Monkman and i visited him a bunch of times in the hospital, Monkman more than me, and it wasn’t anything particularly huge or amazing that we did, but just trying to go in and see him as often as we could and then hang with him as long as he wanted us to. For him it clearly meant a lot and it really didn’t demand all that much of us. It was a small thing with great love.

there is this story of this little kid on the beach. a bunch of starfish have been washed up on the shore and the tide has gone out and the starfish are in danger of being baked by the sun. this old man stands at a distance watching as this kid picks up a starfish and throws it into the sea and then picks up another one and throws it into the sea. eventually the old man cannot take it any longer and so he walks up to the boy and asks him, “what are you doing?” and the kid replies, “i’m saving these starfish!”

the man points down the beach to hundreds and thousands of starfish lying in the sun, at risk of being incinerated, and turns back to the boy and says, “what difference can you make?” and the little boy bends down and picks up a starfish and shows it to the man and says, “I’m making a difference to this one,” and throws it back in and picks up another, “i’m making a difference to this one.” and the old man bends down and picks up a starfish and joins the boy in his mission.

now here is the question, “WHAT IF EVERYONE WHO WAS MEANT TO BE ON THE BEACH WAS ON THE BEACH?” and as a Christ-follower, I’m talking to you church. If in that building one day a week is the only place your christianity happens, then is it christianity at all? if we’re not living what we’re believing then are we really believing anything of use?

at the simple way we like to quote mother teresa’s “we can do no great things. only small things with great love” and in light of this story, i’d like to suggest a extension to that… that as more and more of us get out of the buildings and on to the beach [and often the building equips up to be able to be effective on the beach] and do more and more small things with great love [not because each of us is doing more but because more of us are doing a little] then those small things quickly become big things with great love.

our friend gets a visit in the hospital. and a celebrational welcome when he is released back into the world…

and the world changes…

so we invited a few of them round [mom and daughter, couple and single lady] and they brought some food and dessert and we had some snacks and some food and they joined us for a meal and conversation – i got to know people val knew that i didn’t so much and she got to know people i knew that she didn’t so much and it was really a good time…

after the meal we sat in the lounging area and invited the neighbors to take part in our new tradition, inspired in part by one of the alternative seminary classes we attended this year, run by will o’ brien:

we turned off the lights and each person was given a candle [tea light, if you're a girl and know what that means] and then we took some time to speak out some of the darknesses of this past year, acknowledging that as much as Christmas can be a time of joy and celebration, for a lot of people it is a time of pain and loneliness and burden… so struggles and mess-ups and death and sicknesses and regrets and disappointments were mentioned and everyone got really into it to a far deeper level than val and i anticipated and i was on the verge of tears from early on and we let it go on for quite a while and took our time on it…

then, i wrapped up that section in prayer and we moved on to the next part which was each person sharing a prayer or a hope for the new year and then lighting their candle… so as people spoke out their hope/prayer the light increased and we ended up putting all the lights together in the centre of the room and holding hands and praying for each other as we headed towards the new year – it was an incredibly powerful time, both just having neighbors in our house to share food with us, but also that they invited us into their lives and pain and dreams for the future.

we ended the evening by inviting a bunch of children round to watch Elf with us on the projected movie screen and had some, who had never before entered our house, join us for that – it was a lot of laughter and fun and a great way to end off the day.

it was great to create a Christmas tradition and spend the time reaching out to others and hopefully having deep impact and opportunity to grow those relationships in the new year – there seriously is nothing better than transforming the ‘me’ focus to an ‘us’.

at one point in the service a friend of the simple way played Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia’, one of my favourite and most moving of songs, which has never felt so apt [actually being on the streets of philadelphia] and the words are as follows:

“I was bruised and battered and I couldnt tell
What I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
I saw my reflection in a window I didn’t know
My own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me
Wastin´away
On the streets of philadelphia

I walked the avenue till my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of philadelphia

Aint no angel gonna greet me
Its just you and I my friend
My clothes don’t fit me no more
I walked a thousand miles
Just to slip the skin

The night has fallen, Im lyin awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of philadelphia.”

[Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/b/bruce+springsteen/streets+of+philadelphia_20025067.html]

Jesus said, “There will always be poor people among you” and I think we often receive that in a resigned way – oh well, Jesus said there’s always going to be poor people so why even bother trying to make a difference. But i think He was speaking prophetically, not so much about what has to be the case [we do have enough resources for everyone at this present time] but from a place of knowing the heart of man – because you are greedy and put yourself first and choose your comfort over someone elses need, as a result of that, there will always be poor people among you.

this blog has the word ‘poor’ in the title so it is not going to get as many hits as say my relationship blogs [how can I do MY relationships better?] and the people who made it down this far are most likely not the ones who need to read or be reminded of any of this stuff, except maybe a little, and maybe it’s that little which counts. i know i need to hear it [and i have chosen to live in a poor neighborhood and work with poor people] because there is still a lot that needs to change in my own life.

but standing in the rain last nite with a whole lot of homeless people from all diverse backgrounds [poverty is not racist] and walks of life, and the people who work with them, i was moved once again that we can NOT SETTLE FOR THE WAY THINGS ARE – where those who have keep piling up more and more while those who don’t are left to suffer alone… especially as the church… part of our mandate is to look after the least of these.

“The night has fallen, Im lyin awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of philadelphia.”

so here is part of the article here:

A suburban congregation wanted to do something for families in our inner city neighborhood. We were all tired of distant acts of charity that do little to address the roots of poverty in a neighborhood like mine where we have a couple hundred thousand jobs in the last 30 years. We were all suspicious of do-gooder volunteerism that can so easily give a handout while pick-pocketing people of their dignity. And yet we were also convinced that inequity breaks God’s heart and should break ours, and that we have the power to do something about it. There must be a way to be more creative with giving money away than the corporations
are with getting all of it.

So the dreaming began.

but go and read the whole thing over here…

for one of our neighbors it created an opportunity for her to be able to afford the moving of house she needed to do while still remaining in our block which was huge for both her and us and so it turned out to be exactly what she needed… and there were a bunch of other amazing stories for each of the others who received it…

and as the article closes: Imagine if every neighborhood had a little conspiracy like this one, and imagine if every suburban congregation began plotting goodness with folks in poverty.

This mischief is holy mischief. It is a divine conspiracy. It is about reminding the world that it is loved. And that seems to be what Christmas is all about.

another thing that has been on my mind recently with very similar meaning behind it happened in our morning prayer which consists of a variety of parts of story, scripture, prayer, psalm that are either read by an individual or together [the section in bold print which everyone reads together] and i noticed something different recently, after having taken part in morning prayer five days a week for close to six months…

often during the bold part i have read fairly loudly, not shouting loud, but leading loud, almost in a way to help set the rhythm or help create a sense of decent flow. this is really hard to explain well this way but it might be my realisation that is easier to portray. about a week ago i dropped my voice a little and melted into the crowd as it were – the crowd consisting of seldom more than ten people and more often four to six – and it was like a eureka moment to me, not just for morning prayer, but for all of life.

firstly, it is monkman who leads morning prayer and not me and so that ‘responsibility’ was never mine except on rare occasions when he hasn’t been around and i have led it. but it was the realisation of being part of the group and offering as much as the group rather than trying to lead the group [in an area where it is not my place to] or have any form of control [for whatever noble reasons might have been in play]

it was incredible. in one sense it was as if me dropping my voice made the whole sound louder because suddenly i was deeply aware of everyone’s contribution. suddenly, instead of just my voice echoing in my head as i read, there was a group voice that consisted of everyone bringing and offering their little part and it felt so much more rich.

so i did it again today. consciously pulled back on my group speaking until i was an equal giving part of the whole. the richness arrived. my identity or need for it to be noticed faded and it became more about the passage or prayer and i was able to quietly celebrate the group.

and so i have been trying to think about life and how my fading into the crowd might at times be what is necessary to help others to take their rightful place in the lead or even just to become more a part of the group than the one. to be us instead of me.

it is interesting to note that Jesus starts His teaching on prayer with the words ‘Our Father’ in matthew 6.

individualism ]closely linked to capitalism i feel] has robbed us of a lot of richness and authenticity in life. extended family became nuclear family which became the individual and the broken family, jostling for position.

i believe it will be of much value for us to pursue the ‘we’ and at times that will definitely be at the expense of the ‘i’

what think you?

watch the video here…

once a week the interns have a meal with shane and katie and then we usually do one of the five sessions of evening prayer that they have in the book – it is largely similar to morning prayer although one slight, almost unnoticeable difference really jumped out at me this week as we were praying together:

there is a section where we can pray for other people in both the morning and evening sessions, but in the evening session, after each person has prayed for a person or a situation, we all respond together with the words, “LORD, HEAR OUR PRAYER.”

the community or common-unity aspect of it really spoke to me this week – the prayer that was just prayed by someone in our group is “our” prayer – we all claim ownership and together acknowledge the need before God, together. i just find that incredibly powerful. the Bible does speak on agreeing in prayer and various other aspects of unity linked to the passage about us being like a body and caring for the parts that need more care and so on…

if we can start to live our lives with that same kind of communal thinking as we pray that prayer, then i think we will be one step closer to truer and richer community… shared resources, shared lives, shared problems, shared requests, shared ministry and so on…

Lord, hear our prayer.

[if you would like to join us in this even from a distant venue in the world check out the site www.commonprayer.net which has a lot of the prayers we cover and which i was using a while before we found out we were heading to the simple way]

Paul Klemmer, a homeless carpenter — and, it’s turned out, eloquent scribe — has written his second open letter detailing the plight and desires of the group of homeless individuals who left Occupy Philly at Dilworth Plaza to seek safe accommodation and who’ve been camped below an I-95 overpass for nearly a week. (Read his first letter here)

The camp has been issued notice by PennDOT, which owns the area beneath I-95, to leave by 11 AM tomorrow morning. The group does plan to leave — but where they will go, or when, remains to be seen.

Klemmer’s letter outlines two options that several people beneath the bridge shared with CP toady: seek temporary shelter inside or outside a church that would agree to host them; or, disappear: and drop beneath the radar of law enforcement officials who’ve chased them now from three homes.

Here, in its entirety, is Klemmer’s most recent letter:

Today we face two closely-related crises. The first very immediate need is that of the 20 or so individuals that trusted the Occupy Movement and Interfaith Community to rescue them from the consequences of the Occupation of City Hall and impending renovation there.

The second crisis, an ongoing one, no less immediate because of the season, is the people of Philadelphia’s, and America’s, willingness to allow armed men and women to prevent the poor from working together to increase their fortune.

With a nail gun, even a butane-powered one, and some battery-powered tools, I and the skilled carpenters in the camp could create, from recycled materials and donated fasteners, structures like those at Christmas Village, easily disassembled and transported, to see us through the winter.

What’s more difficult to create is a sharing, loving community with those who the System has habitually fractured and fragmented. We’ve come a long way in a short time and formed the core of such a community of shared involvement and responsibility. We’ve been conditioned by being forced to exist alone, to grab all we can before someone else does, this alienation suiting the purposes of a status quo which would keep us invisible and blame us for our own misfortunes.

If we find a place to move from here, we need to immediately structure the receiving and distribution of donations in an equitable fashion and create, with guidance from the Interfaith Community, a minimal list of expectations and obligations agreed to by those who would join our community and work toward building solutions, not only for our group, but at least as an example, for all the needy.

It’s been suggested that the churches of the Interfaith Community might provide temporary sanctuary for our small tent community, providing a launching pad for other, longer-term solutions such as acquiring abandoned indoor or outdoor space through legal channels, disappearing into safer spaces ofr bouncing from church yard to church yard, doing clean up and repairs in the community, inviting community involvement and integrating the homeless within these communities. But by tomorrow, Monday, we need a place to regroup or just crawl back under the rocks we crawled out from, disappointed that the hot air generated by Occupy was insufficient to keep us warm through the coming snows.

something more prioritised came up that evening and i wasn’t able to go, but first thing the next morning Val and i drove to go and find them and i went in to go and assess the situation and see what was happening…

and i met Paul.

Paul chatted to me for maybe half an hour to an hour [while my beautiful wife Val waited patiently in the car, not wanting to interrupt the man moment - she was originally going to go shop while i chatted but decided to wait which was cool] and it was just the raddest time. starting off by saying they didn’t really need anything [a mind blow for me with homeless people with my general experience back home] but that they had most of their needs met [there were about twenty tents under the bridge and they had access to running water in a nearby laundromat that didn't lock up and people keep on coming by and supplying food and more] but at the end i was able to offer some bedrolls and jackets which the Simple Way has had donated and i took them through last nite.

Paul handed me this letter which he had written and was hoping to have posted in a local newspaper [i found it online fortunately so didn't have to write it again so it definitely got posted somewhere] and gave me permission to share it with you and i think it is just excellent and felt so privileged to have spent time with him and Joe who i met last nite and Val and i are hopefully going back tomorrow to join them for a Quaker type service:

“We are not here protesting or to make a statement, We’re homeless. We are sick of being forced to exist alone, sick of being told that shelters, which are not tolerable living facilities for sober people, are an adequate alternative to being “allowed”, by the government, to work, live and share together to create for ourselves, with much less help and expense than the government can do anything, opportunities to provide for ourselves that which our troubled economy cannot.

Philadelphia has about 4,000 homeless people and 40,000 empty dwelling units, but, apparently, unless the wealthy can profit by our occupying these dwellings, they would rather see us alone, with our possessions if not stolen by regular criminals, ‘confiscated’ by police, since we have no place to store anything we can’t carry and are not allowed to congregate to watch one another’s belongings.

To have poverty forced upon us in the land of plenty, is no longer a viable solution, if in fact, it ever was.

I know how to grow food, build structures, build communities from the fragmented elements that current policy, make craftwork to supply cash for what it’s needed for, etc. My friends know how to do the things I don’t. Those who ‘have’ seem satisfied to make sure I don’t ‘have’ opportunity to gather to have a safe place to sleep, let alone organize to provide for our basic needs.

We need the use of at least one abandoned structure, if the law requires it to have water and electricity, the Obama administration provided $21 million dollars to help the homeless, this is a drop in the bucket.

We need an outdoor long term camping area, close enough to mass transit for us to meet medical, legal, pension and benefits and other needs, and large and separated enough to not disturb our neighbors and start to grow our own food and do art and craftwork, feed one another and see to one another’s daily needs.

In this sort of camp, people who get along can meet one another and we can help one another and be helped by those in the community who believe in, rather than merely preach, compassion, to get long term housing, use our varied skills to rehabilitate abandoned structures as we rehabilitate ourselves and work toward the caring, loving society that many believe we will make happen.

There are many caring people in Philadelphia, whose deeds as well as their words, demonstrate the belief that the present “crisis” is in fact and opportunity to create a land of “Liberty and Justice for All” rather than a land of “Just Us”.”

he finally came over tonite and started showing me some video clips of stuff he could do with tyres and with old wooden crates that are free and easy to find all over the place – i was thinking of what videos i could show him on the internet and it pretty much came to japanese people with giant elastic bands over their face trying to bite into a marshmallow suspended from a strong or else a tongue-twisting program where if they get it wrong, this giant fly-swatter comes out and nails them in the nads…

and i was really smacked in the face [once again, sometimes a daily occurance here] how superficial i can be and how there are people all around dreaming of life-giving things and sometimes i am preoccupied with watching someone get hurt or pull a funny face… it reminds me of how in ephesians 3.20 we are told that the God we serve is able to do more than all we could hope or imagine… and i do talk about this one a lot cos it’s one of my many favourite verses, but i think that sometimes we [especially us as Christ-followers who are connected to the ultimate power source of the Universe, thru none of our own worth or doing] hope or imagine too small and so, even when God comes thru and we get what we wanted, it isn’t that impressive…

what we did for our neighbour was so small [a free, legit word program, and then the beautiful Val showed him how to download and use pinterest and he just took off] and yet he got so excited, because his dreams are so big – dreams for himself, his family, and the community…

i hope sometime soon to move from marshmallows and nut-cracking to tyre-walls, wooden crate compost pins and plastic cup gardens…