SPIT + MUD

we are born in darkness.

JESUS moved into the neighborhood.

he is the LIGHT.

he raises us out of the SPIT + MUD.

he remembers our DIGNITY.

he RESTORES our humanity.

he fills us with his LIGHT.

we bring the LIGHT to others.

I spent Saturday morning at Church in the Garden. Ocala has a population of homeless and distressed people. A dignity based ministry called Wear Gloves serves this community. They help "homies" find jobs and acquire skills to obtain and maintain employment. They do not give out food or bikes or clothes. They help those who have been placed in the margins of our society earn what they need. This work is very exciting and has led them to unexpected places. In July they started Dignity Roasters. So homies are learning how to roast coffee, they package this coffee, and ship orders. There are homies who literally watch Youtube videos on coffee roasting techniques in their tents at night. And the coffee is good. Really Good. Dignity Roasters has blossomed into a coffee shop where you can hang out and enjoy the brew right there. Homies become certified in food handling and work for fair wages (equivalent to about $10 per hour) and hopefully develop the skills to obtain a job in this field once experience has been established and maintained. 

Church in the Garden is an outdoor church that meets every Saturday. Churches from the area sign up to provide breakfast, they bring a worship team, and there is a different teacher each week. But this is a dignity based ministry. Churches don't serve food to the homeless. They just bring the food. Homies set out the food at tables and they eat with the visitors from other churches. So it isn't really about the "haves" providing for the "have nots." It is actually about people sitting down to share a meal and worship and learn with other people that they normally would avoid at all costs... and when you think about it... that... yeah... I think... that is kind of what is happening in the Gospels. Right?

The reason people were so annoyed with Jesus all the time is that he forced people to hang out with each other. If you had a set idea of what a bad person was while you were hanging out with Jesus, it was a safe bet he was going to put you in a situation where you would have to sit down and break bread with this person. 

It doesn't stop there. Homies lead the congregation in the Lord's Prayer. They read the scripture for the day. Some share poetry. Before I started leading worship Saturday, "Donald the One-eyed Blues Man" played an original song called Gonna Make the Devil Scream as well as a really beautiful version of Amazing Grace on his harmonica. IT IS THEIR CHURCH HOME. I am a visitor.

Homies pass out the elements of communion (bread and grape juice). My first visit, I was not prepared for the sacred moment when this happened. It was transformative for me in how I view communion and its purpose. 

We sang together and then I prepared to teach at Church in the Garden for the first time. It is best to keep your message to about ten minutes. I taught on John chapter 9. I talked about this man who had been condemned as useless by society and left on the streets because of his disability. The disciples saw him and did not recognize him as a human but an object lesson in discussing theology. But Jesus affirmed his humanity.

It is not so important that the man was blind and Jesus healed his eyes. What is more important is the way Jesus treated him as an image bearer of God capable of doing kingdom work. This blind man had been abandoned to a shameful life sitting in the spit + mud in the street, begging. Jesus met him there in his humility and used the spit + mud to bring healing. He did not take pity on the man. He restored his dignity which had been stolen not by his blindness, but by his community, his family, and his spiritual leaders.

When the story ends though, this man is still a street person as far as we know. We don't even get a name for the dude. I was telling this story to people who, due to a myriad of circumstances, have basically become this blind guy. I was telling them that Jesus meets us in our shame and suffering and brings healing to us. He calls us out of the darkness so that we can receive the light, and reflect that light for others to see. I have to confess, I was plagued with a sense that I may be full of crap as I talked to them. 

I also made a mini comic about what is happening in John 9. So many people work extremely hard and have sacrificed much for the different ministries Wear Gloves does. I wanted to honor that work and pour all of myself into Church in the Garden. Making art is a large part of how I process and contemplate God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. So I wanted to share that with my brothers and sisters Saturday. It was fun.

You can learn more about Wear Gloves, sign up for a subscription of delicious fair trade coffee roasted by homies, or donate to their ministry on their sweet new website: http://weargloves.org/

Ken, one of the founders of Wear Gloves, spoke at our church and shared a lot of their story recently. You can watch that here: https://vimeo.com/255303358

-joshua (2018).