By Pastor Wendy
At our Leadership Team Meeting Sunday night, we talked about sharing resources we develop or we find as we are preparing for worship and sermons. Lyndsey, our Director of Discipleship, said, “Yeah, like show notes for the sermon.” So here we are, our first edition of show notes!
You can find the livestream of our worship service here.
We are in the second week of our series, “In the Neighborhood: The Gospel According to Mr. Rogers.” This week we looked at Mr. Roger’s instructions on kindness through the lens of Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Luke 11:5-8.
We looked at how Jesus depicts kindness of neighbors in this parable that depicts God’s kindness toward us in prayer. We saw how kindness in the way of Jesus grows and is revealed in three ways:
- Persistence. The man kept knocking on the neighbors door until he received what he needed. Kindness is persistent – we don’t’ nurture and develop kindness by engaging in kind acts once but by engaging it over and over and over again.
- Being Other-focused. Kindness is shown when it places the needs of others above our own needs. If we engage in acts of kindness to earn favors or to get something in return, then it’s not Jesus-centered kindness. Kindness means placing others ahead of our own comfort and privilege.
- Being Brave. Jesus-centered kindness is bold and sometimes takes courage. When we extend ourselves toward others in ways that makes us nervous or scared, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to give us the bravery we need.
We also talked about how kindness isn’t weak or being a pushover – it’s a bold, Holy Spirit-filled, powerful choice that reflect the character of God.
Here are some of the examples and images I referred to.
Mr. Rogers’ definition of kindness: Responding to the needs of others. Here’s a clip of him discussing kindness.
The simultaneous objectification and invisibility of African-American women:
- https://www.nrpa.org/globalassets/journals/jlr/2013/volume-45/jlr-volume-45-number-5-pp-644-660.pdf
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-social-thinker/201012/are-black-women-invisible
Charles giving Dad Hugs
Charles and Louise Monteith offering free mom and dad hugs at Charleston’s 2018 Pride Parade.
