I’m sorry to say I am not sure the exact number, but I think this is probably about #534 on my list of “What I Did Not Learn In Seminary”.
We tackled the issue of poverty last Sunday in worship, as the lectionary texts spoke eloquently to the question of how our faith might lead us to address the inequities in our society. Right as the service began, almost as if we had planned it, a man who appeared to be someone who li
ves on the streets came into worship.
This is not an uncommon occurrence, as Calvary is an urban congregation in the middle of a city with a considerable homeless population.
This man caught my attention more than usual, however, because he was wearing a bulky sweatshirt with a hood and because he came right down to the front to sit.
(It was right then, of course, I knew with certainty that he was not a Baptist.)
I’ll admit I had my eye on him, just to be sure he was okay and that we might be prepared to minimize any disruption that might occur. Some of the ushers and I were giving each other knowing looks right about when two officers from the Washington Metropolitan Police Department marched right down the aisle into worship. All the way up to the front row. And they were not coming forward to join the church (if you know what I mean).
It was right as the Prelude ended that the officers clamped the handcuffs onto the church attender.
It was troubling in that it violated the sanctity of the worship; and that the situation brought a worshipper under civil scrutiny in the sanctuary.
Yet, the realities of being an urban church seemed at the moment to collide with everything I feel about worship. I’ve been wondering all week long: if a violent criminal is aprehended and it happens to be in worship, what’s the appropriate response?
I posted some more about this event here.
Hi Amy
There thing that we can’t pland on. Thing we can’t for see on. Thing that we can’t pravent in happening. For being a church and a open door to all we can’t contral what people bring to church. I wish there a xray machine that tell us when a person had a thing on there mind to do wrong. So we can talk to them and get he or she a better way to do it. But there not we can do just to pray and put in GOD hands. But he had his own plands and brought help. We need to give ower self to him. And he’ll will alway’s bring us home.
You’re Friend
Will
Wow, Amy. What a journey you have taken from seminary on the hill at Rüschlikon overlooking Zurich See. You pose difficult questions (see Amy’s expanded blog), at least difficult for me. Far too often, my commitment to action does not follow my spiritual/intellectual convictions on peace, justice and sanctuary. I want to remain comfortable in my safe familiar setting. It is so easy to walk on the other side of the road or to rationalize apathy. I don’t have any easy answers to your questions. Your account and reflection make me feel uneasy (that’s good!!). WWJD? is not the real question. Rather we should ask, WWID? (What Will I Do?)
Amy, How unsettling, but you are right being an urban church you will have all kind of things happen.
We had the cops show up on Sunday a couple of weeks ago to arrest one of the youth for theft. How spooky.
No they don’t teach you that in seminary.
We cannot have “sloppy agape.” We at Jeff Street (inner city Louisville) had to get a restraining order against a former member with mental health issues who had begun making violent threats against members of the congregation. His family members advised us that they believed him capable of following through on these threats.
It hurt all of us. We had tried loving this person gracefully until healing came, as it has with so many we have with similar backgrounds, but we reached human limits. He later committed suicide and church members cried and cried and wondered if our actions contributed to his suicide.
We will never know. We asked “What would Jesus do?” And we prayed for discernment. But we failed.
I THOUGHT THIS WEEKS BLOG ABOUT THE ARREST IN CHURCH WAS WAY OFF BASE. THE OFFICERS RESPONDING TO A CALL FROM OUR CHURCH STAFF DID A FANTASTIC PROFESSIONAL JOB OF QUIETLY WALKING DOWN MAKING AN ARREST AND QUIETLY REMOVING A POTENTIAL DANGEROUS PERSON, KNOWN TO THEM AND WHO HAD THREATENED OUR STAFF. THE IDEA THAT THE CLICK OF. HANDCUFFS RANG THOUGH THE CHURCH IS ABSOLUTE BALONEY. I THINK THE CHURCH SHOULD SEND A LETTER OF APPRECIATION TO THE MPD FOR THE TACT WITH WHICH THIS WAS HANDLED.
BILL HARWARD
Thanks for this thought provoking post, Amy. I’m sure this incident has begun a conversation that will continue for many weeks and months at your church – you are all in my prayers!
Amy,
This kind of incident can be approached from a number of ways, most of us come to it from fear. We at Calvary are quite used to having drop-ins of all sorts and in some instances just to get warm. Antsy, as a rule, but harmless. And when that dissheveled young man took a seat in the first pew seat it was nothing unusual. What took place a few minutes later, was unusual and disturbing. Yes, we need to be protected, but many observers had noted that the less threatened we are the more fearful we seem to be.
You mentioned the sound of the handcuffs. The police were doing their job(as could be expected.) A figure of speech, I take it, because I was seated not too far away and I heard no overt sound. But I felt it. Deeply, and I spoke to you about it, ironically, during “passsing of the peace.” And if there was palpable fear it was over what had transpired during a service of worship, a time when we sense our own forgiveness and acceptance before God. What are we coming to, when the classical notion of “sanctuary” has been violated?
Yes, a staff person was threatened and that’s no light thing; perhaps by a person intent on doing serious harm. But he came in, sat down, was attentive – could this not have become a transforming moment in his life? Instead, it may have reaffirmed for him what was old dogma – society is loaded against the poor and not even in a church can such a person experience a moment of peace, possibly redemption.
On a mundane level, Calvary must make clear lines of authority to be followed if another such incident occurs. I have enough trust that the spirit of God’s presence will override the temptation to do evil. But we all sin, and there is no absolute assurance, if such be our need.
Amy, do with this what you will. Victor