The Church of TSA?

I was going through airport security this morning and was dealing with my usual perturbation. There must have been 20 TSA employees milling around, hectoring travelers and making endless demands; loath to offer assistance, let alone lift a finger to help.

At one point I was standing there with one shoe on (my other one had to be rescanned) and my belt in my hand trying to gather all my loose change and boarding passes, when the row of bins had a pile up at the end of the conveyor belt. They collapsed together accordion-like. A free-handed TSA employee standing across from me chirped, “Let’s try to keep the bins moving along!” 

A tempered version of the following sentiment teetered on the tip of my tongue:

Have any of you ever considered actually lifting a finger to help? Or is that too obvious? You just prefer to bark orders and demands at people whose hands are already full?

I bit said tongue and kept the sentiment to myself as I hobbled into the seating area, dragging my stuff along like a scene from The Jerk.

I took one last glance into the security area and thought, “What a miserable impression that leaves one with! Dozens of people being paid to loiter around with arms akimbo or crossed; rolling their eyes and barking orders when they could—SHOULD—be serving and helping and extending understanding!”

And it occurred to me, “This is probably how people view the church!”

Ugh.

church | ch ər ch | n. – a bunch of people with no baggage who tell you all the rules you’re breaking and roll their eyes at your struggles, when they could—SHOULD!—give an ounce of grace; maybe even help! 

True? I hope not!

That was how Jesus defined the religious folks in his day;

“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves re not willing to lift a finger to help them.” [Matt. 23:4]

I actually wondered if for legal reasons the TSA folks weren’t allowed to be helpful. That would be a shame. But what would be an even bigger shame would be for us as the church to fail to recognize that giving grace and assistance is  our job!

It’s so easy for me to criticize and nit-pick; to verbalize this through gossip; to broadcast it by my body-language. I should be thinking, “Wow, they look like they’re really struggling and could use a hand!” I should be acting accordingly.

What if I spent even half the time I tend to spend criticizing or gossiping creatively exploring how I might help?

What if the next time you caught yourself rolling your eyes or sighing, you repented by serving?

What if the next time you caught yourself gossiping you resolved to end the discussion with the question, “How are we going to love and serve this person?”

This mentality was precisely what Jesus was exalting in his story about the good Samaritan. This is what Paul said explicitly in his letter to the Galatians (who, too, had fallen into the “TSA” mentality),

“Bear one another’s burden’s, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” [Gal. 6:2]

But that’s not my baggage! 

Right, check your job description.