Monday - Thursday: 8:30 - 3:00
Closed Friday
Telephone
(503)640-1775
168 NE 8th Street
Hillsboro, OR 97124
The Spire Newsletter
Click here for directions
Welcome to Hillsboro United Methodist Church! If you are searching for deeper meaning in your life that includes lasting relationships, spiritual growth and service to the world you have come to the right place. We offer a safe place in which to ponder important life questions within an atmosphere of support. Our hearts, our minds and our doors are open. We hope that as you visit with us that you will find a place to call home.
Sermon - January 10th, 2010
Showing Kindness: Honesty
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Isaiah 43:1-7; Luke 3:21-22
Prayer of Preparation: We give thanks, O God of sacred stories, for the witness of your word today. Through Scripture you challenge our assumptions, increase our awareness, nurture our imaginations, and touch our feelings. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our creator and redeemer. Amen.
John the Baptist and Jesus met at the River Jordan. They had known each other since the day Mary went to visit Elizabeth. I assume they knew each growing up since they were related. The day Jesus was baptized was when John said who Jesus was out loud. “You are the one who should be baptizing me!” Nevertheless, Jesus insisted John do the honors. And Jesus was baptized right then and there.
John, the Baptizer and Jesus were as different as night and day. John preached grim justice and pictured God as a steely-eyed thresher of grain. Jesus preached forgiveness and love and pictured God as a host of a magnificent banquet where street people were invited or a mother hen protecting her brood under her wings. John told the people they better save their skins before it was too late. Jesus said it was God who saved their skins, even if they had cheated people, lived their live wastefully or robbed from the poor. It was never too late for God to save a lost soul. John lived in the wilderness like a wild man, eating strange things. Jesus walked among the people, ate and partied with sinners, hung out with the down and out and people we don’t particularly like to see walking up the church walk. They both had followers. They both had passion. Yet, we are the body of Christ, not the body of John the Baptizer. Not that there haven’t been times when the church behaved more like the body of John the Baptizer!
This sermon is the beginning of a sermon series on the power of kindness because one of the differences I see in Jesus and John is kindness. Jesus had it. Some of us have it. Some of us need to work on showing kindness. Some of us need to work on receiving kindness. The church always is working on showing kindness not that we are intentionally mean or judgmental. It’s a perception that is out there, thanks to our history, our shortcomings, our intolerance, our sins.
And I would like us to continue working on this perception that is out there. I have said more than once, people who do not attend church, people who have limited church experience, people who have had challenging church experiences in the past need to hear it from us we are a safe place to question and explore and journey through life. We don’t have the answers. We have questions. We are on the journey too. Inviting a non-church friend to church with you is not about hoping that they will come and “get it.” It’s an invitation to travel together on one of many paths to a life of deeper meaning, the one that is meaningful for us. It is an invitation into relationship.
I am taking these thoughts about kindness primarily from a book titled: The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life by Piero Ferrucci. Our world is full of violence, war, terrorism, devastation brought to us in living color right to our living rooms. Yet life goes on because we are kind to one another. We read bedtime stories to our children, our grandchildren, our neighbor’s children. We send someone who is hurting a card. We pray for each other. We visit each other just to cheer them up. We allow a stranger to open the door for us. Many of us are kind without even knowing it. We do something kind simply because it is the right thing to do. Many of us are kind expecting absolutely nothing in return: pure, unattached, not particularly exceptional acts of kindness. It is not hard to be kind to someone else; however, it does take time and human interaction.
To receive kindness does us good. Think about a time when someone surprised you with a kindness, big or small. What effect did it have on you? I am sure you felt something—relief, validation, what was it? Giving kindness also has an effect on us. Science has shown us this. Research, in the broadest terms, shows that kind people are healthier, live longer, are destined to live a more fulfilled life, and are better equipped to face life and all its unpredictable ups and downs. Not that that is the reason to be kind—that would be calculating and selfish. The true benefit of being kind is being kind.
It is not always easy. The culture we live in does not encourage it. Human relationships are becoming colder. We are too busy. We are always in a hurry. We need to be efficient. We need to get our work done! Piero Fuccucci writes: “I am convinced that we are going through an Ice Age of the heart…The causes of this Ice Age are many: new living conditions and forms of work, the establishing of new technologies, the decline of the extended family, the great migrations in which people are uprooted from their birthplace, the weakening of values, the fragmentation and superficiality of the contemporary world, the accelerating pace of life.” Let me remind you though, these changes are not good or bad. It’s not about going back to the way we were. It just is! And what better time for people to re-discover the church!
The great English writer, Aldous Huxley who wrote Brave New World said in a lecture toward the end of his life, “People often ask me what is the most effective technique for transforming their life. It is a little embarrassing that after years and years of research and experimentation, I have to say that the best answer is—just be a little kinder.” Being kind, Huxley said, will transform us.
The Dalai Lama has said, “My religion is kindness.” Jesus said that too, with his all of his teaching, his life, his miracles, his death and his resurrection. Yet, still the human race is capable of the most horrendous crimes and the most sublime acts. Two potentials—to do harm and to do good. We live with both—we have a choice.
There is a story of a wise, eccentric woman in a village whom people believed had magical powers, some believed she was a witch. One day some mischievous boys decided to test her magical powers. They found a little bird, caught it and took it to her. One boy, the leader of the group said to her. “I have a bird in my hand. Is it dead or alive?” The plan was if she said it was dead, he would open his hand and it would fly away. If she said it was alive, he would crush the bird in his hand. The woman thought awhile and then looking right at the boys, said this, “It is in your hands. It is in your hands.”
It is up to us. We have a choice. In today’s world, kindness is not a luxury, it is a necessity. So, what is kindness? Piero Ferrucci says, “It is the result of the interplay among several qualities, such as warmth, trust, loyalty, gratitude, and many others.” My sermon series will look at kindness from the standpoint of these qualities. Ferrucci says, “Each of these qualities alone is sufficient, if we evoke and cultivate it, to revolutionize our psyche and change our life radically. Together, their action is even more effective and profound.”
The first quality is honesty. Kindness involves honesty. See if you can relate to this story about Albert Schweitzer. After he won the Nobel Peace Prize he attended a banquet in his honor, invited by the Norwegian royalty. A plate of herring was placed before him—a food he could not stomach. He did not want to appear impolite. So when no one was looking, he quickly put the herring in the pocket of his jacket. The queen commented, “You certainly ate the herring fast. Would you like some more?”
Honesty can be embarrassing. How many of you are walking around with herring in your pockets? The truth can be sharp and uncomfortable. Maybe you are wondering, like I do, can honesty and kindness co-exist?
We lie for lots of reasons: to hide our weaknesses, avoid giving explanations or getting into trouble, because of laziness or out of fear. Yet, lying complicates our life and makes it more difficult. The lie detector machine is based on this principle. We lie, we get stressed, measurably stressed. To be transparent is a relief.
Honesty has to start with being honest with ourselves. We cannot know ourselves in isolation. We let others know us, being honest with them. So, is being honest and being kind compatible? Ask yourself this: Would you prefer labored politeness or the uncomfortable truth? Ferrucci says this: “To act honestly—even at the risk of saying the unpleasant truth, or of saying no and causing distress to others—if done with intelligence and tact, is the kindest thing to do, because it respects our own integrity and (listen to this) acknowledges in others the capacity to be competent and mature.”
Have you ever learned something from another source and confronted a loved one with the question, why didn’t you tell me? And the answer was, I didn’t want to hurt you. It’s like a double whammy! Because you feel underestimate or betrayed. Lying to protect someone is not true kindness.
Denial or pretending a problem doesn’t exist is not helpful or kind either. Sometimes we even hide our tenderness, our goodwill, original thoughts, our capacity for being moved. We prevent others from seeing ourselves.
Lying has a thousand faces. The truth is the truth. Everything becomes easier with honesty. Yet, still we find ourselves hiding the truth, avoiding the truth, living with illusions, whatever, when honesty is the very basis of kindness. Without it, we cannot really communicate, trust, and relate to others. Yes, honesty and kindness are compatible.
I imagine Jesus being one of the most honest persons who walked on the earth, maybe the most honest. Although there was that time when he 12 or so, and he turned up missing. Mary and Joseph eventually found him in the temple. He could have let his parents know beforehand what he was doing. He didn’t mince any words about what he was up to, though. He told his parents, like a lot of kids do, this is what I’m about, folks. What’s YOUR problem?
Jesus didn’t always act nice either. He often simply told it like it was. For the woman caught in adultery who was about to be stoned, he said, “Whoever is without sin, cast the first stone.” And he told the woman after that, “Go and sin no more.” He told the rich young ruler who wanted it all, go and sell everything and give to the poor.
Honesty, it makes everything easier; yet, it is so hard to practice. I think for me, it comes back being honest with myself. Shakespeare had it right when Polonius says in Hamlet, “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Be true to yourself and you will be true to others.
When John the Baptizer, also a truth teller, a harsh, crude, rough teller of truth, said in a tender moment, “You should be baptizing me,” he was facing and telling the truth. For much later, when the Gospel of John was written, these words came from Jesus, “I am the truth…” Now, I don’t not interpret this as meaning Jesus is the ONLY truth, although I know the church has in the past, and some still do. I interpret as him saying, “I will tell you the truth, about God, about me, about you.” It was pure kindness.
And when John baptized Jesus, the heavens opened up, and the voice of God was heard saying, “This is my beloved son; with you I am pleased.” Honesty and kindness walk hand in hand. Let us all choose to be honest to ourselves and each other, and to love kindness—giving and receiving its transformative power—remembering and believing and accepting we are all precious in God’s sight.
Amen.
Gracious, holy, mysterious God, You are the light of the world, the star that guides us, you are God and we are precious in your sight. Let us be grateful and accepting of your love. Let us shine with your light in us. Let us be a star that guides others, as your church, the body of Christ. Help us to reach out to others. Help us to be gracious and to love kindness to each other, to ourselves and to those beyond these walls. Help us to grow. Help us to want to grow. We listen to one another, sharing concern and joy. We embrace each other in prayer. We are family. We care so deeply and we thank you, O God for that. For each small act of kindness given, we give thanks to you! Help us to spread the caring and kindness out into a needy and messy and hurting world. For those who have lost a loved one, for those caring for Ben Petrick, for those who have a loved one living with cancer, for those facing yet another surgery, for all how are unemployed, for all who are living with uncertainty, and in transition, those struggling with addictions, those who are lonely, those who we know, and those we don’t know—O God, hear our prayers, even the silent ones, touch lives, help us to know the best way to help, even if it is doing nothing at all, teach us to empower and encourage with validation and trust. O God, help us to know we all belong to you. And you love us. In the name of the one who is the beloved son of God and who always prayers for us and with us…Our Father….