A Tale of Two Sundays

Our morning started with a sense of joy, and as it is every single Sunday when we get ready to go to the streets of Boston and meet our friends who live on the streets and struggle with substance disorders.

Our wagons were filled with fruit, clothing, sandwiches, fruit, ice-cold water, and other treats. The volunteers were enthusiastic, but as we arrived, so did the rain. Undeterred, we kept going and were immediately surrounded by people happy to see familiar faces and eagerly anticipating the contents of the wagons. Our volunteers have become regular fixtures on the streets of Boston every Sunday. Smiles and hugs were abundant.

The pastor of the Universal Church, however, was not too happy to see us. He approached us without a cordial greeting and demanded that we leave the area because he didn’t want the homeless outside of his church.

We patiently explained that we were on the sidewalk . The sidewalk is separated from the church parking lot by a chain fence erected by the church. We reminded him that the homeless on the sidewalk represented an opportunity for service and that the gospel mandates that we help to those in need. He did not want to hear it. In fact, he told us “don’t bring Jesus into this.”

In an attempt to clarify his intentions, we inquired if he meant he did not want homeless outside his church. Aware that our actions were being recorded, he responded emphatically, “I do not want them here because they leave trash. They don’t pay taxes . Take them somewhere else.” He also says some other nastiness, but will not dignify them.

Although the pastor had no right to tell us to move because we were on the public sidewalk, we decided to move and continue to distribute food and clothing in the rain elsewhere to shield the people living on the streets from the degrading and hurtful words of that pastor.

The saddest part of this incident is the reminder that if the pastor of this church, The Universal Church, located in the epicenter of the drug epidemic in Boston, is comfortable saying that he does not want “those homeless” outside of his church. We can only imagine what other mistreatment people struggling on the streets with homelessness and addiction disorders encounter every day.

We all have the choice to be kind or to be hurtful. To reflect love or to reflect hate. To be a beacon of hope or to be a tool of destruction. We cannot be neutral. Our actions speak about what we have in our hearts.