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294 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
is no more than an extension of the streets of Atlanta. Those forces which cry
out to establish a vagrant-free zone or a safeguard zone or whatever they call it
this week, are the same forces that bomb the campesinos in Nicaragua and burn
the shantytowns of South Africa. Thank you, Rob, for teaching us that we are
all one in this world that God loves so much, that God gave us Jesus so that none
on the streets and in prisons, in the banks, at City Hall, in the Pentagon, or in
the junta in Managua might perish but that we might enjoy life always—together!
And finally, thank you, Rob, for being a source of deep thankfulness and joy
which resides down in my bowels. You, my beloved brother, have taught me
something of what it means “to drink from our own wells,” as Bernard of Clairvaux
says. You have given me that daily love and forgiveness and trust which is
the foundation, the rock, on which radical Christian community is built. What
a source of faith and joy this has been for all of us at the Open Door!
You have stayed with us through the most terrible times our lives have ever
known: the rending of the fabric of common life; when friends grew hostile
(often not without reason and purpose) and neighbors organized to end or limit
our ministries; while others have wished to silence our voices or to change the
structures, agenda, dreams, and vocation of God’s call for the Open Door.
Thank you, Rob. Your long-haul commitment and willingness to bear the brunt
of persecutions and rumors have been a source of life and maturity for me. How,
through your witness and that of others like you, I want to disarm my own heart
and bear the cross of Christ with ever deepening radicality.
And, Rob, my teacher, how I thank you for giving me and all of us the joy
of a glad heart and the light feet of angels dancing. You are poet and musician,
you are clown and storyteller, you are silly and very funny. In the midst of our
hard work and hurting lives we sing and shout and play and party. Thank you
for your glee!
Rob, we will miss you.