40 "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹ Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous; ⁴² and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

The other day, as I was starting to put together my thoughts for this sermon, I sat down to look at the headlines on MSN. Here are some of the highlights as listed on that page from top to bottom: "Foreclosure pain felt across America", "Mississippi defeats another levee", "pregnant student denies teen pact", "Rockets fired into Israel, jeopardizing truce", "2 U.S. civilians, 2 GIs killed in Iraq", "Gas discounts are full of booby traps", "Consumer confidence drops in June", "Fair Zimbabwe vote impossible". I got through those and I thought, "Where is the good news? Where is the news that good is actually happening in the world?"

So I looked a little harder, and I realized that my search, at least for that day was in vain, because there, shining brightly in it’s blue hyperlink was the headline, and this is a direct quote, "‘God’ arrested near church". I quickly thought, "O, you’ve got to be kidding me." I opened the article and it got worse because there it read that ‘God [was] accused of selling cocaine near [a] church."

Before you think that the whole world has gone crazy, the rest of the article told of a man, who was named God (can someone please explain the parental thought process on the selection of that name? Anyone?) who sold cocaine to undercover officers down in Tampa, Florida.

However, just because this last example is a rather funny one, does not mean that that the lack of good news is any less deafening. Words like pain, defeat, fired, and impossible, are thoughts, images, and ideas that we have been trained to become accustomed to.

For example, a few weeks ago I heard about a person who turned off the TV for a year. They still read the papers, but stayed away from the tube. At the end of their experiment they described how two things took place.

The first thing was how shocked they were when they finally put the TV back on. They described how they were absolutely appalled, not only at what was reported in the news, but how it was reported. What’s the line that you hear reporters throw out there? "If it bleeds, it leads"? That’s what we’ve become used to. That is what has become expected and there are some unfortunate ways that we are living up to those expectations. We’ll get to those in a few minutes.

The second thing was that they began to see so much more of the good in the world. Things that they wouldn’t have noticed before, they were now able to see. Because here’s the thing, the good news is out there: you just don’t hear about it.

Our world, or at the very least our corner of it, has become obsessed with highlighting the painful and the difficult. This is so much so the case that very little of what doesn’t fit into that niche gets heard. What I’m concerned about, especially as it relates to the scriptures is this: if pain and difficulty are what we’ve become accustomed too in regards to how we view the world, what are we striving to live up to? The bar as set by the world? Or the sort of life that is articulated in our passage?

The sort of life that Jesus is calling for those closest to him to live is akin to a life filled with not so random acts of kindness. I admit that it looks like Jesus is saying, "be kind and you will receive an amazing prize", but think of the prize that Jesus is speaking of: he’s not talking about receiving the accolades of the world. He’s not talking about receiving countless headlines in the paper or in the greater media. He’s not talking about you becoming famous because of all your good works. He’s not talking about any of that.

Instead, he is talking about living a life where you do what is right because it is right. Will you receive the gift of divine love and acceptance? Yes, you will, but that reward is not something that is of this world: it is of the next.

So again, the question is: which life standard are we going to live up to? The standard of the world where it’s all going to hell in a hand basket so get what you can before you’re sent out? Or, that this life that we have been given is a gift from God and we will live it as God would have us live. I hope as you think about that question that the answer is something that we say every week: Thy will be done. Not my will, thy will.

As Christians, as followers of the risen Christ, we are constantly battling the call of God to move toward whom we should be, and the pull of the world to succumb to our sinful desires. The Lord’s Prayer is absolutely one of those places where the battle lines become extremely obvious because what we are saying that we are going to live by is in stark contrast to the way of the world.

Showing kindness and compassion (especially when there is no expectation of recognition in return) is one of those areas where this battle seems to rage on an every day basis. So many people, so many of us, wonder, "when are we going to get our due? When are we going to receive our accolades?" But that thought is not who God would have us be. Our passage shows that to us. The Lord’s Prayer shows that to us.

But just because we hear it, say it, and even know it, does not mean that it is easy to follow through on. Again, we are sinful creatures, who, left to our own devices, will fall away from the lives that God would have us lead. So we’ve got to work on allowing those not so random acts of kindness to flow through us on a weekly, on a daily, on an hourly, on a minute-by-minute basis.

To put it another way, we need to work hard at allowing our lives to be transformed by the will of God. So when you start to get angry or upset and that mood begins to spill over into how you are treating those around you, ask yourself, "whose will is being done?" When you have the choice between helping someone who you do not know, say its with something as simple as they’re having a hard time getting something off a self at the store, or just walking on by, ask yourself, "whose will is being done?" When you have the choice between sitting around and doing nothing, or getting up in order to head out and ask your elderly neighbor if they could use some help with, let’s say, the yard work, ask yourself, "whose will is being done?" When you have the choice of going out and doing some good thing by yourself, or inviting a friend or family member along to help you as you allowing the love of God to work through you, ask the question, "whose will is being done?" As you begin to take those incremental steps and allow the will of God to show up in your actions on a weekly, daily, hourly, minute-by-minute basis, allowing God’s will to flow through you will begin to become easier, not easy, but easier. And as God’s will is done, the kingdom of God is built in this place, you might not hear about it in the news but it is taking place.

Good things absolutely take place in the world. It’s happening all around us as people allow the Spirit of God to work through them to lift up those whom they come into contact with. Good happens when people are willing to move beyond the self-centered tendencies that we all have, the self-centered tendencies that the world says we should have, and instead allow God’s will to be done.

As for your reward, trust me when I say, in God’s time you will be recognized, but in the mean time step out into the world and allow God’s will to be done by allowing those acts of kindness to be felt in and through us in all that we say, all that we do, all that we are. Whose will? God’s will! Let us show the love of God!

Holy and gracious God, good does happen: it happens when we allow Your will to be done. We pray that we might be open to the movement of Your Spirit in our lives so that we are able to step into our worlds and show Your love, Your grace, Your forgiveness. Lord, let us do this not for the accolades of the world, but so that Your kingdom might be championed in the here and now. Lord, let it be so. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.