February 18, Transfiguration Sunday

Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:4b

Sermon Title: The Kindness of Love

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Kindness (1)

A man walked into a restaurant in a strange town. The waiter came and asked him for his order. Feeling lonely, he replied, "Meat loaf and a kind word."

When the waiter returned with the meat loaf, the man said, "Okay, so where's the kind word?"

The waiter put down the meat loaf and sighed, bent down, and whispered gently, "Don't eat the meat loaf."

INTRODUCTION:

  1. We all need a kind word

    1. That is, unless, you are Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes.

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin: I'm going to paste Susie's pate with a slushball! Heh Heh Heh

Hobbes: Some philosophers say that true happiness comes from a life of virtue.

Calvin stops to think about that statement and then, with a quizzical look on his face, flips his slushball away.

Calvin begins to apply the virtuous principles.

He cleans his room,

does his homework,

gives his mother a Valentine's card,

shovels the walk for Dad,

eats all his dinner, every vegetable,

and takes out the trash.

Walking back to the house he shakes his hands, sees Susie, gets a means look on his face, rushes to get his coat, makes a slushball, and pastes Susie with it.

She is lying face down in the snow.

CALVIN: Someday, I'll write my own philosophy book.

HOBBES: Virtue needs some cheaper thrills.

    1. Does virtue need some cheaper thrills?

      1. We recognize our humanness.

        1. We all make mistakes.

        2. We will act in selfish ways.

        3. Why should I think or act in any other way.

      2. Aggression promotes aggression.

      3. Selfishness encourages selfishness.

      4. Is there a deeper and much greater thrill awaiting the Christian.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. It depends on what kind of rules are we going to live by?

    1. Are you tired of playing bumper cars in the mall?

      1. You are familiar with bumper cars?

        1. They are popular at a carnival or State Fair.

        2. The object of the ride is to bump into other people.

      2. It appears that many people in the mall are bumper cars.

      3. If you don't want to get run into, get out of the way.

    2. The Mall is a microcosm of what is happening to us.

      1. Who and what we are thinking about.

      2. What principles of relationship we will employ.

        1. Spend time dodging people

        2. Sometimes brushed aside.

        3. No expressions of regret for the inconvenience.

      3. Walking out behind another person who lets the door go in your face.

      4. Failing to pick up after one's self so that the rest area will be readily available to someone else.

    3. Maybe it's "Do unto others before they do unto you."

      1. Don't we, somewhere speak of the Golden rule?

        1. "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets" (Matthew 7:12, NRSV).

      2. It is not do unto others and hope that they do not do the same to you.

    4. Maybe that is too difficult for us.

  2. What does it mean to be a child of God?

    1. Can God can teach us kindness.

    2. How does God act towards human beings?

      1. That is a questions that people seek to answer in different ways.

      2. There is a way to understand the kindness of God that is consistent with God's character and purpose.

    3. Look at some references in which kindness is used.

      1. Romans 2:4 (NRSV)

        1. Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

        2. Repentance = a change of heart and mind; a turning from one direction to go in another.

      2. Ephesians 2:7 (NRSV)

        1. so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

          1. It is God's kindness which promotes his giving.

          2. His greatest gift is Jesus Christ, a Savior, not just of the rich and famous, but also of the poor and infamous.

      3. Ephesians 4:32 (NRSV)

        1. and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

          1. Has there ever been a time when God will not forgive?

          2. All will be forgiven, there are no reservations or qualifications.

      4. Titus 3:4 (NRSV)

        1. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,

          1. The life of Jesus is a revelation of the kindness of God.

          2. Jesus was kind to all.

      5. Luke 6:35

        1. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

          1. Love your enemies.

          2. Do good

          3. Lend, expecting nothing in return.

          4. You will be children of the most high.

          5. He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

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  1. It is okay to be theoretical, but what about the practical application of kindness.

    1. Demonstrating kindness

Bill is wild haired; his wardrobe for college is jeans and a T-shirt with holes in it. He recently became a believer while attending a campus Bible study.

Across from campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. One Sunday Bill decides to go there. He walks in late and shoeless. The sanctuary is packed. Bill heads down the aisle looking for a seat. Having nearly reached the pulpit, he realizes there are no empty seats, so he squats down on the carpet. The congregation is feeling uncomfortable.

Then from the back of the church, a gray-haired elder in a three-piece suit starts walking toward Bill with a cane. The worshipers don't expect a man in his 80s to understand some college kid on the floor. With all eyes focused on the developing drama, the minister waits to begin his sermon until the elder does what he has to do.

The elderly man drops his cane on the floor and with great difficulty lowers himself to sit next to Bill.

"What I'm about to preach," the minister begins, "you'll never remember. What you've just seen, you'll never forget."

      1. Is this a demonstration of kindness.

      2. Is this something that you and I can do?

    1. Kindness is telling the truth in love.

Jeanette Thomason, "God uses imperfect vessels," writes about Mel Goebel (2)

As a scared and confused boy, one of two sets of twins in a family of seven children, Mel Goebel had never really experienced love in action. He'd witnessed his mother's fickle affairs. He'd watched his drunken, angry father slam her head to the floor with the butt of a shotgun. He longed for what kids in other families seemed to have: love, encouragement, a chance.

When those things are absent in your life it's too painful to be around those who have them in spades, Mel says.

So by the time he met a new inmate in a Lincoln, Nebraska, prison, Mel's fear and confusion had left him a dropout, drug abuser and inmate in the state penitentiary with a three-year term on a drug-related burglary charge.

Mel watched the new guy enter the yard. He carried the usual stack -- pillow, blanket and, on top, something different: a big, black Bible.

"You believe in God?" taunted Mel, then 21. His sarcasm was intentional. God hadn't saved his mom from abuse, or kept him from addiction. God didn't seem to be around when he left school in eighth grade. And where was God, he wondered, when I landed behind these bars? He laughed meanly, prodding again, "You think God can save you?"

"Yes," the new inmate answered quietly and with such boldness Mel could only sit back in silence.

The guy told Mel about the freedom he found in Jesus, how he'd just learned the gospel from the girl he'd been dating. He'd only just become a Christian before his incarceration.

This Bible man was weird, Mel decided. Still he couldn't help but wonder about such bold assurance of a newly found faith upon entering this forsaken place. Feeling once again like that scared, confused boy, he wondered: Maybe God is real. Maybe he can change things. Secretly, he wanted to know more.

    1. Kindness is gently saying no and yes.

Pat Nordman, "The tongue," Walking Through the Darkness Web Site, writes: (3)

"One cannot talk about nothing forever, so the talk finally degenerates into small rap about people. Some wonderful advice comes to us from the ancient Orient. We should test our words to see if they can pass through three golden gates:

1) Is it true?

2) Is it necessary? and

3) Is it kind?

"And someone left us this wise advice: "Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak."

      1. No to certain attitudes and behaviors.

      2. Yes to positive attitudes and behaviors.

    1. Kindness is acting out love in daily life.

Will Willimon, in a chapel address called "Sin as a byproduct of worship," tells the story of a friend of his who, while in seminary, served briefly as a chaplain in a state prison. He received a request from a father of a young man who was interned in the prison. The young man had committed a robbery in a little town and had been sentenced to many years in jail. He was angry, embittered.

The boy's father came each week to visit him, but the lad steadfastly refused to see him.

The chaplain was asked to intervene, to plead with the boy to see his father. But the young prisoner refused to reconsider.

Despite his refusal, the boy's father took off work every week, boarded a bus, and traveled across the state in the hope of seeing his son.

Every week. And every week it became the young chaplain's difficult task to ask the son, "Do you want to see your dad?" He then had to bear word of the refusal to the waiting father.

The father would thank the chaplain, gather his belongings, and head toward the door for the bus trip back home.

One day, after telling the father the same thing, that his son would not meet with him, the chaplain said, "No one would do what you are doing. Your son is an embittered, defiant young man. Go back home and get on with your life. No one would put up with this kind of rejection, week after week. Nobody would do this."

"He has put up with it for centuries," said the father, as he picked up his meager belongings and headed out.

And the young chaplain literally fell to his knees at this vision of the righteousness of God.

      1. This is also an example of kindness.

      2. The kindness of a father reflecting the kindness of Jesus and the Father God.

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CONCLUSION

  1. We and our whole society will ultimately be judged by how kind we have been.

The day will come (4)
when the progress of nations will be
judged not by their military
or economic strength,
nor by the splendor of
their capital cities and public buildings,
but by the well-being of their peoples:
by their levels of health,
nutrition and education;
by their opportunities to earn a fair
reward for their labors;
by their ability to participate in the
decisions that effect their lives;
by the respect that is shown for their civil
and political liberties;
by the provision that is more for those
who are vulnerable and disadvantaged;
and by the protection that is afforded to
the growing minds and bodies of their children.

  1. God has a vision for his people.

    1. It is that they should, of all the people in the world, learn to be loving people.

    2. It is that of all the people on the world, they should be a kindly people, who are acting not only for their best good, but for the best good of all other people.

1. PreachingNow [preachingnow@preaching.com]

2. Jeanette Thomason, "God uses imperfect vessels," OnMission.com, November-December 1999, onmission.com.

3. Pat Nordman, "The tongue," Walking Through the Darkness Web Site, Geocities.com Athens/Forum. Retrieved May 10, 2004.

4. The Progress of Nations, UNICEF, 1993

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