March 24, 2023
Palm / Passion Sunday
You can show kindness to them whenever you wish.
Friends,
Please be seated.
Some time ago, I fastened on a word that Preston has used a number of times in his preaching and which is a hallmark of our rector’s teaching and of this parish’s inreach and outreach. The word is “kindness”.
On Wednesday, Preston and I were kibitzing on the way to pick up coffee for some of our parish clergy who were gathering for conversation. In the toing and froing, Preston related an act of kindness shown to someone who’d knocked at the church door. And it struck me, there is just so much opportunity to show kindness in here, out there, all around us.
There is no particular word in the Greek New Testament, or in the Gospel of Mark, which will always yield “kindness” in translation. The bit rendered “kindness” in today’s gospel is not the same as in the list of fruits of the spirit in Galatians, for example: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness etc. Kindness is a concept in Greek, as I suppose it is in most any other language but it doesn’t only have a single word attached to it, as we think of it in English. Sometimes, one word, or a nest of words, can point to, or indicate, kindness.
In today’s Gospel, the things which link the good deed –the kind deed—the kindness, if you will, of the woman with the jar of perfume and the good deeds that the disciples could do for the poor, is the verb to do. The woman did something for Jesus, and the disciples could do something for the poor anytime they chose.
Kindness always implies action. It’s not about loving the poor; it’s about making them less poor. It’s not about loving Jesus; it’s about dumping the jar of perfume on his head. Kindness implies action. Kindness is practical. Neither blessing Jesus not blessing the poor cuts it. Dump the jar. Make the poor less poor.
Kindness is never abstract. Sure, kindness harbours shades of love, service, charity, compassion, mercy and honesty, and friendship –yes, friendship– and uprightness– and more. But you never really have to explain kindness to anyone. Its truth, in context, is clear. Its truth –whatever you did– is self-evident. To the donor. To the recipient. To the bystander. Anytime you have to holler “I’m trying to be kind!”, you
are likely being more trying than kind.
Or, unless of course, you’re one of the disciples and you want to crab about the thing that the woman has done for Jesus. (You remember crabby Jesus? When he was moaning to the man who came back to give thanks about those who didn’t?) Just in case it’s not clear, kindness never crabs. The disciples are unkind. Sometimes, I crab. Not often. But sometimes.
In Greek and, I would hold, in the mind of Jesus who likely did not speak Greek, kindness always implies honesty and compassion and often friendship and uprightness. In fact, the word in Galatians –“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness” that word implies moral excellence. Chrėstotės in Greek. It’s that strong (of) a word. She has done what she could. “And you can do it anytime, say Jesus.” Kindness.
Instead, the disciples will betray Jesus, deny Jesus, desert Jesus –all words used in abundance in the unfolding verses of the Passion of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Betray. Deny. Desert. It isn’t pretty. Now I want you to hear something: those words are all equal in valence. You are no more reprehensible whether you betray, deny or desert. You are no more un-loving. Un-friendly. Unkind. Judas, though he is held, elsewhere, to have committed suicide, is no worse a follower of Jesus than Peter, who is no worse that the rest of the disciples. No sin –among these sins– is more grave than any other. The penchant for some to rank sins (Traitor!) misses the mark.
In my view the central teaching of Jesus, in the Gospel of Mark, comes in chapter 12, just before Jesus begins to discuss the end of things, in Chapter 13, and Mark begins to describe the Passion of Jesus, in Chapter 14: “Love your God above all else and your neighbour as yourself.” Some versions of Mark end abruptly at the end of chapter 15 without 16, death without resurrection. But you could end it equally
abruptly here and still have a story to be told. Love your God and your neighbour and get on with life. And, I would say, by that Jesus meant you lead with kindness. They will know we are Christians by our kindness because kindness always implies action. You can feel, see, smell, touch, taste, kindness. Kindness is practical. Kindness leads by example. Kindness implies compassion, integrity, and sometimes friendship –or potential friendship– and even moral excellence.
So, why this text today? Why say anything about this stuff given all of the rest of St. Mark’s Passion. Well, the ethical teaching of the Christian community has been the stuff of Lent, but even more of Holy Week, and even more of the Great Three Days forever. Our ethical teaching sets the bar for the sin we confess and the life we strive to live in the resurrection. But you got to get there first. And it can feel like such a big “ask”, except that it’s not. Jesus … wasn’t asking the impossible. There are just so many opportunities to be kind, out there, and, in my experience, there is just so much kindness and potential kindness in here.
“Do justice. Love kindness. Walk humbly.” Remember that? The prophet Micah. Hebrew Scriptures. Last year’s lectionary. “You can show kindness whenever you wish.” Jesus. Greek Scriptures. In the hours before his death. Today. Palm and Passion Sunday.
How do we approach the death of Jesus with kindness? How do we live out the resurrection of Jesus with kindness? Those are central questions put to our shared life here at St. John’s. They are Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Vigil of Easter and Easter Sunday sorts of questions.
I am grateful to you for your kindness and companionship, for your friendship and uprightness on our journey together.
—
Silence
May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in God’s sight. And may the church say “Amen.” R/ Amen.
André Lavergne CWA (The Rev.)
Honourary Assistant,
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener