Kindness - Part I - YouTube Snowmass Chapel

Sermon by Dr. Robert de Wetter Sunday, January 26, 2014 Snowmass Chapel Sermon Notes: Kindness -- Part 1 of 2 1. There is much that is right in our culture. Many people are wonderful. That said, we have a tremendous challenge with a lack of kindness in our society. 2. Lack of kindness has become a new acceptable norm. What is considered ok today would not have been the case yesterday. This cuts across multiple mediums of communication, settings, and relationships. 3. Lack of kindness and our Christian faith are not compatible. Kindness in thought, words, and deeds, is at the core of what it means to follow Jesus. 4. We are not called to point out lack of kindness in others. Rather, we are to invest the energy around this topic on our own kindness. 5. How dictionaries define kindness. "A friendly, generous, or warm-hearted nature. Charitable. Sympathetic. Understanding. Tolerant. Agreeable. Loving. Benevolent. Considerate. Gentle. Loving. Behaving in such a way that shows you care about other people and want to help them." 6. Kindness is not just about an action, but is something that runs deeper within a person. Kindness is about a character trait that cuts across circumstances, people, events, and time. It is a way of being that underlies our thoughts and actions. It colors who we are as people. 7. Although we are all in different places with regard to kindness, most people want to be kind or would like to be kinder in general. 8. Obstacles to kindness. A. Things that weigh on us, histories to overcome, or pains and hurts to heal from. B. Kindness can be hard if we are struggling with depression, low self-esteem, unhappiness, very real sources of stress, worry, or long-held grudges or resentments. 9. Biblical basis of kindness and how kindness is central to our faith. A. Adam and Eve. God's kindness in clothing them. B. Leviticus 19. C. Deuteronomy 24. i. Here God reminds the people of Israel and all of us, "remember that things are not always so easy for people in life. Remember the hard times you have gone through. Life is tough sometimes, so when things are ok for you, remember those who are having a rough time. Cut people some slack. You never know what another is enduring. Do something kind and help them out. Don't ever be insensitive." D. Story of Ruth and Boaz in book of Ruth. E. God sending ravens to care for Elijah. F. Chapter 4 of Jonah and God providing a tree with leaves to shade Jonah despite his anger. G. Luke 10. Story of the Good Samaritan. H. 1 Corinthians 13, definition of love which includes kindness. I. Galatians chapter 5 and the fruit of the spirit. 10. Kindness is not just something rooted in the Old and New Testaments, but has a history within Judaism, the foundation of our Christian faith. A. Tikkun Olam. Rooted in Jewish Mysticism. B. Rabbi Sachs writes, "The fact that you are I are here is no accident, in this time and in this place. It is not an accident that God has given us each the gifts and abilities we have." C. "We are here because someone wanted us to be and because there is a task that only we can fulfill. No two people, places, times and circumstances are the same. Where what I can do meets what needs to be done, there is God's challenge and our task." D. Sachs goes on to point out that when you change a life, you begin to change the world. Said another way. We mend the world through what may seem like small and local acts. Every action has the potential to mend a fracture of the world. E. Kindness changes lives, both the person acting and the one receiving. Kindness heals brokenness and puts things back to the way God created them. Kindness is extraordinarily powerful and impacts people and situations over the course of time in ways that may not immediately be seen. 11. Next week we will explore how we become kinder. Kind to ourselves and kind to others.

Kindness - Part I - YouTube
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