5. Serving Jesus by Serving Others

Question:       Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

Response:      I will, with God’s help.

It can be easy to think you see Christ in the person sitting in a pew next to you. It can be easy to see the face of Christ in a person serving in worship, or standing at a food pantry distributing food or a warm meal.

But we are also challenged to see the face of Christ in the clients at the food pantry or at the soup kitchen. We are called to see the face of Christ in the refugee, in those fleeing death, chaos, and persecution in their homelands, in children orphaned or facing starvation due to war.

We are called to see the face of Christ in those the world considers outcast, in the exploited, the oppressed, in those who labor under the burdens of racism, sexism.

We are called to see the face of Christ in those of different faiths from us, and those with no faith at all. We are even called to love and pray for our enemies or those who hate us. These people are also our neighbors. We don’t have to be perfect, but we should never let the inability to be perfect get in the way of the chance to be good—with God’s help.

Going Deeper:

All persons means all persons. “Neighbors” is not shorthand for “people just like us,” as Jesus himself emphasized repeatedly. In fact Jesus frequently got criticized for hanging out with people others looked down on. In our Baptismal Covenant, we Episcopalians are called to commit to embodying the love of God that Jesus literally embodied in human form, however imperfectly.

Now there is a note that needs to be made here. There are some people who are coming from such a place of pain that they inflict pain on those around them. We are not called to be abused emotionally, physically, or spiritually when people are awash in their own pain. We can still love them—but we can love them from all the way across the room, or even from another building altogether.

A wise rabbi once remarked in a seminary class, “Love of neighbor begins with love of yourself. You love your neighbor as much as you love yourself. If you do not compassionately love yourself, you cannot love anyone else, not even God.”