This past Tuesday, Ashley and I took time to go out to St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital in order to experience and see a new type of ministry.  Though we planned on speaking with one or two of the chaplains, the most memorable part of the visit was a spirituality group that we sat in on.  Though I knew that we would be with what they call “high functioning” individuals, I sort of expected simple teachings, repeated phrases that seem to be no more developed than Sunday school answers, and not a whole lot of enthusiasm.  Why did I think this?  It’s not that I did not consider these patients people, it’s that I perceived them wrongly, as people who could not take care of themselves; after all that is why they were there.  And if they can’t take care of themselves, then how could they possibly make deep connections with God, a very mindful relationship that must be held.  It takes a lot to understand a relationship like that, how could individuals who may not even be able to follow simple directions, or have a comprehensive conversation with someone, be able to connect to God?
Now, I did not think this way out of disrespect, or through the thought that I’m closer to God than them, it was a thought that they could not have the same type of relationship with God that you or I have. Well, I’m excited to say that I was terribly wrong. 
As Ashley and I walked into the room of about 10 patients we were bombarded with questions of our names, where we were from, what we did, etc.  Something I didn’t expect.  Curiosity is quite a developed concept, and so began conversation.  Through these even first few moments of encountering these patients, I quickly saw that these were not simply disorders that separated these personalities, they were personalities that separated personalities.  What do I mean by this?  Well, though thinking of them as people, I think still, I was seeing the disorder first… something that I never thought I would say about myself.  So, normally I would see the questions that were coming to us, first, as a case of paranoia.  The man sitting in the corner silently and solemnly, I would see as a case of severe depression. However, I quickly realized that that quiet man, may be depressed, but he also may just be a quiet man.  Or the woman asking questions could have paranoid schizophrenia, and/or she could also just be a very curious person with a general interest in people.
The leader of the group, Rev. Robert Phillips, began an activity where each of us had a menu. From that menu we were to choose 3 pieces of our “meal”.  These were not physical foods though, they were spiritual foods: Strength, Hope, Comfort, Faith, Delieverance. During the activity, each person did their own thing.  Some wrote very slowly and thoughtfully, some hurried through and sat there looking at everyone else, just as I did myself. In some of the people I could see the excitement and pride that they held in their findings.  What I realized, as I sat there watching, was that I was in a room full of thoughtful people, people who were thinking about God, thinking about scripture, thinking about their passions and what they needed in their lives.  Just to see that concentration, knowing that they were dealing with feelings, and putting it together with God, meant something big to me.  It meant that they all had a relationship with God.
 Once again, I was learning from those I never expected to learn from.  In seeing this similarity between myself and the others in the room, a mutuality was created between us all.  We were all doing the same activity, connecting ourselves with God, and looking at our own lives to see how we needed God the most.
How though, does this story relate to our text from romans?  Well in today’s scripture Paul is speaking to the Romans about their relationship with God.  In a time of persecution, suffering, brokenness, he tells them that nothing…. nothing, can separate them from God.  For a relationship with God is personal.  It’s within one’s heart, one’s soul and nobody can invade that.  Outside, they may torment, and not understand, but you know that there is a relationship with God there.  In our present time, no matter how people try to get us down, tell us not to believe, or even accuse us of not having the “right”relationship with God, we can believe and know otherwise.  So, these individuals from my story, all had a connection with God.  And we had that in common. We all have a God who can not be separated from us.   
 Even in the struggles that these patients were going through, they had a connection with God that was not being broken. 
The same is true for a man that I met on the street one day.  I will call him “Brian”.  As I was participating in a 48 hour urban plunge, where I lived on the street for 2 nights, a few others and myself came across Brian, an older man panhandling on the sidewalk.  One of our guides, in order to teach us something new, told one of the girls to go ask him for some of his change because she, too, was homeless.  To our surprise, Brian reached out his cup and told her to stick her hand in.  He ended up giving her all of his change, and then speaking to us for 15 minutes straight about the love of God in both his and our lives, and how he would be just fine.  Even the streets, even being ignored by passerbyers, even this struggle, could not separate Brian from feeling the love of God. 
How I am constantly served by those I thought I’d be serving.
We did give Brian his change back, and thanked him graciously as we walked along because that moment and lesson will always stick with each of us.
This simply proves that we can never truly know and understand this personal relationship between God and another.  As I discussed this scripture with Ashley, she brought up the point, that we in fact don’t even know who is baptized and who is not.  Someone we know well, we may know this of, but someone on the street, an acquaintance, or anyone else we probably do not know this of.  But in baptism, we take a person under our wing, as Christians, to guide, and love along their way.  So really, it is our responsibility to any of these people to love and to even perhaps guide them along the way. 
All of God’s children need a community of faith.  Perhaps, that man panhandling down the road is a baptized Christian, simply without a community of faith.  We can be that community. Or perhaps, I should rather say, that they could be a big part of our community.
But this is not true for only the baptized. Don’t we all have the grace of God even before baptism?  Are we not children of God even before that wonderful moment of community and cleansing?  If every person is a child of God, and we as Christians are called to love and guide, and provide comfort for God’s children, then it is our responsibility to love all just as god does especially in places of brokenness, such as St. Elizabeth’s, shelters, soup kitchens, and the streets. These are children of God without the human compassion that they deserve, without the care they should have.  Whether they have great faith, and are preaching to us, or we do not know if they have faith at all, it is our responsibility to love them.  Because really, even if they do not know they have a relationship with God, they do. After all, they are God’s creation.
 That connection with God, is something we all have in common.  It is through God that we were all created equal and we can all live in mutuality as children of God.  But these stories and experiences taught me more than mutuality, they taught me faith.  The homeless, the sick, the suffering… these are people going through much more than I, and yet they carry a great faith with them.  And this is truly a sign that this world is really only a small part of ourselves.  That no matter what we are forced to experience here, we can always have knowledge of and a connection with something that is deeper than that.
We have the knowledge in our hearts and souls that we are loved. And that we are loved by a God who can never be separated from us.