Unwelcomed

Last week, I received an email that, among other things, said:

"I am Innkeeper [for Room In The Inn] at Christ Church Cathedral 900 Broadway. We do Thursday nights, you are welcome there. We have room for a few more than the 12 we pickup. I have never turned away a walk up guest..."

For those of you who don't know, Room In The Inn is a winter shelter program in Nashville where area churches take in homeless people for the night - usually just one night a week - and feed them, give them a bed for the night, and offer other help as they are able.

And so last week I took advantage of this invite and had dinner with the other Room In The Inn guests at the church. Everything went well. The person who invited me knew me from my blog, and so after dinner he also invited me to use the church's wifi, so I spent a couple hours there. Afterward, a church member gave me a ride from the church to Cafe Coco.

That was last week. Today, I was down to my last dollar and used it to buy a burger at McDonalds - that was for lunch. But, I knew I'd be able to have dinner at the church, so I didn't mind being a little hungry, and didn't seek out other means. When it was time, I walked up to the church, expecting to be greeted as warmly as I was the previous week. When I walked in the door I only saw a couple people. One, I recalled from last Thursday and we said, "hi." Then another guy, who I did recognize from the street, turned around to look at me. I knew that the church had also extended to him the same welcome a year or so ago that they were seeming extending to me, and he was now helping that church with their Room In The Inn program. "Richard" was on his hand written name tag. "Can I help you?" he asked me. I wasn't expecting that, it kind of threw me, but by his tone I could tell what was coming. Not sure how to respond, I said, "I'm not sure if you can." And at that moment I could not remember the name of the guy who'd sent the email, and I hesitated. After a moment I said, "I was invited here." To which Richard replied, "That was last week. Jack isn't here now." Then it hit me, Jack was the person who sent the invite and welcomed me in last week. Then Richard said, "Jack won't be here until 8pm. You can come back then." All the while, Richards tone was rather curt.

In the heat of this I was tempted to fire off a remark or two, but I didn't. I took a deep breath, said "ok," and then turned and walked out the door. As I walked away from the building, I couldn't help but exclaiming aloud, "amazing."

My first thought as I walked away from the church, was "wow, that was a real Christian greeting." Eventually the sarcasm subsided. But I had another thought, too, that I've had on other similar occasions. That being of Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem Christmas Eve. (Yeah I know it wasn't known as Christmas then, but you know what I mean.) As the story is told, Joseph and Mary were traveling. When they arrived in Bethlehem they went in search of lodging, but they found none. Actually, according to Luke 2:6, they had been in Bethlehem for a few days, at least, before Mary gave birth to Jesus. Though they had been in Bethlehem for some time, and Mary obviously pregnant, they could not get any lodging. That really seems suspect to me. And I really wonder just how "full" the inn really was. Joseph and Mary were strangers from out of town, and back then, some people considered a woman giving birth as "unclean," personally more than physically. And so I really think that Mary had to birth Jesus in a barn, more because of prejudice and attitude, than because of overbooking at the hotel.

But what could I do? The dinner at the church would begin at 6:30pm. If I was to return to the church at 8, the meal would be long gone. At this point there were two others in the room. And yet, though they seemed to be from the church, they had that deer in the headlights look. And I didn't think it would help if I appealed to them to straighten out this mess. All I could do was leave. If I argued with Richard, it would only appear as though I was a trouble maker, and I'd never be allowed to come back.

So, there it was. I was invited to dinner at the church. It was to be my only meal for the day. So, yeah, I was kind of looking forward to it. I arrived at the door. But in a spirit less than churchy, I was turned away.

Like I told the guy who originally invited me, I was church shopping. Right now, though, I'm thinking this may not be the church for me. Yeah, I'll be able to eat tomorrow. I should have some money available soon.

Richard's motivation for treating me this way might be a blog post for tomorrow.