By Pam Watkins
Jesus came to Biscoe, North Carolina, yesterday. I know. I was there. I met him. He came into the office, a handsome young man, smiling, almost radiant. But as he sat down, his eyes betrayed a deep sadness and a certain humility.
Cory was the name he gave me. He was a construction worker in Arizona, riding the housing boom. But the housing market collapsed. With no jobs, no wife or kids, no prospects, Cory got in his old Chevy work van and drove east hoping to find work. He thought he had enough money to get where he was going, but nearing Montgomery County, he ran out of money, out of food, and was driving on fumes. Driving down old route 220, the young man stopped at several churches, seeking help, but with no luck. He mentioned doors closing in his face.
He had a headache, and as I offered painkiller and a bottle of water, he was visibly moved by the act of kindness. Cory then asked timidly if we had any “leftovers” at the church, and I assured him we would walk over to the local food pantry next door for some food.
Unable to find the gas cards that I keep in my desk drawers, somewhere, for just these kinds of emergencies, I walked Cory over to the pantry. To my inquiry about any food limitations, he smiled: “Well, I’m Jewish.” “OK, no Spam for you!” I smiled. At the Food Pantry, I loaded him up with peanut butter, bread, canned pasta, even potato chips, for the road (all kosher, of course). He then followed me to the local gas station. As I pumped the gas, he told me a little more about himself: thirty-three years old, a failed marriage, just trying now to get home. Against my usual policy, I gave Cory a few dollars to go inside the store for a cold drink (“No beer!” “I don’t drink alcohol.”), prayed for him by the pump, and returned to my work on Sunday’s sermon.
Later that afternoon, thinking about that thirty-three–year–old Jewish carpenter from the desert, and thanking God for the opportunity to serve him, I reflected on those other churches that turned him away. “Is Cory the new leper?” I asked myself. Are the people who have lost their jobs, their money, and even their families; who are newly homeless and wandering the highways and byways of our land, seeking work, seeking food and gas, seeking hope and healing; are these people, who are just like Cory, the new lepers? Are they the ones that we as a people will declare “Unclean!?”
Two days later, I preached about lepers: Naaman, the arrogant pagan who sought out Elisha to request healing (2 Kings 5); and the unnamed leper who knelt before Jesus, crying, “If you choose, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). And I preached about Cory, asking the question, “Who is unclean now, and how will we choose?” The new leper is here, in our midst, and his name is Jesus.
After a career as a bench scientist, Pam Watkins heard God’s call to do “other work.” She graduated from Duke Divinity in 2005, spent a year as a resident chaplain at UNC Hospitals, and now serves as pastor of a two-point charge in North Carolina.
Reflection Questions:
How does equating refugees with Jesus affect your feelings about refugees?
If we were to take that comparison seriously, what changes do you feel would need to be made?
What positive steps can you take to help make those changes a reality?
1) Personally, those who my first instinct is who, why, what do they want, etc. are the very ones that God seems to cross my path with, particularly at gas stations. And as I put $20 of gas in their vehicle give them a bottle of water and nab from my truck I am often comforted by the verse “…when you do unto the least of these you have done unto me…” I have challenged friends in ministry to keep items in their vehicles for this purpse, mostly because it could be me one day in need, and I know that the person is someones parent, sibling or child from somewhere…and that God sees a future for them…and maybe God will use me to shine a light on their cloud.
2) We could all put on Jesus glasses instead of biased humanity glasses…seeing the heart of the person rather than the outside.
3) see answer to questions one….