Abide – Kindness
Welcome everyone to Abide.
This is our last Abide for the semester, so if you've been with me this whole time, thank you. It's such a privilege to study God's word and to study these virtues and open them up for us all. And so, I'm so thankful that we're actually ending with the virtue of kindness, which is so simple and yet so challenging, and I think some of the most kind individuals in my life, in my story, and in this chapter of my life, are the ones that you all are enjoying as well. So, the kindness of Sam who plays the guitar these past seasons, and Heather who's playing now, and Mackenzie who transcribes the words and Geoff who brings it all together. I would not be able to enter into this beautiful prayer time without the kindness of my friends, and so I'm so grateful.
And so I'm glad that we get to practice together, to get in our rooms and close our doors, to put our headphones on, whether we're in the bus, a train, the car, a walk, a bedroom, a cafeteria, that there's nowhere where God is not present and that we can stop wherever we are in our day, in our lives and just turn ourselves over to the presence of God.
And so just begin to get settled in your seat and where you are.
And we're gonna take three gentle in breaths and out together. And I want you to just consciously think about, through these breaths, just inhaling the presence of God, the kindness of God, and possibly just exhaling out anything that you're carrying right now, a burden, a responsibility, a challenge. Something that when you woke up this morning, it was like right in the front of your face like, don't forget, make sure you figure this out, or you need to worry about this more, you know? They seem to just wake you up like an alarm. So, we're going to practice calming our bodies and calming the interior dialogue through our breath.
So we're inhaling the kindness of Christ's presence and we're exhaling out just releasing those places of tension, those places of stress. And so let's do that together now. So let's inhale one, the kindness of God, and just release a burden now with the exhale. And again, inhale the kindness of Christ's presence, and exhale, another burden that's being held within and is heavy within. And again, inhale three and exhale out.
Beautiful. As we start to grow still in our bodies and in our minds, we're just reminded that we are in this season of Lent where we journey with Christ to the cross and how he, you know, in the words of the great philosopher, George Gurdjieff, he writes that “conscious labor and intentional suffering are essential in building who we are”. I just think about Jesus in his way to the cross, his conscious labor, laboring for us, consciously knowing exactly what he's doing and this intentional suffering that is taking place. Conscious labor, intentional suffering.
And so as we settle our bodies and enter into this space with Christ himself, look at the kind of quality of presence we are sitting in, the quality of loving kindness and intention for us. This is unspeakable.
And so Jesus, our desire in this time of prayer is to become more intentional in how we live our lives, more intentional in what we think about. Jesus, that we wouldn't just choose for what feels good and what is easy, but that we would be intentional in that a life following after you has suffering and work and effort and choice, moment by moment. And we know that you are the giver of these kind of qualities, and so we sit at your feet bowing in gratitude of you and the way you live and the way you love.
And the gratitude practice today will be where we are able to observe kindness in our lives. And if kindness is defined as the quality of being friendly, being generous, being considerate. Wondering if you're able to think about the past day or days and sense where God's kindness, his consideration of you, his generosity, his gentlemanly way, his motherly way, has come near to you. So let's just begin to create some space and time for the Spirit to remind us of those moments where this virtue has been delivered, hand-delivered, to each and every one of us.
Beautiful.
Out of the space of gratitude and in Christ's love, he is going to bring to us the scriptures, the word of God, and the truth of how he desires for us to live. And so we're going to be in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25. We'll focus in on verses 31 to 46. But before we get to verse 31, you'll notice the chapter starts out with the parable of the ten virgins, which talks about being ready and watchful and prepared for Christ’s coming, and then it moves into the parable of the bags of gold, or the talents, where Jesus talks about being given different amounts of gold or talent and how each one desires to steward that or spend that or hold back. And so, it's a teaching about how God gives generously and how he longs for us to use what he's given us freely and fully.
And then we move into the message that we will read today, which is the sheep and the goats. So hear these words, and I'll read the passage through two times to give us a sense of the words and the pace and the phrasing, and just allow yourself to imagine, allow your imagination to just see this story afresh.
Matthew 25:31-46:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
And then he'll say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, and I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
They also answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?”
And he will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
A second reading:
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
And then he'll say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, and I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”
They also answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison and did not help you?”
And he will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.
In this passage, we're getting a sense of what Jesus is most concerned about. What and how does he want us, how does he want us to live the days that he's given us? What should our priorities be? And I find it interesting what the priorities are. Does he come to us and say how many degrees did you get and what grades did you get on all of those papers? Did he check in to make sure that we got big jobs and succeeded, or that we had huge families and loads of friends? It seems as though his priority is how we are looking outward in caring for the vulnerable needs of those around us day in and day out. How fascinating.
So we read in verse 31 that “The Son of Man will come in his glory and all the angels with him, and he'll sit on his glorious throne.” All the nations are gonna be gathered, and then the king will say to his people, “Come you who are blessed by my Father and take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” And what is he looking for? He's looking for kindness. He's looking for this quality of being friendly and generous and considerate.
Karen Swallow Prior, who we've been journeying, or she has been journeying with us, she writes about kindness here and says “Kindness is unlike other virtues and that we know exactly what it is in most everyday situations, and yet our knowing what it is makes it easier to avoid. We are profoundly ambivalent about kindness in that we are never as kind as we want to be, but nothing outrageous us more than people being unkind to us.”
It's what's fascinating to think about this virtue of kindness and how Christ is seeking this overall, and we know it, but it seems to be very low on our priorities. We know when people are unkind to us, we're very frustrated, but are we aware of all the opportunities day in and day out where this kindness can be expressed?
And this virtue of kindness and cultivating it is why we're here, and to slow down and possibly begin to see the needs of others around us, and not just consumed by our own goals of the day. This reminds me a lot of the virtue of love that we studied weeks ago and spent time with the Good Samaritan.
Karen also writes: “Kind comes from the same root from which we get the word kin. To be kind then is to treat someone like they are family. To possess the virtue of kindness is to be in the habit of treating all people as if they were family.”
Wow. Treating all people as if they were family. Sometimes it's hard to treat our family with kindness, but how would we want to be treated is so important as we learn to cultivate this virtue.
It says in verse 35 and 36, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes, you clothed me, I was sick, and you looked after me.” So the people that Christ is noticing are the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the one who needs clothes, the one who needs help while being sick and the one that needs company while being in prison. I sense that these people that Jesus is describing are the vulnerable, they're weak, they're tender.
Karen continues to write: “Kindness is a way of knowing people beyond our understanding of them. It's the ability to bear the vulnerability of others and therefore oneself. Such knowing and being known comes only in the tedium of day-to-day life together.”
I love how she writes here that kindness is a way of knowing people beyond our understanding of them, so we don't necessarily need to understand our brothers and sisters, or even agree with our brothers and sisters, in order for this mandate and this command to go forth, to be kind and to extend the love of Christ. And it comes in these very vulnerable packages where the two can both be met, so the giver and the receiver both get that quality of generosity and love. There's a connection there.
And so how can we grow in this virtue as God's children? We know it's important, but how can we bring it home in our lives and know that this is what Jesus is going to be looking for when he comes again? And so, more so than focusing on the last verses for the ones who didn't see and notice, let's just focus on the ones who were just willing to help and give, and come beside and feed. Let's focus on that quality.
And so I'm gonna give us a moment just again, like the gratitude practice we did today, is to notice the kindness of God reaching to you. You might even want to notice kindness that happens around you. It might not be happening to you, but you notice people being kind to one another in the world. You've gotta look for it though, and slow down because most of the world is fighting for itself. But if you're quiet and you're still, and you look up from your phone once in a while, I promise you'll see exchanges of kindness. So just take a moment to slow down and maybe even draw to mind a kindness that you've experienced yourself but maybe have even seen in a stranger or at the store or as you're driving or within your family.
Who has brought you water? Who has visited you? Who has listened to you and cared for you?
It's really important to be nourished by these kindnesses that you see around you and the ones that are actually being delivered to you so that they would nourish you and allow you to taste and see that the Lord is good and kind, and that it's actualized in your being.
I also invite us just to notice how, in our days we have goals and plans and ideas of how the day will go, but it's often helpful to create space to just see outside of yourself and your own agenda. And often we move very fast through life, or we're very busy, and so it's extremely hard to be kind when you're moving fast and when you're busy. So if you desire to cultivate kindness, if I desire to cultivate kindness, we're going to need to slow down a little bit and maybe even create more space in a day to notice where these people around us that are thirsty and need a drink or those that are sick or those that are suffering, where are they? This will require slowing down, and maybe not filling your day up with so many desires to accomplish and succeed. Because as we know, what Jesus is looking for is for these kind of qualities to be cultivated in us, maybe not the goals that we seem to desire to accomplish. So where is your focus?
I'm reminded of that passage in Matthew 7 where the people say, “O Lord, didn't we do great things for you?” And Jesus says, “I don't really know you.” So we have to be careful of these great things, even if they're for God and where that action is coming from, and have we completely missed the point of these beautiful, simple, yet powerful acts of kindness that God is longing for us to deliver and receive?
And lastly, I just encourage us to be kind to ourselves. Many times, we're full of negativity inside about ourselves, about how we're doing in a day, and it's very negative. And so you might observe, am I being kind to myself in my words and in my gestures and in how I handle myself in a day? 'Cause if I'm not able to be kind to myself, how does this virtue come out of me into the world?
The scriptures in the Psalm 145:8 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, he's slow to anger, he's rich in love, he's good to all, and he has come compassion on all he has made.” And so as you go through the day with yourself, this could be a mantra for you, that the Lord is gracious and kind and compassionate, and that maybe can more mingle into possibly your dialogue with yourself that might not be so kind.
Take a moment now to allow the spirit of God to refresh you with his kindness.
Take a moment now to allow the spirit of God to refresh you, to slow down and to have possibly less goals so that you can see and become aware of where you might offer water, clothes, a listening ear, a kind word.
Jesus, thank you for sitting with us. Thank you for your kindness towards us. We apologize that we get caught up in doing and producing, and we lose the whole point of receiving your goodness, your compassion, your love, and then extending that out to all of those needs around us. And so, Lord, bring us back to what you're looking for in our day, reminding us that this is the work of the kingdom, those simple and small, powerful, mighty, in the full of your way, and may this be our way. We pray all of this in your name. Jesus, the ultimate man of virtue of kindness. We pray that we would continue to draw near to you throughout our moments and days to receive this beautiful virtue of kindness that you flow, and that you'll continue to cultivate it in us to be your hands and feet in this world. In your name we pray these things. Amen.
Go and peace, my friends, to be kind.
