Don't fall for the trap

 

God in the brothel 

I went to the brothel 

and took God with me. 

The Madame cursed and spat 

fury and hatred, spewing it out 

all over the kitchen 

and all over God. 

The women sat listless 

in dreadful despair 

waiting for the customers 

with their dirty minds 

and cold, cold lust. 

The men, furtive and awkward 

in the smart business suits 

but itching to rape 

and to devour 

before driving home 

to the wife and kids 

and barbecue on the lawn. 

I went to the brothel 

and took God with me 

and through all the sickness, 

the sin and the stink 

God sat--trembling 

in stunned and dreadful silence.  

During the 1960s, Edwina Gateley was a lay missionary in Africa.  She went on to found the Volunteer Missionary Movement in England.  Following God's calling, she moved yet again rather reluctantly in mission to people living on the streets, in inner-city Chicago.  It was here she began her outreach to sex workers, for whom she began Genesis House, her base for ministry with these women.  Out of her ministry, she wrote this poem.  Powerful!  

She never fell for the trap.  What is the trap? 

Well from here, I was going to rave on a bit, but then I was touched by what Edwina shared in an article - Ministry on the Edges (The Way).  So I stand back and reflect.

As she was approaching  a new path in ministry, she reflected, "I sense danger when one begins to get comfortable in ministry and I had a feeling that, much as I loved my role, God was calling me away."  

That is a truism for me.  Never get comfortable.  I believe that.  Yet I know I have been in one central role in my life and ministry, for too long here in Bangkok, and I have become comfortable, even in the midst of many challenges.  While I know this,  I feel a fear in moving on, a fear that holds me back.  

Edwina knew the same.  She was approaching a whole new unknown in being called by God to a new ministry, to reaching out to prostitutes, street people, people on the edge, in inner-city Chicago.  As she was looking at her future, offered by God, she reflected. "I did not relish the prospect.  .. I felt angry with God. ... Ultimately, I simply had to trust. ... I was thrown by God's grace into a new and frightening world with a vague sense that I was to be about some kind of mission." 

I can identify with her.  Here she gives her answer to her facing fear, brought on by approaching momentous change and challenges in following God's call.  Beyond all, she knew to trust in God and let herself be thrown around by God's grace.  What a wonderful, life giving image, is captured by the phrase 'being thrown around by God'.  

The key in mission is we are not God.  Rather God is with us, as God is with everyone.  So we approach mission on the edge, not to be strong ministers, not to show what heores we are, not looking for great results, not giving something to others that they do not possess.  No, we go to the edge, knowing that God is already there with those we are called to approach in mission.   Our being there aims to allow those on the edge to know that God is truly with them, loving them as they are.  That is the transformation of the gospel, letting people know that God is truly with them and stays with them, no matter what.  

Thank you, Edwina, for showing us a way.  Mission is open to all the baptized.  We can all make our mark for good in the world.  Humility always is the key.