One of the gems of the city of Tucson is The Loop bicycle path. I hit it fairly regularly for exercise and relaxation. Yes, I know one can relax by sitting, but I find it easier, with the way my mind works, a lot of the times, to be physically active. It’s fun to be in motion, to see things, to know that you’re moving by your own power – it gives a sense of freedom and accomplishment. It also helps get rid of Thanksgiving dinner.
I remember riding The Loop when it was more like The Line, when it went along the Rillito River from Craycroft Road to the train tracks by I-10. That was it.
Now it’s expanded, so you can do over 100 miles if you want. It goes up into Marana and Oro Valley, and all the way down to Valencia along the Santa Cruz River.
One thing you can’t escape on The Loop nowadays is the massive increase in homeless people. In 2006 I don’t remember any. Now it’s inescapable. People are living in the river, along the path, in lots adjacent. They have carts, and often bikes with kid-trailers full of stuff – and often dogs. You can also see a profuse amount of trash in the rivers and, especially, along the west side of the Santa Cruz near downtown. One day when riding along the Rillito River, by the Tucson Mall, I had to actually stop and walk through the homeless because the path was blocked with people lighting their bongs in broad daylight and tripping out. Another day I smelled marijuana four different times. There’s clearly a lot of drug use.
Before I came to Lord of Grace I used to preach once a month at the Gospel Rescue Mission – men’s center. It’s a good test of whether your preaching is relevant in a room with 80-100 homeless guys. They’ve seen it all and been there, and heard a lot of preachers give a lot of testimonials. They have a B.S. meter that’s really, really attuned. Over time I got to know a lot of the guys, hear their stories. It made me a better pastor.
There were as many ways people ended up there as there were people. In general, you had different tracks. Some really just fell on hard times – like the vet who came back from Afghanistan to find his wife had divorced him and cleaned him out because he wasn’t there to go to court and contest it (I believe the laws have changed this somewhat). You had those who got into addiction and lost everything. Then you had those who lost everything and got into addiction. Plenty had been in and out of jail. And, of course, we know employers are all tripping over themselves to hire people with rap sheets. I never understood how making it harder for people to get a job was supposed to solve anything.
But I digress.
The Mission does amazing work, and they can give you stories of people who have actually turned their lives around and gotten better. They can show results. Of course, a lot of the people I see by the river won’t go there because you can’t use drugs on site, have dogs, and you have to follow rules. So they decide that a tent in the wash is better.
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One thing I try to cultivate in our church is generosity. We should be, as people of God, giving regularly, not just to the congregation but to those who are doing the work of helping people out of hard times. And we do a lot of these things – from the food we collect to our Christmas present campaign for families. In fact, I don’t have to work very hard for these to be so successful (I must credit the outreach team for their work, for sure), because the value is already there.
However, I am always struck by how random charity is. For example, we collect presents for kids at Roadrunner elementary. We’re going to help some families have a lot more joy at Christmas than they would have otherwise. But we are only scratching the surface. We could serve many times more families before getting all the kids who live in low incomes the same Christmas. It’s more than we can handle.
And then, of course, you have the other factors. Some parents are probably more bold with asking. Some are better at finding where the charity campaigns are.
Others, I’m sure, are not so bold, or confident, or maybe feel ashamed by their finances. Some are just not very sympathetic. They might have a bad attitude, or bad habits, or make choices that seem wasteful. Their kids often get less because they were born with parents who nobody likes. But should likeability be a criteria for kids getting what they need? Shouldn’t resources just be given based on need, and not your ability to work a system or make an ask or appear sympathetic and just likeable enough, and just sad enough, and just humble enough, but just hard-working and responsible enough, and just apologetic enough, but not too pushy or brash………
I’m glad we do what we can for those who need it, with the resources we have. I don’t think we’d be very faithful to Jesus if we didn’t. On the flip side, I don’t see how we can address poverty and drugs and homelessness without talking about money and power and politics. I don’t see any way out of it without using some taxes and government regulation – always controversial in our highly capitalistic society.
For example, part of what’s driving so much poverty and homelessness now is the skyrocketing price of rent. Did you know that banks and private equity firms are some of the biggest purchasers of houses? They are gobbling up real estate. They use the property as equity to get loans, then use those loans to purchase other financial instruments. Aren’t houses supposed to be for people to live in? But since it’s very lucrative, what’s going to stop them, if not the government making some limits? And why are we afraid, as Christians, to talk about the financial system that pushes up rents, pushes people out of houses, pushes families into poverty as rent gobbles up more and more of their money, and we keep spending more and more to try to save the people pushed out? Why not pass some laws that will bring down demand and make housing more affordable? Seems fairly common sense, and just.
Which, by the way, is a theme of Christmas and Advent. It’s the Virgin Mary herself who swore her baby would “cast the mighty down from their thrones and send the rich away empty”. It’s the prophet Isaiah who proclaims that justice is the key to peace – and he predicted the Messiah. It’s part of our time in the church year, and part of who we are. I’m glad to be in a denomination that’s willing to have conversations about justice, even at the holiday season, and systems and how the coming of the Messiah is not just good news for personal salvation, but good news to make a more just world. And I’m glad to be a part of a church that tries to make this world more a more just place to live in.
Peace,
Pastor Lars