Celebrations, parties, the breaking of bread with friends and the homeless and the down and out have been a significant part of my stay here in Idaho Springs, Colorado for the past year.
I suppose nothing earth shattering ever took place during these get togethers but I can certainly attest to a comeraderie a solidarity of sorts not unlike an esprit de corps you can only find in the military.
Last evening three of us, John Jones, Cody Yates and I ate supper at the newest brewery/restaurant in town the Westbound & Down. The fare was simple and unremarkable the kind you could find in any eatery on a Friday night and which you would expect of three men: hot wings, green chili, beer, whiskey shots and the like.
Yet, I always leave these affairs with a special feeling of spiritual and emotional bonding that will no doubt survive in memory for years and hopefully for the rest of my life.
You can read of such "table fellowship" in the Gospels with Christ, his twelve close pals and certain personages often referred to as "sinners", by the religious elites, the prostitutes, tax collectors, the poor, the crippled, those without means and resources who we would call in today's vernacular the have nots.
As most of us already know, back in the first century if you were religious you didn't associate with " sinners " and you especially did not eat or share meals with them. You would immediately become "unclean" if you did.
Yet, Christ made a point of fellowshipping with these marginalized people, outcasts from polite society.
Christ once said if you have a dinner party don't invite your friends and family instead go out find the poor, the lepers and the like and invite them. That's just what Christ himself did on many occasions. He knew that his father rains on the just and unjust alike. He is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality. Christ warned of treating the well dressed, the rich, the haves better than the poor. He also observed that it is the rich who drag you into court and blaspheme the name of God.
In the Book of Acts we read that the believers adhered to the teachings of the Apostles and to the breaking of bread and the daily gathering together in their homes praising God. That should be our template as well. We in our highly developed individualistic culture here in America have a very weak grasp of the meaning and the importance of hospitality or of the concept of slipping occasionally out of our comfort zones to help the stranger and the alien.
God has called us to a new family a new community, the Church Universal. Hospitality, helping the poor, edifying each other, looking out for one another and for all those who have been thrown away by our morally defunct society is to be our hallmark but all too often is the exception. We will be judged on the last day not by what religious dogma we espouse but by how we treated our fellow human beings.
Our conversation last night was equal parts connival, serious and philosophical in trying to make sense of life with all of its pain of friends departing and the simultaneously exuberant feelings that takes place when a new phase of life is about to dawn.
No real conclusions were reached but there was the expectant feeling of hope that one day we would be able to renew past ties and reconnect.
We praised God for friendship, for the miracle of sharing life especially among men who make the effort to carve a life out of trusting that the Universe is indeed friendly and ultimately not hostile as it is governed by that hand of Providence and by the Creator of all and we are further bonded together by the unquenchable belief that in the end...all things will be restored and reconciled to and by Him who holds all things visible and invisible together.
Goodbye John Jones. We shall meet again that I am sure of.
In the next couple of months I will be saying goodbye to all of those I have met here in this little town high up in the North Central mountains of Colorado. It will be very bittersweet to be sure. I have been utterly changed forever by the hospitality, kindness, love and friendship of so many here.
I came to Idaho Springs not knowing anyone, a year younger and soon will be leaving older and wiser feeling incredibly loved, stronger spiritually and more human than ever before all because of God's Spirit who directed me to this old gold mining village.
I have learned so much on this walking journey and could not possibly include everything I have observed and experienced in my upcoming book. But, I am going to give it a herculean try for sure!
Grace and Peace to you all.
BR Schoenbein
February 13, 2016- Saturday
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