Sweeter than Honey: The Fruit of Human Kindness

Call me crazy, but sometimes I think civility is a little bit lacking in our modern discourse.

It's a shocking assessment, I know (*she says sarcastically*), but in my experience over the last couple of years folks seem to spend a lot more time hollering at each other than caring about each other. We even spend time hollering at each other about how to care about each other! We fight about what kindness should look like, whether or not our kindness is doing more harm than good, whose job it should be. It's as though we have developed an outrage habit that opens our mouths and shuts off our ears and our brains and our hearts, and we have all become boxers just waiting in our corners for Pavlov to ring the bell so that we can come out swinging.

And then...Monday or Thursday rolls around, and we all gather and cook and clean and eat and talk, to feed and be fed.

And 500+ people line up down the block at Oats Park, where churches and community groups stand in the hot sun and give away free school supplies to preschoolers through high schoolers with heart-deep smiles on our faces, easing the burden of parents and grandparents and foster parents. And when we run out, we talk about how we can do it even better next year.

And a member of our church family has a crisis, and a bunch of prayer warriors gather spontaneously to pray over her.

And people we love pass from this life into the next one, and the first thing we think of is how best to love and comfort those they have left behind.

And we are reminded what really matters.

Cory Booker is a US Senator from New Jersey. I know nothing about his politics (please see opening paragraph, above), but I ran across something powerful he once said that has always stuck with me.

Before you speak to me about your religion, show it to me in how you treat other people.
Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how you love all of his children.
Before you preach to me about your passion for your faith, teach me about it through your compassion for your neighbors.
In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell and sell as in how you choose to live and give.

Tomorrow morning in worship, we will remember together what really matters. As we continue to prepare for and care for, cultivate and taste the honey-sweet fruits of the spirit, we will think about kindness and its place in our life and in our faith. You might like to take a look at Luke 10:25-37, and Micah 6:6-8 as you prepare your hearts for worship.

See you in the morning, beloved.

In His grip,
Pastor Dawn