MIRACLE IN THE PARK

  I belong to (All Souls) church in Kansas City where the members generally agree that the Bible is a good book, that when Jesus died he stayed dead and that God is a metaphor. We pay a lot more attention to the here and now than to the here after. Every Thursday, in that narrow slot when afternoon gives way to evening a small group of volunteers meet there. We assemble sandwiches and food packets for the homeless and the hungry. By 7:00 p.m. a miracle takes place; homeless, hungry people materialize out of nowhere at a city park near Union Station. Numbers vary from week to week and season to season but we never have food left over to dispose of. It takes more hands to prepare food than to pass it out so I haven’t been going to the park since pandemic came to town. 

We are in a cold streak right now. What else? It’s January. But the difference between freezing and 10 degrees is numbing. When I left the parking lot yesterday it was 10 degrees. No illusions; the homeless and the hungry come from who knows where but none of them set out intentionally to end up homeless or hungry. Many are mean, ill tempered, even violent but as a group they are self-policing. When they accept food all you see is appreciation. There are no pamphlets, no witness for Jesus, no pious prayers, just meeting their immediate need because we can. 

In the years before Covid we opened the church when the temps were forecast to reach 10 degrees. A warming center simply lets people come in out of the cold. But you can’t just give homeless people the run of the place. It takes all day to prepare. Things have to be moved, areas posted and locked so there is nothing to steal, nothing to abuse. All of their possessions except for clothes they are wearing and a telephone are locked in a guarded room. From 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. it took 30 supervisors wearing All Souls uniforms (aprons) taking turns, working shifts. Sleeping in chairs or on the floor, morning comes around and those derelicts must go back out into conditions we wouldn't wish on anybody. We had a limit of 50 guests but I can’t remember turning anyone away. 

I am an old man and have never in my life gone to bed hungry or not had a safe place to sleep. I have been able to anticipate my needs and stay out of harm’s way but that speaks less about me and more about the cards I have been dealt. This life is very forgiving if you hold Queens & Kings or even 2's if you have four of them. The idea that poverty is self inflicted is a thin attempt to accommodate one’s own good fortune and privilege. The study of human behavior explores many dead ends but it also shines light in dark places. Still we know this; Concerning one's station in life, the fear that someone will displace us from below is greater than of being oppressed from above. What is more common than judging the poor harshly and thinking the rich must deserve their riches. The volunteer experience does not make me feel good or better about anything. All it does is meet a temporary need. Hunger can be satisfied quickly but comes back around before you know it. If they could do better (clear the hurdles) they would. My place in this story is somewhere in the middle: do unto others as I hope they would do for me. Next Thursday there will  be bread, ham, cheese and ziplock bags to keep us busy for a couple of hours. I have no doubt the miracle in the park (the convergence of the hungry) will manifest itself again.