Lenten Soup Supper Meditation 5

Lenten Soup Supper Meditation 5

April 2, 2020

CALL TO WORSHIP

          As a community of God, we gather to claim the power

          of God’s love in our lives.

                   We come to witness to the healing touch of God’s lovingkindness

                   as we stand together in worship and praise.

          Even as we receive, we are called to give.

                   We respond to God’s call. We are God’s instruments in the world.

          Where will our actions make a difference?

Our acts of lovingkindness will touch and heal in small ways and large. All God’s children need the kindness we can share.

         

HYMN:      “Lord, Listen to Your Children Praying”  

                                  

PRAYER

Holy God, your love unites all of us who live on this planet. We are truly brothers and sisters, created in your image. Let your love flow through us so that our full hearts reach out to others in lovingkindness. Guide us to find and enter into actions that will help relieve the burdens of those whose hearts are hurting. Amen

1^st SCRIPTURE:            1 Corinthians 13:4-8

         

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

2^ND SCRIPTURE:          1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.

MEDITATION:    “Love Is Kind”

          This is the final Soup Supper Devotional for this year. We started with Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s premise of our having been created in the image of God and being the incarnate Name of God, but not yet being the likeness of God. Being in the likeness of God, according to Shapiro, means that we have the potential to live in a godly way. What is God’s way? God’s way is love. Let’s begin with a writing by Kelli M. Wheeler, taken from The Way of Kindness: Readings for a Graceful Life:

          Is anybody else a little worried about humanity right now? The senseless acts of hatred? The violent deaths of so many innocents? The depravity in the name of God?

            Anyone else feeling helpless and impotent in the face of such a global and collective forgetting that all lives matter?

            My gut instinct is to turn off the news, quit reading the paper, get off the grid, and hide under the covers from the constant stream of negativity.

            But like children hiding under the covers from the Closet Monster, we all know that doesn’t make it go away. Getting up, opening that closet, and bravely confronting your fears is what makes our anxieties go away.

            I don’t want to cower in the darkness. I want to stand arms wide, face tilted to the sun soaking up the light. I refuse to believe hate wins. I have faith that love is always greater than hate.           

            So what is the first step forward toward the light? Doing something kind for someone else. Like a pebble thrown into the water rippling throughout the entire pond, it doesn’t take much to make a difference:

- call your grandma

- tell a stranger they look nice

- roll your neighbor’s garbage cans in

- invite your in-laws over for dinner

- help an elderly shopper at the grocery store

- pay for the coffee of the person behind you in the drive-thru

- tell your spouse why you appreciate them

- give an old friend an actual date to the Let’s-Get-Together-Sometime

- play with the dog as long as it wants to

- tell a child how talented or smart they are

            The possibilities for simple acts of kindness are endless! And what if each and every day, as part of our worldly routine, as vital as eating, drinking and sleeping, we asked ourselves: What have I done for someone today? And then we went about and made sure we could answer that with as many acts of kindness as possible. Now there’s something that should be making the news. Let’s try it.¹

          Is it something you want to try? Or is it something you think is a good idea – for someone else to try. That is the choice we face every day. We can choose not to engage in violence or unkindness and that is a good choice. But are we willing to be proactive, to be the initiators of kindness?

          Shapiro and Wright and others who are focused on making the world a better place through living kindness and lovingkindness advocate for practice. Kindness doesn’t generally happen on its own. We have to be intentional.

          And if we want to make it a trait of our lives, then we need to practice it. The more we practice it, the better we’ll get at it. The more we make extending kindness a regular part of our daily lives, the more natural it will feel. We won’t have to contrive it, it will simply flow from us because that is who we are.

          We began this series with the understanding of who we are ... how we are created in the image of God and how each one of us is the Name of God incarnate. Yod. Hey. Vav. Hey. But it’s not an exclusive club. Everyone around us is also the Name of God. We are each the image of God, born in the image of God, but we are not yet the likeness of God. That is the choice we carry from here tonight. Will we choose to live in lovingkindness, to practice it daily, to practice it on ourselves, to practice it on our family, our friends, our neighbors? Will we choose to practice it on those who don’t like us, those we don’t like, those who have hurt us? Will we choose to be part of the redeeming and healing of this violent world? Will we choose to live and interact with others in a way that allows love to win over hate?

          I leave you with two writings by poet Edwin Markham:

“There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.”

And one that has been a lifelong favorite:

          He drew a circle to shut me out--heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

          But love and I had the wit to win, we drew a circle and took him in!

How big is the circle of our love?

SILENCE AND PRAYER

I pray to be the face of lovingkindness–that those who come within my view

find a cordial, kindly reception written on my face.

I pray to be the ears of lovingkindness–that those who come filled with distress will experience my attentive presence, ready to listen without

distraction.

I pray to be the eyes of lovingkindness–that those who lack society’s support

will receive my nonjudgmental gaze, a look of unbiased, heartfelt welcome.

I pray to be the heart of lovingkindness–that those who feel overwhelmed

with suffering will sense my empathic response, one that forgoes a desire to

fix the hurt.

I pray to be the hands of lovingkindness–that those whose life could benefit

from my presence and my actions will be assisted by the humble offering.

I pray to be the feet of lovingkindness–that those who long for

companionship will see that I walk beside them, joined in the strength of a

common humanity.

I pray that the Light of lovingkindness shining in my soul will recognize the

Light shining in others, that my heart will be drawn to touch the life of

another with lovingkindness and bring healing and hope. Amen.

HYMN:      “Though I May Speak”   

BENEDICTION

¹Kelli M. Wheeler, The Way of Kindness: Readings for a Graceful Life, Chapter 38, page 225-227.

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“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”                - Lao Tzu

“Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.”                   – Annie Lennox

“Be kind whenever possible; and it is always possible.”

                                                                    – Tenzin Gyatso, the 14^th Dali Lama