On Saturday, August 20, Good Shepherd’s Senior Warden Jill Hedge organized our first-ever Laundry Day at a local laundromat. Our goal is to be a good neighbor to our neighbors.
I approached a man about paying for five washer loads. He reluctantly accepted the quarters, then asked “What’s the catch?” Explaining there wasn’t one at least brought us to eye contact.
“What’s the catch?” … “No catch! We’re just being good neighbors to our neighbors.”
After loading the machines with dirty clothes he stated, “Okay, what else?” My response was, “Nothing, there’s no presentation you have to listen to or video to watch. No catch! We’re just being good neighbors to our neighbors.” He said, “Thanks, I can use the money you’re saving me for gas.”
“Thanks, I can use the money you’re saving me for gas.”
It shows me that we are always looking for a trap. Always skeptical, always on guard for the catch. It reminds me of what Bishop Edmond Browning wrote years ago:
That is why the events of Holy Week are so powerful; they happen every day, all around the world. Human suffering is real, not some divine drama enacted out as an allegory. So real that the Son of God himself did not escape. And now we stand at the empty tomb and look inside and do not understand.”
Bishop Edmond Browning
He goes on to say, “God knows our sorrows and is not defeated by them. That is reveled to us, not deduced by us. We don’t figure it out. It comes to us as a gift from God who has walked with us all these years and walks with us still.”
This is truly Good News. We do not, nor are required to understand. We are called by Jesus to be witnesses to the mystery of Faith. To allow the gift of Jesus and guidance by the Spirit to lead us into true faith so we can be a fruitful community that acts with love, peace, and humility.