Sermons

"Born to Be Kind"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church

of Anchorage by The Reverend Mark E. Long

on October 25, 2009

Lections:  Jer. 9.23-24

                  Rm. 11.17-24, Eph. 4.25-5.2

                  Lk. 10.25-37

"Like a true nature's child, we were born, born to be wild."  So sings Steppenwolf, a Canadian band of the late 1960's.  A couple of years before a movie and song "Born Free" claim that there is an inalienable right for true nature's child, in this case a lion, to be born free to express its wild nature.  I don't think it is much of a stretch to suggest the movie and song mean something more than lions.

This music of the time reflects the cultural values of the period.  The last time I looked the values aren't so different now; the human urge to be free and wild is still a marketable value; we need to look no further than our own city's motto - "Anchorage:  Big Wild Life."  Let's face it; "Anchorage:  Small Mild Life" doesn't have the "pop" to attract the tourist dollars.

This may be the same reason why no one has written a song, "Born to Be Kind."  True, Weird Al Yankovic did write a song "Born to Be Mild" but only as a parody - a ditty of mockery - as though mildness is a condition to be avoided like the swine flu.  The kind and meek will get nothing more than dirt kicked in their faces.  The truth is out there, and it doesn't speak well of the kind and mild set.

Another song of the "boomer" era makes this universal point sadly.  This one is from "Hair:  The Musical," the winner of Best Revival at the Tony Awards this year, a testament to its enduring appeal.  "Hair" is the story of a group of counter-cultural kids in the late 60's called the Tribe and one of them, Sheila, sings that for humans it appears to be "Easy to Be Hard." 

"How can people be so heartless;

How can people be so cruel?

Easy to be hard.

Easy to be cold.

How can people have no feelings;

How can they ignore their friends?

Easy to be proud.

Easy to say no,"

To this point it is easy to dismiss this as a radical critique of the establishment but then who it is "easy" for strikes a wider target -

"Especially people who care about strangers;

Who care about evil and social injustice.

Do you only care about the bleeding crowd?

How about a needing friend?

I need a friend."

The message was (is) don't get comfortable liberals; the discerning eye is on you as well - and Sheila's eye is trained and finger pointed even at her own home.  Her own family - the Tribe - doesn't escape her questions.

Born to be kind?  Doesn't seem likely to Sheila, more born to be "heartless," "cruel," "hard," "cold," "proud," and easier to say "no" to someone in need than yes.  This is the world that Sheila sees reflected in the faces and actions around her; this is her world.  Is it our world?  It is still par for this course that no one has written in popular culture a song "born to be kind or mild" other than as a parody.

Is 'kindness' as one of Paul's nine angles of perception of God a hopeful thought but one out of step with the way things really are, the way we really are?  Is it easier to be heartless, cruel, hard, cold, proud, and easier to say no than yes to others, than it is to be kind, or God forbid, mild?  Are we foolish to hope for more than random acts of kindness for some while not for others?  Is Sheila right?

Depends - for some yes, for others no.  Am I waffling?  Not at all, I am just recognizing a spiritual principle.  We manifest or express into our lives the values that we cultivate.  This is what it truly means when Jesus says that we will receive that for which we ask.

Jesus said it but wise men of other cultures recognize it as well.  Take a Native American story shared with me recently.  It goes something like this.  An old Cherokee is talking to his grandson about the battle that goes on inside people.[1]  "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.  One is evil; the other is good.  The young boy thought for a moment then says, "Which wolf wins?"  The old Cherokee says, "The one you feed."  We become what we feed or, to put another way, we express outwardly the values that we cultivate. 

It all begins with the God that we don't know.  This god, Jeremiah explains, is the only thing worth knowing about - forget feeling important for what else we might know; or status or firepower, or our money.  These are distractions from what our lives should be about.  You want something to take home with you - all right, here it is straight from one of the Lord's most faithful prophets - get to know as well as possible this god that delights in "steadfast love (kindness)[2], justice, and righteousness."  How do you get to know this God?  Live into the values that God values.  This is all that needs to be done, but it must be done to follow this god.

This God we worship does not play "intellectual gotcha" with us, believe this or else, that is the invention of misguided human ingenuity.  This God we worship is a god of action - always has been (read the Bible).  This God we worship acts through the things in which the Lord delights as we do them - our acts of kindness are more than they appear to be.  Our kindness is one type of action which brings awareness of the Lord not only onto the surface of our world but also keeps us connected through the Spirit.

Paul in our passage this morning from his letter to the Romans says a couple of really important things.  First, he tells the Gentiles don't get cocky as the "new" people of God.  "Remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you."  Then a bit later Paul warns, there will be "God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in [the Lord's] kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off."  Fair warning to us all - we are connected to God through the Spirit that empowers our actions, if we sever the connection we are effectively cut off by our own will.  God has not done it to us; we have done it to ourselves.  The wages of sin is we are on our own, left to our own devices and deceptions.

Most of us hope to avoid this fate.  It serves us to know what sort of kindness the Lord requires.  Simple and hard - imitate the charity of the root and the Spirit will make it happen in the places of our lives.

What are those places?  Charity begins at home with the spiritual family - our comparable Tribe.  Paul tells the Ephesians, you can disagree, absolutely, let it out but be careful what comes out.  Remember to say only "what is useful for building up," what can be said in kindness.  There is no place for bitterness, wrath, anger, slander, or malice of any kind among you . . . be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another;" in other words, be like the root.

Charity begins at home but needs to move outside into the larger community to fulfill our mission.  You think it's tough to follow in here wait until you try to take your commitment to the root out there.

Luke tells how hard it is.  His gospel story this morning is our story.  At times we have been the haughty ones who walk by on the other side of the road from the one not like us.  At times we have been the fearful who didn't want to get involved.  At times we have looked down grimaced and walked on.  At times we have looked down shrugged and walked on.

It is easiest when it is not in our face, say on our television or internet picture, but we have looked fully in the face of need and still fulfilled callously Sheila's expectation.  We have found it easier to be hurtful, cruel, hard, cold, proud, or just say no than say yes rather than be kind.  Luke's story reminds us of too many of our times, and when it is we cut just a bit deeper into the branch that binds us to the root of the god we at other moments claim to worship.  We work against our best interest but it doesn't have to be that way - our actions have just as much power to bring us closer to God as farther away.

I don't know; Sheila may be right about the world and always will be.  It may always be easier to be what Sheila says than kind.  But it doesn't have to be that way for any one of us.  Within each of us there is the root to show the world that it is easier to be kind than not.  We are born to be kind but what we will be depends on what we feed.  It begins with one, from there who knows.  The Samaritan's story certainly has made a difference - will yours - well who knows?

This is how I see it hoping enough will in time prove Sheila wrong and change the world as they do. Amen.