Fish sandwich, drink and French fries

📝 From the Pastor’s Desk

I’ll Take a Double Fish Sandwich

Even on bad days we can still be Jesus

Holy Covenant,

This week didn’t exactly start out the way I had hoped. Our two youngest started school again, which has meant less sleep and getting up an hour and a half earlier. To throw a wrench in things, our middle child was mistakenly enrolled in a school she didn’t get into. Which means she’s already missed her entire first week while we try to get her enrolled somewhere else.

As if this weren’t enough, I had early morning doctor’s appointments on both Monday and Tuesday, one of which required a trip into the city, and I hate driving in the city. By the time I finally sat down at my desk in the earlier afternoon, it already felt like the day was starting to slip away. Tuesday ended with me still at church around 7:00pm, trying to claw my way back to something that resembled “caught up.”

I headed home shortly afterward when I got the dreaded call from my wife no husband or partner wants to hear: “Hey, I’m not cooking tonight, you’re on your own.”

The truth is, I wasn’t even that hungry. I just needed something quick so I could get home, help with the baby, oversee homework, fill out more school forms, and maybe—if the stars aligned—relax for a minute before bed.

So, I stopped at McDonald’s. No one really knows this about me (other than Akeera), but I’m one of those people who prefers walking inside the restaurant over the drive thru. There’s this part of me that just doesn’t believe the drive-thru is really any faster, plus to me it’s just a waste of gas.

So, I go inside to the kiosk, ordering my three chicken tenders and fries, when I hear a voice behind me ask, “Hey, would you mind getting me a double fish sandwich?” I go into pastoral mode, my bad day isn’t so important to me anymore, and without hesitation, I turn and say, “I got you.” I stop my order to add his double fish sandwich. Then, as I was plugging in my fries, he’s looking over and I guess can’t resist, so he asks, “Could I get some fries too?” Again, I say, “I got you.”

At that point, it seemed silly to stop there. So, I turned to him and said, “Do you want a drink, too?” He looked at me like I was messing with him or even being sarcastic, like’s taking me for everything I got. But I meant it. I asked, “Do you just want a meal? I got it.” He said, “Yes, I’ll take a Coke.”

He sat down at a booth near the front door, so after I finished our order, I pulled up a chair and joined him. He thanked me for doing this, and while we waited for the food I just talked to him. He told me he had moved here 15 years ago to help his mom. He’s working, but most of his paycheck goes straight to his wife and kids. Not much left for anything else. Living paycheck to paycheck, like so many folks.

He asked about my family, so I told him about my wife and our three kids. Then he asked what I did for a living. “I’m a pastor,” I said. He smiled and said, “Really?” I imagine he was probably thinking “no wonder you didn’t even blink when I asked for that double fish sandwich.”

Then he asked me what I preached on last Sunday, and for the life of me I couldn’t remember. All I could remember is it was on Isaiah 58. I was embarrassed and it’s not ideally the response a pastor wants to have when someone is asking for the CliffsNotes on your most recent sermon. He grinned and said, “Brother, you gotta be able to recall that stuff on the spot.”

Our food came. I told him, “These look like the 3 saddest looking chicken tenders ever.” (Which is my plug to tell you don’t ever order chicken tenders from McDonald’s, it’s disappointing!) He took his double fish sandwich, dumped his fries on the other side of the sandwich box as we McDonald’s doers-do, grabbed his Coke, thanked me, saying, “God bless you,” and went on his way.

I stayed behind at the table, eating alone. I was glad to be able to help. Thinking, maybe one day he might offer the favor to someone else in return.

Later that night, after the baby was asleep and things winded down, I was replaying the day and that interaction at McDonald’s when it hit me: My sermon last Sunday was about God and neighbor. That closeness to God is closeness to neighbor. That our faith is never isolated from others but tied to how we live with them. That God isn’t just found in the church or these moments when we worship together, God is found in the faces of our neighbors, especially those who are struggling, even that guy who’s needing fries and a double fish sandwich. And when we care for our neighbors, we are in fact, drawing closer to God.

I realized I was doing the very thing I had been preaching about. I didn’t need to recall what I preached on, what was more important was that I was living it out.

Maybe that’s the point of all this. Maybe that’s the point for us all. Faith isn’t about memorizing scriptures, being able to recall on the spot what my sermon was about last Sunday, or even showing up regularly to church every week, it’s about letting the message of God take root so deeply within us that it guides our thoughts, our hearts, and our actions. That the message we’re hearing becomes so much a part of us, that we in turn seek to embody the life of Jesus.

Even on a very bad Tuesday, while ordering food at a kiosk in McDonald’s, when someone other than you just needs a bit of kindness and a meal.

Rev. Christopher Czarnecki

Senior Pastor, Holy Covenant UCC

Let’s lift up Pastor Chris’s voice — and continue living our bold faith, everywhere. Subscribe to his Substack blog.🕊️