Real Mission: We Are In This Together
In these strange times people have thrown the word isolation around quite a lot. On a daily basis, messages of physical distance and separateness and personal space have flooded my news feed, my favorite radio station, and conversations with family and friends.
I doubt any of us will walk away from this experience without new-found meaning in the phrase, “Mind the gap.”
Mission, I have found, is often counter-cultural, but not always in ways that we expect.
This past week we, the people of Redeemer, participated in a web of interconnectedness like I’ve never seen before.
Last Wednesday morning, I drove to Cincinnati Public School (CPS) headquarters to pick up donations from Proctor & Gamble for CPS students to distribute at John P. Parker Elementary School in Madisonville, where several of our faithful parishioners tutor students throughout the school year. The first thread connecting our livelihood and our education.
While setting up our table, our daily delivery from La Soupe arrived with a delicious cheesy potato soup made from rescued produce from our local grocery stores. Like loaves and fishes, as our time distributing items came to a close, we found that we had soup to share, which we delivered to our friends at Madison Villa. Another thread for the sustenance we all share.
In the parking lot at Madison Villa, from 6 feet way, a resident expressed joy at having received a pen pal letter from a child in our parish. A thread reaching from age 70 to age 7.
It struck me that one of our Redeemer pen pals also folded palm crosses ast week which I shared in our parking lot with one of the social workers from Lydia’s House who came to receive some household items from our Home Comforts room. A thread from home to home.
One of the families from their community who found permanent supportive housing this week, had once been a guest in the Interfaith Hospitality Network. A reminder of the thread that links our church building to the welcome of all people.
I write this in awe of the amazingly beautiful web of interconnectedness that I observed in our community last week. The intricate patterns blessed by God, glistening in the sunlight of Christ’s glory.
All of these threads connected last week on asphalt surfaces of community parking lots; but the blacktop felt like a beautiful garden where the maker was weaving a web that would remind me of the truth which I now behold: times may be tough, but there are blessings to behold. You are not alone. We are in this together, ever connected by God’s loving grace.
