As I\u2019ve said, this morning we are exploring one of our church\u2019s values \u2013 loving each other, and in particular we are thinking about how we value kindness. Now, one of our other values is celebrating, and I\u2019ve heard it said that you should celebrate what you value. So, this morning, I thought we might celebrate kindness. To help us do that, I\u2019m going to be sharing some things that we can celebrate about God\u2019s kindness and the human kindness that I\u2019ve seen over the last couple of months. As I speak, there will also be images of kindness coming up on the screen. I\u2019d love it if you could share stories of kindness in the comments stream, so that we can build each other up and encourage each other. <\/p>\n
Now, one of the most important words in the Old Testament part of the Bible is the Hebrew word Hesed. <\/p>\n
We\u2019ve already heard it three times today \u2013 it\u2019s the word used by Naomi to describe Boaz\u2019s acts in looking out for Ruth in his fields, in Micah 6:8 it is translated as \u201cmercy\u201d and in Hosea 6:6 \u2013 which Jesus quotes as he tells the Pharisees that what God requires is not sacrifice but \u201cmercy\u201d<\/p>\n
As we can see, hesed is translated as mercy in some places, but it has a wider meaning than what we might understand as mercy, letting someone off \u2013 forgiving them. In other places it\u2019s translated as kindness, lovingkindness, and goodness. It is celebrated all the way through the Old Testament as one of God\u2019s fundamental characteristics \u2013 this is what God is like \u2013 God is kind.<\/p>\n
It appears all the way through the Psalms, perhaps most famously in Psalm 23, \u201csurely your goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all of the days of my life\u201d <\/p>\n
One of the strongest messages of the Old Testament is that God\u2019s love is expressed in kindness, that we can celebrate that and rely on it, and that God expects us to be kind to each other. <\/p>\n
This core characteristic of lovingkindness is, unsurprisingly, also seen in Jesus. We see at work here, in the story of this meal that Jesus shared with tax collectors and sinners. It is a practical kindness that makes time and space for people that are difficult. It seems to me that if we romanticise this, and imagine Robin Hood type lovable rogues, who are actually nicer people than the hypocritical and boring religious types, then we risk losing sight of the power of what Jesus is doing. Jesus\u2019 lovingkindness is not one that sweeps sin under the table, but it faces it head on and gives people a way out of it. <\/p>\n
I think this lovingkindness is also seen in this response to the Pharisees. It\u2019s true that at times Jesus could be fairly direct, and even angry with the Pharisees, but on this occasion, he doesn\u2019t trap them into a corner, he doesn\u2019t harangue them, he just invites them to go and consider and meditate on the Scripture, and particularly on what they already know about God\u2019s priority for lovingkindness. <\/p>\n
In a little while, I\u2019ll be leading a communion part of the service. I know that many of you find this helpful, and join in at home in some way. I know that some of you find this difficult, and think it would be better if we waited until we were physically together to share in the bread and wine. As we remember Jesus on the cross, in his lovingkindness crying out \u201cFather, forgive them\u201d and ensuring that his mother Mary had someone to look after her, I hope that whatever we feel about this, we can be kind to those who think differently to us. <\/p>\n
This livingkindness is also seen being lived out in the young church. We read in Acts 2, \u201cThey sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.\u201d This is a practical expression of kindness. <\/p>\n
As I look around at our response to Covid-19 I have seen many examples of this type of practical kindness. Yesterday was the third drive through foodbank drop off at the Woolpack, organised by the local community to support those who are struggling for the basics of life at the moment. We\u2019ve been supporting the setting up of the community fridge at Wrekin View school, and folk from the church to distribute food packages from there. I know of one church member who saw an elderly neighbour, who she didn\u2019t really know, out shopping, got talking to her and discovered that she didn\u2019t have anyone to do shopping for her, and so offered to do a weekly Morrisons shop for her. I don\u2019t want you for a minute to think that I am celebrating the circumstances, but I do want to celebrate these responses. We value kindness, and we are showing that. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve also seen this in the pastoral work that is being done across the church. There has been the pastoral team and small group leaders and members phoning, emailing, dropping round to folk for socially distanced garden visits. There have been informal conversations and people catching up with each other. People have volunteered to do shopping for those who can\u2019t get out. Recently we\u2019ve realised that people who have been stuck in for a while might feel nervous about going out for the first time, so we\u2019ve got some volunteers who would be willing to go and accompany them on their first walk out. If that\u2019s you, and you\u2019d like someone to go with you, then please do get in touch with me and I\u2019ll put you in touch. Again, this is care and kindness that we can celebrate.<\/p>\n
Many of you have filled in the survey I sent round, to see how we can support you in your discipleship in these strange times. The responses to these are going to go to PCC a week on Monday, and I plan to share the headlines more widely after that. But, I\u2019ve been so encouraged by the many kind words and positive responses that have come in. I\u2019ve also been encouraged by the care and kindness shown for those who may be isolated, and aren\u2019t able to engage in online services. The responses have shown me that there is a deep well of kindness in this church, we value it and we can celebrate it. <\/p>\n
Having said all that, I do also know that it is likely that there are those of you out there who are finding all this talk of the celebration of kindness difficult, because you don\u2019t feel like anyone is kind to you, or that the church has been cruel to you. If that\u2019s you, and you feel like I\u2019ve let you down, or the church has let you down, then I\u2019m sorry. Please do get in touch with me, and we\u2019ll see what can be done to put things right. <\/p>\n
As a church, we value kindness. We have experienced God\u2019s lovingkindness, and we want others to experience it as well, both directly, and through us. We consider our words, spoken \u2013 emailed \u2013 facebooked – tweeted carefully, considering the impact they might have on someone, for good or ill. We don\u2019t just do the things we were going to do more nicely, we go out of our way to do and say things to others that will communicate love and care to them. We do kind things. We say kind words. We live kind lives. Because we all love, follow, and serve a kind King.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I\u2019ve said, this morning we are exploring one of our church\u2019s values \u2013 loving each other, and in particular we are thinking about how we value kindness. Now, one of our other values is celebrating, and I\u2019ve heard it said that you should celebrate what you value. So, this morning, I thought we might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[431],"tags":[1115,97,19,1114,1113],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wellington","tag-hesed","tag-kindness","tag-love","tag-matthew-99-17","tag-micah-66-8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carterclan.me.uk\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}