A Magic Flying School Bus
As I'm writing this I'm wearing a T-shirt that features a magic flying school bus with giant wings. This is the logo for New York City Relief, otherwise nicknamed “The Relief Bus,” and now called City Relief. The real bus does not fly or have wings but can be found parked along designated streets of New York City each week. If you happen upon one of these school bus converted soup kitchens, you will find a community gathered around tables and chairs underneath big tents on the sidewalk. People are served soup, bread, hot chocolate, and lemonade, while the front of the bus acts as an “office” for those wishing to be connected to further resources and long term help. NYCR is a not-for-profit ministry, and we call it a “ministry” (not a charity), as it seeks to minister practically and holistically to the needs of New York’s poorest.
The ministry’s real magic lies with its supernatural inception, its dedicated staff, and its thousands of volunteers that come through each year from all over the country and world. Secondly, the staff are some of the most enthusiastic, compassionate, and dedicated people I know! Their work motto is “always go.” Rain or shine, sleet or snow, they always go. And as new teams of volunteers pour in from a different place every single week, they are ingrained with the most important principal of all: The Relief Bus is about creating community, not charity. With charity, we give to people from a more privileged place. But in a community, we commune with each other and share life on the same level, where both sides can give and receive. The Relief Bus doesn’t just pass out food and supplies, but creates a space for people of all different backgrounds to share a meal and be together. It’s there to build unconditional friendships.
These core values are no less demonstrated on bus-less Thursday nights, when the group engages in an outreach called “Don’t Walk By” near Penn Station. On DWB nights, small groups disperse on foot from a central point with the simple purpose of meeting folks on the street and having conversations. The idea behind the name is: don’t do what millions of others do everyday-- don’t walk by! (For the record, some of my homeless friends can testify that many New Yorkers are pretty awesome and generous.) We might pass out some socks and hygiene kits or flyers about the Relief Bus; we might even get someone into a shelter that night. But the overall point of the night is just to be with people and communicate their dignity. Again, rather than give food to hungry people, why not invite them to eat with you, or even just sit down on the sidewalk and share life together right there?
The Relief Bus is about *dwelling with* others. And this with-ness, this incarnational quality is one of the ministry’s most impressive and unique attributes. For “incarnation”, to quote google, is “a person who embodies in the flesh a deity, spirit, or abstract quality,’ and NYCR staff and volunteers daily embody peace, mercy, compassion, generosity, and hospitality--all of which can be summed up in love: love with hands and feet.
And what better time to talk about being “love incarnate” than the Christmas season, as Christians traditionally believe that Jesus was the incarnation of God; i.e. God with meat, God in a body. Pass by any church during the Advent season, this mysterious tale and its implications are what Christians are celebrating with their Christmas carols. For them, what other mystery touches us as deeply as the idea of the divine--distant and invisible-- becoming personal and knowable? Of this spirit-life-force we generalize as “God” actually sitting down on the sidewalk with us in a body like our own? Christians see this event as a culmination of humanity’s spiritual searching. They also understand it as a concrete, walking-talking revelation of God's personhood, and ultimately, his heart.
Scriptures record this figure Jesus, in a time of religious stuffiness, showing mercy to the leper, the prostitute, the destitute, the addicted, the broken. Whether or not you believe his incarnation was of divine nature, it would be hard to argue that it was not characterized by love. So nonetheless, it stands out as an example to follow. This example is precisely what drives NYCR’s operations. In fact, they take very seriously what Jesus implied in a very radical teaching recorded in Matthew’s gospel: that by helping the poor, you are touching God himself. “For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink… for whatever you did for the least of My brothers, you did for Me.” Taken very literally, one might come away from a DWB night wondering if he’d just had pizza with God.
How fitting it is that the Thursday night group meets at St. Francis of Assisi Church, the Saint who said that famous line: "Preach the Gospel (i.e. good news), if necessary use words." On the church’s sidewalk sits a cloaked statue of a beggar, with pierced hands, next to which many homeless folks set up their cardboard shelters every evening.
One Thursday while riding the train into the city, I was reading a little treatise on peace and suffering, and I was struck by the priest’s reflections:
“In all people who suffer, there is a Jesus who suffers.”
Where does he get this idea from? From the mystery of Incarnation. What would it mean if God really did Incar-nate? It would mean that God "took our flesh, He really took upon Himself our sufferings." And so the words, “whatever you did for the least of these…” And what can these words implicate if we really believe them? The courage to “peacefully confront the drama of suffering” in ours, and each others’ lives:
"But, these words of Jesus, do they not invite us also to recognize His presence in all who suffer? They call us to apply ourselves with all our strength to relieve this suffering, but also to view it with hope. In all suffering there is a germ of life and of the resurrection, because Jesus is there in person."
As of now, NYCR sends 3 Busses out 10 times per week. They’d like to expand to doing at least 2 outreaches everyday. At least 2 locations, 7 days a week, plus Friday and Saturday nights. If you feel inspired, consider how you might get involved or help support their efforts!
In the meantime, do not be afraid to “confront the drama of suffering” in life around you… or contemplate how you might embody peace, hope, faith, love, and joy in your daily life. Be aware of yourself. Notice things. Be humble. Don't Walk By!
