Kindness week1

You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain.Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards,you will not drink their wine. For I know how many are your offensesand how great your sins. There are those who oppress the innocent and take bribes and deprive the poor of justice in the courts. Therefore the prudent keep quiet in such times,for the times are evil.      Amos 5.11-13

Amos tells us the story of kindness by showing us what unkindness is. Listen to the brutality of the unkind. The unkind in Amos's day built stone mansions, elaborately landscaped with lush vineyards. Yet, they continued to take from the poor. The problem with wealth is that sometimes the wealthy suppose that everyone else’s lifestyles are just like theirs. Nothing keeps people from feeling the hurt of the hurting like the magnification of their own comfort.

Marie Antoinette’s detractors circulated this popular story about her, which makes the case for the insensitivity of the rich. The story goes that when Antoinette was told that her starving people had no bread, she replied, ‘Let them eat cake.’ Such a statement presupposes life in a French palace where, if the larders were low on one food, one might merely select menu item. It is not believed that Marie Antoinette actually said this, but the story could easily be attributed to the attitudes of the wealthy people of Israel. Blinded by their own indulgent lifestyles, they could not see that the vast majority of their people had neither bread nor cake.

Amos points to the unkind and calls them to repentance. He promises that judgment will come upon those who continually designed the needs of others.

Despite our own comfortable existence, we can become overwhelmed with the needs of the world. We wonder how one person can make any difference. We find we have little time to spare for the poor on the other side of the world, let alone those on the street corners of our cities. Kindness is our willingness to care about others who may not have our standard of living and may even live one comfortable ocean-moat away from our luxurious lifestyles. But the bottom line is that God expects our compassion. God desires our kindness to spread His healing to others.