Friendship makes all the difference

A few days ago I read in the news that a former Member of Provincial Parliament who had become unhoused and was living in a shelter had over $25,000 in donations raised for him by his former colleagues in politics and government to get him housed. On the radio, I heard commentators remark about how heart warming it was to see politicians from across the political spectrum come together in their act of charity and generosity. A Christmas miracle. Political rivals – who have very different ideas of how to address our housing crisis – came together to simply support a friend. Now if only they could do that for some of our friends at Sanctuary.

Don’t get me wrong, I think wherever we see acts of kindness and generosity they should be encouraged and nurtured – I’m not quite that cynical yet. But I think this is why relationships are so important: they break down the barriers the world puts between us and allow us to see our common humanness. When we actually know each other – our stories, our histories, our faces – it connects us to our own humanity in way that I think we have our best shot at actually finding solutions to some of our biggest societal challenges, relinquishing our political or economic ideologies, releasing our need to be “right” or be “smart” about the way the world runs or how the system works.  (Note: There’s more to say about the systems we inhabit and how they can make it harder for us to be human and treat each other as human, but I’m not going to get into that now.)

This is what I’ve always found resonated as true at Sanctuary. Here we often say we’re all about friendship and community. Those who call our community home can often go to other places for a meal or a place to get warm, but they call us home because they know they are loved here. At Sanctuary, we believe that relational needs are just as important as other needs and that healthy community and loving friendships are a necessary condition (though not sufficient) for us all to grow to be healthier and more whole – more into the image of who we were created to be.

Part of the beauty of Sanctuary is that we see the most unlikely friendships form between people that would rarely ever encounter each other. They cross political and economic ideologies, they cross socio-economic boundaries, they span divides of gender and sexual identity (and bridge the underlying ideologies that shape how we even think about these). These friendships are often exemplified by small and big acts of kindness and care for each other. Friends sharing their tents or sleeping bags, offering someone else their jacket or gloves on a cold night. If only they had those politicians as friends, right?

Now I’m not naive enough to think that relationships are a silver bullet. Many of our community are loved by families and friends that tried hard to support them as best they could – relationships and people are complicated. But I do think real relationships may just be the best chance we’ve got to put aside our differences and build a more just and fair world. 

The great missiologist Leslie Newbigin wrote about the “logic of the gospel” as being one in which humanity is inherently relational and communal. To truly receive the good news we must “open the door to our neighbour” and share our home and life with each other. This inherently inefficient and slow approach has been the way God has chosen to work. Redemption is relational. 

So as we enter into a new year, my hope is that those with relative power, wealth, and influence come to a meal and get to know some of our friends at Sanctuary. That they actually get to know each other. That our politicians would allow their own humanity to be touched by the stories, histories, and hopes of our community. And perhaps, just maybe, they would find a way to come together from across the political spectrum to get our friends housed.