Christing

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, February 17, 2019.  The Bible verses used are Galatians 4:22--5:2.

            There’s a word that’s come into fashion recently.  The word is “adulting”.  It means “the practice of behaving in a way characteristic of a responsible adult, especially the accomplishment of mundane but necessary tasks.”  In other words, if you speak or act or live the way a mature, reasonable, intelligent adult is supposed to, you’re said to be “adulting”.

            The thing is that adulting--learning how to speak or act or live like a mature, reasonable, intelligent adult--is not something that happens overnight.  It does not just come to you all at once.  It’s a process.  It takes time.  We have to learn it.  Each of us, had to learn how to be an adult.

            How did you learn it?  Probably in a lot of ways, but the chances are you learned adulting from people who were adults.  First it was your parents, then it may have been teachers or pastors or other influential people in your life.  It might even have been people you saw on television.  And the way you learned was probably not from the things they said.  That may have been part of it, but the chances are the way you learned from them was by watching them.  You watched them, and you imitated them.  You tried to do the things they did and live the way they lived.  That’s the way we learn adulting--by imitating the adults who are important in our lives.

            As we continue to look at Jesus’ statement that to enter the kingdom of heaven we need to become like little children, it seems to me that this is one of the ways we need to do it.  Just as children learn adulting by imitating adults, we can learn to be Christians by imitating Christ.  We could refer to this as “Christing”.  The practice of behaving in a way characteristic of Jesus Christ.

            That’s what the Apostle Paul told us to do in our reading from Ephesians.  The version of the Bible we normally use, the New International Version, says “follow God’s example”, but a lot of versions actually come out and say, “Be imitators of Christ.”  Either way, though, the point is that, as Christians, our goal is to be as much like Christ as possible.

            And Paul tells us ways in which we can do that.  Here’s what he says:  Speak the truth.  Try not to get angry, but if we do, get over it.  Don’t get carried away by anger, so that our anger makes us sin.  Don’t steal.  Work hard.  Share with each other.  Watch the things we say.  Let the things we say be encouraging and build people up.  Let our words benefit people who hear them.

            And then, to sum it all up, Paul says this:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ god forgave you...And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Now, that’s a pretty good checklist that Paul gave us.  If each of us did all those things, we’d probably do a pretty good job of Christing.  We’d do about as good a job as a human can do of being like Jesus Christ if we did all of those things.

But here’s the thing.  A person really cannot live their life by following a checklist.  Every time we go to act or speak, we cannot pull out a list to see if what we’re about to do or say is on it.  We cannot even do that mentally.  Most people’s minds simply do not work that way.

If you doubt me on that, think about this--how many times have you spoken before you thought?  How many times have you done something without really thinking it through?  For most of us, it happens quite a bit.  We speak before we think and we act before we think.  We regret it, later, but we still do it.  For a lot of us, it happens pretty regularly.

Or, think of it this way.  Think of a time you were learning to do something.  Learning to swim, learning to sew, learning to work on machinery, learning to cook, learning to play a sport or a musical instrument, whatever.  What’s the best way to learn?  Is it to read a book about it?  Is it to listen to a lecture about it?  Or is it to have someone work with you and show you how to do it?  For most of us, that’s what we need.  We need someone to show us how.  We need an example to follow.  And that’s the best way for us to learn how to be like Jesus Christ, too.

And that’s why Jesus did not, for the most part, teach “Christing” with lectures.  There were times when Jesus told us things we should and should not do.  But Jesus did not stop there.  He provided examples. 

First, he provided the example of his own life.  The life Jesus lived--a life of love, a life of healing, a life of giving, a life of self-sacrifice--is the ultimate example of how a Christian should live.  If we could all imitate Jesus’ life, we’d all be Christing perfectly.

But Jesus provided examples in other ways, too.  That’s one of the reasons for Jesus’ parables.  Think of how most of the parables came about.  The way it usually worked was that someone would come up to Jesus and say, “Here’s a situation.  Now what do you think about it.  What should we do?” 

How did Jesus respond?  It was never by giving a direct answer, right?  Jesus never answered by saying, “You should do this.”  What Jesus would say, in effect, is “let me tell you a story.  It might be a story about a man with two sons.  It might be a story about a guy who was traveling and was attacked by thieves.  It might be a story about a man who went out to plant a field. 

Story after story after story.  Jesus would tell the story, and then say, “Now, what do you think the right thing to do is?’  And of course, the answer would be obvious.  Jesus taught that way because he knew that just telling people what to do does not work.  We need to be shown what to do.  We need examples to follow.

So what does that mean for our lives?  Well, it means a few things.  For one thing, it shows the importance of reading the Bible, especially the gospels.  Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the books that tell us about Jesus’ life.  After all, if we want to be like Christ, we need to get to know Christ.  The old phrase “What Would Jesus Do” is still a good guide, but in order to know what Jesus would do we need to know what Jesus actually did.  So if we want to get better at Christing, we need to know how Jesus lived his life on earth and know the examples Jesus gave us for how we should live our lives.

But again, it’s not enough to read about it.  We need to be shown.   So what do we do?

The letter to the Hebrews answers that.  In Hebrews Thirteen, Verse Seven, we read, “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.  Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”  And in Hebrews Six, Verse Twelve, it says, “Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.”

We may not be able to see Jesus.  We may not be able to see Paul.  But there are people we can see.  There are people whose way of life shows their faith.  There are people who are imitators of Christ.  There are people who are Christing.  And we can imitate them, and so learn Christing ourselves.

Who are those people for you?  Who are the people you know whose way of life shows their faith?  Who do you know who you believe, through faith and patience, will inherit what God has promised?

Those are the people who can show us how to imitate Christ.  Don’t get me wrong--Jesus is still the ultimate standard.  Jesus is the one to follow.  But to the extent we need someone we can see, these are the people.  These are the ones who can help us with “Christing”, with imitating Jesus Christ in our lives.

But here’s another thing to think about.  Who might you be an example to?  In fact, who might be looking to you as an example right now?  Because I’m pretty sure someone is.  Whether you know it or not, whether you intend it or not, whether you like it or not, someone is.  Someone is learning Christing from you.  Even if you don’t think they should be, even if you don’t think you’re worthy of that, it’s true.  Someone is learning Christing from you.  And someone may be learning Christing from me, too.

What are they learning?  If someone patterned their Christian faith after yours, what would they be like?  How good at Christing would they be?

You’ll have to answer that for yourself.  If you’re happy with the answer, that’s great.  But if you’re not, then it leads to another question.  What are you going to do about it?

Little kids learn adulting by imitating adults.  You and I learn Christing by imitating Christ and by imitating Christians we respect and admire.  And others will learn Christing by imitating us.

May we learn well.  May we follow Christ in our own lives, and may we also help others learn to follow Christ in their lives.