Ash Wednesday was always a powerful service for me as a pastor. You touch people intimately on the forehead. You mark dozens of people with the remembrance that they are going to die and decay. You mark your friends; you mark the people that frustrate you; you mark dear little children who appear innocent. I was always very moved by the end of that line.
It’s a relief to be a lay person and just accept the truth of that mark for myself.
But at the Ash Wednesday service of my church there was a lot of Scripture reading. One of the passages was Isaiah 58. And one of the verses was number seven. And one phrase was
… to provide the poor wanderer with shelter
This reverberated in me like a big chord on the pipe organ of a cavernous cathedral. I was at once fully aware and persuaded that this was as much a ‘mission statement’ as Benediction Farm would ever know: to provide the poor wanderer with shelter.
Now, this is not patronizing; this is not looking down on others from a height. There are many ways to be poor, and there are many ways to wander. It’s worth considering. Your poverty and wandering may be evident to the eye of others. Or, it may be hidden by good-acting, affluence, and success.
Chryse and I are poor wanderers in some ways, and so we cannot boast superiority. And yet, we can hope that our farm, our home, our lives can give needed shelter to any poor wanderers whom the Holy Spirit of Christ may bring our way.
There are many ways to participate in the Farm. Maybe you need to come for shelter yourself, or maybe you know someone else who could use a safe place and doing some simple labor for the common good. Hidden riches and rest.
