Here's hoping that your Fourth of July weekend was a great one, that you got to relax a bit, maybe spend some time with family and friends, watch fireworks and give thanks . . .
We know you're busy so we won't keep you long. Please take a look below at our teaser about two important October events, Steve's tale about Boxing with Dextro. Over on the left, you'll find a chance to donate and get mugged, opportunities to spread the word, our schedule for the week and a few cool links.
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Save the dates!
Pull out your calendar right now - Please - and pencil us in for Friday, October 17th, and Saturday, October 18th when we'll celebrate and explore out calls to live as revolutionaries.
On Friday evening, we'll host what we hope will be an Annual Dorothy Day Dinner honoring unsung heroes who work tirelessly in support of Newburgh's impoverished sisters and brothers. ( Click here for info on Ms. Day.) Then, on Saturday, Don Bisson will lead a day-long workshop on a topic related to spirituality and social justice. Don's a popular workshop leader who travels from coast to coast engaging folks in conversations that blend Christian spirituality and Jungian Psychology.
We'll have more details in a few weeks.
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Boxing with Dextro
We only have one key to our post office box and it's in Ruth's possession which means I rarely go for the mail. But, yesterday morning, she let me borrow her keys and off I went to drop off some mail and retrieve what turned out to be a lot of bills.
That's when I ran into Dextro who had an enormous box of clothes he wanted to mail down to Georgia where he'd be teaching for the next month and was being told by the clerk that the box was too big, that he'd need to send his stuff in two or three smaller boxes. "I don't know what to do," he told the clerk. "I'm leaving this afternoon and I've got to send this stuff . . ."
"You need a couple of boxes?" I asked, inserting myself into the conversation.
"Yeah . . . you got any?"
"Be right back," I said as I headed off on the two-block trek back to Hope.
It turned out to be a three-box adventure. But, it turned out to be more than that. We both knew that our meeting up in the post office was more than a coincidence. It was one of those opportunities to clearly see God calling us to connect with one another and with God.
 Those sorts of things are called synchronicities and what we do with them can make a huge difference in our lives.
One of them happened for Ruth this morning. While she was out for a walk, she met a man who told her he'd gotten out of prison on Thursday and had been wandering the streets in search of help ever since. He told her he'd been to two churches this morning and they wouldn't help.
Think about that one - a homeless parolee reputedly wandering the streets in need just happened to run into one of the three or four people in a town of 29,000 who could actually help him out. And, that's what Ruth offered to do. She told him about Our House where he could find safety and food and fellowship and a place to stay the night if he needed one. She told him about Orange County Re-Entry and the Housing Resource Center and other service providers.
"He didn't want to hear it," she said. "He kept saying 'You don't understand. Your don't understand.' and I told him, 'I do understand.' He just didn't get it."
Next week's gospel lesson - Matthew 13:1-9 and 18-23 - is a story about "getting it." It's also a story about "giving it" - indiscriminately offering hope, opportunities, service . . . love to everyone we meet. It tickles me to think of God as the sower spreading abundant love an acceptance everywhere and to everyone with no requirement that it be readily received. And, it reminds me of my call - and your call - to do likewise, to offer others a hand, a glass of water, a couple of boxes, a safe place to spend the night and to do it as instruments of God's love without any expectation that the offer will be accepted.
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Thank you for all you do to make this world a better place.
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