Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self- control. Against such things there is no law. John 2: 1-11 Message If you grew up in the 80s, you will remember this phrase: "Be kind. Rewind." It is now so dated that it would be hard for people in their 20s, maybe even 30s, to know, but every video rental store had this sign posted. You did not have to rewind the video that you watched. You did not get money back for doing it or charged extra for not doing it. The video shops tried to appeal to people's better nature with the phrase "Be Kind. Rewind." I saw a study on kindness a while back that studied stores that posted this simple sign where people could see it. In the study, when a sign was clearly posted, people were 20% more likely to rewind their tapes when they returned them compared to stores that did not post the sign thus saving the rental company time and money. There are always some jerks in the world, maybe more than just a few—people that sit in the handicapped seats on the train and then pretend that they are sleeping when an elderly person comes on. We can agree that they are jerks. But most people, I do not know if that is 70%, 80%, 90%, or even higher, want to be kind but need reminding. THIS IS YOUR REMINDER, CHURCH, BE KIND!!!! When Amazon ships something that has glass in it or other fragile items, they post clearly to handle with care. Sometimes we miss that message with each other. Play nicely with each other because we are fragile, too. Kindness is part of the Fruit of the Spirit because it is a characteristic of God. We think of God as MAJESTIC and POWERFUL, but we cannot miss God’s mercy and kindness, or we have a warped view of God as some angry rule enforcer that is out to get us. Psalm 23 describes God as…The Lord is my shepherd. I will always have everything I need. He gives me green pastures to lie in. God embodies the spirit of kindness just as he embodies love and goodness. Some see kindness as weakness. People, especially young men, fear being seen as weak and shun kindness, but there is no greater power in the universe than Yahweh, and yet Yahweh is kind. Kindness at its core is thinking of others. It is not the cake, but it is the icing on the cake that makes things look beautiful. Thinking of others does not get explicit mention in the Bible like words like love, joy, peace, patience, and goodness, but it is one of the bedrocks of any human community. Living with, interacting with, working with, going to church with people that are not kind gets really, really old really, really quick. I once worked at a school in Yokohama where the teachers just were not that kind to each other. They were smart and hardworking; I think they cared for their students, but they were not kind to each other. Maybe that was not in their job description, but it should be. It should be in all of our descriptions for life. That school paid well, but working there was a pain, so I finished out my year and left. There is a story of a man stranded on a desert island. It had been years when a passing ship saw him and rescued him. When the boat came ashore, the man said, “Thank God you came.” He asked, “Do you have a coke? I have been dying for a coke for years.” After getting him a coke, they saw three structures on the beach and asked him about them. He explained, “This first place is my home.” They said, “That is nice.” Then he mentioned the second structure, “This is where I worship God.” They responded, “That is nice.” Finally, someone asked about the other structure. He replied, “I do not talk about that place. That is where I used to go to church. They were never kind to me.” It is a joke, but people leave churches all the time. Sometimes they go to another place of worship, but often they just stop going to church. People leave for a variety of reasons. They don’t like the preacher, don’t like the music, but most leave because they do not feel like they belong and are not cared for because people are not kind to them. That is not on the pastor; that is a congregational issue. I was watching an efficiency consultant on YouTube who works with major companies and organizations to make them more efficient or to get more done in less time. Simply put, if you can get more done, then you can make more money. (That is not our goal, but being efficient isn’t a bad thing.) He has many different ideas on how to make organizations more effective, mostly regarding communication, but the one that surprised me was when he talked about being kind and affirming to each other. He said, “You can yell at a person and get them moving,” or in my case, get a student to study, “for a short time, but eventually you have to yell louder and louder until you can’t yell anymore.” He went on to say, “In the long run, anger doesn’t work it is inefficient”. What makes organizations more efficient is kindness, both in talent retention and in practically getting things done and done well. Just so you do not think I am getting new age on you it was our Lord who said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:12) while giving a summary of the law in the OT. My Bible has over 680 pages in the OT, and Jesus here gives it to us in a nutshell. We call it the Golden Rule. It is golden because it is so good. Jesus simply and profoundly says, “Do to others as you would like them to do for you.” I will say it again. “Do to others as you would like them to do for you.” Strangely, I have seen more TED Talks reference the Golden Rule than sermons on it. Actually, I can’t remember a sermon on it. Of course, we know Confucius's teaching says, “Don’t do to others what you DON’T want them to do to you.” And it is not bad, but the major difference is Jesus is calling us to act to action not inaction, where Confucius is instructing us to limit our negative actions. Jesus is talking about being a positive force instead of limiting your negativity (limiting your negativity isn’t a bad thing either). If you don’t like someone gossiping about you, don’t do it to others (Confucius). But Jesus, instead of not gossiping, is calling us to affirm or bless others. Instead of not hitting them or not tripping them, Jesus calls us to put an arm around them and care for them. Interesting about being kind and complimenting people. I have noticed more so recently that people give me a compliment followed by a "BUT" Three weeks ago, someone said to me, “I liked your sermon today (boy I was so happy), but you didn’t do ...”. Another person said to me, “Thank you for getting the church out on time for EKK, but...” Let’s be honest. The compliment did not count. I am (no one is) going to say to themselves, "Wow, I had a great sermon today after that comment with a BUT." Or "Wow, I really organized that well." No!!! The compliment or the act of kindness is not really a compliment but actually a set up for a complaint or attack. Actually, it is worse because the person starts feeling good just to get the rug pulled out from under them. That is not kindness, but we do it all the time. If you have a concern with me, just tell me the concern; we do not have to dress it up. As you have seen me over the last few weeks, I like to end with a story. Last week there was a story of patience and how our friend prayed without ceasing for her husband; two weeks ago, I told a story of Elijah in the cave, and three weeks ago, I talked about Bonhoffer. Today I would like to tell you about our Lord. Like I said, kindness is not a big thing; it is actually the small thing but small things that make the world worth living. As Jesus was starting his ministry, he was invited to a wedding. Jewish weddings are festive occasions with music, food, dancing, laughing, and drinking. It is not a one-day occasion but often lasts for a few days. Families would save up for these events just like we do today. A festive wedding was not a guarantee of a happy marriage, but in Jesus’ day, just like today, a wedding celebration that did not go well was seen as an omen of an unhappy marriage. We know that Jesus’ mother (Mary) was heavily involved in the wedding being either a relative or a friend of the bride/groom's mother, and she gets wind of the fact that the wedding party is running out of wine. And it was wine, not grape juice (I heard a sermon years ago where the preacher went on foolishly for about 15 minutes explaining that it could not be wine because wine was not allowed in his church). I digress. Mary comes to Jesus and tells him of the problem. “They have no more wine.” Not a big thing in the scope of all the problems in the world but she goes to Jesus anyway. Do you know that you can go to Jesus with the big issues and also the small ones? Jesus here replies to his mother (Remember who this woman is—this is MARY, St. Mary to you and me). Jesus says to her, “Dear woman, why do you want me to get involved” (You know who I am, and Mary does know.) He goes on to say, “My time is not yet come.” Despite this, Mary, knowing the incredible kindness of her son, tells the workers, “You do what he tells you to do.” We know that Jesus instructs the servants to fill up the big jars used for ceremonial washing, and after they did, he instructed them to take the wine to the master of ceremony who would taste everything before giving it to the guests. But from the time water went in, wine came out—not just ordinary wine but the most delicious wine he had ever drank. The master of ceremony did not even know where this wine came from, and obviously, the servants were told to keep it secret from him, and they did. Jesus practicing his teaching, “Do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing” is not only about offering but about acts of kindness too. “So your father in heaven who sees will bless you.” Jesus did not have to turn the water into wine. It might have made their special day less special if he stuck to his word in waiting for the right time, but our Lord did the kind thing. Will We? It was a miracle but not like making a blind man see or a leper clean. Still, our Lord’s first miracle was simply an act of blessing others with kindness. How can we follow our Lord’s example? Let’s pray.
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