Walking Down the Streets of Their Hometown...

In my first week in Falls Church, I had to ask a lot of questions, so I could get to work. “Which bus route comes by the house and goes to the metro station?” “Which metro line takes me to my office?” I was new to the neighborhood. I needed answers to these questions, so I could become a functioning member of the community. Asking someone for help wasn’t hard. It just made sense.
So why was it hard for me to ask for help in Anacostia?
During the last weekend in October, The Falls Church Fellows spent a fun and rainy weekend living, eating, working, and playing at the Southeast White House in Anacostia. Part of our weekend was spent experiencing life as members of the community. In our scenario, we had fifteen dollars to purchase a four-person meal from a local grocery. We also didn’t have a car, and one member of our team had asthma, meaning we couldn’t walk more than four blocks at a time.
Before we headed out into the rain, we sprawled out bus maps in the dining room trying to plot out the best routes for our journey. Once we reached the first busy intersection, however, the assuredness of our plan had washed away like the marker line on our soggy bus map. We were lost, and we needed help. But before asking for help, we paused. We didn’t feel safe because we had imagined that this wasn’t our neighborhood. Anacostia was the type of place where we had been taught to serve, not to be served.
When Jesus became flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1:13), He didn’t just pick the neighborhoods with good schools and green lawns. Jesus dwells in all neighborhoods, meaning that we are free to be lost, ask questions, and find answers in Anacostia and in Falls Church. We shouldn’t be surprised when we get good directions in a new neighborhood. Instead, we should give thanks because Jesus is who He says He is, and His Gospel continues to be bigger than we imagine.