Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
January 27, 2008

Rev. L. John Gable

“THE IMITATION OF GOD"

Ephesians 5:1-20, I John 2:3-6

During the past several weeks we have looked together at this thing we do called worship.  We have determined that we worship God for no other reason than this; because “God is God,” and He alone is worthy of our adoration and praise.  As the Psalmist tells us, “It is He who made us and we are His.”  We worship because this is what we were created to do as it best expresses who we were created to be, Children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. 

We have also determined that in our worship we are intent on pursuing an experience or an encounter with this holy and righteous God.  This experience is unlike any other for us because here, in this time and place, among this people we seek to find ourselves in the presence of God.

Just this past Thursday, Ryan and Miriam Guidero and I attended a seminar on “Re-Imagining the Church” led by Doug Pagitt, pastor of Solomon’s Porch in Minneapolis, and a leader in what is being called the “emerging church movement.”  As any good seminar speaker should do, he challenged our under-standing of the church, specifically our understanding of what we do in worship. That is good, but what I find myself in disagree-ment with him over, and perhaps with the emerging church movement itself is this: he seemed to suggest that our primary purpose for being together in worship is to establish the bonds of relationships we have with one another - call it an experience of spiritual networking - and I couldn’t disagree more.  As important as these are, and I admit our relationships with one another are important in our experience of faith, they are not our primary reason for being together in worship or as a church; they are secondary.  Our primary purpose for being together, our primary reason for being as a church, is to establish and experience a relationship with God, and out of that fundamental relationship we become related to one another. Ultimately, worship is not about us; it is about God.

If worship is this important, then the question still persists, “How do we know we are doing it right?”  We will recall reading in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ words to the Samaritan woman at the well; “Those who worship the Father must worship in Spirit and in truth.”  Certainly that is our desire, but how do we, as a congregation, know that our worship is right and true?  Or, ask the same question on an individual basis, “How do I know my worship is genuine and my faith is real?” 

We may be surprised by the answers we get from our Scripture lessons this morning.  In I John we read, “Now by this we may be sure that we know Him, if we obey His command-ments.….By this we may be sure that we are in Him, whoever says, ‘I abide in Him’, ought to walk just as He walked.” How may we be made sure that our faith is real and that our worship is true?   Seemingly it is measured less by what we do in here, less by the doctrinal correctness of our words or the fervency of our prayers, than by the way we live our lives for God out there.

Charles Colson, in his book The Body, writes, “The church is more than simply a collection of people; it is a changed commu-nity.  Modern Christians, especially evangelicals, see the Christian faith primarily, if not exclusively, as the gospel of “Jesus and me.”  Christianity is simply a personal relationship with Jesus.   Accept Christ into your life and you will be saved.  This is true as far as it goes, but it falls woefully short.  Although we are justified through our faith, Christianity is much more than a private transaction with Jesus.”
 
“When Peter made his confession, Jesus did not say, ‘Good, Peter.  You are now saved and will have an abundant life.  Go in peace.’ Instead, He announced the church and established a divinely ordained pattern. When we confess Christ, God’s response is to bring us into His Church; we become part of a called-out people.”  What Colson is saying is this: when we come to faith, when we come in to a personal relationship with God, He calls us “in”; into worship, into study, into fellowship with Him and other believers.  That vertical dimension of faith then finds expression in the horizontal relationships of our lives.  He calls us “in” in order to send us “out” again, out onto the streets, out into the world, out to be His witnesses, out to be His hands and feet doing the work of His Kingdom.

Worship is for us then the workshop for learning how to live the Christian life.  We have a mistaken notion if we think that we come in here to practice our faith.  No, we come in here to learn how to practice our faith out there.  The great preacher Henry Ward Beecher, whom I recently learned was the first pastor of 2nd Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, once said, “The church is not a gallery for the exhibition of eminent Christians, but a school for the education of imperfect ones, a nursery for the care of weak ones, a hospital for the healing of those who need (continual) care.”  Life becomes the testing place for the lessons we learn in this classroom called worship. 

When you and I take a class or a course or attend a workshop on any given topic (cooking, computers, poetry writing), we measure its effectiveness not so much by what we learn in the class, but by what we learn in the classroom that can actually put to use in our everyday lives.  The same can be said of what we do in worship.  What we learn and experience in here is intended to be put into practice out there. 

We talked last week about using the order of worship as a guide for our daily walk with Christ.  As we incorporate adoration and praise, prayers of confession and petition, meditation and reflection on the Scriptures, responses of self giving and service to others into our daily routines we are living “worship-full” lives.  What we experience in here, gets lived out out there.

This is what Paul was getting at when he writes in his letter to the Ephesians, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us, and gave Himself up for us.”  Each of Paul’s letters is almost equally divided between theology and ethics.  He opens his letters by teaching some great truth or truths about God; he then closes them by applying those truths to the living of the Christian life.  In the first half he states an “indicative;” this is what God has done. In the second half he states the “imperative;” now this is what we are called to do in response to what God has done, and in this passage we are called to be “imitators of God.”

In worship we bow before God and study His Word -- why?  Not simply so that we can know more about God, as if we were cramming for an exam, but so that we can become more like God. Worship is the starting point in our training in righteousness, in God-like living.  We have all seen the popular bracelets, WWJD, “What Would Jesus Do?”  They are a very good reminder for us to model our actions and our responses after those of Jesus.  But, before we can do what Jesus would do, we need to know what Jesus did, and then we need to try it on and practice it.  If we want to grow in to the likeness of Christ as Children of God, then we need to know what our holy God expects of us and what that likeness looks like, so that we can then imitate it.

In this passage from Ephesians Paul is very specific about the kinds of behaviors that are no longer acceptable for us as Christians.  Admittedly he sets the bar of ethical behavior very high.  Why? Because we worship a holy God and we want to be like Him.  Paul writes, “Fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is improper among the saints.  Entirely out of place is obscene, silly or vulgar talk…don’t be deceived by empty words…take no part in unfruitful works of darkness…Be careful how you live” and so on.  He is saying to us, there are certain behaviors that are simply not OK for us as Christians, so don’t act that way, don’t go there, don’t think even about it.  Why?  Because such behavior is inconsistent and unacceptable for a child of God.  Remember who you are and to whom you belong and who it is you are trying to imitate.
  
Our true faith and our right worship are measured not only by what we do in here, but by how we live out there.  If we say, “I have come to know Him”, but then do not live by His commandments, we are shown to be liars and the truth is not in us.  However, those who truly know the love of God “walk as He walked.”  Those who talk the talk must also learn to walk the walk, lest we be accused of misrepresenting the Gospel and our Lord.

How do we know that our faith is real and our worship is true?  It is not to be measured by the knowledge we have about God or the amount of Bible trivia we have stored away; nor by the depth of our emotions or the genuineness of our feelings when we are assembled here.  No, the real assurance of our faith comes when those truths that are proclaimed in here are actually put into practice out there.
 
Elton Trueblood, the well-respected Quaker teacher and leader, writes, “Somewhere in the world there should be a society consciously and deliberately devoted to the task of seeing how love can be made real and demonstrating love in practice.  Unfortunately, there is really only one candidate for this task.  If God, as we believe, is truly revealed in the life of Christ, the most important thing to Him is the creation of centers of loving fellowship, which in turn infect the world.  Whether or not the world can be redeemed in this way we do not know, but it is at least clear that there is no other way.”

This is the calling of the church, and Trueblood is saying, if the church is to have its desired affect on the world, that is, to influence the world for Jesus Christ, then we must live out our creeds through our actions.  The love spoken of in here must be demonstrated out there.  The forgiveness modeled in here must be extended out there.  The ways of holiness and righteousness and peace talked about in here must become our ways of walking out there.  If we worship a servant Lord in here, then we must be a servant people out there.  If Christ has commanded us to take the Gospel to the whole world, then we must not simply nod our heads in agreement in here, but actually get up and do what He commands out there.   
 
Now admittedly actually living the Christian life and obeying its teachings is hard. If it were not, God likely would not have called us to do it.  But since He has, worship becomes all that much more important for us on a regular, a weekly basis.  As Paul writes, “the days are evil” and as we attempt to “walk in the light, as He is in the light” we will be put down, so we must make it our habit to come back together again and again, for continued training, for mutual support and encouragement, until the reality we learn in here becomes the reality we live out out there. 

Dr. Richard C. Halverson, former chaplain to the Senate, writes, “The measure of the effectiveness of a local church is not when the sanctuary is full on Sunday morning and the programs are in operation.  The measure of the effectiveness of the church is what’s happening when the sanctuary is empty, the programs are not in operation and the people are all out and scattered, penetrating all of the organizations and institutions in that area, because where they are Christ is – in them.  You are the church.”

Friends, I will confess to you that it is that balance between faith and practice that most intrigued me about Tab and most inspired me to come here to be with you as your pastor.  Tab, perhaps not exclusively, but quite uniquely among churches that I am aware of, has made the commitment to live out our evangelical witness in the social circumstances of our community.  Our active involvement in this community for the past 150 years has been fired, not by liberal theology or the social justice movement, but by a deep, evangelical commitment to become the hands and feet of Christ, sharing the love and compassion of Christ with everyone we meet.  This is our high calling, and may we ever be committed to it.

The great historian Herbert Butterfield said that after studying all the great moments and all the great leaders and all the great movements in history, more change and more good have taken place in this world from ordinary Christian people attending church on a regular basis than any other single influence in history.  Why did he think that?  Because worship reminds us who we are and to Whom we belong.  Here we are reminded of who it is we are called to be and what it is we are called to do, day in and day out.

How do we know that our faith is real and our worship is true?  When what we do in here becomes lived out and obeyed out there.   Amen.
 
I close with a prayer written by one unnamed.  “O Lord, we have listened to Your Word and loved it; we have found comfort and inspiration in song and prayer; we have enjoyed the companionship of those who, with kindred minds and hearts have praised and worshipped You.  Now help us to understand that, as we leave this sacred house of God, we shall become Your church in the street.”  To the glory of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.   Amen.