More compassion needed

Walking with my wife and my 2-year-old son in Noël Plaza one recent Saturday, I was saddened.

There were two homeless men sleeping on the benches and flower beds. Looking around, I noticed that the park is surrounded by huge churches. These are beautiful brick and mortar houses of worship, closed off to men such as the ones I saw in the park.

How sad it was for me to see such a sight and even more for my son who has no idea of such disadvantaged people.

I’m sure that if he were older the conversation would have probably been something like this:

“Dad, why are those men sleeping in the park?”

“Well son, they are homeless.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that they don’t have a house to live in like you and I do.”

“What happened to their house?”

“It’s hard to say. Maybe they lost their jobs and don’t have any money to pay for a house.”

“Well then why can’t they stay inside one of those churches? Would Jesus make them sleep outside?”

“Of course not son, Jesus would open the doors and invite them in and give them food to eat.”

“Then how come the people inside that church won’t do the same for them?”

“That’s a really good question, but unfortunately I don’t have an answer for that one.”

I should never have to think about a conversation with my child about such things. My observation has been that our cities are full of huge churches, and even bigger churches are being built every day right here in Midland/Odessa, yet there are people sleeping in parks and in tents around our cities. I find it hard to believe that, while so much suffering is going on in our world, churches have the money to expand and build high-tech media worship centers that cost millions of dollars — money that should be spent to help relieve the suffering of people just like the ones sleeping in the areas of their back doors.

God could care less about fancy buildings and high-tech media, He doesn’t live inside ANY building and he certainly doesn’t show up to watch the shows that are being put on in his name.

We build these churches for our own needs because God certainly doesn’t need any of it. He lives with the homeless and the needy and he expects us to care for them as instructed in his word.

Churches are getting rich while the homeless still remain homeless. There will be some serious payment due at judgment. Church has become as corporate as the rest of the world.

Sad …