Living on the Hyphen Luke 9: 1-6
“Jesus called the Twelve together and he gave the power and authority over all demons and to heal sicknesses. he sent them out to proclaim God’s reign to heal the sick. He told them to “Take nothing for the journey–no walking stick, no bag, no bread, no money, not even an extra shirt. . . .”
Through the past 21 years I have sought to live out this summons of Jesus, and the struggle I have had with it has bought me great pain and depression, but in the last six that struggle has lifted, for I realize that ultimately that is what the call to ministry is about.
For me I “live on the hyphen”–in between so many worlds:priest-and the various worlds people live in–wealthy, upper middle class, and middle class, poor, and very poor; but the world in which I live and feel most comfortable is priest–homeless youth/prostitutes–for it was that world that I lived in nearly thirty years ago–then as homeless and sex worker- that shaped my life and to which I am called to serve. It is a world in which boundaries are fluid, a world of danger at times. It is best summarized in an event that happened last night. I was getting food out of my car, and “Jake” comes up on his bike, and says, “I have had a hell of a good day selling weed”, and you need this for our socks, and handed me an envelope–with a hundred dollars in fives and ones. My history with Jake has been one of many roads. Last Spring I was sick, and he called me and told me he was really sick, and I found him and he was sick, and I took him to the hospital; because he had not filled out the papers he did not have the insurance he gets as an homeless guy, and the doctor says to me, “these feral kids always want a free place to sleep”, and I yelled “I am a feral grown up and I promise you if you do not admit him I will make trouble for you.” Later as I sat in Jake’s room that night the doctor told me “you know I made a judgment that could have really hurt him, thanks,” and walked on. So here was Jake giving back. For me my boundaries are not shaped by where you come from, who you are,but by the act of love, of providing an opening to people. I have my judgments–god do I have my judgments–but I refrain of putting them to the best of my ability on others, to let them encounter God where God is. To practice mercy we must over come human indifference, our judgments, and train our eyes to see God in all persons–especially those who are on the edge. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
It is the height of irony that eating a diet based on animal foods, which are complicated, wasteful, cruel, and expensive to produce, is seen as simple in our culture, and that eating a vegan diet based on plant foods, which are simple, efficient, inexpensive, and free of cruelty to produce, is seen as complicated and difficult. Nevertheless, the truth is slowly coming to light, and the pressures within the old paradigm are building as more of us refuse to see animals as objects to be eaten or used for our purposes. Dr. Will Campbell