This is a long story, but I've been thinking about this all afternoon and evening.
A few months ago
Eric at Heart of a Pastor wrote some about the challenges of strangers calling on churches and pastors for help.
We got such a call at church today. Our office manager took the call just before noon. A man told her he just wanted somebody to talk to, a pastor or a lay-minister. He was calling from a breakfast and lunch place on mainstreet.
I serve as Pastor in a town of just under 6,000. We're not far from the Mayo Clinic and a substantial number of transients pass through on their way to and from the bigger towns in the middle-west. We don't give out cash to anybody. We help, at the pastors' discretion, with bills for local folks in trouble once a year (occasionally twice but it is my discretion) and we have one member who gives out an apartment to people in need. Its full right now (it has been full for all but 9 days sense he started giving it to people we find in need of a place to live). We help transients once a year paying for a motel room, bus ticket, or car repair. We keep records of who we help, photo copies of their ID's and of bills we pay. We host the local food shelf and many people know they can call us for help once a year.
I asked the man a few questions over the phone: his name, "Charlie" where he was, "a cafe" how he got there, "a ride." If he had any transportation. "No," he said. Knowing that the restaurant would be busy at noon I decided to go and meet this stranger having coffee. I bundled up; it was in the single digits above zero when I got there. I went in carrying 4 things: a Bible, note pad, pen, and release of information form (a social worker in the congregation helped me draft a few years ago so I could work with social workers and agencies in the area whenever people needed help).
A man, who looked about 50, was there with a pack, wide brim hat and white coat sitting beside him at a table looking toward the front door drinking coffee and sugar (there must have been 10 empty packets on the table.) I sat down across from him and the waitress brought me a cup. He pointed to the Bible. He said he carried three bibles in his pack. He was just flipping. He said was looking for something in James. I helped him flip to the right section. He pointed to James 2:14
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?" (NIV) I made reference to the verses after,
"Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. 16If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? 17In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Charlie wasn't much interested in the other verses. Just the verse about faith without works being dead. I listened. His story's tough. He said people laugh at him and don't have a clue about his pain. "If they just know my pain." He'd come to Minnesota to go to Mayo to get help. He talked about hospitals in Florida, Georgia, and on and on. He complained because other hospitals had given him a morphine shot; but the folks in Rochester gave him nothing besides dye for a scan. He has no money and no insurance. Now he was on his way on the road again. He talked about a wife dying, a girl-friend dying, and now his own cancer and liver "about to explode." He showed me a Florida ID it was a younger him. It said he was born in 1969. He's only 38.
The story went on for an hour. He looked me in the eye and I took notes as we talked. He said nobody wants to help him especially church people. I said most of us have been swindled, hustled, and lied to, he went back to James. I told him we give out no cash. He complained that I ought to give to a brother and not hold his hand. He complained about shelters. He refused to go back to one after a naked man straddled his cot in the middle of the night. He went back to James. I told him we help people once a year. I asked him about a room for the night and a bus ticket for the morning. He wanted only cash. I told him no.
He turned away from me and motioned for me to go. He quoted James 2:14 again. I've met some emotionally manipulative people in 10 years in ministry. He was skilled. I didn't get up. I told him I don't give away any cash. "We only give to help when we get a receipt." He pointed to his coffee cup and asked me what I saw. I told him, "an empty cup." That wasn't his point. He said he wasn't a drunk or a drugy. I offered to pay his tab at the restaurant. He got up to tell the waitress not to let anybody pay his tab. I stayed seated. He asked me to look him in the eye. I told him again, "We don't give without getting a receipt." I have to be accountable to my brothers and sisters in my congregation. "Look at my face. This is your receipt for up above when I freeze." I told him my offer was there. I stayed seated. Charlie got up to go outside for a smoke. I said hi to our council vice president and his wife in the next room. Charlie came back in. I told him my offer was still there. A room for tonight and a ticket for the morning. But he wouldn't look at me. I left.
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A few years ago a neighboring church hosted an African Pastor for a month. He wanted to see my hometown, Minneapolis. His host, myself, and our African brother went to Minneapolis. We went to a place open for the homeless to go during the day. Our guest talked about the demonic presence he felt there. He said that there were demonic spirits at work and that the demons needed to be called out. I felt something there before he said it. I had the same feeling today sitting with Charlie about half an hour into our visit. I went home and prayed the Lord's prayer with my bride wanting God's will to be done. I told this story to a wise member. She reminded me that the Devil uses only one verse of scripture at a time and always forgetting the whole context.
Please pray for Charlie and me too, thanks.
