Walter was tired of sermons that didn’t seem to change anything. He happened to read an arresting statement. We may be the only Bible that many people read. He thought about the homeless man who had coffee every morning at his place of work. He walked past Jim every day without uttering a word. Maybe he could change his world if he was willing to go beyond his comfort zone. The next day he bought a coffee and doughnut. He sat at Jim’s table and struck up a conversation.
I see you having coffee every morning when I come to work. I live alone and find having coffee a good way to make friends. Would you be open to having coffee and doughnuts with me every morning? The tab will be on me.
Jim readily agreed. Thus began a long-lasting ritual. Conversation ranged from the weather to politics. Trust levels soon rose until Jim revealed that he was an alcoholic. Drink robbed him of marriage, home, and job. He wanted to go to a treatment facility, but he didn’t have money.
Walter took Jim to AA meetings. A generous friend paid for a treatment facility. Eventually the ritual time was changed to meet Jim’s work schedule. Walter continued to be Jim’s Bible.
Raymond Hohlfeldt, a semi-retired Catholic priest, lived in a retirement home near downtown New Haven, Connecticut. His white clergy collar drew homeless people like a magnet. He wrote to his friends and family in Minnesota. They gave him money to give meals to the hungry. He printed tickets for a free meal at a local restaurant. Instead of money, Raymond gave meal tickets. Every Saturday he paid the restaurant owner for the redeemed tickets.
When the money for tickets dried up Raymond gathered the surplus food from the retirement home. He took it to the park across from the home. Homeless people quickly heard about the free lunch. The outdoor meeting place attracted the attention of the police. They used some trumped up reason to close Raymond’s operation. For over a year Raymond was the only Bible the homeless people read.
Ill health kept Raymond from moving about the city. But the Raymond-Bible was read for years. I know because I still think about Raymond decades beyond New Haven.
Red Adams was an engineer on the Cornwall Railroad in Pennsylvania. My father sometimes served as fireman when the regular fireman was ill. The Great Depression came and my father no longer worked on the train. He could not afford coal for the furnace. Knowing that coal was accidently spilled on the rail bed, my father gathered it with a burlap bag. Our home was very close to the railroad.
Red Adams noticed my father collecting coal. One day he stopped the train and ordered the fireman to shovel a ton of coal onto the rail bed. That free coal heated our home through an exceptionally cold winter.
In the judgment Jesus will say to Walter, Raymond, and Red I was hungry and you gave me food. I was cold and you gave me coal to warm my home. You were the only Bible that some people had to read.