Monday, November 17, 2008

A Strange Thing Happened

As I've already mentioned elsewhere, I've been assigned to Lutheran Senior Services for my institutional field work assignment. Throughout the quarter, my fellow detailees and I have been hoofing it out to Breeze Park in St. Charles. Because of the I-64/40 construction, this is a forty minute trip (one-way)!

I was on my way out this Sunday, but I needed to work on a few "pastoral care reports" which we fill out when we enjoy repeat visits with the residents. I decided to stop by Starbucks on my way and fill them out over a cup of coffee. (My Starbucks consumption has gone WAY down during the past year! But I had not celebrated the "end of the quarter" in any way, so that was my excuse.)

I ordered my cappuccino (told you I was celebrating!) and when the barista brought it to me, I tried to give her my money. She said, "Don't worry about it." It took me half a second to realize what was going on. I was dressed like this...



It turns out that Dcs. Pitkin had encouraged us to "try visiting residents wearing our clericals to see how the residents' reactions would change." I'm not sure what kind of change she was expecting, but I received a range of reactions: from ambivalent to very positive. So I continued to wear them as I visited with residents throughout the quarter.

Now, I'm not going to tell you how I responded to the offer of free coffee at Starbucks, because there will be as many opinions about what's appropriate as there will be readers of this post. However,here is a quick run down of my thoughts:

1) I think it is marvelous that there continue to be clear demonstrations of appreciation (whether corporate or individual, I cannot say) for clergy. There are many possible explanations for this, but almost all of them are good.

2) There is the very real possibility of someone else seeing this as "taking advantage" of a position of public trust. I would never dream of going into a Starbucks with my clerical garb on with the goal of getting free coffee, but nobody else knows that just to look at me.

3) If an individual were to respond in this way from some sense of guilt or out of an inappropriately high view of the clergy (as earthly authority figures), then accepting the offer would reinforce that.

As you can see, there was a lot that flashed through my mind at that moment. As you can imagine, it was not appropriate to stand there with the barista and conduct an impromptu Q&A to figure out WHY I was being extended this generosity. The offer was there, and I had to decide how to respond. So I did what I ended up doing and trusted the Lord would sort out how it was received by those who were close enough to see or hear it transpire.

I welcome your comments...

No comments: