Sermon for 8/11/24: Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (Proper 14b)

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Imitating God
Ephesians 4:17-5:2

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

There always seems to be a dispute about whether or not behavior is influenced by what we see on the television, video games, and movie screens, and by what we hear over the airwaves. Of course, there are statistics that support both sides of the issue, as statistics can always be made to say what someone wants them to say. Perhaps you remember that Mark Twain said, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” But whatever the stats say, common sense tells us that behavior can be influenced by what is seen and heard. And even more persuasive than common sense is the Biblical argument St. Paul makes in this text. He tells us that we are to be imitators of God. How could that be if there was not something from God, something seen and heard, that we are to imitate?

It has been said that imitation is the highest form of flattery. If that is true in positive things, like imitating God, why would it not also be true in negative things? If God wishes His children to imitate Him in His ways, would it not also be the case that His great enemy, Satan, would try to get us to imitate him? The truth is, imitation is something we do all the time. We are likely not even aware how often we imitate what others do or say.

Of course, it should go without saying that we are not to be imitators of Satan. But there are such imitators in the world, many of them in places where we would least expect them. On one occasion, Jesus said to the Jews: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires...” Obviously this is something we should avoid. But we should not even be thoughtless imitators of men. Yes, there have been great men and women of faith, and Scripture encourages us to remember them and imitate their faith. But like us, they were sinners. They needed the same Savior you and I need. They may be good models for imitation, but only in certain ways. We should imitate St. Peter, for example, in sharing our faith; we should not imitate him in taking the sword to our neighbor’s ears. Where we can and should imitate the saints who have gone before is in the faithful confession they made by the power of the Spirit to the Savior of the world.

If we are to be imitators of God, then we must have a clear picture of Him. To give us that clear picture of God, St. Paul might have laid out a series of divine characteristics we should follow. Instead he chose one divine attribute which includes all the others: love. The clearest picture of God is received by seeing His love. And this encouragement to imitate God is surrounded by His love. We heard St. Paul say, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” And then, two verses later, our reading says: “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us...” To know God, and then to imitate Him, means that we first see His love for us perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ. As St. John wrote in his first Epistle: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” This is the love of God in Jesus Christ that has reconciled the whole world to Himself. In Jesus Christ, God loves us poor sinners. And this is the God of love we are now to imitate. If we believe that God has so loved us as to give His very best for us—His own dear Son—we must love Him in return. Imitating God, then, is not something we are forced or compelled to do. It is not even something we choose to do. The power of that divine love itself persuades us. It is never a matter of fear or intimidation, but a free and willing return of love to Him who has loved us.

Of course we should be concerned by the troubles of our neighbor and extend the hand of love to him. But it is of even greater importance that we are concerned about the needs of his eternal soul. As Jesus wept over the unbelief and rejection from His own people, so we, too, should pray over those among us and around us who remain in unbelief and rejection of Jesus Christ. From a loving heart, we ought to speak of their soul‘s salvation and the love of God for them. Sometimes we have to love someone so much that we must tell them that they are dead in sin. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” In this, too, we are to be imitators of God. 

And, of course, when our Lord gathers His disciples together to feed them with His own body and blood right before He goes to the cross, once again we should imitate our God. Jesus tells us to do this—to take and eat, to take and drink—for the forgiveness of our sins. In receiving this holy Bread of life into our mouths, as He urges and even commands us to do for our good, He strengthens us as we seek to imitate Him in mercy and charity.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Paul is encouraging us here to imitate God in all of His goodness and love—not because our efforts to do so contribute anything to our salvation, but because the blessings of that salvation are already ours by His grace. May God grant that we would be faithful imitators of His love and mercy, that the lives and souls of those whom we encounter every day might also find in Jesus Christ their hope for life and salvation, now and forever. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.