The Real Body of Christ

“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39

Our missional community group just began studying The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Lewis writes from the perspective of a senior tempter – demon – to his nephew, a junior tempter in charge of leading a human man astray. Even decades after its publication, this book is still incredibly relatable to the modern Christian life. When the human in this book chooses to start going to church, Screwtape advises his nephew Wormwood on what to do. “When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew.”

While many of us have lofty goals about serving the poor, turning the other cheek to our enemies, and following God’s commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:39),” we conveniently imagine these folks as kind of a faceless mass that we are going to run into “one day.” What we forget is that our neighbors surround us in our daily rhythms – trips to the coffee shop, the grocery store, church, school...everywhere. Usually the most annoying and persistent presences in our lives are those whom God is calling us to serve. May God open our eyes this week to truly see our neighbors. Who are they? What do they need? And how will He help us show them His love?