Imitators of God A Sermon by Rich Holmes Delivered on October 7, 2018 at Northminster Presbyterian Church in North Canton, Ohio When I was in the eighth grade I remember going to a dance at Crabapple Middle School. It was a dance like every middle school dance where couples didn t actually dance, but all the girls just congregated on one side and all the boys congregated on the other side. And while I don t remember how everyone dressed at that dance, I do remember how you dressed if you were one of the cool girls or if you were one of the cool boys. If you were one of the cool girls, you had a long perm with blonde highlights that was tied up in a bow. You had one oversized earring in the shape of a cross, lots of necklaces with cheap beads and other crosses dangling from your neck, lots of lace, especially lace gloves, with bracelets going half way up your arm. You might even wear cheap sun glasses and you would have tried to show off your midriff although the school wouldn t allow that. Now, if you were one of the cool boys on the other hand, you would have worn a white jacket with the sleeves rolled up over a pastel colored t- shirt, sunglasses again, loafers and slicked back hair with about a gallon of mousse. If you were really cool and able to grow one yet, you might even wear a five o clock shadow. All the girls, in other words, wanted to look like Madonna, at least the mid-eighties version of Madonna and all the boys wanted to look like Don Johnson from Miami Vice. Now, why did they do that? Why didn t they just have their own style and follow the beat of their own drum. Well, good luck with giving that piece of advice to someone in middle school. Decades ago, Coca-cola had a brilliant slogan to sell their brand of sugar water: It s the real thing. Do you remember that? That was coke s way of saying Every other soft drink on the market is trying to imitate Coke, trying to be like Coke. But why not just have the real thing? 1
Why not just have the drink that everyone else is trying to imitate, because imitations never measure up to the real thing. That s a good question. And I am reminded of that question every time I think back to all those people in middle school who tried to dress like the popular celebrities of the time. But not only would you not settle for an imitation when you can have the real thing, what is far worse is that there is something rather sad about such imitation, isn t there? If you have to imitate someone else to have friends or to be accepted, you are basically telling the world that you don t really have much confidence in yourself. You are basically telling the world that whoever you are doesn t measure up to what someone else is, and that you would rather be them than be yourself. As we look at the letter of Ephesians today, we hear these words Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. I can almost hear the complaints now. Why do I want to imitate God? Why can t I just be myself? If God made me the way I am then why would God say that the way that I am is not good enough? Why do I have to be like something I m not? But you see, the author of Ephesians understands our limitations. He does not tell us to imitate God in order to become God, he just tells us to imitate God to give people some picture of God. And there is a big difference. Aristotle says that if you want to become just, start by imitating the kinds of things a just person does. If you want to be courageous, start by imitating the kinds of things a courageous person does. If you want to be generous, start by imitating the kinds of things a generous person does. But the author of Ephesians does not tell us to imitate God in order to 2
become God. He understands that all we can ever aspire to be is imitations of God and it is in vain that we aspire to be the real thing. Years ago, I remember I went to a revival, I don t know if you ve ever been to an actual revival, most Presbyterians probably haven t, but I confess to you that I ve been to several and at this particular revival, there was a guest evangelist who was introduced to lead the revival. I don t remember the man s name, but I remember that he was introduced as someone who had saved 400 something souls. And everyone said Wow! That s amazing! 400 souls! This guy must be really something! Well, as the pastor of this church, would you like to know how many souls I ve saved? Zero. I cannot save souls and in fact, neither can that evangelist. His message was very inspiring and I have no doubt that he has a lot of great gifts for sharing the gospel, but only God can save souls. Whatever gifts he has, this evangelist is not God. And neither am I. The best I can be is an imitation of God, the author of Ephesians says. And thank God for that. I don t want the burden of having to be responsible for everything that God is responsible for. I don t want to be the savior of the world. I don t even want to be the savior of Northminster Presbyterian Church. We already have a savior. This world and this church has the only savior it will ever need. But as imitations of God, here s what we can do. Just like that baptismal font, just like the just like this communion table, just like everything we use to represent God, we can remind people of God. We can give people some picture of God. As I continue to wax nostalgic today, if you ever saw the eighties comedy Vacation with Chevy Chase, you know something of what my childhood was like when I would go on vacation. Just like in that movie, we would pack up the station wagon that had the wood paneling on the 3
side. I think every suburban family in the 70s and 80s had the station wagon with that strip of wood paneling on the side, I don t know. But every year we would spend about a week at Myrtle Beach. And I have to confess to you I don t like Myrtle Beach very much anymore because all the things that used to say Myrtle Beach to me as a kid aren t there anymore. Too much has changed. But we did go back there as a family a few years ago, and just like at any resort, when you drive down to Myrtle Beach and you start getting close to the beach you can see billboards telling you about all the fun ways you can part with your money at the beach. And one of the billboards tells you that one of the things you can do is see some Beatles tribute band. Now there are a number of different Beatles tribute bands, but the one who plays at Myrtle Beach is called Beatlemania Now, and it costs about 35 bucks to see them. 30 if you want to settle for one of the cheap seats. The kids seats are ten bucks, so if I went with Kelly and Dominic and Sophia to see this group, it would cost me at least 80 bucks. Now, why on earth would someone pay eighty bucks to see four guys with cheap wigs doing phony Liverpool, England accents singing I Want to Hold Your Hand and Yellow Submarine. Why in the world? Well, you know why. Because it is as close as you will ever get to the real thing. The real thing will never be again. That s why. And, my friends, something similar is true of God. No one in this world can ever see God. But they can see us. And in seeing us, in some dim way, they can see God through this inadequate imitation that all of us aspire to be. In First Corinthians 13, the love poem that is read at so many weddings, Paul, (not McCartney but the apostle Paul) says For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. All of us in this world at our best, are only dim reflections of the holy and the divine. And that is the best we can aspire to be. 4
But the apostle Paul also tells us that one day we will have the real thing. We will not have to make do with dim reflections as we do now, but we will see face to face. And in that day there will be no more need for imitations of God than there will be to spend eighty bucks for tickets to see the fake Beatles when you have the real thing. But we do not live in such a time now. Now we live in a world in which we wait for renewal, in which we wait for perfection, in which we wait for the coming of God s kingdom. And in such a world, all people can see is the imitation. So in the meantime, while we wait, you might want to know, just how is it that we go about being these dim reflections? How do we imitate God? And what about God would we imitate? I suppose that most of us would say that there is a real difference between imitating God and imitating the Beatles or imitating Madonna. And the difference is that when someone imitates the Beatles or Madonna is that part of that imitation involves trying to look like the Beatles or Madonna. But the author of Ephesians does not asking us to imitate God in that way. The author of Ephesians says that we do not imitate what God looks like. We imitate what God is doing. He tells us to love as God loves. Forgive as God forgives. Do not hold grudges, do not lie, do not speak evil. These are all godly ways of acting. Do not look as God looks, whatever that might mean, but do as God would do, do as God does. But I think that in a way we can also can look the way that God looks. I say in a way, of course, because there s no way to look actually like one whom we cannot see. But I think we can be mistaken in thinking that we can t see God at all. God doesn t look like any one of us individually, but God looks like all of us collectively. Because we are all created in the image of God, God looks like you if you have blue eyes, but God also looks like you if you have brown 5
eyes or green eyes. God looks like you if you are young, but God also looks like you if you are old. God looks like you if you are male but God also looks like you if you are female. God looks like you if you have white skin, but God also looks like you if you have black, brown, red or yellow skin. But though God looks like all of us, it is difficult for others to see God in us when we are living for ourselves, and living apart from God s will, and so the only way we can ever paint a picture of God, I believe, is when we are doing the things that God would do. Today we see a dim reflection the apostle Paul tells us, but one day we will see face to face. And in the meantime, the author of Ephesians tells us, be imitators of God. In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. 6