The Street Preacher
The street preacher came to church yesterday.
In the 2 years 1 month and 23 days that we’ve been here (but who’s counting) I’ve seen the street preacher on a few occasions but never actually in church.
He has a long history with the church here (those who have history with him call him Steve) and finds himself wandering in and out like the ocean tide.
Suffering from mental illness, Steve believes he is John the Baptist and believes he has been called by God to preach on the streets to those who are homeless.
It’s interesting, and perhaps telling, that the few people who feel called by God to speak to the homeless are crazy (or believed to be crazy).
In a way it makes more sense than anything else in this life because the call of God is crazy, the kingdom of God is about inhabiting a crazy world and those who respond are either crazy or end up crazy (in a good way?).
So yesterday in the pause between the announcements and the delivery of the message Steve stood up, faced the crowd and delivered a message straight from the playbook of John the Baptist.
After he declared his two line message he sat down.
In that awkward “what should we do now moment” I simply said “amen” and begin my delivery.
I figured if the words of John the Baptist couldn’t get an amen we were in the wrong place.
Honestly, there is a part of me that is 100% OK with Steve being John The Baptist.
And if words of hope and encouragement are given to the downtrodden through Steve, even better.
Call me crazy.
6 Responses to “The Street Preacher”
wasn’t John the Baptist considered a pretty crazy guy?
Now you’ve gone “locust.”
I’ll “Amen” your amen.
The world needs more Steve’s.
And I mean that in a non-narcissistic way.
I like the way you handled that. We had more than one contemporary JB / street preacher at Long Beach and we always tried to treat them with respect and not discount them simply because they came across to some as crazy.
I sent my comment via e-mail because the comment option didn’t come up when I first read this. I’ll not repeat myself!
Dear Crazy:
You handled this situation much better than I ever could. You are fast on your feet.
I would have started a song or something…
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.