Random Acts of Kindness
Isaiah 58: 1-7 Matthew 5: 17-18; Matthew 5:43-48
Last night I watched a Daily News Egypt report showing volunteers cleaning the streets of Cairo behind the demonstrators protesting against police brutality under President Mubarak, and other volunteers providing medical care and food for the demonstrators. I saw people wanting to make a difference in a really positive way.
I also visited the Random Acts of Kindness website – encouraging people to do something today – just a small act of kindness – to make a difference to someone else. I can remember my kids doing this for a week with the church youth group that my friends Rick and Sarah used to run. Every day at least one act of kindness to someone they didn’t know.
There’s a story about a man walking the beach with his son, in the early morning after a stormy night. The high tide line was a mass of seaweed and flotsam thrown up by the storm, and everywhere among this seaweed lay thousands of small starfish. The boy picked one up, examined it and said to his father – “its alive!” And he turned and ran to the waters edge and threw the starfish into the waves. “I’ve got to help”, he shouted to his Dad. “But there’s thousands of them – how could you ever make any difference?” said his Dad. “I made a difference to that one”, he replied, and picking up another, he ran down and tossed it into the breakers – “and that one”.
Both today’s reading are about making a difference.
Isaiah describes God’s reaction to people who fast and pay religious observance, but who ignore the plight of the world around them – and particularly the people around them. God sees the religiosity of these people as hollow and empty. He wants them to loose the chains of injustice; to feed the hungry; clothe the naked.
Does that ring a bell? “For I was hungry and you fed me; I was naked and you clothed me; “ – These are Christ’s words in Matthew 25 – “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these my brothers, you did for me.”
Christ echoes the words of God written in Isaiah, so we should not be surprised. He too commented on the hollow emptiness of religious observance – this time his words are directed against the Pharisees.
But then we move on to our reading from Matthew’s gospel. I remember the Authorised Version here, saying not one “jot nor tittle” of the Law shall pass away. Jot or yot is the Greek letter iota – the smallest; or it might be the Hebrew or Aramaic letter yodh – just a little stroke. Tittle is a dot – like the top of the letter i. So not even the dot of an i nor the crossing of a t. All the Law, every last detail. ALL.
What does he mean? Do we have to be like the Pharisees, keeping up every last detail of the Law? Could we even remember it all? I looked it up – Jewish writers suggest there are six hundred and thirteen Mitzvot – rules – in the Torah. Six hundred and thirteen! I struggle to remember the ten that we call the commandments! I bet lots of you can remember them all, but I’m not absolutely sure I’d remember even these ten if I were put on the spot, and certainly not six hundred and thirteen.
If we go to Prayerbook communion services we might hear the ten commandments recited, or quite often we might hear Jesus’s summary of them read from Matthew 22. Here Jesus said the Law could be boiled down to just two things. I like a sermon with just two points – there’s a good chance I might remember at least one of them! Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves – a short list is much more easily remembered!
So what are these two things? Love God. Love your neighbour. And St Paul echoes this again in Galatians “The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’”.
What does he mean? When he says love the Lord your God, he clearly doesn’t mean lots of religious stuff – conspicuous fasting; loud self-important prayer; because these things are condemned in Isaiah and in the Gospels as hollow and empty. No, now is the time to remember Matthew 25 – “What you did for the least of these… you did for me” – Jesus wants us to do things for people.
Do you remember the little ‘Love is…’ cartoons. They were drawn by a New Zealand artist, Kim Casali – they were originally drawn for her husband-to-be in the 1960s, but she continued until she died in 1997. Each day a little drawing depicting how we make a difference to someone we love, and almost always by doing something.
God asks us to consider this for Him and for anyone – not just our beloved! In every situation he asks us to wonder what ‘Love is..’ and act upon it.
Mahatma Ghandi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world”, that is to say – if you want a kinder world – be kinder; a more generous world – be more generous; a more forgiving world – be more forgiving.
So here’s our challenge – every day a Random Act of Kindness.
Wherever we are. To someone God places before us in our daily lives. I’m sure He’ll provide the opportunities!
God asks us to walk along the beach of life, and to care about the people around us – to see the stranded starfish in their lives, and to care enough to put a few starfish back in the sea. We might feel it’s not enough to make a difference – but we can make a difference to this person, and that one… and in doing so, to Christ himself, who really does know what ‘Love is…’.
February 2011
