Day 105 – Three Luxuries

This has been a week of particular luxuries. The first luxury came in the form of an e-mail. The remaining luxuries of this last week came out of happenstance. Because one of our work-site staff members was out of town, I led the Pearlington work teams and spent a lot of time talking with them.

We had a group of about fourteen or so from Old Pine Presbyterian Church in the Philadelphia Presbytery. A smaller group came down from First Presbyterian Church in Pulaski, VA. The Old Pine group arrived on July 4th, so there was no holiday off for me. I made the 35-mile drive over from Gulfport to be there for the orientation and returned to Gulfport. I made this commute each day from that Friday until the following Friday. It was well worth the time.

The Old Pine group worked Saturday and Sunday afternoon and did not let up until Thursday night when they took the evening to go to New Orleans ahead of the flight back home. (The First Church group worked just as hard on another home but had their last day cut short by a family emergency.)

I entreat all our Presbyteries to take on the active role of this presbytery. I am so impressed with how the churches across Pennsylvania have mobilized and made repeated trips down to help the people of Mississippi and Louisiana. 

My First Luxury
JoeB e-mailed me a draft of his sermon of last week. I thoroughly appreciated his words because they were apropos to my experience this week. JoeB talked about Jesus’ preparing to send His twelve closest disciples out on their own to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven has come near. JoeB said a careful reading of the Greek may lead one to conclude those words are a commissioning of us all.

My Second Luxury
The second luxury of the week was the complex connections with the volunteers that ended up an echo of earlier experiences. We invite our homeowners to eat dinner with us and participate, if they wish, in our devotional one night each week. This week it was Tuesday.

Towards the end of that evening I related a brief story of how I came to be here in Mississippi. Naturally JoeB and Jodi, our pastors at Northside were mentioned. Afterwards, Jeff Kackley, the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Pulaski, VA approached me to say he didn’t realize who was my home church until I mentioned JoeB and Jodi. He was in seminary with Jodi!

Topping that, one of the people from this church, Michelle, is an intern and a seminary student at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta. She works at Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, the church I attended for seven years. We talked about common acquaintances there and new and old staff.

By the way, two weeks earlier another Columbia graduate from Virginia came down with his group. We talked about the homeless situation in Atlanta and the class at Columbia where the professor requires the class to spend a night out on the street with the homeless. (That milieu formed the basis of the interpretation of the musical Godspell we did at Central early one spring.) Michelle tells me that professor has left Columbia. I hope that class experience lives on after him.

Previously I’ve met the parents of a couple who live in my old house in New Kensington, PA. I’ve met many people from the Pittsburgh area who I’ve been able to have great conversations about my time there.

I’m working with a colleague whose home is in Pembroke, Ontario where I stayed last February working for two months.

This coming week we have a group of volunteers from Cleveland, TN. Next week I see many of my dear friends from Northside PC.

The Final Luxury
I‘ve said it before; my experience down here is rewarding, if not also perplexing. Either I am very fortunate to have met the people I have in my life by chance and built a rich set of friends or I'm located in a particularly acute spot to meet so many people whose threads of living have common crossings with mine.

Old Pine Presbyterian Church is an historic church. It was formed in 1766! Debbie McKinley, their pastor is also Moderator of the Presbytery. (The Pulaski Church formed in 1881 is about the age of Northside.)

I spent almost every evening for dinner and devotion in Pearlington. The Old Pine group engaged me many very stimulating conversations and posed challenging questions. Among them were “How do you identify people to help? “ “What is the racial mix of the homeowners that you help?" "How do you decide when to stop?"

I shared my understanding of the process and the challenges of determining who to help, how long to help and to avoid the pratfall of judgment.

I am sure they returned home with a better understanding of the process and difficulties we face. Their questions certainly probed, stimulated and challenged my own ingrained thinking. Each night, I drove back to Gulfport reliving the conversations and thinking more and more about JoeB’s words in his sermon and my role here.

This third luxury, talking for a week with Debbie McKinley and her church family, and with Jeff and his, really made me think in a different way about what I am doing. This week it leaves me elated and uneasy, being aware that I am moving unprepared towards something new. Some times the unease wins out over elation. Then, I realize I’m resisting an invitation.

JoeB’s e-mail came at a good time. Some of the worries of worthiness that Luther and Paul voiced in their own struggles are dogging me, even knowing what "blessed assurance" means. JoeB stated, “Our calling, whether called to roam or called to stay home, is to live and speak the good news of Jesus Christ to those whose paths we cross.“

Amen.