Service or Charity?

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Far too many people equate charity with service without asking why we have two different words to describe what appears to be the same thing. While service is about doing, charity is about being; service is how we are but charity is what we are. It is difficult because the world distracts us with din and dissonance, calling a spade a club and a circle a square, but we are not really asked to just do things in order to show what master we truly serve. Being begets doing, or in other words our actions will evince who and what we truly are and value. We read in Luke 10:27 "And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Immediately after declaring this, Jesus dictated to them the parable of the good samaritan, the well-known story of service, sacrifice, and selflessness that borders on heroic. While inspiring us, at the same time, it may cause us to condemn ourselves as we realize how many opportunities we miss to reach out in small ways to the people around us or feeling hurt that in our darkest hours nobody seemed to be there. At some point in life, everyone comes into dire circumstances that necessitate help, and at some point each of us will see one of those people and have the opportunity and onus to help. Some of those people will be people we dislike, or people we don't think deserve our help, or people that won't accept it, but in that moment, how we act will show what we really think of God in the manifestation of how we treat His children.

At the very least, when others come into duress, we should notice. Even in the parable aforementioned, the priest and levite knew that the victim needed help. They didn't even bother to notify anyone else so that he could get help. Often, in our haste to get from A to B in our lives, we don't plan ahead well in order to avail ourselves of opportunities to help, but things do happen of which someone ought be made aware. Ironically enough, most of the time, people just need to be noticed or acknowledged in some way in order to have part of their burden lifted, because most people are lonely, or unsure, or they think less of themselves than they ought. Wednesday night before class, I met student worker Paul, about whom I wrote some time back, while walking to class, and because he seemed down, I stopped to chat with him. Sure enough, all I had to do was talk in order to make a difference, and I think he felt better. This level of service frequently costs you nothing except time and some air, both of which we pass anyway and frequently in things of no moment, in order to make someone's moment in the moment. Christ did this. He called out the woman who touched Him, not to make her selfconscious but to teach her that He noticed her, loved her, and valued her, and that's what service is supposed to achieve- making others feel, not just that they are made of matter, but that they do matter.

Service to others asks us to give what we can. It really doesn't cost us very much to make some sort of gesture, and there are people out there who genuinely need and appreciate small efforts. Each Saturday afternoon, a group of Harley Davidsons gathers to feed the homeless just north of the Vegas Strip. The food isn't noteworthy or particularly abundant, and the recipients are rather uncouth by visual and behavioral standards, but they appreciate the gesture, and both groups benefit from the virtues of the other. It really would have taken nothing for the levite and priest to drop some coins, to leave a tankard of water, or to cover the wounded man. In fact, their arguments seem invalid if they were willing to at least make a token gesture. Even if it wasn't what the man needed or wanted, and even if he wasn't conscious to know, it would still be a blessing, and the giver would gain God's blessing for his service. My next door neighbor took in a congregant of his faith who lost almost everything when he was robbed and his house burnt to the ground. Jeff isn't home much, so it doesn't put him out a great deal, and the man has a place to stay and things for comfort until he can get back on his own feet. At the very least, service involves an effort to empower others to lift themselves. Sure, there is a minor upset to his routine, perhaps his budget, and his privacy, but he was able to share some of his to help before moving on with his normal plans. This is where most "charity" ends, with service, where it doesn't really ask you to give anything of yourself, and most of the people who claim to be charitable stop here, because it's the least intrusive and painful effort with the maximum potential for visibility.

Valiant service asks us to give, not just to our convenience, but to the ultimate healing of the wounded. Notice in the story that the Samaritan tells the innkeeper that, in addition to paying for things with coins he leaves behind, to take whatever care is necessary and that he will be paid when the man returns. This isn't just service. This is heroic. At the time of his departure, the man was rescued, recovering, and rejuvenated, and although you can't really regain your previous status, it was essentially the same as if he'd never been robbed minus the loss of his wares. However, the good Samaritan wanted to make sure that NOTHING was lost to this man, and he paid to make sure that the man got right back on the path as if he never left it. How many people, especially those who prattle their own virtues and preach charitable service, ever found a homeless man, got him showered and shaved, bought him a custom suit, arranged for a job interview, and put him up until he was on his own? True charity, even in its lowest form, invites us to not wait until others can lift themselves but to lift them because we can. One of the reasons I go hiking each week, aside from my own desires, is to help out my buddy, who has some issues. Between his military service, the death of his parents last year (due to old age at least), and the murder of our common friend in 2013, without our regular romps, he fears he would go out of his mind. He does not believe his family can or will understand or that they even care, and so when he needs help he calls me. I am now the holder of the note on his house because I don't need the money, but because he couldn't pay attention to the payments and almost lost it to foreclosure. When we get together on the mountain, he leaves behind his bad habits and some of the bad memories and goes to a higher place. Not all wounds are physical, and not all needs can be served, solved and salved with monetary outlay.

Discipleship demands that we do what Christ would have us do. It is not enough to feed, to clothe, to pay for, and to otherwise lend assistance. It is also essential to lift them to a higher place. It was not enough for Christ to simply remediate their plight; He invited the disciples to come and follow Him, giving up all other worldly previous pursuits and follow Him remediating the plights of others. Only in losing our life can we truly discover it. When the rich man came, Christ told him to give up EVERYTHING and follow Christ. It's very rare that we do this, and it's not often asked or recommended, but only in this can true charity be found. When we think of the truly charitable, they are not people who have foundations and give large sacks of money or hefty sums in philanthropic gestures. The truly charitable are people like Mother Theresa, who gave EVERYTHING in order to be of service to her neighbors. Far too many of the elite among us talk of charity only when it doesn't cost them anything, but that's not what charity asks. Most people do not really need things, and the things we give them do not really help. What most people really need is love. What they really need is for us to BE Christians, to comfort the weary, to visit the sick, to give of our time, our talents, and our very essence. We can always get more money, sometimes in illegal or immoral ways, but we cannot simply go out and get more character, and you do not get good character by illegal or immoral means. Jesus spent time with the unloveable, the unwelcome; He forgave the prodigal and the erred; He healed people of their SINS before caring about their infirmities. Essentially, Jesus showed other people that they mattered more than any thing a man might give or possess or seek, that it was about people and not about the adornments, vestments, and baubles we usually use to stratify one another. True charity treats people as they really are rather than what we assume based on the imperfect and partial information we possess- as Children of God. My Sunday School class last Sunday admitted that it probably displeases God when we sing "I am a Child of God" and then focus on our weaknesses. Most burdens are not physical and cannot be solved by throwing money at them, and most people remember the giver far more than they remember the amount given. In the parable, although the good Samaritan also gave much of his substance, he gave much more- he showed that this stranger mattered. We only truly possess charity when we fight for, work with, and give aid to people we do not know and in particular that we do not like. Jesus ate with publicans and sinners. A harlot cleaned his feet with her tears. He didn't seek out the wicked, but He saw them for what they were rather than just seeing what they did- as children of His father, God.

Far too much of what we assume to be charitable is the letter of the law rather than the spirit and about us more than it is about those we claim to serve. At both ends of the spectrum, we pay attention to people, not because they are statistics or because we are statistics, and not to reach goals, but because people matter. The Samaritan was chosen as the hero because he was the person least likely to intercede- he was unliked and unwelcome among the Jewish people, not because of what he believed but because of some label given to him by others for something he did not control. In the end, he showed that he saw people as they were and for what they really needed. He wasn't content to simply call 911 and report an accident or shoot video on his phone to upload later for lolz. He wasn't content to toss some coins in a jar or leave something or just tear his sandwich in half and share. He wasn't content to simply throw money at the Samaritan. He didn't have to care about what happened in the inn when he returned, but he did. He was HEROIC. Maybe you aren't, and if not, that's ok. What is important to understand is that there is a higher law, a higher ideal, and a higher expectation. What matters is that we remember that people are primary. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved (Thomas S Monson). People aren't things, and problems aren't physical, and money isn't the answer. What they need is YOU. They need to know that they matter more than money, than fame, than rank, than entertainment, than image, than whatever else distracts you, and you need to know by whom you serve if you really love God or if you just love when it's easy. It is said that a man can be measured by what he does for those who can do nothing to help him. This parable teaches us that a man can be measured by how much he's interested in the well-being of those who would hate him if they knew and who might reject his help. Each of us is a prodigal. Each of us is the recipient of Christ's love and sacrifice for us, no matter how unlovable we may feel. Mankind ought to be our business and discipleship the ideal for which we strive.