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102 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
course, Band-Aids include much more: the use of the telephone, a bowl of soup,
a meat sandwich prepared by a downtown law firm, a slice of bread delivered by
a monk or a neighborhood baker, a shower and clean underpants, a pair of eyeglasses,
a MARTA token, a bed with clean sheets, a short visit with a friendly
smile and hopeful ear, a coat.... Band-Aids are sacramental leftovers which sustain
and nourish those who have been left out. Said simply: Band-Aids are
charity.
The reason I titled this apologetic “In Defense of Band-Aids” is that some
among us, in their very fine pursuit of justice, and in their dedication to root
out the causes of suffering and oppression, disdain charity. I have known workers
against hunger who have never shared a meal with a hungry person, never
even met one, never even seen one in the flesh! But hunger is hungry people.
Charity is love. Charity is Band-Aids. Charity is the basis of justice and its
fulfillment. When our days are over and Jesus has returned (from what I hear,
he will return as a Black woman), charity will characterize our lives and the demand
of justice will be finished. Oh, what a day ...!
Charity means reducing the distance between ourselves and those who are
poor. Charity cannot take place apart from those who freeze on the street and
sit in the jails. When a church responds to homelessness by opening a shelter,
the congregation invites Henry and Martha into their building and into their
lives. We must work for affordable housing for the poor. That is a good response
to the root causes of homelessness. But tonight what the homeless need are a
warm welcome and a friendly space in which to eat, shower, and sleep. Those
who separate the Band-Aids of shelters from the systemic, root-cause advocacy
for affordable houses tend to be those who have not yet reduced the distance between
themselves and the poor.
Charity—that way of life which reduces the distance between those of us
who have money and those who do not—is friendship. The Beloved Community,
for which we all work and toward which the path of peace and justice leads,
is one in which we are all friends. Sleeping with the homeless, eating with the
hungry, waiting with the convicted, and putting a Band-Aid on an open sore
create wonderful friendships. What more could we want in life That is exactly
what God is doing in Jesus Christ: making God’s enemies into God’s friends.
Have you ever thought of the atonement as a Band-Aid
Charity—those little Band-Aids that are the filaments of the web of justice—brings
an unexpected gift that can be received nowhere else. A life of charity
receives more than it can give; the gift received is the immediacy of the presence
of God. God lives in the flesh of the poor. Jesus speaks in the voices of the
least. The Holy Spirit heals our wounds and weaves us into community through
the gifts of the oppressed to the oppressor, from the poor to the rich. The energy
for the long-haul battle with the powers and principalities of death comes