Kindness can mean different things to different people. The meaning is in how YOU choose to show it. Be it through empathy, acceptance, kind gestures, thoughtfulness, the possibilities are entirely up to you. Kindness might look like being helpful or showing empathy. It may mean doing nice things without expecting nice things in return. Kindness is more than being nice. Kindness goes beyond merely being nice. …Being kind is doing intentional, voluntary acts of kindness. Not only when it’s easy to be kind, but when it’s hard to be. Kindness is a movement.” (charactercounts.org/digital_classroom/kindness-101/)
June 7, 2026
Hope in Bloom: Practicing Spiritual Gardening
Part 5: “Kindness as Radical Hospitality”
Luke 14:7-24
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 14:7-24
When Jesus noticed how the guests sought out the best seats at the table, he told them a parable. “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”
Then Jesus said to the person who had invited him, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.” When one of the dinner guests heard Jesus’ remarks, he said to Jesus, “Happy are those who will feast in God’s kingdom.” Jesus replied, “A certain man hosted a large dinner and invited many people.
When it was time for the dinner to begin, he sent his servant to tell the invited guests, ‘Come! The dinner is now ready.’ One by one, they all began to make excuses. The first one told him, ‘I bought a farm and must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I bought five teams of oxen, and I’m going to check on them. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ When he returned, the servant reported these excuses to his master. The master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go quickly to the city’s streets, the busy ones and the side streets, and bring the poor, crippled, blind, and lame.’ The servant said, ‘Master, your instructions have been followed and there is still room.’ The master said to the servant, ‘Go to the highways and back alleys and urge people to come in so that my house will be filled. I tell you, not one of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’”
Kindness as Radical Hospitality Luke 14:7-24
“Kindness is not charity. It is an encounter with the Divine”.
These words could have easily been written by Luke as an explanation for the parables found in our text today, parables which invite us to extend kindness not only to the people closest to us but to extend kindness to all of God’s people, parables which invite us to expand our definition of radical hospitality by explicitly seeking out and welcoming those who feel like outsiders, parables which reframe our narrative as people of faith by reminding us that as we move beyond the lazy theology and easy caricatures, we are called to meet people right where they are without demanding that they become something else. Luke could have easily written these words as a reminder that loving kindness simply is. That there is no earning of it or deserving of it. That there is only the joy which comes when one is fully seen and fully heard.
Although these words about kindness not being charity, about kindness being an encounter with the Divine, although these words may not be Biblical as in found in our Bible word for word, I appreciate the naming of the Divine in connection to kindness as radical hospitality. Because it reminds us that our actions, our words as people of faith are not only reflections of who we are. They are also reflections of our God. They are reflections of our God’s love and grace which we have experienced in our own lives through others. It is a reminder that these gifts, God’s love and grace, were shared with us, were given to us, not because we earned them and one could argue not because we deserved them. These gifts were given to us, shared with us because our God is a God of love and grace, who shows up for us time and time again, our God is a God who threw the doors open wide and welcomed us in, just as we are, the good, the bad, the ugly and the breath-takingly beautiful…all of it and embraced us as God’s Beloved.
Again, although these words about kindness not being charity, about kindness being an encounter with the Divine although these words may not be Biblical as in found in our Bible word for word, I fully admit I needed this reminder this week. I needed the reminder that kindness truly is about relationship, that kindness we are called to practice as people of faith is a seeing of the other person in our midst. I needed the reminder that kindness is not about obligations or expectations. Rather, kindness is really about showing up for each other in large and small ways. Kindness really is about honoring the light of Christ in the other person in all things, through all things…Because man…did I have to reckon with all that this week. Not because of this sermon. Please I could have easily written a sermon on kindness as radical hospitality because hello…I do this every week in some form or fashion. No, I had to reckon with this whole kindness as an encounter with the Divine, reckon with this whole kindness is not charity thing because well, God has a sense of humor and knew I needed to learn this humbling, life giving, life transforming lesson for me to authentically be able to stand before you on this day and bring a word about kindness going beyond being nice to it being an invitation to be in real, authentic community with one another.
You see, I’m usually on the giving end of kindness because well, that’s a lot of my profession as minister. I connect the dots. I create space. I bring words of comfort. I know how to do all that. What I don’t know how to do is be on the receiving end of kindness. And if I had my guess, not many of us do but I’m not going to name names.
Okay so back to my lesson… This week, I found myself on the receiving end of kindness as radical hospitality. To give you a little background and context, as you may know, in the McColl household, summer track has started. A few months ago, I had emailed the coaches, letting them know what was going on in our lives as we make our way through this sandwich-generation reality. I did it out of courtesy, you know, just keeping them in the loop and simply saying…look if I flake out, don’t take it personally. We just have a lot going on but we will be there. For me, that was the end of the conversation. Until I got a follow up email this week from the coaches which said, Heather, thanks for letting us know what’s going on, and as a way for the club to support your family during this time, your membership fees are being waived this summer.
I have to tell you and I’m not proud of this…when I read that line, I was conflicted. Guilt, Shame, Embarrassment all quickly came to the surface. I started reviewing my conversations in my mind, trying to figure out if I had asked for this help. Did I give any indication that I needed this help? This was quickly followed by why are they doing this? I can pay for it in snide voice,
Which is why I knew I needed to sit with these feelings and reactions to this one line. It wasn’t the money. Because in my life, I have received, and graciously accepted, scholarships to help pay for college, graduate school, or even to send kids to camps. But I usually had to do something to receive those scholarships. Fill out applications, write an essay, give interviews but this time, I didn’t have to do anything. This was being offered to me with no strings attached. No obligations No expectations. That was when I knew my visceral reaction and rejection of this kindness wasn’t about the money. No, It was really about that one line which was offered in love shifting my illusion of the balance of power, my illusion of control. And I didn’t like it. My reaction and rejection was really about my discomfort with receiving and accepting this love and care. My reaction and rejection of this kindness was about me buying into the narrative of I’m supposed to pull myself up by my bootstraps and not needing anyone else for so long and in so many subversive ways that I was selfishly closing someone’s love and care of me, for me. In my visceral reaction and rejection of this kindness, I was closing myself off to an opportunity to experience the Divine in my midst. My reaction and rejection to this kindness was really about me not practicing what I preach because it was pointed out to me by someone way smarter than me who said, “You preach all the time about how we are supposed to support one another, how we are supposed to care for one another, and that…here’s the kicker…I needed to learn how and when to take a gift and simply say thank you”
That’s how my week went…and I still don’t have it figured out. So, I will simply leave us all with this….Too many times, kindness is something we miss because we are too mired in the narrative of independence and self-reliance, a narrative which goes against the very nation of God’s Beloved Community. Too many times, in relationships, at work, at school, in almost every aspect of our lives, we often “miss” the kind gestures simply because we think we are owed them or we need to do something in return to deserve them. Too many times, we miss the kindness given to us, shared with us, because we are too busy to appreciate them. Or as in my case, become offended by them because someone saw me at my most vulnerable and I didn’t like it. Like I said, I don’t have any answers, but what I do have is a reminder, a call to appreciate, to give thanks for the fact that someone thought so much of me that they took time out of their schedules to do something generous for me.
What I do have is what it says in our Bible…a call to show loving kindness to one and all. Not because it was earned or will be repaid. A call to do so because we may be entertaining angels in our midst, and that one act of kindness will radiate out to others, that one act of kindness will send ripple effects of positive energy out into our communities, changing and transforming lives. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, June 7, 2026 – Kindness as Radical Hospitality Luke 14:7-24.
Additional sermons are available in the Sermon Library.
Listen to the podcast.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.