"Every little bird in that courtyard flocked around me in a big circle."
I'd like to share with you an incident that happened to me while I was in Berkeley last week. Early on Wednesday morning, I walked out the front door of my fancy hotel and headed downhill to the popular local coffee shop. En route, I encountered a tough-looking street person, a common sight in Berkeley, who, obviously looking for a handout, tried to engage me with a question.
"Is that a nice hotel?" he asked. I grumbled "yes" and warily picked up my pace, ignoring his obviously pleading eyes. I walked the long way to the coffee shop, partly to stretch my legs, mostly to shake off this unseemly character who started following me. About fifteen minutes later, I rounded the last corner and was greeted by the smell of coffee and hot baked rolls, and there he was again, this time guarding the doorway. "Got a buck for coffee?" he demanded. Well, my nose went into the air, my eyes avoided his and I walked well around him and into the coffee shop. "What nerve," I thought as I ordered a hot coffee and roll. But all the while I waited at the counter, I could see the man's face through the window just behind the coffee machine.
Suddenly, something touched me. I don't know what. I set down my tray and ordered a large coffee and roll to go. Walking back out the door, I handed breakfast to him and for the first time looked at him eye-to-eye. Inside I saw the person, a real hurting person whose crusty countenance melted for just a moment. "Thank you, friend," he said, and off he went into the streets. As he disappeared around the corner, I went back into the coffee shop, picked up my order and sat in the courtyard outside with the gathering crowd of early morning folks who frequent that place.
Then the strangest thing happened. As I plopped down on my bench, every little bird (begging sparrows) in that courtyard flocked around me in a big circle. As I sat there enjoying those happy dancing creatures, I clearly felt good about breaking through my personal barrier of fear and ignorance. But it also dawned on me that those little birds were like God's Little Angels, letting me know that I had seen and served Christ that morning in the person of that homeless man. The chirping of the birds reminded me of words of Christ that I've read and preached for over ten years.
"Come O blessed ones and inherit the Kingdom.
For I was the stranger in your midst and when
I was hungry you gave me food. I was naked
and you clothes me. I was sick and you visited,
in prison and you came to me." (Matt 25)
I share this personal vignette with you because this morning we have the blessed opportunity to baptize six beautiful babies into the life of the Kingdom, and one of the vows that parents and Godparents will take on behalf of Angel, Natalie, Jessica, Andrew, Rachel and Molly is this:
"Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons,
Loving your neighbor as yourself?"
And we will all respond quite boldly and almost without thinking: I Will! And then we will add a little coda to that bold response: I will...with God's help.
I have to be honest with you. I really needed a lot of "God's help" when I sought and served Christ in that street person. It's not a natural virtue for me to see Christ in the homeless, the ghetto, the naked, the imprisoned, the poor, the dirty and scary street people of Berkeley. For I know, as you know, that God helps those who help themselves.
So I have to work hard at it. Sometimes it's my fear of them that blocks me. Sometimes it's my ignorance; often it's just plain lack of attention or unwillingness to see their plight and respond to their needs. But every now and then, with God's help, a face breaks through my barrier and the angelic birds chirp to remind me of Christ's charge to seek and serve Him in all people.
Every now and then people rise up en masse, as they did on the streets of Los Angeles, and say to me, "Don't ignore us, pay attention to us. We might just be the Christ come to save you."
So this summer I'm going to work on my baptismal vow to seek and serve Christ and I enjoin you to join me. Let's take seriously, as a summer project, just this one charge:
To Seek and Serve Christ in All Persons
Let's practice that vow and everyday ask ourselves, "Did I experience a moment when I loved or treated a neighbor as myself; did I peek outside my protective barrier and see or serve someone who is lonely, homeless, imprisoned (in mind, body or spirit) or just plain friendless; did I smile when someone needed just a smile; was I kind just for the sake of being kind?"
And all the while we work hard at this vow, remember the coda: I will do this with God's help. Christ is in that other person we seek to serve and he's also with you and, God forbid, if you're like me, you can't do much without Him in your heart. Amen.
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