BEARING FRUIT - PART 7 - "SPREAD KINDNESS"

(This sermon was preached at Epworth Chapel, Baltimore on 12/2/12 and is the seventh in a 10-part series on the the fruit of the Spirit.)

“… the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23)

The image for me this week was striking, amazing and awesome. Moving it was. Here was a young New York City police officer kneeling down in front of a homeless man in Times Square. On first view, it might appear that the NYPD officer might have been there to encourage the homeless man to get up from where he had obviously parked himself for the night, and move on to someplace where he would be less visibly homeless.

But this was not the case at all. The young police officer was there out of concern for the homeless man – concern that the man had no shoes on his feet as he lay in the freezing New York night. And so the policeman went and found a shoe store, and out of his compassion and kindness, he bought the homeless man a new pair of shoes to wear.

The image of the officer’s act of kindness went viral on the Internet this week, and people all over the nation and the world are talking about this officer’s kind gesture – his errand of goodwill. Maybe it’s not so surprising that people have become so fixated with this story, given the images that are often conjured when we think about police officers and their treatment of so-called street people.

Indeed, we hear in the news of far too many stories of racial profiling and police brutality. The images of Rodney King being beaten in Los Angeles (1991) and Amadou Diallo (1999) being subjected to police brutality in this very same New York City are etched in our collective conscious. But this young New York City police officer, on this one cold night, demonstrated none of this.

And then maybe, there’s such a fixation with this image of the police officer and the shoeless, homeless man because it causes so many of us to pause, and think about what we would do if we encountered such a shoeless man on the street. Would we stop to buy him a pair of shoes, or would we pass him by, and go on our way? In Baltimore, there are over 4000 homeless people, and over 500 are children. What would we do if we encountered one of them? It causes us to pause and wonder doesn’t it?

The apostle Paul writes to the Galatian church and says that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Notice here that the fifth fruit, mark, indication that we are Christian is that we are kind. One of the fruit of the Spirit is kindness.

Here Paul seems to make a distinction between performing an act of kindness, and being kind. It seems that Paul’s ultimate concern here is that Christians would be kind, and that as an outgrowth of our being kind, we would engage in acts of kindness with those who we know and even those we might not know. In other words, if we are walking in the Spirit, we are walking in kindness.

And we are reminded that the antithesis of kindness is being mean and acting in mean-spirited ways toward others. I’m reminded of the Whoopi Goldberg movie from a few years ago, “Kingdom Come,” where one of the characters, Bud Slocumb died. On his headstone, the family had placed three words that described the way that Bud had lived his life as a husband and father, “Mean and Surly.” Many people – even some Christians – live their lives like Bud Slocomb – “mean and surly.” They don’t have a kind thing to say about anybody, and can’t do a kind thing for anybody.

And so it is that Paul also wrote to the church at Corinth about how we are to conduct ourselves in kindness as Christians – even in the midst of hardships:

“ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses… in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love.” (2 Cor.6:1-6)

When we walk in the Spirit, we are going to be kind and act with kindness in all circumstances.

A few years ago, one of the bumper-stickers that captured my attention and imagination was one that shared the encouraging words that we are to engage in practicing random acts of kindness.

And so what do random acts of kindness look like for you and me?
• At Epworth Chapel, random acts of kindness look like our kind acts of sending over $2700 last month to the victims of Superstorm Sandy in the aftermath of the devastation experienced by our sisters and brothers in the mid-Atlantic.
• Random acts of kindness look like some of our members who went to Manna House in east Baltimore on yesterday to serve the homeless and the hungry.
• Random acts of kindness indeed looks like the young New York City police officer who bought an unknown, unnamed homeless man a pair of shoes.

And so then what is the true essence of the kindness that Paul writes of here in his letters to the Galatian and Corinthian churches?

Our kindness is rooted first and foremost in God’s kindness toward us. John says that, “God so loved the world that God sent his only begotten son so that we who believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life.” God has been kind toward us. And Paul wrote to remind the Roman church that “God demonstrated God’s love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you and me.” God has been kind toward us (despite us).

And furthermore, the essence of the kindness that Paul speaks of is evident in that God has not been kind to us just to be kind to us, or just for us to hold on to the kindness that we’ve received. The psalmist spoke to this matter when he wrote to God in a prayer, “Lord because your loving-kindness is better than life, yet will I praise you.”

So the response that we are to have to the kindness of God is first and foremost that we are to praise God. “Lord, because your loving-kindness is better than life, yet will I praise you.”

And then we are to spread the kindness of God out to others. God has not been kind to us just to be kind, but in order that we might be kind to somebody else. We’ve been blessed with kindness in order that we might spread kindness.

Just as we are to spread the other fruit – we are to spread love… spread joy… spread peace… and spread generosity… we are to spread kindness. Spread kindness!

O that we would spread kindness. O that our kindness would become a contagion so much so that people will know that we are Christians by our kindness.