital until it was ready. Ron Thomson, myself, the two policemen, the Social Service case worker, the hospital case worker, the three police cars, the ambulance emergency medical service, the firemen, the passers by on the street who took pity on him, there were a whole cast of characters in this real life drama.

Wednesday the wheelchair was fixed and David was out of the hospital and back on the street. As I drove to work on Thursday there he was in front of Marley Station Mall begging for money. We may see him again; we may not. If we do, just remember what Paul tells us, "The Lord Jesus Christ will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself." When you’re here you’re family!

Thanks be to God,

Amen