My Religion is Kindness
Matthew 9:9-13[1]
Even though most churches were full when I was growing up
in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I wouldn’t say it was a time when people were
particularly devoted to following Jesus. Because of that a lot of people were
jaded by the gap between the words people were saying in church and the lives
they were living outside the sanctuary. Without the “walk” to back it up, many
saw all the religious “talk” as just a lot of words that didn’t mean
much. Instead, a lot of the people I grew up with decided to find their
lives in slogans like “if it feels good, do it.” When I look at where some of
those people are today, I must confess I’m more than a little surprised. Some
of the people who “partied” the hardest back then have turned into some of the
most staunchly religious people today. But the irony is that they don’t seem to
be any more committed to actually following Jesus now than they were back in
the day. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that a whole new generation is turning
away from church. Or that a major factor in their leaving is because they believe
that the church is out of step with one of their most important values: treating
all people with kindness and respect.[2]
You’d think that would be something that Christian churches
would excel at. As our lesson from the Gospel of Matthew for today reminds us,
Jesus modeled a life of treating all people with kindness, compassion, and
dignity. Here Jesus demonstrates that fundamental orientation of his life by
calling “Matthew,” a man who was a tax collector. As I’ve mentioned before, tax
collectors in Jewish society were hated by the people in general and despised
by the religious leaders. In fact, the phrase, “tax collectors and sinners” in
that day was one that pretty much included everyone who was viewed as immoral,
dishonest, tainted, or in any way “undesirable.” And there Jesus was, calling
this man to be one of his hand-picked apprentices in carrying out the ministry
of the kingdom of God!
That created a dilemma for the “religious” people of his
day. On the one hand, his proclamation of God’s grace, of God’s kingdom of
peace and freedom, and of the realization of God’s promise to show them mercy
must have sounded like the best news they’d ever heard. It excited them
and inspired them. Kind of like us. But on the other hand, the fact that
he offered all that to the destitute, the undesirables, the down-and-out, and
the sinners alongside the “religious” people raised serious objections. They’d
been taught that God blesses those who obey and punishes those who disobey. Like
us they’d probably spent a lifetime of trying to live up to God’s
expectations. And Jesus told them that the reward they expected was going
to be handed to those who never even expended one iota of effort to gain
it! That offended them. Kind of like us!
That’s the backdrop for Jesus’ shocking statement, “Go and
learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” (Mt 9:13). Jesus didn’t
just pull that out of thin air. He was quoting Scripture. Specifically, Hosea
6:6. The irony is that he was talking to the Jewish religious leaders, who
spent all their time studying Scripture! But Jesus told them that in spite of
their efforts they had missed the point: putting the mercy they had received
from God into practice in the way they treated others—all others.
They would have known Hosea 6:6. They would have also known
that in the Hebrew Bible, the word translated “mercy” was a “loaded” word. It
referred to both God’s unfailing love and also the abiding commitment to love that
God’s love calls forth on the part of those who receive it. And they would have
known that Scripture defined that commitment in terms of loving God “with all
your heart” (Dt 6:5) and loving “your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Unfortunately,
they had convinced themselves that they only “had” to put that love into
practice with their Jewish neighbors. And in fact, they only had to put
that love into practice with some of their Jewish neighbors. But in the
Old Testament, “mercy” is the equivalent of “love.” It’s a fundamental life
orientation toward treating all people with kindness, compassion, and
dignity. In the Scripture passage from Hosea 6:6 that Jesus called on to answer
his critics for the fact that he extended kindness even to “tax collectors and
sinners,” “mercy” is the equivalent of “love.” The word in the Greek New
Testament that we’re used to hearing for that kind of approach to other people
is “agape.” It’s the love that Jesus showed for all of us by dying on
the cross!
All of this makes me wonder what it says about the church
in this day and time that a growing number of young people are leaving, and one
of the main reasons they give is the fact that they find the church to be lacking
in the one quality that Jesus said would demonstrate that we’re his disciples
(Jn 13:35). There’s so much division going on these days, so much disagreement,
so much conflict. People are going take different stands on social and
political issues, hopefully respectfully and with civility. But when it comes
to how we treat people, there is no “alternative” for those of us who
claim to follow Jesus. There is only one option: we who have received the
unconditional love God has shown by claiming us forever as his beloved children
are commanded by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to show that unconditional
love to everyone we meet.
Many of you may know that the Dalai Lama is famous for
saying “My religion is kindness.” He’s said it many times and in many places. I
have a lot of respect for the Dalai Lama, but I find it sad to think that many
young people in our day may be more familiar with the Dalai Lama’s devotion to
kindness than they are with Jesus’ devotion to kindness. If that’s the case,
I’m afraid we’re responsible. Jesus lived out the command to “love your
neighbor as yourself” by showing kindness, compassion, and respect for everyone
he encountered. His “religion” was kindness just as much as the Dalai Lama’s.
Perhaps more so. Not only in his words, but also by the way he treated people,
he offered God’s mercy to the destitute, the undesirables, the down-and-out,
and the sinners—as well as the “religious” people.
None of this is anything you haven’t heard before. None of
this is anything you haven’t heard from me before. But I think we have to go beyond
just talking about it. I think we have to take a hard look at ourselves to
figure what’s missing in our efforts to put our faith into practice. More than
that, there’s something to be said for living a life that’s consistent with what
we say we believe. At least as consistent as possible for flawed and fallible
human beings. That makes it possible for us to look ourselves in the mirror and
know that, at the end of the day, we’ve done our best. All of us who have lived
much of life are going to have some regrets. The reality is that we all fall
short. But when we can say with the Apostle Paul that our “conscience is clear”
before God (1 Cor 4:4), it frees us to move past our hurts and fears and the
petty and sometimes selfish ways of living our hurts and fears can bring out in
us. It frees us to love all our neighbors: our neighbors who don’t look like us,
think like us, love like us, speak like us, pray like us, or vote like us. It
frees us to make kindness our religion—not just as a slogan, but for real.
[1] © 2023 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 6/11/2023 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. “Exodus: Why Americans are Leaving Religion—and Why They’re Unlikely to
Come Back,” Public Religion Research Institute, 22 September 2016. Accessed at https://www.prri.org/research/prri-rns-poll-nones-atheist-leaving-religion/
.
