Comment by the Harborough churches: Instead of looking at your phone, look the worker in the eye

Just north of Market Harborough is a roadside car-wash. For an absurdly low fee you can have your car expertly and energetically cleaned.

I am not a complete lazy toad and am usually happy to do this job myself, but there is no doubt that these guys can do it better. So sometimes I take up the privilege of having them do it for me. However, I always find it embarrassing. Do I get out of the car, or not?

If I get out, I can greet the staff who are working so hard for me and ask how their day is going, so that is good. But then I have to hang around the forecourt, looking like a spare part and generally feeling a bit foolish. If I stay in the car, however, just looking glumly ahead or checking my phone, I feel even more uncomfortable.

I can sense, at my side, the enraged spirit of Jean Paul Sartre, the existentialist philosopher.

For I am practising what he would call the “bad faith” of being inauthentic in those car-wash moments.

The “bad faith” comes because I am not really all that interested in what is on my phone. I am looking at it to avoid eye-contact with the guys who are working only inches from my face.

Clearly we cannot speak, because the car windows need to be closed when a high-pressure hose is in use! But that then forces me into a similar position to a customer at an old-fashioned shoe-shine stand: someone who would just read his newspaper rather than

speaking to the guy doing the work, as if the latter were somehow less in dignity and importance than himself.

Naturally, as a Christian I look to the Bible for guidance on how I live. But for some reason car-wash etiquette is not featured anywhere in its 66 books, or at least I have not found it.

What I do find is Jesus speaking about the only kind of leadership he offers. “I am among you as one who serves” he says in Luke’s gospel. So when someone is serving you in any way, you are actually being helped to understand who God is and what God does.

In addition, Jesus does not practise Sartre’s “bad faith” with anyone. His complete authenticity shines through in every one of his encounters and is proven most appallingly on the day of his crucifixion. He never treats anyone as less than the person they are, even if that is his bitterest opponent.

So when you are next being served by someone, don’t look at your phone or continue to chat to your friend. Instead, look fully at them and acknowledge their humanity. You know, Jean Paul would be proud – and perhaps God will allow Himself a small smile as well.

Rev Stephen Haward is minister of Market Harborough Congregational Church.