Interesting readings this morning and for a change a theme to preach about. This week and for the next five weeks we and the rest of the Diocese are preaching a series of sermons on the five marks of growth. I was reading in the Church Times this week about a new book that has been published about growth in the church throughout our country. It is called Church Growth in Britain 1980 to the present day and it has been edited by David Goodhew. This may be a surprise, because for the last thirty or forty years we have been told very regularly that the church is dying out, congregations are declining and it is only a matter of time. Many people believe this. I remember in my last parish a Moslem man who came to clean the windows. He was really surprised when I told him about the life of the church in the village, he thought it was closed, he had believed the myth and really thought that the only people of faith in our land belonged to the Mosques. How good to have a new book that counters this. There are so many encouraging signs and yet we never hear about them, and I am really glad that our Diocese has started this new year with something positive and encouraging and filled with the spirit of mission, not despair. So they have identified Christlikeness, as the the first mark of growth, and our readings today have been chosen carefully to highlight the importance of this in the live of individual Christians and the church. But what does it mean?
Well our reading from Genesis sets out our believe that human beings were made in the image of God. We were made as thinking, feeling, creative beings, but perhaps most importantly being made in God s image meant that we were made to have an ongoing, loving, relationship with God as our father, and reflect his love into the world that we had care of. It sounds great, but was we know was spoilt by the selfishness, that idyllic relationship didn t last long, and instead of God s image being the centre of human life, our own image and our own will replaced it. Did you know that Frank Sinatra s My Way is one of the most popular songs of a funeral these days. I remember when it was released, (showing my age here,) and thinking that there is really something not right about that song. When I meet with God, do I really want to tell him that I did it my way, or do I want to be able to say, I did it thy way? I think the first thing we need to learn about Christlikeness this morning is that it is about getting back to first principles. It is primarily about restoring the image of God into the centre of our lives, where it started and where it belongs. So to be Christlike is to be thinking, feeling, creative human beings but with a restored relationship with God that only became possible because Jesus died and rose again. It isn t just about being good people and following the good example that Jesus
set us, anyone can do that, it isn t about trying harder at all, it s about a new status that becomes ours when we come to know God in a new way through Jesus. God replaces the broken image in the centre of our lives, with the perfection of his Son. There is a beautiful worship song, I don t know whether we have sung it here, but the Lyrics are these. Jesus, be the centre, Be my source, be my light, Jesus. [V2] Jesus, be the Centre, Be my hope, be my song, Jesus. [C] Be the fire in my heart, Be the wind in these sails; Be the reason that I live, Jesus, Jesus. [V3] Jesus, be my vision, Be my path, be my guide, Jesus.
Our reading from 2 Corinthians tells us that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, so as we look at him and get to know him and follow him and learn from him and especially how he related to God his Father we see in him a perfect example of what God is like and how to live life with God at the centre, where he was meant to be in the first place. Christlikeness is not something we can achieve in our own strength, by trying harder to be good, it is more like recognising that we are children of our heavenly Father and anything is possible when we are in a right relationship with Him. Of course it is not an instant transformation, we don t suddenly turn into angels and grow wings, but like the first disciples we experience that anything is possible with God. Our gospel reading today was the simple calling of those first disciples. Ordinary people, who left their daily lives to learn from this amazing man who called them into a new way of living. It took them a while, they immersed themselves in the learning role for three years, but when the challenge came they got the message and led the church into a new future. When the letters of Paul were written, not many years later, these same fisher men were the Saints of the early church. So how was it done, you may ask? Because if we know that we just might be able to start on the path of transformation ourselves.
Well firstly they got to know Jesus, they followed him, they became familiar with him and his words and his ways and they learned from his example. If we want to be Christlike as his followers now we have to make sure that we know him, just as surely as those disciples got to know him, and we have to do it a different way from them, because he isn t walking the lanes of Beverley or even Galilee today. And it is so easy to think we know Jesus, and we know what he said and what he meant, it is simple to think we have him taped when we hardly know him or even know about him at all. After all, people say, Christianity has been part of our culture for millennia, we know all about it, but really and truly we don t. If we really want to follow him we must immerse ourselves in the Gospels so we can get to the heart of who Jesus was, what he said and how he lived, so we are not following a Jesus of our imagination but the Christ of the scriptures. So being Christlike is firstly getting to know Christ and we do that by reading and knowing the gospels. And secondly, like those disciples, we must get to the core, the very heart of the life of Jesus, and that was his relationship with his Father. It was this relationship that made Jesus into the amazing man he was, it was this that inspired his words, that powered his miracles, that took him through death and resurrection to new life. And it is this relationship that through the work of his Spirit powers the church today and is available to us all. To be Christlike is to know and experience that
relationship with God the Father, just as Jesus did. And Jesus experienced that relationship through a life of prayer. He communicated with God and God communicated with him. It was top priority, without being constantly in touch with God he would have been helpless and his life would have been lived in his own strength, he would have succumbed to human feelings and emotions that would have drawn him away from the path that God had for him. We need to learn, like the first disciples, where our priorities lie and do what he did. Pray! In the notes we received this week from the diocese were these words. What we need are churches inspired by the relationship of their members with their God and Creator. Women and men made in the image of God and renewed in the image of Christ. Men and women of prayer. Women and men of all ages, from young ones onwards who soak up the Scriptures, think them through and apply them to life today. What we need is followers of Christ, whose relationship with God is shown in their actions. And as we have seen twelve Christlike people can change the world. But we are practical people, aren t we, we want to know how to do it, and not only that we live in a world of instant answers, surely there is a button to press, a card to swipe, an app to download that will make us more like Jesus. Well, sorry the answer is
no. But I did hear of a young people s movement a few years ago that is still going on, I am sure, that could be a step along the way, a help to those of us who are impatient and know that we are not as Christlike as we know we should be, and after all these years as well! There is a little question that it is useful when faced with people and situations that give us agro, when we are tempted to say things and act in ways that we know are wrong. Asking the question What would Jesus do, is a really helpful check in moments like that, and it is a good way to slow us down before we react in ways we might regret. And the more we follow Jesus, the more we learn about him and read his word, the more we pray to our heavenly Father, the more we will find that we don t need to ask the question everytime we are challenged, because slowly we will begin to do what Jesus would do automatically. I hope you won t notice when that happens, I suspect you won t, because by then the church will be transformed, totally different from now and full of Christlike people taking the message of the love of God to the world around. Working together to build the Kingdom of God in and around this lovely place.