Serving and being served

Tomorrow our faith community embarks on a new adventure as we will scatter across the city and engage in various serving projects. Hillcrest is pretty excited about this as we have the better part of two years teaching on the importance of loving others and now we, as a church, get to put that into action. A few weeks ago I finished Making Room and was struck by a couple of things in relation to Hillcrest's new endeavor. The first thought was how uncomfortable providing hospitality can be and how some of us would rather do the cooking and cleaning for the guests than we would to actually share a meal with the poor. This is so true of me. I know the very few times that I have been in those situations- be it inner city LA or at the Sioux Falls banquet, my preferred style is to keep working rather than to eat a meal with one of the guests. The author claims that a meal is the great equalizer because everyone needs to eat and that when we sit down and enjoy a meal together our socio-economic differences are erased. I was convicted because even though I can participate in some good works of bringing the kingdom down closer to earth, I often miss out on the relational step of simply connecting with another human being. The author concludes that the final great equalizer is that each of us is created in the image of God and so to see a person in need is to see a person that God created to be in need.