Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen
Some years ago a woman by the name of Anne Herbert - a writer who lives in California accidentally started a movement called 'practising random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty."
She came up with the phrase while doodling on a restaurant placemat in Sausalito one day. A man sitting nearby thought it was wonderful and copied it on his own placemat.
And suddenly people all over were copying the phrase down and doing what it suggests.
The objective of those who subscribe to this movement is quite simply to do kind things for other people for absolutely no reason at all other than the fact that they want to make the world a better place.
Those who commit random acts of kindness do things like
- pay the toll for their own car at a toll gate - and the toll for the
next six cars behind them.
- or take a beautiful plant into the a police station to brighten the
environment
- or let the person in the grocery line behind you go before you.
- or smile at a harried clerk in an office,
- or complement a stranger on a bus on how good they look.
According to Anne Herbert some of the things that have been down by those who have caught the spirit of practicing random acts of kinds and senseless acts of beauty include:
- shovelling the snow from a neighbours walk when no one is looking
- leaving a generous tip for a waiter who has provided poor service
- planting daffodils along a highway
- writing an old school teacher to let her know what a difference she made to
her students
- and going out and scrubbing graffiti off park benches.
"Here's the idea", Herbert says, "Anything you think there should be more of, do it randomly. Kindness can build on itself as much as violence can."
I like it - I like it a lot - and if I find one of the bumper stickers that are available - I'm going to buy it and past it on my bumper.
I figure it will encourage others and help hold my car together at the same time.
Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.
In a sense that is what our Christian faith is about - its about doing acts of kindness, and committing acts of beauty, and doing so without regard to the merits of those for whom we do those deeds, without regard to question of whether or not anyone has deserved or earned our affection, time, or our care.
When the disciples were gathered in the upper room after the death and resurrection of Jesus he appeared among them - and said to them: "Peace be with you - As the Father has sent me, so I send you" - and then he breathed on them and said "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
As followers of Christ and heirs of the apostles, we have been given a commission, we have been given a power, and we have been given an authority: the commission to go out as Jesus went out, to do good to others without judgement or criticism: the power to act with confidence and strength knowing that God stands behind us; and the authority and the privilege to actually make a difference in the lives of others, a difference that counts - now - and forever.
When you look at the first Christian Community - as our reading from the book of Acts looked at that community - you quickly see the results of that commission, that power, and that authority being taken seriously. You see the results of the resurrection being taken seriously.
You see a community in which there is no want or need that is not met
- a community in which people are full of joy and hope
- a community in which people share with one another and give praise
to God for his love and his goodness.
- a community in which people are able to testify to God with great
power and to bring others into the blessedness which they know
- a community in which the people are of one mind and of one heart.
You see a community -a fellowship - that is full of God's blessings, because it is full of God' Spirit - because it is full of faith in Christ Jesus and in his resurrection.
As the Apostle John puts it many years later "If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin."
Practising kindness, forgiveness, and love is what walking in the light is all about.
And it has a wonderful effect. It brings us into fellowship with each other and makes us whole.
Ralph Waldo Emerson - the famous American philosopher and poet wrote: "It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself."
Anne Herbert says kindness can build on itself as much as violence can.
Eric Hellman, an environmental and communications consultant in Toronto who seeks to practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of love says, "It's what all the world religions are about. We need to help each other if we want to make our society work. It's important to raise each other up instead of putting each other down."
All these things are true - yet there is even more to our acts of kindness, our acts of forgiveness, our acts of love than John, or Ralph, or Anne, or Eric have so far suggested.
As I said earlier - we have been commissioned to these acts, we have been given power to do them, and the authority to make them stick - or not stick - if that is what we will.
Mother Teresa once said this about her work in the streets of Calcutta:
Non-Christians and Christians both do social work, but non-Christians do it for something, while we do it for someone. This accounts for the respect, the love and devotion - because we do it for God. That is why we try to do it as beautifully as possible.
We are in continual contact with Christ in his work, just as we are in contact with him during Sunday worship services and in the blessed sacrament. There, Jesus has the appearance of bread. But in the world of misery, in the torn bodies, in the children, it is the same Christ that we see, that we touch."
The first Christian Community was so dynamic - so loving - so sharing - so united - because it lived wholeheartedly for the Risen Christ.
The first believers knew with every fibre of their being that God's love conquered all - even death itself - and they were eager to share that love with others - that they might know the blessedness of life as God meant it to be.
They practised random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty - as an act of devotion to God, and as a natural response to what God had already done for them.
And thus in a sense - the acts of kindness and beauty that they committed were no longer random or senseless - they had a purpose - a holy purpose - the purpose of not only bringing people closer to each other and making a better society - but the purpose of bringing people into a healing and cleansing relationship with God - a relationship in which both our joy - and theirs are complete:
We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us - we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that your joy may be complete."
My brothers and sisters - the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a victory over sin and death that is meant for all people.
And we give people a taste of what that victory is like when we take up the power and the authority that Christ has given us and go forth - as Christ went forth - to do good, to teach and to heal, to forgive and to raise up, to bless and to play; to feed and to liberate, and to bring the beauty of God and his trustworthiness to the minds of others.
And our acts of kindness and forgiveness should be random and our acts of love and beauty should be senseless - in the sense that they should be dispensed generously and without regard to whether or not those around us deserve them - that is after all how God dispenses his love and forgiveness to us.
But I tell you this - our acts of kindness, and forgiveness, and love, and beauty should never be random or senseless in their motivation.
They should all be done because we love God, and because God loves us.
And I tell you this too - when they are done out of love for God, and in the power of God and of our commitment to him, the results of our acts of kindness and beauty are far from random and senseless, they produce fruit for the kingdom of God, win converts to his ways, and the blessing of forgiveness, fellowship, and eternal life for all.
LET US PRAY
Lord God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, and in the confidence of Christ's resurrection, help us go forth to practice acts of kindness and beauty, to help one another in your name, and to gather before you a fellowship of love. Amen.
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