NEW YORK (RNS) Basketball superstar LeBron James will be wearing a Miami Heat jersey next season, not the New York Knicks’ blue and orange. OK, no big deal.

Meanwhile, the big deal here in New York was firefighters risking heat exhaustion while battling a five-alarm house fire in Queens on a 100-degree day.

True superstars move toward need and danger, not toward piles of cash.

Pampered jocks and their insufferable parents barely nudge the radar in New York. Not since 9/11 anyway, when a city marveled at the heroism of first responders rushing toward the World Trade Center.

When push comes to shove, whom do you want: a firefighter who cares and takes action, or an athlete earning millions and living in a walled estate in New Jersey?

When an aging parent loses their way in busy streets, do you want a police officer who notices and offers assistance, or a financial wizard who skims hundreds of millions of dollars but has no time for the needs of other people?

On my walk home the day of James’ bizarre television special announcing his decision, I heard a street vendor say to a neighbor, “You can take the mangoes today and pay me tomorrow. That’s OK.” That is what mercy sounds like.

The showing of mercy is a dividing line in civilization. It is the point that separates normal from subnormal, decent from mean, good from evil, self-sacrificial from self-serving, and true heroism from leaching.

Mercy is the missing factor in our ever-stranger political debates about immigration, health care, joblessness, financial reform and local government budgets. A nation founded on mercy — as shown in religious tolerance, in a Bill of Rights, in a Civil War fought to end slavery, in an open door to “huddled masses” and in the Marshall Plan — seems to have decided that mercy is no longer affordable. Or even necessary.

We can get along without religious tolerance, some say, even though history shows exactly the opposite. We can chip away at basic rights — except the right to carry firearms, of course. We can turn a blind eye to new forms of slavery, if they keep prices low. We can close our doors to the very immigrant energy that built this nation.

Instead, goes the current logic, we can shower benefits on the self-serving and declare them our “idols.” Mercy is for suckers.

That approach has never worked, and it isn’t working now. Civilization depends on mercy. Anybody can fire a gun and marginal cleverness can manage money. Yet it takes the courage of mercy to raise the neighbor’s barn, stay with the wounded, protect another’s rights, and teach children.

Do you want your city to work? Encourage those who show mercy.

Want your church to have life? Pay less attention to the great Sunday show and more attention to giving your church away to strangers.

Want your family to thrive? Show mercy to your partners and teach your children to give.

Want your life to make a difference? The measure won’t be your bank account; it will be your showing of mercy.

I think we know this already. When need stalks our homes, we don’t buy a ticket to watch the Knicks play basketball, with or without LeBron James. We turn to the neighbor who shows mercy. That is the face of God.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His website is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)