“And Back to Imitation!”

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 2:13-20

2 weeks ago, we considered the need to imitate Christ’s walk and attitude and love for the gospel of God. Last week, we considered what makes our ministry truly authentic. And today, we continue with our reflection on Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica, in which he continues to encourage the church to be faithful and courageous in their witness.

So before we venture back into Paul’s thoughts, let’s take just a moment to consider those things that draw us away from the mission that the Holy Spirit leads us through. We all know what they are – we’ve all had to live with them, we’ve all been tempted by them, and I expect that we all have succumbed to the siren’s call at one time or another. The call to personal success in business, the call to “live it up” through the use of alcohol or drugs or in some other worldly pleasure, the call to exert an authoritarian attitude over the very people who love us the most, the call to take pride in our own accomplishments, the call to abusive behavior toward the rest of creation, and the list can go on and on without end.
And as long as we live our lives to the standard set by the world, we will never be bothered by them. As a matter of fact, they may even support us in ways that the church never does. The world can be our best friend at times, but the problem is that it is all based on a lie.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:13-16

In the Course of Study class that I’m currently taking (“Theology for the Practice of Ministry”), we are looking at the things that we truly believe about God and our relationship with him. We touch on salvation and other issues of faith, but the greatest amount of time has been spent on discovering who God is, as John Wesley put it, in the “One and Three”. Discussions, presentations of various theological readings, lecture, paper preparation – it is not an easy way to discover God! There must be a better way!
As the story goes, someone has developed a “Ticket to Heaven”, to eliminate all the fuss and bother. I found this notice:

If you ever lost sleep fretting over your eternal destiny, help is at hand. “Ticket to Heaven” provides just what it says - an “admit one” invite to the afterlife. Believers can find peace of mind and atheists can hedge their bets. There are no implausible doctrines to believe, no tiresome works of charity to perform. Just a very modest - all things considered - $10 to pay. (Paradise also accepts all major credit cards.)
Then all you have to do, presumably, is work out a way of getting your certificate beyond the grave.
-Ship of Fools Online Magazine, September 1999, www.flash.net/~thedoor.

But it is never quite this easy.
Israel wanted to keep their relationship with God on an up and up basis. They were comfortable with the sacrifices and prayers and they were easy to understand. They didn’t want those Gentiles to have any footing whatsoever on what they had, seemingly, cornered the market on. God liked them, and no one else deserved any of their God! It just wasn’t right - that all those people had to do is imitate this Jesus! What about all of the righteous acts that they weren’t doing? It was just too easy!
But Paul is reminding the church that imitating Christ isn’t all that easy! The suffering church wasn’t all that unique, in that all faithful congregations were suffering right along with them. And this is one of those things that never changes. The world is not about to lay down and just let Christians be Christ-like.

Consider the situation for Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani in Iran. He renounced his Islamic faith in favor of Christianity, and now he is facing the death penalty. He has been given 3 opportunities to recant his faith, and each time he has refused. International pressure continues to be exerted on the government, and the courts may be feeling the weight of International opinion. And what about the fate of his family? That is still an unknown. And it is said that even his Islamic lawyer has been imprisoned, simply for defending Youcef and other Christians like him.
Easy!!??

Consider Christians in China! It is, for all practical purposes, an underground movement. When pastors are discovered, they are imprisoned and tortured. Their congregations are sought out and persecuted in many different ways. When a Christian is able to get out of China and travel overseas to speak about the “dissident church”, their chances of returning home unscathed is slim, at best. And their families? It isn’t good.
Easy!!??

Consider the early church! To imitate previously established churches meant that you would also be imitating their susceptibility for persecution. The people could be arrested and imprisoned with little fanfare. Torture was routine, and the Romans weren’t at all squeamish about eliminating this perceived threat against their theological polygamy. And the Jewish authorities weren’t any better. Imitation of Christ had become synonymous with blasphemy.
Easy!!??

And Paul tells the church that these people are just piling up sin upon sin, and eventually the “pile” is going to tip over and crush them. And “The wrath of God has come upon them at last.” – really? If that’s true, why is the persecution continuing? And it does.

Read 1 Thessalonians 2:17-20

So the question has to be asked – why does Christianity continue to grow? Why do people continue to turn to the true Lord of life? Why does the faithful church continue to expose itself to ridicule and opposition and persecution and even death? Remember that as Paul was writing this letter of encouragement, he, too, was in prison, expecting to die shortly.

The truth is that people continue to see Jesus Christ as the only way, and when we imitate Christ, there is no way to do it half way or half heartedly. We must do it all the way or not at all. Who did Jesus love? Everyone! We saw that time and time again. He spent time with the people of Israel, and he spent time with the Gentiles. He spent time with the “righteous” men in the temple, and he spent time with the sinners that walked along every road that he walked. He spent time with men, and women, and even welcomed the children to come to him. He was with everyone who would listen, and even those who closed their own hearts and minds to his teaching.

What did Jesus detest? The things that his beloved did. He detested the righteous arrogance of the Pharisees, and he detested the indifference that he was constantly being confronted with. He detested the sinful lives that people tried to justify, and he rejected the laws that demanded so much from those who had so little to give. He detested legalism, and he detested apathy. He detested self centered attitudes, and he hated the death that all were destined to suffer.
Jesus never avoided the hard words, and he never cheapened the easy ones. And this is what we must do, too.

Scripture lays out very clearly the path that our faithfulness must take, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to understand. It takes study. It takes prayer. It takes commitment! It takes a desire that is all consuming and it requires an effort that never takes a vacation.
But it does not mean that we must be constantly busy in the church. Burn out is no stranger to Christians, and it probably accounts for more failures in faith than persecution does. If we aren’t constantly revitalized, constantly supported, constantly supporting, constantly growing, how will we ever weather the worldly storms that are always blowing up in our face?

Paul was encouraging the church to be the church together. You’ve all heard the expression “Divide and Conquer”! That is what the world tries to do to the church. They try to inject fear into the lives of the faithful. They try to cause divisiveness. They try to introduce false teaching so we are confused as to what we believe. They try to fill us with uncertainty and apprehension and apathy. And it works! If we aren’t the church together, and if we aren’t the church with Christ, then we aren’t the church at all. Imitation is the only way, and that model is only accurate in Jesus Christ.
Imitate the Lord and his goodness in all of it’s aspects, and when we do, the church will grow and thrive. Paul’s last words for us today is this – “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy!”

The faithful church, emulating the one Lord, united in one belief, living it to the fullest in our own individual lives – that is the glory and joy that Paul was talking about. Be that glory and joy for someone today.