Serving others

Pastor Jay Petrella
Graceham Moravian Church

(9/1) Do you ever look back over certain moments of your life and cringe? It could be that those moments of reflection aren’t even voluntary. You could be just going about your day, maybe staring off into space after a long day at work, trying to relax, when out of nowhere, BAM, it hits you. Your brain says, "Hey remember when this embarrassing moment happened? Boy I sure do! Let’s dwell on it for a while." Well, this just happened to me as I was pondering what to write this article about, so let me bring you along for the ride.

Picture this. I was a young adult, flying by myself for the first time. I was sitting at the gate waiting for my plane to begin boarding when I had, what I thought at the time, was an amazing idea. I thought about the snacks I would soon be served on board the aircraft. I thought about being handed that packet containing at most 5 peanuts, 7 pretzels, or maybe, if I was really lucky, 2 small cookies. I then lamented the bygone era where one could get an actual meal on a plane while flying coach.

Then I wondered why I should settle for such meager hospitality when it was well within my power to dine in the sky like I was in first class? Amazed at my own brilliance I marched over to one of the food vendors near my gate, purchased lunch and brought it with me onto the plane when it boarded a few moments later. Once in the air and with the "fasten seatbelt" sign off, I lowered my tray table and as though I was at a picnic, spread out a bountiful feast of a Whopper, large fries and a large soda. "This is amazing," I thought. "I get to eat a (now slightly warmer than room temperature) meal in the sky like some aristocrat."

Well as I was setting my banquette table so to speak I noticed the man sitting across the aisle from me. He was looking in my direction and when I glanced over, our eyes met. He then leaned over and said, "Are you going to make the rest of us have to smell that for the rest of the flight?" Now that is in fact what he said. I remember it clearly. However, at the time, what I heard was, "Wow, you’re going to make the rest of us so hungry smelling that delicious food, and we won’t be able to get any of our own until we land in a couple hours. I’m so jealous. I wish I had thought to do the same!"

Now of course anyone with a combination of common sense, and experience with air travel knows he was actually chastising me for inflicting the odorous, greasy, onion filled meal upon his and everyone else’s noses for the next two and a half hours. It was just that I was so caught up in my own supposed brilliance; it never occurred to me someone would think this was a bad idea. My genius was just too obvious.

However, over twenty years later, I wish I had the names and addresses of everyone on that flight so I could send an apology letter to each of them. Or better yet, travel back in time and talk myself out of my scheme to transform coach into first class.

Throughout the New Testament we have calls from Jesus, Paul and other writers, to serve others. It’s made pretty clear that caring for others is what we were created to do. It’s job number one. It is who we are. It is how we can come to experience peace within our communities and within our relationships.

Serving others even plays a large role in us experiencing peace within ourselves, and beyond all of that, it is the calling of every disciple of Jesus. God loved us, God served us going so far as to give his life for ours. It’d be pretty hypocritical of us Christians to claim to be Jesus’ disciples, while not loving and caring for others. We are human and as such will not be able to love and serve perfectly, but continually working to learn to love and serve better is the job of every disciple.

Now this seems like Sunday School 101, but I think it is helpful to be reminded of the above fact from time to time. It is easy for us, myself included, to get swept up in a moment and begin thinking only of ourselves.

Serving others can conjurer up images in our minds of cooking someone a meal, helping someone change a flat tire, giving someone a ride to an important appointment, giving money to charity, or giving up your seat so an elderly or pregnant person can sit down. However, our call in Jesus to serve others includes, but extends beyond these big moments of obvious servitude. We must also give consideration to how our words and actions impact others. That too is an act of compassionate service.

It was not illegal for me to bring a giant, greasy, oniony hamburger onto an airplane, as far as I know. But it was in poor taste. In thinking of my freedom, my right to eat that value meal, I forgot about my mandate from God to care for others. Maybe there was a very pregnant woman sitting a few rows back who’d become very nauseous in the presence of strong smelling food. I could have made her quite sick and uncomfortable for that entire flight. Not a very kind, loving, Jesus-y thing to do.

Maybe there was someone going through chemo experiencing a similar thing with odors. I thereby needlessly and inadvertently made their lives a little more difficult and uncomfortable than it already was. And even if there wasn’t someone on board that flight with major medical things going on, like the person who microwaves fish in the office break room, I failed to take into account how my action would impact others.

I had every right to do what I did, but the cold letter of the law sometimes doesn’t reflect the warm heart of Christ. So I invite you to join me this week, and in all our years ahead to not limit Christian servitude to only those big, obvious acts of service, but to also think deeply about how our thoughts, words and actions directly impact others. As a part of that process, we also need to be open to hearing from other’s how our words and actions impact them. If that man on the plane never said anything, I probably wouldn’t even remember my little story and I might still, to this day, think one could stick it to The Man by packing a plate of Garlic Chicken Alfredo in one’s carry-on.

Mowing a neighbor’s grass counts as serving others, but resisting the temptation to blast a blue-tooth speaker on a crowded bus counts too. The life of a disciple of Jesus is best lived serving others. So may the Spirit help us each day to put others before ourselves, serving as Jesus served.