WHY DO WE NEED TO BE REMINDED?

A friend of mine, Ray from out west, regularly sends out an email with a verse from the Bible. But he always ends the message with “kindness wins.” A bumper sticker I saw recently read “Be Kind”. Why does Ray and the bumper-sticker person need to remind us to be kind, and that in the end, kindness wins out in any type of human interaction? Why indeed!

But it does seem to me that we do need to be reminded when being unkind – and that is often putting it mildly – is the tone of the day. Unkind words are just as hurtful as unkind actions and sometimes are even more painful. Physical wounds heal. Verbal words stay with us, sometimes forever, such is the damage done. What is worse is that, as with inflicting physical pain, inflicting verbal pain is done with full intentionality. We want to hurt another with what we say.

Sadly, sometimes the worst verbal abuse comes from the mouths of those of us standing in the pulpit. We stand there acting as if we are servants of Jesus spouting words that Jesus would never, ever utter. Even more humiliating to the Gospel message is that those in the pews listening to verbal abuse of others seem to agree with what is being said, sometimes applauding!

Disagreements about any and every issue arise because each of us brings our own experiences and opinions to whatever topic is at issue. No two people see exactly alike. But to disagree where we are unkind and rude and cruel is not only wrong; it is unchristian and has no place in society and certainly no place in our individual lives; none, zero, nil.

The sad part is that most of us do nothing when confronted with such behavior. We are often tempted to shout back in just as an unkind way as the one confronting us with unkind words. Thankfully we do not. But how are we supposed to react? How do we respond to the vast sea of unkindness that seems to be drowning out all the words of kindness and caring – and deeds as well – around us?

We did not get this way as a nation suddenly overnight. But that is where we now find ourselves. Civility seems to have disappeared and uncivility has taken its place – and seemingly being condoned as an accepted behavior at least by those in authority who have failed to kindly speak out against such.

Perhaps I am overstating he situation. The truth is that everyone I know is kind in words and actions. The squeaky wheel gets all the attention and keeps getting it until someone oils it. The oil that is obviously needed today in our nation and, in fact, our world, is the oil of kindness, the balm of Gilead, as the Bible tells us.

We need healing as a nation. The unkind words have opened deep wounds that will take a while to heal and that starts by being kind to one another. In the end kindness wins.

THE GOD SHEPHERD AND THE HIRED HAND

In one of his long discourses in John’s Gospel (10:11-18) Jesus asserts that he is the Good Shepherd who always takes care of his sheep (us) while the hired hand tends to bail when the going gets tough. It was and is his assurance to us that he will never leave us alone to fend for ourselves especially when the going gets tough. That surely gives us peace of mind and it is also a reminder that Jesus has been true to his word.

There is another level to this message as well and it has to do with us. We are both shepherds and hired hands in our daily lives. Shepherds take care of the flock that is entrusted to them, whatever the flock, however large or however small. At times in our lives we find ourselves in positions of responsibility to watch others: as parents, as older siblings, as leaders of a group. The list is endless.

On the other hand, we are all hired help. We work for others. Even if we are self-employed, we work for those who hire our services. The only person we think we can boss around is ourself; but even then, we cannot, as our actions impinge on how others act. As the poet observed, no one of us is an island unto ourself. We are somehow wired to one another.

The questions we need to continually ask ourselves are two: first, am I a good shepherd of the flock that is entrusted to my care whenever those occasions arise? The truth is, I think, that the answer is “not always”. We may not be a bad shepherd, buy sometimes our shepherding leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe the reason is that we do not take this responsibility as serious as we should. Maybe.

The second asks about what kind of hired hand I am when called to work for another, to be there for another, whatever being there means at that moment when we are called to be there. What kind of job do I do? Do I give it my full attention or a half-hearted one or perhaps none at all, passing the buck so that someone else has to pick up after me? The choice is always ours.

Both being a shepherd to others and being that helping hand when needed convey heavy responsibilities whether we like it or not. My suspicion is that most of the time we go about our daily lives without even giving these responsibilities a second thought, let alone a first one.

What all this boils down to is that, like Jesus, we are called to be servants one to another. Sometimes that servanthood calls us to shepherd others to keep them safe. Other times it calls us to give of our time or talent or financial resources to help those who are less blessed than we are. If you like me, we know that. And if you are like me, sometimes we need something to jog our awareness of these responsibilities. The Gospel a few weeks ago did that to me and for me. And you?

BELIEVING BEHAVIOR

A wise person once observed that if we want to know what a person believes, all we have to do is observe that person’s behavior. We live out what we believe. If we profess that we are Christians, that Jesus is our Lord and Savior, as we do every time we say the Creed, then, obviously, our behavior will attest to that belief. Obviously! But does it? The truth is, it does not. No exceptions.

Does that mean that there are no true Christians, that no one fully lives out what a follower of Jesus demands: that we love God above all else and love our neighbor as we love ourself? Well, yes. There are no perfect Christians. Never were, never will be, no matter how saintly we are or anyone else was or is. We are all sinners and we fall short in living out what we say we believe, and we fall short every day.

For me, personally, and I can only speak for me, when someone tells me or anyone else that he or she is a Christian, a red flag goes up. Why do you have to tell me that, I silently ask? Should not your behavior attest to your Christianity? Are you saying that what you say and do Jesus would confirm as something he would agree with? Publicly proclaiming to be a follower of Jesus assumes that to be true.

Okay, okay. I’ll be honest. I get angered at politicians who proclaim Christian values and then do all they can to make life even more difficult for those whom Jesus placed first in his ministry: the last, the least and the lost of this society and world. Remember the judgment scene in the parable in Mathhew 25? We will be judged come judgment day on how we treated these people.

Of course, it’s easy to judge another’s words and actions. And I do, I do. But Jesus isn’t concerned so much about how I judge another, but about how honest I am about my own actions. Does my behavior attest to what I profess to believe? Am I as concerned about those people Jesus was concerned about as he was?  In all honesty, the answer is that I am not. That is not to say that I am not concerned. It is to say that I do not do enough or certainly could do more.

I am not alone. We all fall short in living out what we profess to believe. Acknowledging that truth is first and foremost. What follows is trying each day to live out our faith more fully than the day before. Sometimes we will. Sometimes we will fail. We should be thankful when we do and be sorry when we do not. It simply means that, if you are like me, we need to be more aware of how our words and actions reveal about who we are and what we believe.

The early church grew only because people saw how those who called themselves followers of Jesus lived out their faith and belief in him. Their belief was known by their behavior. The same is true for us.

SILENCE IS GOLDEN, BUT NOT ALWAYS

When I was in seminary, we kept the Grand Silence every night from when the lights went out until after breakfast. I think it was more about discipline than anything else. After all, nothing much could take place after dark way back then holed up as we were almost in the middle of corn fields. And there were meals when we ate in silence. At no time did I ever think these periods of silence were in any way golden.

But over the years as I have grown older and wiser, I have come to value the importance of silence in my life, especially with all the noise that sometimes seems interminable. Silence allows you to pause and reflect about your life, something I think most of us do not do often enough. Why? Maybe we will have to face issues we would rather not deal with at the moment, an uncomfortableness about the way we are living. We can always find reasons to avoid taking time to reflect in silence, Grand or otherwise.

On the other hand, there are times when silence is not only not golden, it is also wrong. How often do we find ourselves in situations where our conscience and our faith, hopefully one and the same, demand that we speak up and yet we do not do so? Someone makes a bigoted remark about another person or persons and we remain silent. Our silence is a consent. To not disagree is to agree.

Keeping silent is keeping still and we keep still when what is going on around us demands that we act, that we do something; do what needs to be done or at least what we can do. It may not be much, but it is something and it is better than keeping still and consenting to what is going on, knowing that what is going on is not right. Not acting signals our consent.

And yet, there are times when we are not sure what to say or what to do. As Kenny Rogers sang and my wife always considered it advice as a manager, “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em; know when to walk away; know when to run”. Knowing what to say or do is not always easy no matter how certain we are that something needs to be said or done.

Sometimes our words or our actions will cause more harm than good and sometimes they will have no effect at all and sometimes silence is truly golden. Can we ever know for certain? Usually, not in the present moment but only after the fact. That is when we truly need a time of Grand Silence honestly asking ourselves if we said or did or not said or not did the right thing.

By then, of course, it’s water over the dam. What is important, I think, and what I have learned over the years, is that we all need times of silence, especially at the end of the day, to reflect upon those moments when we were called upon to speak or act, whether we did or did not do what our faith and our conscience called us to do.