Tag: kindness

Showing God’s Kindness (2 Samuel 9:1-13)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment
King David reaching out and receiving Mephibosheth, 13th century Bible illustration

David asked, “Is there anyone from Saul’s family still alive that I could show faithful love for Jonathan’s sake?” There was a servant from Saul’s household named Ziba, and he was summoned before David.

“Are you Ziba?” the king asked him.

“At your service!” he answered.

The king asked, “Is there anyone left from Saul’s family that I could show God’s kindness to?”

“Yes,” Ziba said to the king, “one of Jonathan’s sons, whose feet are crippled.”

“Where is he?” the king asked.

“He is at the house of Ammiel’s son Machir at Lo-debar,” Ziba told the king.

So King David had him brought from the house of Ammiel’s son Machir at Lo-debar. Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson, came to David, and he fell to the ground, bowing low out of respect.

“Mephibosheth?” David said.

“Yes,” he replied. “I am at your service!”

“Don’t be afraid,” David told him, “because I will certainly show you faithful love for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the fields of your grandfather Saul, and you will eat at my table always.”

Mephibosheth bowed low out of respect and said, “Who am I, your servant, that you should care about a dead dog like me?”

Then David summoned Saul’s servant Ziba and said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything belonging to Saul and his family. You will work the land for him—you, your sons, and your servants—and you will bring food into your master’s house for them to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, will always be at my table.” (Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)

Then Ziba said to the king, “Your servant will do whatever my master the king commands.”

So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table, like one of the king’s own sons. Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. All who lived in Ziba’s household became Mephibosheth’s servants. Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, because he always ate at the king’s table. He was crippled in both feet. (Common English Bible)

This is actually one of my favorite stories in all of Holy Scripture. It clearly demonstrates why David is a king and a person who reflects God’s own heart. I believe that King David is at his best here, ruling and living exactly as the Lord wanted him to.

In much of the ancient world, whenever a king came to power and replaced the previous king of whom he was not related, it was a common practice to either exile or outright kill the sons and grandsons who would have become heirs to the throne. It was a literal cutthroat way of securing the new throne, by wiping out any potential rivals.

It’s quite possible that no one would have faulted David or batted an eye if he had made sure there was nobody around related to King Saul – who died in a battle with the Philistines. Not only did David avoid that practice, but he did just the opposite of it.

Finally on the throne of both Israel and Judah, one of the first acts of King David was to wield his power and authority by finding out if there were any relatives of Saul that he could show faithful love toward.

I can just imagine the servant of Saul, Ziba, being brought into David’s presence, thinking for sure that this is the end. Instead, David wanted to know if there’s anyone in Saul’s family to which he could show kindness.

The word King David used to communicate his benevolent intentions was “chesed” (חסד – pronounced “KES-ed”). This is rich Hebrew word which refers to God’s steadfast covenant loyalty and love toward Israel.

Because of its richness, chesed is translated various ways in the English translations, including: “mercy,” “kindness,” “loving-kindness,” “steadfast love,” “compassion,” and even “goodness.”

The big idea in today’s story is that David had the power to destroy, but instead used his authority in order to extend loving loyalty and mercy to Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, and grandson of Saul – David’s old enemy and nemesis.

What’s more, David could have found out about Mephibosheth, learned that the man was crippled, in no position to ever do anything for or against him, and simply left him alone. And again, nobody likely would have thought anything about ignoring the man.

But not David. He was determined to embody chesed in the life of Mephibosheth. So, he brought him to Jerusalem and provided for him by having him sit at the king’s table for the rest of his life.

David didn’t have to do that. Yet, God’s steadfast love compelled him. You know grace has a hold of someone’s life, whenever they go out of their way to extend human kindness to another person who has absolutely no means of paying them back or reciprocating at all.

Jesus, the Son of David, clearly understood the idea of chesed and lifted it, taught it, and embodied it for his own followers:

“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. 

“Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way children of the Most High act, for he is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. (Luke 6:32-36, CEB)

I wonder who it is that God wants you to show grace, mercy, and love toward?

Lord Jesus, as you commanded us to love one another, just as you love us, help us to demonstrate that love toward others. We acknowledge that it is impossible on our own, so we ask for the enabling of your Holy Spirit to produce that love in us.

We believe that you love and care for those who are suffering from illness, violence and persecution. We pray for protection, comfort and healing for those in need or who are forgotten.

Enliven us with your Holy Spirit, so that we may be instruments of your peace and love in a troubled world. Use us and all believers as your ambassadors to our families, colleagues and neighbors.

Holy God, you demonstrated your love for us through the Resurrection of your Son and our Savior Jesus Christ. We commit to making decisions as who trust in your ever-present love and grace. Guide us in becoming a people who welcomes all, and values mutuality and partnerships.

Provide us courage and insight as we seek to be a community who provides respite, and a place to sooth souls. Grant us all the things necessary for our common life, and bring us to be of one heart and mind within your Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Saved for a Reason (Ephesians 2:1-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

At one time you were like a dead person because of the things you did wrong and your offenses against God. You used to live like people of this world. You followed the rule of a destructive spiritual power. This is the spirit of disobedience to God’s will that is now at work in persons whose lives are characterized by disobedience. At one time you were like those persons. All of you used to do whatever felt good and whatever you thought you wanted so that you were children headed for punishment just like everyone else.

However, God is rich in mercy. He brought us to life with Christ while we were dead as a result of those things that we did wrong. He did this because of the great love that he has for us. You are saved by God’s grace! And God raised us up and seated us in the heavens with Christ Jesus. God did this to show future generations the greatness of his grace by the goodness that God has shown us in Christ Jesus.

You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives. (Common English Bible)

Humanity is spiritually hard-wired to do good in this world. 

From a Christian perspective, we live in a fallen world and experience the evils of disasters, diseases, and decision-making that is off, as well as personal and corporate corruption. However, this is not our original design. 

In the Christian tradition, believers in Jesus are not delivered from sin, death, and hell so that they can idly sit in a worldly holding tank until Christ returns. Deliverance is the initial dimension of God’s plan – and not the end game. We are saved for good works to be done in the here-and-now.

Christians know that they are saved from individual and systemic sin through the forgiving work of Jesus Christ. It’s an act of sheer grace on God’s part. A believer in Jesus is not spiritually reborn through her effort any more than a baby’s birthed because of her own doing. It is thoroughly the work of God. Even the faith needed to believe is a gift graciously provided by God.

This, however, is far from the whole story. God has plans and purposes in mind for people. Christians are birthed into a new spiritual community with new commitments to do all kinds of good deeds. It’s as if sin is a weight or an obstacle that has been removed, so that living a life full of goodness can now move forward and do its work. 

To be saved is to be freed for a vigorous moral life that is deeply concerned with altruistic actions in a world full of need.

There is a profound spiritual wound which underlies the great problems of our world. Behind so many of our world issues are matters of the spirit. The unseen world is just as real as the world which is seen. Just as we know germs are present, are real, and we must account for them – so there is spiritual world very much real, and we ignore it at our great peril. 

And so, it seems to me that spiritual people, including Christians delivered for the purpose of good deeds, are to agitate for earthly change graciously, wisely, and lovingly. Expecting human governments or corporate systems to take the lead in moral transformation is like asking the fox to guard the hen house.

I will admit to you that I don’t much have the stomach for what seems to me to be useless emotional debates amongst some Christian communities about all sorts of political issues and religious dogmatic opinions. As redeemed people, delivered for a purpose, I believe it is sage to put our focus on discovering how we can support and bless the essential services laboring to keep humans surviving, and hopefully, thriving. God has raised us up for this, that is, if we have the spiritual eyes to see.

Christians, churches, and spiritual communities must labor at the gates of hell for the lives of women caught in sex trafficking; provide uplift and the tools to a better life for those in grinding poverty and hunger; challenge the idolatry of a materialist culture; and, hundreds of other realities of living in a fallen broken world.

As Christians, God has delivered us from sin, death, and hell so that we will do good in this world. God has sovereignly placed you and I in places and positions for just this time so that we will do good works, both big and small, tackling immense issues as well as little acts of kindness. 

Doing good comes in all sizes, and all of us are to share our lives for the betterment of humanity. After all, we really are our brother’s and our sister’s keeper.

God Almighty, I pray that your people may not lose heart in this world. May you strengthen your church with spiritual power so that the words and ways of Jesus will ground them for faithful service to this planet you have created. May Christians everywhere be rooted and established in the divine love which supports good works done in the humility of a gentle spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

Don’t Forget about Kindness and Truth (Proverbs 3:1-12)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

My child, do not forget my teaching,
    but keep my commands in mind.
Then you will live a long time,
    and your life will be successful.

Don’t ever forget kindness and truth.
    Wear them like a necklace.
    Write them on your heart as if on a tablet.
Then you will be respected
    and will please both God and people.

Trust the Lord with all your heart,
    and don’t depend on your own understanding.
Remember the Lord in all you do,
    and he will give you success.

Don’t depend on your own wisdom.
    Respect the Lord and refuse to do wrong.
Then your body will be healthy,
    and your bones will be strong.

Honor the Lord with your wealth
    and the first fruits from all your crops.
Then your barns will be full,
    and your wine barrels will overflow with new wine.

My child, do not reject the Lord’s discipline,
    and don’t get angry when he corrects you.
The Lord corrects those he loves,
    just as parents correct the child they delight in. (New Century Version)

There is no wisdom apart from humility. And humility can only be accessed through being authentic and vulnerable. The proud person doesn’t look to God (or others) because they think they already know what is best and can figure out things without anyone’s help.

Wisdom is a skill that is attained through learning and application, over an extended period of time. The wise person has a solid body of knowledge, and is able to take that know-how and apply it to real life situations.

For the skill of wisdom to be realized, we must first take the posture of a child. We need to listen well, and humbly receive instruction. Without this initial mindset and heart attitude, wisdom will forever be elusive.

Then, when we learn and gain understanding, it’s imperative that we remember it. This is why the best learning engages all of our senses; it presses needed information deep inside us, so that what comes out of us is right, just, and good.

Concerning the Christian life, we can only obey commands which we know. So, it’s important to learn and retain the commands of God. This is one reason why I read my Bible every day; my mind and heart need the continual refreshment and recalling of Holy Scripture’s insight and instruction. I want to be so full of God’s good commands that if you cut me, I bleed Bible.

Kindness and truth are to be worn like a big gaudy necklace around our necks – so that we will always have in front of us what’s most important in living our lives.

The reason so many people are continually at odds with one another is that kindness and truth are neither acknowledged nor remembered. But you cannot have good relations without basic human kindness and a commitment to truth. Put another way, being gruff and mean, and fudging on reality, will not only get you nowhere, but it will also bring a profound lack of success in life.

That stubborn meanness and inattention to truth comes from spending way too much time alone in one’s head. Left alone for too long, every one of us will come up with all kinds of goofy thinking that we believe is the truth. But it’s really only craziness born of a tremendous lack of healthy interaction with others.

At some point, everyone must eventually trust the Lord – who is kindness and truth itself. Going it alone is not an option, that is, unless we want to be lonely, messed-up in the head, and miserable in both body and soul.

Let’s get real. Often, the reason why so many of us choose a path of arrogant pride, radical independence, and selfish loneliness is because we simply do not want to be hurt.

Someone, some group, or many persons have hurt us, and we’re determined to never be hurt and to hurt like that again. So, we shut others out – including God.

We may not go the route of becoming actual hermits, but we build invisible walls which no one can scale. This is why the loneliest people are actually around other people – they’ve shut them out emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, even though they are next to them physically.

Persons who take such a route to living eventually discover that, although they may have avoided the sort of pain they feared, a new kind of suffering is experienced. And it’s the kind of suffering that gnaws at your insides and slowly kills you.

Little does one know, but the fear, anger, and hatred morphs into a bitterness which becomes gangrene of the soul. The person dies a little bit at a time in an agonizing existence. We all must endure pain; it’s just a matter of what sort of pain we will accept: the bad kind or the good kind.

A good sort of hurt is the pain of healing, of making things right, of committing oneself to reconciliation and peace. It’s a soreness of being corrected by Holy Scripture and God’s directives, a suffering that will truly lead to life, not death.

So, what will it be? The book of Proverbs calls us to make a choice, not only between good and bad, but a choice of better and best, and of accepting the sort of pain that helps us grow; or rejecting that and enduring a debilitating hurt that damages deeply, maybe even permanently.

Let go of the pride and adopt humility. Become a student of wisdom. Take up the necklaces of kindness and truth. Honor God with a life full of experiential knowledge and devotion to the betterment of humanity. Learn to trust the Lord and others who are trustworthy. Know what it feels like to be merciful, pure, and peacemaking.

You may just find that the old tools of cynicism, sarcasm, skepticism, distrust, and unbelief become lost in the mental junk drawer of things rarely, if ever, used.

Lord Jesus Christ, you prayed for your friends that they would be one as you and your Father are one. We confess our resistance to your prayer. We have failed to maintain the unity of the Spirit. We have broken the bond of peace.

Mercy, Not Sacrifice (Hosea 6:1-6)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year BLeave a comment

“Come, let us return to the Lord,
    for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
    he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
    his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
    like the dew that goes away early.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
    the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. (New Revised Standard Version)

My favorite word in all of Holy Scripture is the Hebrew word chesed (חֶסֶד pronounced “hes-ed” with a guttural sound on the “h”). It’s such a rich word that no single English word can capture its depth. 

So, chesed is translated in various ways across the English translations of the Bible as “mercy,” “grace,” “steadfast love,” “covenant loyalty,” “kindness,” “compassion,” and more. It’s no wonder, then, that since chesed marks the character and activity of God, the Lord very much desires people to reflect this same stance toward others. 

In today’s Old Testament lesson, God was calling and wooing wayward people to return to a divine life of closeness with the Lord. God demonstrated chesed by not putting the people away, like a spouse outright divorcing an unfaithful partner. But instead, God committed to loving the Israelites even when they were unlovely.

At all times, the response God wants is not simply going through the motions of outward worship. Ritual practices mean little if there is no heart behind them. The Lord longs for people to demonstrate both fidelity and fealty through mercy and a steadfast love to God and neighbor. Both our work and our worship are to be infused with divine mercy. 

God deeply desires a close relationship with humanity and is profoundly pained when people seek after other gods to meet their needs and to love them. Hosea’s prophecy is an impassioned plea for all persons to find their true fulfillment and enjoyment in a committed loving divine/human union, just like a marriage.

In Christian readings of Hosea’s prophecy, repentance means accepting God’s chesed through Jesus Christ. The believer is to allow the character of God to rule and reign in their heart so that commitment comes flowing out in loving words, actions, thoughts, and dispositions. Mercy finds its highest expression in the person and work of Jesus. Thus, Advent is a season of anticipating the great love and mercy of God through the incarnation of Christ.

It, therefore, ought to be no surprise that Jesus lifted Hosea’s prophecy as a treasured principle of operation when asked why he deliberately made connections with “questionable” people:

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:10-12, NIV)

And when confronted about “questionable” activities Jesus appealed to the same source of Hosea’s prophecy:

“Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.” Jesus answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” (Matthew 12:2-7, NIV)

One can never go wrong with mercy and grace. If in doubt between whether to judge another or show mercy, the Christian’s choice is clear. Grace and love create connections – reconnecting the disconnected. The heart of true Christian spirituality is a deep kinship with the divine. Whenever that relation is broken or severed, it is vital to restore it. The means of doing so is not judgment but mercy.

Chesed is more than a word; it is a way of life. God wants mercy. Grace is the Lord’s divine will.

So, let us today receive the forgiveness of Jesus and devote ourselves to prayer and works of love which come from a heart profoundly touched by grace. May the result be healing of that which has been broken, and reconciled relationships with others.

Merciful and loving God, the One who shows amazing grace, forgive us for our wanderings away from the divine life. Return us, again, to the grace of Jesus Christ our Savior so that our hearts will be renewed and aflame with love for others. In the Name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, the Great Three in One. Amen.