LENT 1

COMMUNION MEDITATION

THE GIFTS OF GOD FOR THE FAMILY OF FAITH

KINDNESS

Scripture: Micah 6:6-8; 1 Corinthians 13:4-13

INTRODUCTION

Throughout this Lenten season, our sermons will focus on the theme “The Gifts of God for the Family of Faith”. The text we’ve chosen to show us the way is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter thirteen. And like an inspiring symphony, the Biblical passage begins quietly with the gift of “Patience”, and then concludes with the glorious finale “So Faith, Hope, Love abide, these three – and the greatest of these is Love”.

That’s where we are headed, my friends, looking forward toward Holy Week and the celebration of Easter with great expectation!

I

But we’ve only just begun. So on this first Sunday in Lent, I’d like to concentrate our attention on the gift of “Kindness”, found in verses four and five, as the Apostle writes “Love is patient and kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude” … the Gift of Kindness.

Now as we said on Ash Wednesday, this text was not written originally for wedding ceremonies, although that is how most of us have heard these words. I performed a wedding last evening in someone’s living room and I opened the Bible and read all of the words from 1 Corinthians 13. They were just right, just perfect for that occasion, but that is not what Paul originally intended. The Apostle sent this letter to the church in Greece which he had founded, knowing that they were caught in a cross fire of theological and inter-personal conflicts that threatened to do them in.

John Claypool, the Episcopal priest, and close friend to many of us here (rest his soul), once described the distinction between church fights this way. He said that some people do battle like boxers in a ring, trying to inflict pain and knock the adversary down and out … while others, said Claypool, are more like wrestlers – not the kind you see on TV or in the recent movie – but Olympic wrestlers who grapple on the mat, and hold on to one another in the attempt to gain advantage and win the match. Claypool said that the first way, boxing, is destructive and leads to retaliation and revenge, while the second way – wrestling, can be constructive and open the door to reconciliation. I believe he was right.

The Corinthians were boxers. They were fighting fiercely over divisive issues that are still stirred up all these years later – differences of opinion about theology, morality, sexuality, the order of worship and liturgy, and diverse expressions of spirituality to name just a few. So Paul wrote this letter to the leaders, members and factions of that congregation, and he told them what they needed to do.

Summarizing at the end of 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle wrote, “Strive for the greater gifts, and I will show you a more excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31), and then he leaned into chapter 13 about the gifts of God for the family of faith: patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, joy, endurance, faith, hope and love.

What the Corinthians needed to understand back then, and what all of us as Christians need to know today is this: we do not invent, we do not create, nor do we ultimately control any of the gifts that come from God. They have already been given to us through the life, death and resurrection of his Son, our Savior Jesus, whose Holy Spirit literally unlocks us and opens our hearts as we receive the gifts and then share them with one another. That’s how it works. That’s how the Lord wants it to work in the church.

II

So it is with the spiritual gift of Kindness. The Hebrew word for kindness is “chesed”, found in many Old Testament passages, perhaps the most familiar of which is Micah 6, verses six through eight:

“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?” Those are the words that were chosen by the Community Ministries Council here to be the watchwords of that ministry and the same words that Martin Luther King, Jr. chose to envision the “Beloved Community”.

Stephen Carter, who teaches law at Yale University and who is a Christian, has written a book about it, and this is what he has to say about “chesed” in this volume entitled Civility:

“In the Jewish tradition, the duty to do good is (described in the word) ‘chesed’ – doing acts of kindness – which in turn is derived from the understanding that human beings are made in the image of God … so civility itself may be seen as a part of chesed: it does indeed require kindness toward our fellow citizens, including the ones who are strangers, even when it is hard. When we are polite instead of rude, warm rather than cold, when we try to see God in others, we are doing acts of kindness” (from Civility by Stephen L. Carter, Harper Perennial, 1998, page 71).

“Chesed is the Hebrew word for kindness. In the New Testament, the Greek word is “Chrestos”, which is found in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4, and also in the Gospels, the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul, James and Peter. This word “Chrestos” is often synonymous with goodness, virtue, benevolence, and grace.

Now I think it is important to recognize that this word “Chrestos” is ever so close to the Greek word “Christos” for Christ, who is the source of God’s loving kindness, grace and goodness in our lives. And what He wants for you and for me is that we would receive the gift of kindness that He has given, let it sink down into our hearts and minds, and then share this gift with one another whenever and wherever we can.

That’s what Willie discovered in his own family during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. They were sharecroppers in North Georgia and never had enough to break even. But being Baptists, they prayed to God for His blessings, and did the best they could.

Then, one year when the harvest was good, after settling accounts with the landowner, Willie’s parents actually had a few dollars to buy something.

They couldn’t afford gifts for themselves or for each one of the children, so they bought something that everyone could share together – a mirror from the Sears and Roebuck catalogue. Does anybody remember the Sears and Roebuck catalogue?

The day it arrived, they all went to the mailbox and opened the gift. The father looked in the mirror and he frowned, gave it to his wife as she smiled and then passed it around to each child … and finally to Willie, who was 8 years old and had never looked in a mirror before.

But what no one had told him, after being kicked by a mule when he was just a little boy, was that his face had been badly scarred and was disfigured. So Willie stared into the mirror, and then he asked his mother, “Did you know I looked like this all the time?” She said, “Of course I did.” He said, “And you still loved me?” She answered, “Yes Willie, I did. ‘Cause the face didn’t make no difference. I loved you because you were mine.” That’s a true story and that’s what we need in our families. Mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers – all of us together – Kindness, the gift of kindness which comes from God through our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who loves us with a love that will never, ever let us go and who calls all of us to share the gift of kindness with one another.

III

And so it can be in this Family of Faith here at the corner of 16^th and Peachtree. Thank God we’re not fighting or fussing with each other in this church-- not as the Corinthians did long ago. In fact, I think we’re learning to speak the truth in love, and that we’re discovering how to be kind, and we’re learning to live together in unity with Christ at the Center in this incredibly diverse community of believers.

But in the midst of so much good that’s happening here, we are facing the hard reality of an economic crisis that has hit us like a hurricane, and week by week it affects more and more families in this church. The impact has hurt our Annual Giving Campaign – we are still $800,000 short of our goal – and for the first time in nineteen years since I have been the pastor here, we are having to trim the sails and downsize this ship of faith to get through the storm. And we’re going to do it, because we are good stewards of what we have been given.

All of you as members recently received a letter describing the difficult decisions our Session has made, and also inviting you to come to the “Hoping and Coping” seminar on March 8 to help people who are struggling. The letter also asks us to pray for God’s guidance during these difficult days.

I was thinking about all of this last week when President Barack Obama gave his speech to the nation. You’ll remember he looked up into the balcony where his wife was sitting – the First Lady of the United States – and with her was a man named Leonard Abess, Jr. Do you know who he is? He’s a banker from Miami who sold his bank and reaped $60 million dollars from it. But instead of keeping all the money for himself, he gave it away to 471 employees and retirees, including the tellers and the clerks and the secretaries, who received on the average $127,000 each. I thought to myself as President Obama pointed him out and everyone clapped, “Why can’t he just move to midtown Atlanta? We’ll help him become a Presbyterian here!” That probably won’t happen, but I know this is true: you are still the most generous church that I have ever known, and we’re going to make it through this storm together.

CONCLUSION

So there’s just one more thing that I would ask you to do. If you know someone who is hurting or needs support right now, decide today to reach out to them in kindness and ask how you can walk beside them every step of the way.

Because whatever you and I have received is a gift that the Lord has given to us. And whatever we can share with others is the gift we offer in the name of Jesus. It’s called Kindness.

The Scottish people have a song for it and this is how we will close. I’m reading this from a book Aspects of Love: an Exploration of 1 Corinthians 13 by J. Barrie Shepherd, a retired Presbyterian minister. He says, “The Scots have a song for it, “Auld Land Syne”, (which I’ve heard sung, as you have many times, even in Scotland, and everybody cries.)” It was written by Robbie Burns in the seventeenth century and it was during a hard time in Scotland – one of their worst potato famines ever. Burns wrote:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auld lang syne?

And the chorus is:

For auld lang syne, my friends,

For auld lang syne,

We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

It’s called “the national anthem of the human race” says Shepherd. And the question is: will we try it – will we try to sip that cup of kindness and patience and love and share it with others?

That’s the question as we come to this table to eat this bread and to drink this cup – remembering that Jesus gave His life for us.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.