May 2, 2004
"What Kind of Kindness?"

A cowboy came riding out to his cattle one morning, and I guess he had a bad case of saddle sores, because he started to say nasty things. He said, “You cattle are ugly. You’re all dumb. You smell, and you’ve got flies.”

And as he rode away, one of the cattle turned to his neighbor and said, “You know what? I think we just heard a discouraging word.”

Well, that wasn’t very kind of that cowboy, was it? I’ve been thinking about kindness a lot this week as I prepared for Clyde Herbert’s funeral. I wish I could have known Clyde better, but it just always seemed to me from the times when I did talk to him, and from speaking to his family and friends, that this was a man in whom the milk of human kindness flowed freely.

That’s quite a legacy to leave behind, the reputation for being kind, and it’s also the basis for what we call the Christian character.

What does it mean to have a character like Christ? Paul’s letter to the Galatians says that the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control. Today I’m starting a new sermon series called Building the Christian character. How many of us could use a little help sprucing up our Christian character for spring? Really, all of us, no matter what our age or station in life, could improve some aspects of our Christian character, and I would argue that the most important of all is kindness.

What do we do about God? Most of what we know about God has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ, who said “If you have seen me, you have seen my Father.” No matter how busy he was, whether he was on a journey elsewhere, Jesus always made time to plunge into the crowds who came to see him. Can you picture that in your mind? Jesus touched as many people as he could and let them touch him. Sometimes all he did was look into their eyes, but that was enough to change lives. Why did he take the time and effort? Out of his kindness. Out of his compassion.

Plus we know that our God is a beckoning God. He calls us forward to show kindness to others in his name. Jesus said on the last day the sheep will be divided from the goats, and the sheep, the ones who showed kindness to the least of his children, those are the ones who will share eternity with him.

But we don’t have to travel far to find opportunities to show kindness. We don’t have to be Albert Schweitzer, who left Belgium to be a doctor in Africa, or Mother Teresa, who grew up in Yugoslavia but spent her life in the slums of India.

God in his goodness will send us plenty of opportunities for kindness right here in Vanderbilt—if we recognize them.

Back around the turn of the 20^th Century the railroad posted an advertisement for telegraph operators, and dozens of bright young applicants crowded into the personnel office to apply for the job.

One young man came in after many of the others, and he was told to fill out an application and wait. As he worked on his application he could hear the telegraph clicking away from the inner office.

Suddenly the young man got up and went into the inner office, a move that made all the other applicants mad. “Hey, we were here a lot longer than he was,” they said. “Why does he get to go in first.”

Then the manager came out with his arm around that young man, and he told all the others to go home, the job had been filled. It turns out that the telegraph had been clicking out the message, “If you understand this, come in. The job’s yours.”

That’s how God beckons sometimes. He puts opportunities for kindness right in front of our eyes. And if we can see, and respond, our reward will be great. But there is a catch. Often there’s a catch, right? Sometimes opportunities come disguised as challenges.

Among our fellow human beings there are many bad people. How many of you are shocked by that statement? Nobody, of course not. But what should be our attitude to such people? Luke 6:35 gives us the answer: There we read Christ’s words, “Love your enemy, do good to them and lend to them without expecting anything in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

God commanded us to love even the unlovable. And here I want to assure you I’m right at the head of the line among those who really need to open their hearts to these words.

So you might say to me, “In other words, pastor, I’m supposed to be kind to those that do me dirt? I’m supposed to be kind to those who spit in my face?” Yes, that’s about it, but be assured, it’s not me saying it, it’s God saying it. I’m pretty much in the same boat you are, wondering how is that possible? And the answer is, by our own power, it’s not possible. When God gave us the command to be kind, he didn’t expect us to obey it by our own strength.

God wants us to depend on him totally. He said to the disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing.”

Did you catch those words, “Apart from me you can do nothing?” The sooner we recognize our inability the better. Apart from God we really can’t be kind to others because it’s not in our nature to do it. We are selfish by nature.

But if we obey Jesus’ command to remain in him at all times, we will be able to show kindness to others. That’s why we need to practice our faith. That’s why we need to have daily devotions. We need to train ourselves to put God first in our lives, not last. First Corinthians says, “God’s love is patient, God’s love is kind.” How many of you are glad that God has been patient and kind with you? There’s only one way to truly thank him, and that is in showing patience and kindness to others.

There is an old story, probably one you have heard before, but it bears repeating. In this story, the king’s aide sent word to a tiny village, maybe a village about the size of Vanderbilt, that the king would come to visit the village. With great fanfare the mayor of the village began to make the appropriate preparations. On the day of the expected arrival the mayor and all the residents dressed in their most beautiful clothes, and waited in joyful anticipation, but no one came to visit the village. No one, that is, except a lonely lame beggar who asked the mayor for a drink to quench his thirst.

With annoyance, the mayor told the beggar to be gone, he had no time for vagrants, he was waiting for the king. But the beggar persisted. Please give me a drink, he said, and the mayor angrily knocked the beggar into the ditch. But still the beggar collected himself and a third time asked the mayor for a drink.

This time in rage, the mayor ordered the beggar thrown into jail for the crime of being a beggar, and turned back to the task of waiting for the king. Yet as sundown fell over the village, all the people returned home, and the mayor stood alone. The king had never arrived.

Furiously the mayor wrote to the king’s aide demanding to know why the king had never arrived as promised. And the aide wrote back, “But he did arrive. He chose to come in disguise, dressed as a poor lame beggar.”

Now all of you know that this story is really a metaphor for Christ. You say, “Jesus, we would know you even if you came disguised as a beggar. We would always know you.” But that’s exactly the point. If the Bethlehem innkeeper had known that Mary was pregnant with the baby Jesus, he certainly would have made room for Mary and Joseph in his home. If the temple priests had know that it was the son of God they were arresting that night in the Garden of Gethsemane, they surely would have thought twice about arresting him, much less crucifying him.

It’s easy to be kind if we recognize Christ. But our kindness has to be uncalculating, without thought of gain. If we think of kindness as simply an act which is calculated to buy our way into heaven, then it was not motivated by love, but by selfishness.

One of my favorite movies of all time is the Sound of Music. Some people think of that movie as unbelievably schmaltzy, but I always watch it when it comes on TV. Maybe you remember how Baron Von Trapp ruled his family with an iron fist, using whistles to call his children to march into place whenever he wanted them. He then turns to Maria, the new governess, and says this will be your whistle signal, and she abruptly informs him that she does not respond to whistles like a dog. She introduces a new mood, the children respond and gradually the house is transformed from a military barracks to a home. You can’t miss the point. Kindness has won the day.

Of course, there is a drawback to kindness. Kindness requires nurturing, and nurturing takes time. Blowing a whistle or making a threat will get you a more immediate result. But in the end, shouting and ultimatums don’t bring you success.

The Apostle Paul admonished the church at Ephesus this way: “Stop being mean, bad-tempered and angry. Instead, be ye kind to one another, even as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ Jesus.”

Here’s what I want you to understand, folks: If we were to peel away all of creation, layer by layer, like an onion, and finally get right to the core of God’s universe, it would be this: God’s passionate love for the world, a love made manifest in Jesus Christ. His yearning is that his children shall live in that love. And that at its essence means being kind to one another. What picture do you have of God? Is he a policeman, a judge, a power figure? Jesus gave us another picture: “My Father,” he said. The love of God for man that acts through man to feed the hungry and clothe the naked is the foundation of the world.

Sometimes it doesn’t seem that way, of course. Sometimes it seems that evil really is in charge. It’s hard to look into the face of war, and drug addiction, and hunger and all the rest and say that ours is a world where kindness flourishes.

But we have to remember that we are only looking at the world through a distorted lens, like looking through the wrong end of a telescope and thinking that the world must a very tiny place. We only see who’s ahead in the first quarter, not the final outcome. Whatever the appearance of the world, in the end hatred must fall, because it is not built on a solid foundation. But love, expressed in kindness, will always stand, for in the words of First Corinthians, “God has made Jesus Christ the one sure foundation, and no other foundation can be laid.”

Man can burn up this beautiful planet, but he cannot burn up God’s eternal order. Terrorists can destroy human bodies and bring souls to judgment, but they cannot destroy the divine purpose.  The life of love endures from the foundation of the world, so we don’t have to despair. We don’t have to ask how our little acts of kindness can change the world. You might as well ask whether one star in the sky would be missed. Whatever act of kindness we do, we build in hope, for we build on what God has built from eternity. It is written, whoever loves, has lived—enduringly, in God.

To close this morning, I want to share with you two stories left over from Clyde’s funeral, stories that speak to our skepticism that our little acts of kindness make any difference.

I was speaking to Clyde’s sister Annabelle yesterday; she lives in Parma, Ohio, now, but of course was raised here, where people routinely take food to their neighbors’ homes at a time of loss. You’ve probably done that and not thought twice about it.

Did you know that’s a very western Pennsylvania thing to do? It’s true. A good friend of mine moved here from New Jersey; when her father in law died, and food began arriving on her doorstep, she was astonished by this evidence of caring. ‘I never knew people did this,” she told me.

But as for Annabelle, she learned of a death in a neighbor’s home, and quickly made a meat loaf and a cake to bring to the family. Same reaction—astonishment and gratitude. Later, when the obituary was published in the paper, it listed special thanks to Annabelle, for being such a good neighbor.

Little acts of kindness wipe away an awful lot of pain. Yesterday somebody asked me if all the food at the luncheon had been brought by members of East Liberty Church, and I said, “Yes, I’m sure, most of it.” So if you are one of those who brought food yesterday, know that your kindness was appreciated.

And the other story has to do with Clyde himself. Yesterday, at the funeral home, a middle-aged woman was pointed out to me. “She came last night, and told us that when she was a little girl, she broke something in her house, and she was scared and came over to our house because she was afraid that her father would beat her.” Her father was an alcoholic and had a vile temper when things went sour. It seems that Clyde stood up to the father and said he wasn’t sending that little girl home, because he wasn’t going to let that little girl get beaten. This middle aged woman, maybe 40 years later, had to come and say thank you for that moment of grace.

That’s the impact that little acts of kindness have. Don’t miss this, folks—in that moment when Clyde befriended that scared little girl, he was the image of Christ to her. Our God is a beckoning God and he does place opportunities for kindness in our path on an every day basis. But it’s up to us to act on them.

We know that we are saved by faith, but faith that does not find expression in works will wither and die.

Think of faith as the hub of the wheel, and works of mercy as the rubber that meets the road.

Both are essential, on this, our road to heaven.

 Jesus said “Not all who cry Lord, Lord, who enter my kingdom.” He meant that our actions are much more important than our words. Talk is cheap, and the inheritance of big empty talkers will be meager, but those who are kind will receive their reward in abundance. The Lord does not expect perfection from you.

He doesn’t expect blood sacrifices, or large cash outlays in the offering plate or flowery prayers.

 He only wants you to be kind to every poor beggar who comes your way. Who knows who he might be in disguise?