Ten years. Ten years of labor. Ten years of laughter. Ten years of tears. Ten years of thankfulness of God's unanticipated gifts being gathered to us.

When Ron Benefiel, David Whitelaw, and I planted the Church of the Nazarene in Mid-City, we didn't anticipate God taking us in the direction of a building or a multicongregation -- as a matter of fact, we were biased against the idea so that we could use whatever funds and energy in witnessing in and among the poor. When Ron discovered that the old University Avenue Church of the Nazarene was coming open, he saw opportunities and a future and set out. The problem was we had access to very little financial resources. I remember Ron writing grant after grant, courting various agencies as part of the "re-vitalization" (i.e., gentrification) of City Heights programs (does anyone else remember Al Gore coming by to dedicate the new police station?). Because we were not a "social service agency" -- and would not present ourselves as such -- all grant agencies excluded us from any support. Ron begged, long and hard, so that we could have the necessary downpayment for the building. How it happened, other than the graciousness of God's people as a witness to the goodness of God, I have no idea. By the time we "formally" began with ownership of the building, we had five small congregations within the Church of the Nazarene and two other non-Nazarene congregations working in and out of the building.

With our tenth anniversary, we once again are begging for funds. We are required to re-finance our building by the end of April. Of course there are always challenges financially for us -- one of our renters who had been with us for the 10 years recently left to try greener pastures elsewhere, cutting into our monthly revenue. We always have the barest of budgets so we have to cut expenses -- and the mortgage is the best way to cut it. We are poor and that's okay. But that means that we have to beg from friends, family, other congregations to provide financial resources so that we might continue together at 41st and University in San Diego. "Pray and beg" was Peter Maurin's response whenever the Catholic Worker ran short of funds.

Kelly Johnson has described how in traditional Christian life, it was seen good that some Christians become voluntary beggars -- to live with the poor and those Christians who were involuntary beggars -- in her recent book The Fear of Beggars: Stewardship and Poverty in Christian Ethics. She writes, "Beggars beg to survive, but they depend upon the existence of social order that accepts begging as part of the social fabric (not as a crime or absurdity). The possibility of successful begging indicates a strong social bond so that sharing with a needy stranger is reasonable. It also indicates a culture that tolerates substantial variations in wealth so that almsgivers do not presuppose a need to change the beggar's status" (p. 17).

Johnson quotes from Aquinas: "Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican mendicant, argued that although begging to avoid work was unlawful, a religious could beg either because he has no other means of living or in order to finance some useful work. 'Thus alms are besought for the building of a bridge, or church, or for any other work whatever that is conducive to the common good: thus scholars may seek alms that they may devote themselves to the study of wisdom.' . . . This arrangement presupposes, again, a kind of social bond in a community that possesses a sense of such a common good and has some trust that the beggars in question are actually contributing to it" (p. 17). I am hopeful that the internet provides at least some type of real social bond that does not deny concrete space, but can in some ways transcend it.

I remember some years ago reading through Theodore Jennings ambiguous book, Good News to the Poor: John Wesley's Evangelical Economics, a book excellent in gleaning resources from the Wesley text about his commitment to the poor. The book loses credibility when Jennings shifts to making Wesley a proto-type of Marxist liberation theologian rather than the classical Augustinian Thomist that he was. In his Journal around Christmas in 1785, when Wesley was 82 years old, he wrote, "At this season [Christmas] we usually distribute coals and bread among the poor of the society [of London]. But I now considered, they wanted clothes, as well as food. So on this, and the four following days, I walked through the town, and begged two hundred pounds, in order to clothe them that needed it most. But it was hard work, as most of the streets were filled with melting snow, which often lay ankle deep; so that my feet were steeped in snow-water nearly from morning till evening" (from Jennings, p. 59). To learn to beg is hard work.

Throughout this week, I hope to share with you memories and stories of these past ten years in and around the property on 41st and University -- a property not owned by the English-speaking congregation, but by the multicongregational board. We would be most humbled for you to come and join us for our service this coming Sunday. We would give thanks to God for any gifts you may be able to share with us for our re-financing. On the trivial side, we are an approved "10 % World Missions" giving site in the Church of the Nazarene if Nazarene congregations would want to provide a contribution as a congregation. We will take our offering this Sunday but leave the "books" open as we find the necessary loan to keep paying down on the loan. Maybe even we can find a way to get a new roof to replace the leaky one over the Spanish language congregation's sanctuary/fellowship hall!!

You may send checks made out to the Church of the Nazarene in Mid-City (Multicongregation) and send them to the same, 4101 University Ave., San Diego, CA 92105.

It is humbling to beg. It is joyous to invite you to gather with us for a Sunday. It is hard to believe that 10 years has gone by with all the adventures, joys, and sorrows that have come with it.