Reflection on Ephesians 6:10-18

The last two weeks have been especially challenging at Manna House. The tension and fights that led to us closing for part of a morning, the conflict with a drug dealer which led us to close for an entire morning, other small time drug dealers hanging around using the phone until we took the phone away, and on a few mornings such large numbers of guests that our practice of hospitality in which we seek to greet and respect each guest as Christ was severely challenged.
All of these challenges grow out of a system of neglect and oppression directed at the poor and especially at homeless persons. There are many ways that that system is manifested, the ongoing police harassment of homeless persons, the vicious anti-panhandling campaign manufactured by the Center City Commission and endorsed by the Partners for the Homeless (better named “Partners Against the Homeless”), the lack of jobs, the lack of treatment for addictions and for mental illness, the lack of medical care, the lack of housing, the lack even of shelter.
And that system infects the poor by continuing to pump the myth that if you work hard, or if you scheme hard, or both, you can get rich, you can get your problems solved, you can be a success. And so some of the poor turn to the dream of riches through dealing drugs, while others turn to the dream of getting rich quick through the lottery, or writing a letter to an old high school friend and asking for $10,000, or hitting up volunteers for money, or selling CD’s. It is all part of the “hustle” that mimics the larger hustle of consumer capitalism.
I am also infected by that system and its myth. I have my vision of the good life and on the day I was threatened by Mike one of my responses was “I don’t need this. I just wanted to help the poor and here I am having my life threatened and being insulted, and I feel like just walking away. Why do I bust my ass to be here and put up with all the crap that comes at me each day?”
The devil does have wiles. My struggle, and I think the struggle for us at Manna House, is a struggle against “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). After the fights that led to our closing for part of a morning one guest said it was like an evil spirit was going from one group to another and it latched on to whoever could not resist it. I believe that guest was right.
So how do I resist those powers and principalities? Ephesians names the armor needed (using imagery that subverted the Roman Empire’s armor): truth, justice, peacemaking, faith, salvation, the Holy Spirit, prayer. “Tell the truth and shame the devil” a line I learned at the Open Door and since the devil is the great confuser it makes sense; tell the truth, be truthful, speak truth to power.
Justice, live with God’s vision for the world, live for that vision, treat others with the love that God has shown to me, to us.
Peacemaking, refuse to use the police insofar as that is possible. “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21). Through God’s loving power, keep on loving the drug dealers; keep praying for those who persecute our guests and us.
Faith, keep that other world in view, keep my eyes on the prize, hold on. Live as if the kingdom of God is THE reality and all this other stuff will fade away. Believe in the resurrection, the triumph of love over hatred, life over death. Believe that everyone is of God and therefore everyone does in some way reflect God’s presence, everyone is redeemable, even me.
Live the salvation offered by God through Jesus Christ. Be healed. Be made whole and live into that wholeness rather than holding on to my wounds, and my hurts.
Be grounded in the Spirit. Pray, pray, pray so that I practice being in the presence of God and that I let God do God’s work and that I cooperate with God’s work.
None of this suggests anything less than a battle, an intense struggle, a serious engagement with evil which demands a serious engagement with God. I think our mission group is a crucial component in this battle; we need each other, we need each other’s prayers, each other’s presence at Manna House, each other’s insights and wisdom and laughter and tears and hopes. Only together and with God will we make it through and continue to offer others what we have experienced, the very love of God.