Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness

Today we celebrate communion together. We’ll hear these words: Do this in remembrance of me. This remembrance will take place in two directions. We’ll take a look back and remember the gift of Jesus’ life and teachings of long ago. We’ll also take a deep look at our heart right now, in this moment of our life, to see how the living Christ helps to re-member us, to piece our torn lives back together with healing and love. Whether we look at Jesus as a historical figure or Christ as a living Presence, we can’t help but see a deep kindness that reorients us.

We just heard that Jesus does not call us slaves but friends. What does this friendship look like? For sure, it’s a peculiar kind of kindness. Jesus says, “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. But remember the root command: Love one another” (John 15:16-17 The Message). So, the friendship we have with Jesus is filled with a kindness that is on Jesus’ terms and at Jesus’ initiative. And Jesus wants us to know the terms. Here they are: Whatever is fruitful, Jesus will help us bear. But we must remember the root: Love one another.

Today, on Communion Sunday, we’re reminded to do this in remembrance of Jesus. Do what, exactly? Live a kind life that is fruitful and loving. We’ve been looking at the Fruit of the Spirit lately, so we have a fresh sense of what it means to be fruitful. It means, according to Paul, to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. This list can be overwhelming, except when we see that each fruit is but one aspect of what it means to love one another. Our life in Christ is so vast, so deep and wide. We are set utterly free to love, and to love in all these myriad ways! Our life in Christ is loving kindness.

What does it mean to do kindness in remembrance of Jesus?  To be kind means to be beneficent, to benefit others. To be unkind means to inflict pain on others. I have three quick observations to make about kindness.

1.  Kindness is a choice we make over and over. Just as Jesus chose us, we must choose to be kind. We must choose our orientation toward others and ourself, our climate. If our climate is kind, we are more apt to be joyful and relaxed. Without a bone to pick, we’re all a lot lighter.

2.  Kindness is deep, much deeper than merely being polite. It’s multifaceted. If we’re only kind to ourselves, that’s escapism. If we’re only kind to our opponents, that’s self-loathing. And if we are only kind to others, that’s ineffective. Kindness, then, involves a concerted approach. We seek to be a trusted and dear friend to ourselves, to allow Jesus’ love, instead of self-contempt, to be our very root. Richard Rohr says it this way, “Pain that is not transformed is transferred.” If we are filled with self-hatred we will be hateful to others. Jesus invites us to embrace self-kindness. We also want to be a trusted and kind friend to others. Without this, we’re running away from life itself. Kind people veer toward others in their need. Finally, we want to be a kind friend to our enemies. We all have ‘em. Jesus was the kindest dude around, and he had enemies. He called us to forgive them, love them, be kind to them. Jesus sets the terms, not us. Jesus.

3. Remember, kindness is a choice that Jesus makes first. Jesus chose us while we were yet unkind. Jesus did not wait for us to be kind before he befriended us. And Christ chooses to be ever-kind to us, especially when we are wayward and unkind to ourselves, others, or our enemies. Christ’s choice sets a new climate from which we can make our own kinder choices. Really, any friend of Christ has been set free from the chains of unkindness, whether our own or the unkind chains of others. We call this the grace space of transformation.

So, those are a few of the contours of the landscape we know as kindness. It’s our land to trek, big, beckoning, and simple. The great writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley once wrote: “It’s a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all my life and find at the end that I have no more to offer by way of advice than this: Try to be a little kinder.”

As we celebrate communion, may we celebrate the fruit of kindness. Let’s do this in remembrance of Jesus. Help us, Christ, to remember the root that gives life to this fruit in our lives: to love one another.  Help us try to be a little kinder. Amen.