First Reading: Jeremiah 28:5-9
5The prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord, 6and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. 7Yet hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and pestilence against many countries and great kingdoms. 9As for the prophet who prophesies peace, when the word of that prophet comes to pass, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet.”
Psalm 119:153-160
153Behold my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law. 154Plead my cause and redeem me; according to your promise, give me life. 155Deliverance is far from the wicked, for they do not study your statutes. 156Great is your compassion, O Lord; preserve my life, according to your judgments. 157There are many who persecute and oppress me, yet I have not swerved from your decrees. 158I look with loathing at the faithless, for they have not kept your word. 159See how I love your commandments! O Lord, in your mercy, preserve me. 160The heart of your word is truth; all your righteous judgments endure forevermore.
Second Reading: Romans 7:1-13
1Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to those who know the law — that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. 4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. 13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Gospel: Matthew 10:34-42
34{Jesus said to the disciples,} “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 40Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. 41The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”
Small Acts of Kindness
In his time, Baron De Rothschild was one of the richest men who ever lived. In today’s dollars, accounting for inflation and asset growth, Barron De Rothschild would be worth an estimated 4-5 billion dollars. Not quite Elon Musk rich, but certainly rich enough. Legend has it that the Baron once posed for an artist as a beggar. While the artist, Ary Scheffer, was painting him, the financier sat before him in rags and tatters holding a tin cup. A friend of the artist entered, and the baron was so well disguised, he wasn’t recognized.
The friend, thinking Rothschild was indeed a beggar, dropped a coin into the cup. Ten years later, the man who gave the coin to Rothschild received a letter containing a bank order for 10,000 francs and the following message: “You one day gave a coin to Baron de Rothschild in the studio of Ary Scheffer. He has invested it and today sends you the capital which you entrusted to him, together with the compounded interest. A good action always brings good fortune. It was signed, Baron de Rothschild. A simple act of kindness yielded a bountifully reward.
We don’t often consider how small acts of kindness impact others. In many ways this is good, it keeps our egos and pride in check. A smile, a kind response, helping with a shopping cart, allowing someone to go ahead of you in a checkout line. All these and many more such things seem small but can have a huge impact on the person the gesture is extended to. Think about the craziness of drivers today? Is it because we give way to others? I insist that our roads are so crazy because we refuse to give a little to other drivers. Think of how a small act of kindness makes you feel as opposed to the frustration and anger of refusing to give way to another.
In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus said, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.” Even a cup of cold water, says the Master, given to one of His followers will be rewarded. This reminds me of a phrase of a bygone era: “It’s the little things that count the most!”
This seemingly insignificant phrase became popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s when it resounded “loudly” with a rapidly changing English-speaking world. The phrase became “the catch phrase” of the time and defined a newly developing cultural trend. Everyone repeated it like a mantra. Even authors employed it in their writing. And what gave this little phrase such impact? The industrial revolution.
The nineteenth-century focus on thriftiness, due to the rise of the middle class during these years, created a new and urgent emphasis on small but significant things, occasional but meaningful gifts, good manners, and the kinds of small habits and kindnesses (rather than wealth) that defined one’s character. Living a disciplined lifestyle and maintaining responsible household management became a matter of cultural pride for middle class families.
The Victorian middle class wasn’t only about manners, however. Deeply invested in education, faith, and a deep sense of social morality, the phrase was soon connected to biblical values, such as found in Luke 16:10: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much.” From there, the phrase stuck, and we stand by this today. And there’s a reason for that.
As followers of Jesus, we know that Jesus’ method of evangelism required simply proclaiming God’s mercy, healing, blessing, and acting with a sense of acceptance, kindness, and love toward others. Jesus began the movement that His disciples would call “The Way” by changing people’s lives, one heart and healing at a time. For Jesus, acting out of a humble place of faith, love, and loyalty to God would define the way a disciple patterned their lives. Small acts of kindness, love, inclusion, and graciousness would characterize what it meant to be a follower of Jesus!
Later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus would admonish some Pharisees over their misinterpretation and mismanagement of God’s “law,” which Jesus states does not refer to legalisms but to behaving in a just manner, showing mercy to God’s people, and living a life faithful to God and showing God’s love to others. Jesus cites the prophet Micah for His support: “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). In fact, in regard to the shema, the foundation of Jewish prayer, Jesus would claim that the only true law necessary to remember would be to put God absolutely first, and love neighbor as self. When you practice this, Jesus said, you need to remember nothing else, the rest will naturally follow.
Now I want to be careful here in how I say this, the emphasis for Jesus here is always on the self. But this has nothing to do with self-centeredness; quite the opposite. What does the Lord require of us? That we should act always justly toward others. That we should practice mercy. That we should walk humbly with our God. It’s no wonder that in our scripture for today, as it is in other places, the emphasis is on the way Jesus’ disciples need to “practice” and “live” their faith in God: they should welcome. They should do acts of service. They should act kindly. They should show mercy. “And by this,” Jesus said, “they will know you are my disciples – if you love one another” (John 13:35). This is the way that Jesus’ disciples live out their faith.
It doesn’t take starting a revolution. It doesn’t take bringing others down. It doesn’t require sudden change in one fell swoop. It simply takes “small acts of kindness.” And by this, we will change the world – and reap the reward of God. Have you ever been in a line, perhaps in a store, and someone ushers you in front of them? Have you ever cruised a parking lot waiting for space, only to have someone allow you to take the one they clearly were first in line to take? Have you ever received a card from someone unexpected? Or flowers for no reason at all? Has someone paid for your coffee before you got to the window? Or your meal at a restaurant? How did it make you feel? How do you feel about the person who extended the kindness? This is the kind of impact that might stay with you all day! And it might even give you hope for what the world could be.
Pastor Steve Sjogren wrote a book about just this kind of hope: Conspiracy of Kindness: A Unique Approach to Sharing the Love of Jesus. As an experienced church planter, Sjogren reminds us that Jesus’ method of evangelism was never meant to be hard, or complicated, or require a blueprint or a formula. It’s actually very simple: it all comes down to proclaiming the good news of Jesus and communicating the love of God to everyone we meet through actions more than words! We’ve all heard, and probably used the old mantra, “Actions speak louder than words.” This is what Matthew tells us about Jesus’ foundational teaching.
Every action counts. Every kind word has impact. Every gracious deed leaves an impression. Every drink of cool water given to someone in need has its effect. Every mention of Jesus and His free gift of salvation will have an influence on the hearer. The more little ways we show the way our faith directs our life, the more positive impact on others and the world we will have. At the heart of Christian faith is the spirit of giving; “For God so loved the world that He gave . . .” God came to us first, and He gave, that we might have life!
One day, a student asked anthropologist Margaret Mead for the earliest sign of civilization in a given culture. He expected the answer to be a clay pot or perhaps a fishhook or grinding stone. Her answer was “a healed femur.” The femur is, of course, the large thigh bone in the leg. Mead explained that no healed femurs are found where the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest, reigns. A healed femur shows that someone cared. Someone cared enough to do that injured person’s hunting and gathering until the leg healed. The evidence of compassion, she says, is the first sign of civilization.
At the heart of Christian faith is compassion. How will our neighbors know we are Christians? St. John put it clearly, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Catholic priest Fr. Peter Scholtes was so impressed by this passage, he wrote a song made popular in the 1960, in part the chorus goes: “and they will know we are Christians by our love.” As Christians, we don’t live by the law of the jungle but by the law of love. Notable Christians of the past were known because of their generous acts.
St. John Chrysostom, the Archbishop of Constantinople of the late 4th century and early 5th century, was one of the most powerful preachers in church history. Yet he devoted more time and energy to the poor than he did to preaching. He established numerous Christian charities, hospices, and hospitals for the destitute.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux was a French abbot, mystic, reformer, and Doctor of the Church who founded Clairvaux Abbey in 1115 and became one of the 12th century’s most influential churchmen. As the founder of a monastic movement, he pointed many people to Christ. He too established a network of hostels, hospices, and hospitals that survive today.
John Wycliffe, who translated the New Testament into English, was a 14th‑century English scholastic philosopher, theologian, reformer, and Oxford professor, led a grass-roots movement of lay preachers and relief workers who ministered to the poor. Methodist Pastor General William Booth was the one who started The Salvation Army. And Pastor Dwight L. Moody, one of the best-known 19th century pastors in America. He established more than 150 street missions, soup kitchens, clinics, schools, and rescue outreaches. The Christian faith is a call to service of others. We only have to survey the ministry of Jesus to see that.
There was nothing self-serving in anything Jesus ever did. And He has called us to be His followers in service to our neighbors. At the very heart of our faith is a call to bear fruit for the kingdom. Jesus sends His disciples out with the mission, “[To] heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3) and “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15). You and I are called to go, to preach, to teach, to show mercy and kindness. Our call is to “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” Matthew 3:8). It does no good for us to bear fruit, for it to simply rot on the tree. We are called to bear fruit for the glory of God and to be used for God’s kingdom.
Here is the challenge for us this week: Think each day of a few acts of kindness that you can practice or a few words of hope you can offer to others. At the end of the week, think about what you’ve done. Think about how it felt. But most important of all – think of how you’ve helped in small ways to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ and the love of God to others!
Amen