Matthew 25:34-36
“Come, you who are blessed by God, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
These are words that are familiar to all of us. Words we’ve heard time and time again whenever we have been discussing the teachings of Jesus – and they are words that it is hard to argue with – but that doesn’t mean that some people won’t try.
I have two points I’m going to focus on in this message today.
FIRST POINT: “Kindness heals us all.” This brief four-word statement caught my attention and refused to let go this past week. If you have been following us over the past few months, you know that kindness is a topic that often shows up in our conversations. If you happen to read our weekly Newsletter you know that the subject of kindness is the topic of at least half of each newsletter. I spend a fair amount of time every week just skimming online sources for stories based in kindness. That’s because it appears to me that kindness is at the core of almost everything we believe – and try to practice – about the teachings of Jesus.
SECOND POINT: I try hard to avoid politics in my messages – I really do. I have strong personal opinions, but I try not to let them swallow my message. Sometimes that’s a tricky path to walk. Because I WILL talk about ethical behaviors and basic rights and wrongs, and that quite often runs face-first into politics.
Unless you are living in a bubble, it is an inescapable fact that there are a whole lot of un-ethical, un-Christ-like, and un-kind things being done in our country these days. It’s enough to depress anyone – and yet – every once in a while one of these depressing stories turns out to have some lovely kindness growing out from them.
I found this story online last week but the events it references happened over the past several months if not years. It started at that time when certain people decided they were being over-run with illegal immigrants (remember: “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats!“) so to publicize their unhappiness with this state of things, they loaded the so-called “illegals” into buses and dumped them in cities that had named themselves as “sanctuary cities.”
One of those dumping places was Denver, CO. And that is where today’s story happens. With no warning, no preparation, busloads of migrant families were taken to Denver and dropped off – in 10-degree winter weather when most of the migrants were wearing T-shirts and sandals – just as they’d been herded onto the buses.
Now, this is also where the story gets political – and ugly – fast. In fairness I need to say here that there are at least two versions of what happened since floating around online.
First is the version told by Mike Johnston, at the time the newly elected mayor of Denver, who recently shared his pride in the people of his town, who stepped up and did the right thing. His description highlights the city's proactive response to this abrupt influx of immigrants, emphasizing both the city's logistical efforts and the moral obligation they felt to care for those in need. They responded by opening eight shelters to immediately house 5,000 people, with city employees volunteering extra shifts and Denver residents providing meals, clothes, furniture, school supplies and other necessary things. Over the next few months, more than 38,500 people landed in the streets of Denver, dropped off by the busload and left there.
All along, Johnston has framed the situation as a moral imperative, emphasizing that they had a duty to care for those in need. He has publicly quoted Jesus, and named what Denver did as common decency.
One year later there are no remaining migrant encampments, they have closed all their emergency shelters, those who were able have been helped to find legal employment and help pay their own way. And not only has there been no crime-wave over-taking the city, but crimes are actually down compared to prior years.
I said at the beginning here that there are other versions of this story. This is where it gets politically ugly. I could find few coherent explanations -- just people shouting “that’s a lie!” or “They’re criminals” The Fact Checkers I checked with, however, agree that they found little or no sign of criminality and that Denver’s version is basically true.
Neighboring cities report zero to few immigrants – because they are not listed as “Sanctuary cities”. They just went on with their comfortable lives while Denver – by their own choice -- struggled to help thousands. They have not been willing to take on the labor or the expense that Denver has accepted – or maybe it is a fear of ICE, or a belief that the brown-skinned people do not deserve a safe place to live. I do not know why people make the choices they make.
I do know that Denver appears to have made the choice that Jesus would make. I said at the beginning that sad stories can hold hope and righteousness within them. Even in the face of overwhelming opposition and impossible odds, we can still make the right choices.
I opened with a four word quote that sent me to this story. Here’s the whole paragraph it came from. I don’t know who originally said it:
I have two points I’m going to focus on in this message today.
FIRST POINT: “Kindness heals us all.” This brief four-word statement caught my attention and refused to let go this past week. If you have been following us over the past few months, you know that kindness is a topic that often shows up in our conversations. If you happen to read our weekly Newsletter you know that the subject of kindness is the topic of at least half of each newsletter. I spend a fair amount of time every week just skimming online sources for stories based in kindness. That’s because it appears to me that kindness is at the core of almost everything we believe – and try to practice – about the teachings of Jesus.
SECOND POINT: I try hard to avoid politics in my messages – I really do. I have strong personal opinions, but I try not to let them swallow my message. Sometimes that’s a tricky path to walk. Because I WILL talk about ethical behaviors and basic rights and wrongs, and that quite often runs face-first into politics.
Unless you are living in a bubble, it is an inescapable fact that there are a whole lot of un-ethical, un-Christ-like, and un-kind things being done in our country these days. It’s enough to depress anyone – and yet – every once in a while one of these depressing stories turns out to have some lovely kindness growing out from them.
I found this story online last week but the events it references happened over the past several months if not years. It started at that time when certain people decided they were being over-run with illegal immigrants (remember: “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats!“) so to publicize their unhappiness with this state of things, they loaded the so-called “illegals” into buses and dumped them in cities that had named themselves as “sanctuary cities.”
One of those dumping places was Denver, CO. And that is where today’s story happens. With no warning, no preparation, busloads of migrant families were taken to Denver and dropped off – in 10-degree winter weather when most of the migrants were wearing T-shirts and sandals – just as they’d been herded onto the buses.
Now, this is also where the story gets political – and ugly – fast. In fairness I need to say here that there are at least two versions of what happened since floating around online.
First is the version told by Mike Johnston, at the time the newly elected mayor of Denver, who recently shared his pride in the people of his town, who stepped up and did the right thing. His description highlights the city's proactive response to this abrupt influx of immigrants, emphasizing both the city's logistical efforts and the moral obligation they felt to care for those in need. They responded by opening eight shelters to immediately house 5,000 people, with city employees volunteering extra shifts and Denver residents providing meals, clothes, furniture, school supplies and other necessary things. Over the next few months, more than 38,500 people landed in the streets of Denver, dropped off by the busload and left there.
All along, Johnston has framed the situation as a moral imperative, emphasizing that they had a duty to care for those in need. He has publicly quoted Jesus, and named what Denver did as common decency.
One year later there are no remaining migrant encampments, they have closed all their emergency shelters, those who were able have been helped to find legal employment and help pay their own way. And not only has there been no crime-wave over-taking the city, but crimes are actually down compared to prior years.
I said at the beginning here that there are other versions of this story. This is where it gets politically ugly. I could find few coherent explanations -- just people shouting “that’s a lie!” or “They’re criminals” The Fact Checkers I checked with, however, agree that they found little or no sign of criminality and that Denver’s version is basically true.
Neighboring cities report zero to few immigrants – because they are not listed as “Sanctuary cities”. They just went on with their comfortable lives while Denver – by their own choice -- struggled to help thousands. They have not been willing to take on the labor or the expense that Denver has accepted – or maybe it is a fear of ICE, or a belief that the brown-skinned people do not deserve a safe place to live. I do not know why people make the choices they make.
I do know that Denver appears to have made the choice that Jesus would make. I said at the beginning that sad stories can hold hope and righteousness within them. Even in the face of overwhelming opposition and impossible odds, we can still make the right choices.
I opened with a four word quote that sent me to this story. Here’s the whole paragraph it came from. I don’t know who originally said it:
- According to research, acts of kindness release the same chemicals as falling in love: dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. When you're feeling low, instead of turning away from the depressing world, find one small way of being of service. We can do it. Whatever IT is, we can do to the best of our ability. Many of us do it all the time. . . and it turns out that the doing of acts of kindness, can heal our fear, our worry and help us do things we can hardly imagine . . . because . . .
- KINDNESS HEALS US ALL.
-
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