The Great Feast (Boston 6)

This was the last, full day. It was a Sunday, and we saw a few people that we met throughout the week at Redeemer Fellowship! Molly's friend who had gotten saved earlier in the week, Jimmy, attended and brought his brother with him! They were both homeless and took the bus to get in Watertown.

 Roswell wanted to take some of the homeless people in Harvard Square that we built relationships with out to eat. We all wanted to do the same thing. And not just take them out to eat at McDonalds, or something that they can easily get for themselves. We all wanted to take them to one of the best restaurants in that area, a Mongolian place called Fire & Ice. It's a lot similar to Genghis Grill, and if you know me even the slightest bit, you'd understand how excited I was to eat at that place. Taking our friends to Fire & Ice would be the second chance our team had to eat there. 

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Luke 14:12-24

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’”

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As we walked out of the tunnel & entered the Pit one last time, it felt really weird. We all split up and tried to find the person that we wanted to take to dinner. I had talked to so many different people out there, that it was hard to follow up with them. So personally, I didn't have anyone in mind to take. 

A few girls on our team found Richie, who had chopped all of her hair off. They asked her if she had wanted a full meal, and she turned it away, several times. Jimmy and his brother were joining us. Also, this really young kid came along as well. 

Travis had just met an old man in Starbucks named Ronnie. He could barely walk on his own because of problems he had in his knees. Roswell, Travis, and a few others prayed over him at Starbucks, and then they tried to help him get to Fire & Ice to eat with us all. Sadly, even with help, Ronnie couldn't make that walk. So those helping him turned around and sat Ronnie on a ledge in the Pit. At this time we prayed for him. We prayed for his knees, his illnesses, his life, his family. We prayed that God would work wonders in his life. He was a great man, and he believed in Jesus. He loved the prayer and everything we stood for. Soon, he had to get on his bus and leave to get back home, so to make sure he got to the bus safely, Travis walked him to his stop.

Soon after the majority of the group headed to Fire & Ice, we asked Richie if she would come with us or not. She finally said yes and accepted the blessing! We all walked to Fire & Ice together, and I wish I could have gotten footage of it. It was amazingly beautiful. Not because of anything our team did, but how raw this action was. Have you ever taken a homeless person out to dinner at a nice restaurant? We received all types of looks as we walked through the door.

You know why we received all of those looks? It is because of how the world is & the way our communities look at different people. To the waiters and hosts and city people and tourists it seemed that we walked with a bunch of thieves. They labeled our friends as homeless nomads and homosexuals. They identified our friends as orphans and good-for-nothings. You know why our world is this way? It's because, as a whole, we are so far away from Jesus.

Jesus hang out with tax collectors and defended prostitutes, and they rolled with him because he offered them something very different than what the pharisees and the rest of the world offered. And that was love. Not just the phrase, I love you or the love that we have when we are in a relationship with someone. This love is bigger than that. This love meets us in the bars, the streets, the ship channels, the hoods, and the trap houses. This love meets us on the east sides, the south sides, the 3rd wards, the 9th wards, the Quincy Markets, and the Pits. This type of love is the love that gives life to the lifeless places all around the world. 

I will tell you the truth, to this day I can still feel the burden for the lost that God placed on my shoulders. I'm sure anyone who went on that trip can tell you that. I've said it before, but I will say it again for the last time, most of the things that happened on this trip are not in these blog posts. God did way too much that it can't all be written, just as John says at the end of his written gospel. However, the story does not end here, this is only a wake up call to my sleeping ears.

Love doesn't just sit on a couch and love doesn't complain. Love does things. Love moves. And in terms of Jesus, we see that love comes down. Jesus, who was at the right hand of the throne of God, stepped off of the throne, to come and save us. He came to meet Bob the train hopper. He came to hug Jani the alcoholic. He came to sit with Jester the hippie and love on Richie, the homosexual. He offers the bread of life to Allison the waitress and tells Ronnie the crippled to get up and walk. He weeps with Dwayne the liar and dies for Kenneth, the husband. 

I encourage you, to see for yourself what love can do. And if your not doing much, your not loving much. 

(special thanks to everyone who supported me on this trip through wisdom, finances, and most importantly, prayer. Please continue to pray for my walk, and obedience to Jesus. )