SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2025 - "KINDNESS"
March 30, 2025
Deborah Laforet
“Kindness”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
A very popular phrase during the pandemic, penned by Dr. Bonnie Henry, a physician in
British Columbia, was, “Be Kind; Be Calm, Be Safe.” Most of the time, I forget the second
phrase, and remember only, “Be Kind; Be Safe.” Being safe felt like the natural cautionary
phrase to use during a world-wide pandemic. Wear your mask. Isolate. Wash your hands, and
cough and sneeze into your sleeve. It was about keeping you and your loved ones safe from this
dangerous and sometimes deadly virus.
Being kind though was almost just as important as being safe. Most of us were isolated
but when we encountered people, we just never knew what was happening in their lives. They
might be frontline workers, putting their lives at risk every time they went to work, and many
were facing multiple crises a day. They might be caring for loved ones who were sick, or
grieving those who had died. They may have had critical surgeries postponed, or were navigate
the health care system while afraid of contracting the virus. They may have been struggling with
their own mental health or physical safety because of being isolated in their homes. There was
just so much with which people were dealing that being kind to each other was critical. Your
words or actions could either make someone’s day worse or could give them a boost to help them
get through the day.
We are taught from the time we are young to be kind or to be nice to people. We are told
to think about how the other might feel or what might it be like to walk in another person’s
shoes. We are taught to share. We are taught to be polite, which, in some ways, can be acts of
kindness: expressing appreciation, opening a door for someone, carrying a heavy bag, etc.
Kindness seems to be one of those values we find important, from two years of age to ninety two
years old.
According to the Oxford dictionary, kindness is the ‘quality of being friendly, generous,
and considerate.’ Friendly is a big word to unpack and can sometimes can have little to no
meaning. Generosity is actually the word on which we are focusing next week. So, let’s look at
that third word - considerate.
To be considerate is to consider another person. Being kind is about expressing a word or
an action that will make the other person or people feel good or feel better. Kindness is more
difficult to express when one is feeling hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. I learned this acronym
this week - HALT. All these fruits of the spirit - patience, faithfulness, gentleness, kindness,
generosity, and self control are all more difficult to express when one is Hungry, Angry, Lonely,
or Tired. H-A-L-T spells halt. Coming to a halt or a stop, when you are feeling these things, is
probably the best way to stop yourself from being rude, petulant, unkind, impatient, and even
mean, but the extra step of being patient, gentle, and kind is sometimes unfathomable, and is
sometimes a lot more difficult than we might think. “Be kind,” is easy to say but not always
easy to do, and is sometimes easier or more challenging with certain people.
Our story this morning is a good example. Our story of Zacchaeus is often dramatized or
put to music for children because of the picture it paints. You have this man, short in stature,
who knows Jesus is coming to town and wants to see him, but there are so many people
surrounding Jesus that this seems to be an impossibility. The story tells us that Zacchaeus
decides to climb a tree.
I want you to consider though whether it was just his short stature that would have
prevented him seeing Jesus that day. I wonder if, in trying to push his way through everyone to
see Jesus, the crowd would have turned against him and pushed back. Maybe Zacchaeus was not
popular among the people and possibly even resented and hated. Maybe going up a tree to see
Jesus was also a means of safety for Zacchaeus.
Because, you see, Zacchaeus was a tax collector. We all know that tax collectors aren’t
always viewed positively. I’ll show you a modern today example.
Veggie Tales was an animated program for children, teaching bible stories and Christian
values, mostly aimed at children but often with a wink to the adults. The program consists of
animated vegetable and the occassional fruit. In a particular show, aired at Christmas time, Larry
the Cucumber is excitedly waiting for Santa to arrive and is singing about the yummy cookies he
has for him. Suddenly there is a knock at the door. It’s a bank robber. Larry tells the bank
robber that he is not a bank and that he doesn’t have any money to be stolen but he is willing to
share his cookies. And the bank robber is invited in. There is a second knock and this time it's a
viking. Larry tells the viking that he has no land to be stolen but he has cookies to share, and the
viking is invited in. The third knock...well, I’ll show you (Show Video)
People are not friendly to tax collectors, and not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector, but
people believed he swindled them of their money and lined his own pockets. Zacchaeus says, “If
I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” If. It could be that
people hated tax collectors so much that they assumed that Zacchaeus was maleficent and stole
their money for his own gain, but it's also possible he was only doing his job.
When Jesus looks up into the tree and says, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must
stay at your house today,” we read that the crowd was not happy about this and grumbled. They
wondered why Jesus would be a guest at the home of this sinner. And they didn’t just grumble
under their breath. In fact, maybe they were hoping Jesus would hear them. Maybe they were
hoping Jesus would be alerted to the sinfulness of this tax collector and change his mind. Instead
though, Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of
Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
“He, too, is a son of Abraham.” No matter what Zacchaues has done, no matter what
others believe him to be, he is a child of God. Saying he is a son of Abraham, is like telling this
crowd of Jewish people that Zacchaeus is also Jewish and has a right to salvation like everyone
else. He also says that the Son of Man, a term often used to describe Jesus, came to seek out and
to save the lost. He doesn’t say to save the sinner, although he does in other instances. In this
instance with Zacchaeus, he talks about seeking out and saving the lost.
Zacchaeus, as a Jewish tax collector, in an occupied territory, hired by Rome to collect
taxes from other Jews, was ostracized and cast aside and tolerated. Jesus decided to show some
kindness to Zacchaeus, kindness that was rarely expressed to Zacchaeus by his neighbours, by
his people. He is so changed by this act of kindness of Jesus, that he decides to give half of his
possessions to others in need of that kindness.
Little acts of kindness can have profound effects. Sometimes they take an effort from us,
because we have to move beyond our own needs to meet the needs of another, but also because
often those who need the most kindness are sometimes the ones we feel most challenged to offer
those kindnesses. The fact is that we are rarely aware of all that is happening in a person’s life,
not just during a pandemic or other crisis. We are all dealing and managing multiple stresses in
our lives. Sometimes the kindness of a friend or a stranger can be that one burst of light in our
day, the one bit of hope that gives us strength to make it to the next day. Not one of us is going
to save the world through our actions, but if all of us choose kindness, if all of us offer little acts
of kindness every day, we might come that much closer to creating a world where people feel
safe, strong, valued, and able to offer their own acts of kindness. These can be the building
blocks for a world of peace and justice - God’s kingdom on earth. May it be so. Amen.
Luke 18:15-17
(Introduce yourself. - Do not move or tap microphone.)
Last week, we heard Jesus admonish his disciples for not letting the children come
to him, saying that the kingdom of God belongs to children. Today, it’s not just the
disciples but the crowd surrounding Jesus, complaining that he is going to be the
guest of a sinner. As we view this scripture passage through the lens of ‘kindness,’
let’s see how Jesus responds. I am reading from the 19th chapter of the gospel of
Luke, verses one to ten.
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named
Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who
Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in
stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was
going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to
him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So
he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to
grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”
8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord,
I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back
four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this
house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek
out and to save the lost.”
May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture.