A CASE FOR KINDNESS

Our history as a local church is tied to healthcare. In healthcare, one of the four commonly acknowledged and accepted principles of ethics is nonmaleficence.  This means not harming, or inflicting the least harm possible to reach a beneficial outcome. Jesus’ call to proactive kindness is not to just not do what we wouldn’t want done to us, but it is proactive-DO for others what we wish for ourselves.  What do we wish for ourselves at the end of a hard day of work? Possibly a meal, a shower, a safe bed in which to rest? What would we wish for ourselves if we were without resources to care for ourselves or our child? What would we wish if facing oppression in the land of our origin? Caught in some form of economic slavery, what would we wish for ourselves? We have unending opportunities for proactive kindness. God’s kindness to us compels us to proactive kindness toward others.

Facing opposition, suffering persecution and unfair accusations, and being misrepresented is difficult. These experiences can cause you to react in kind or drive us deeper into God’s kingdom. Loving enemies and doing good to those who do us harm is incarnational loving and makes the world a kinder place. To creatively look for ways to redeem bad and let it usher in good puts us in good company with Jesus and the prophets.  God is able to make all things work for the good.

In a world where everything is changing so rapidly and where fortunes can be made or lost in a moment, we may feel compelled to defend and protect “my stuff,”  “my ideas,” “my wealth,” “my religion,” and “my tradition.” This doesn’t leave much space for peace. Imagine helping people collaborate instead of compete, cooperate instead of fight. Becoming a peacemaker enables us to see the validity of our place of peacemaking in God’s family. God has made peace with us and calls us to make peace with one another.

It’s interesting how easy it is to not care for people we don’t know and how hard it is to not care for those we know well. Jesus said “blessed are the merciful!” The best way for us to be merciful is for us to care, to really step into the shoes of another, to look out at the world from behind their eyes, and to hear and experience what they hear and experience.

“God blesses those who are poor . . . " This is a bold and counter-cultural thing for Jesus to say. It was hard to understand and believe in that day and maybe nearly impossible to grasp in our consumer-driven culture where acquiring possessions, power, and influence are so coveted. Jesus says people are blessed and privileged when they come to realize their own bankruptcy—their utter helplessness—and put their whole trust in God.