This Sunday, we return one last time to our “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” series, and we’ll do exactly what his mother told him to do. We’ll look for the helpers, and we won’t have to look far. We’ll be honoring the first responders who serve our community: police officers, firefighters, EMTs, dispatchers, and all the people who run toward the trouble the rest of us are trying to get away from.
Most of us only think about first responders on our worst days. The car accident, the kitchen fire, the 2 a.m. phone call, the moment we dial three numbers and hope someone picks up quickly. And someone always does. They show up for people they’ve never met, on holidays and in the middle of the night, and then they go home and do it all again the next day.
Our readings this Sunday put words to that kind of life. Paul tells the church in Corinth to keep alert, stand firm, be courageous, and let everything they do be done in love. And Jesus tells his friends that there is no greater love than laying down your life for the people you love. Every time a first responder walks out the door for a shift, they carry that kind of love with them, whether they’d ever use those words or not.
So, this Sunday, let’s say thank you. If you serve as a first responder, or have in the past, please come and let us honor you. If someone in your family serves, bring them along, or come and pray for them with us. And if you’ve ever been the one on the other end of that call, this is a good week to remember the person who showed up for you.
I hope we’ll also leave asking a question Fred Rogers would have loved. Where are the helpers in our own lives, and how might God be calling us to be one? Not all of us will ever carry a badge or a fire hose. But every one of us can be the neighbor who notices, who shows up, and who stays.
See you Sunday.
Until Sunday, and all the days between,
Dr. Hutton