June 28, Summer Salad Lunch

Lesson: Ephesians 5.1-2

 

Sermon Title: The Real Nature of Imitation

(Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION:

Chickens in Trees (1)

During the Revolutionary War, there was a small encampment of patriot soldiers the woods. Before they went to bed that night, they tied chickens (they were saving them for a special meal when needed) to the trees around the campground.

Sure enough, some British soldiers were stumbling through the woods that night and frightened the chickens. Their screams and clucks woke the Patriots and they were able to defeat and capture the entire group of British soldiers. A few nights later, the cook prepared the chickens for dinner.

The soldiers said, "This is really good. What do you call it?"

The cook said that in honor of these special chickens who saved their lives, he called it "Chicken Catch a Tory."

  1. This is a dumb joke.

    1. I sort of like dumb clean jokes.

    2. It is life imitating art, the art of story telling, that is.

  2. It can be also dumb as seen from above.

A sign from above (2)

"Peas and carrots...thank you, Lord, for that sign! Peas and carrots it will be! It's time to plant now." Judd had prayed fervently for the past few days, asking the Lord what kind of crops to plant in his lower field. He planted all afternoon.

Judd told a neighboring farmer who asked him how he knew what to plant: "I looked up in the sky and saw a sign from God. There was a big white 'P C' right there in the middle of the sky. I knew then that the 'P' and 'C' meant that the Lord wanted me to plant peas and carrots."

That night, Judd went to town to eat at the family restaurant. There a friend introduced him to a man named George, who was from out of town.

"What kind of work ya doin'?" Judd asked George.

"I'm a skywriter," said George. "I'm in town doing some work for a company. I took off in my plane this morning, flew right up into that wild blue yonder and wrote their initials for all to see."

"What company was it for?" Judd asked.

"Peterson Chevrolet," George replied.

    1. This is not politically correct.

    2. It is an attempt to figure the communications of God by using signs in the sky.

    3. That is dangerous.

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)

MAIN BODY

  1. The Real Nature of Imitation sounds like a dumb sermon title.

    1. It is based on two thoughts:

      1. The first thought is that we are imitators and all of our natural lives is but imitation.

        1. The Roman philosopher, Seneca (3) wrote "All art is but imitation of nature."

        2. Charles Caleb Colton (4) in the nineteenth century observed, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

        3. Gerog Christoph Lichtenberg (5) counter-observed, "To do just the opposite is also a form of flattery."

        4. William Wordsworth, in Ode, Intimations of Immortality from recollections of Early Childhood (1807) writes about the child

          5. "Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;
          Some fragment from his dream of human life,
          Shaped by himself with newly-learned art;
          A wedding or a festival,
          A mourning or a funeral
          And this hath now his heart,
          And unto this he frames his song;
          Then will he fit it to his tongue
          To dialogues of business, love or strife;
          But it will not be long
          Ere this be thrown aside,
          And with joy and pride
          Then the little Actor cons another part;
          Filling from time to time his "humorous stage"
          With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,
          That Life bring with her in her equipage;
          As if his whole vocation
          Were endless imitation."

      1. We imitators living in an imitation world.

        1. Imitation cloth

        2. Imitation tires

        3. Imitation food

        4. Imitation drugs

        5. Imitation lives.

      2. It can be very confusing, very dangerous, and very unsatisfactory.

        1. We are looking for love and don't find it

          1. Most of it is imitation anyway.

          2. It doesn't last.

        2. We are looking for satisfactions and don't find them.

          1. Work produces almost as much anxiety as it does satisfaction.

          2. As Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, has said, the only profitable company is a mean company.

          3. Downsizing has its advantages and disadvantages.

        3. Relationships are casual. Friendships are few.

          1. We try to please rather than to be ourselves.

          2. Even relationships contain a high level of artificiality.

    1. The second thought is that we are encouraged to be "Imitators of God."

      1. Ephesians 5:1-2

        1. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,

        2. and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    2. How are we going to be imitators of the One whom we probably do not know except in a casual way?

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. So into this mix let us put one further idea.

    1. "Jay Leno knew he had the perfect comedy routine.

      1. Roving through the audience of his late-night talk show. (6)

      2. Leno asked people how much they knew about the Bible.

      3. 'Name one of the Ten Commandments,' he asked.

        1. A hand went up: 'God helps those who help themselves?'

      4. Leno went on: 'Name one of the apostles.'

        1. No answer.

      5. But when he asked his audience to name the four Beatles,

        1. the names 'George, Paul, John, and Ringo' flew from the crowd.

    2. "Gary M. Burge (7) was listening to a speech on the radio given by a candidate for governor in Nevada.

      1. He wanted to propose a new tax on the gambling industry but did not want to give the impression that he was against Nevada's most powerful and lucrative industry.

      2. Appealing to biblical authority, he announced:

        1. 'I want to be like King David in the Bible. He didn't kill Goliath, he just hurt him a little.'"

    3. "...On Children's Sunday, Lillian Daniel, Senior Minister, Church of the Redeemer, UCC, New Haven CT (8) went through the ritual of presenting the third graders with their own Bibles.

      1. Some of the children receiving Bibles were brand new to church life.

      2. We may have been giving them the first Bibles they would see in their homes.

      3. To liven things up, I gave the children a pop quiz.

        1. She said, 'I'm going to call out three names of books in the Bible. You tell me which ones are false.

          1. First, the Gospel of John, the Gospel of Paul, and the Gospel of Stewart.'

          2. The adults laughed and the children knew that there was no Gospel of Stewart in the Canon.

          3. As for the Gospel of Paul, they claimed a deep familiarity with it.

      4. "She realized that she had to make her public quiz easier.

        1. She told them there would only be one true book in the next list, and I asked them to choose among the books of Malachi, Shalakai, and Jai-Alai.

          1. "The book of Jai-Alai is the right one," called out a child.

            1. Jai-Alai is a popular betting sport in Connecticut.

            2. Sadly, it would be more familiar to the average child than a book of the Old Testament.

        2. "'Okay, now try this list: Habbakuk, Chewbacca, and Pistachio.'

          1. The children laughed.

          2. They thought that all three were made up.

        3. "That's why we are giving you these Bibles," I said, undiscouraged.

      5. "My quiz confirmed yet again that I can never assume biblical literacy in my New England congregation.

    4. What about here in our Wisconsin congregation.

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. If we are going to be imitators who or what will we imitate?

    1. It may help us to think about what is imitation and what is real.

      1. I would like to suggest that God is real.

Our neighbor, Vaughan, had been at a party and his cell phone had slipped out of his pocket.
He wanted to know if Todd or I had a phone that he could use.
I let him use mine, as I noticed his tee shirt.
It had the image of a computer on it.
Under the image were the words, "The New God."
I am sorry but this is not a real god, but only an imitation.

      1. Only God is real.

      2. You and I are the imitators.

    1. What are we imitating and why?

    2. How do we become imitators of the real and so real ourselves?

      1. Again this may appear dumb.

      2. You and I are real.

      3. But we are also imitations of imitators.

    3. You say you are not going to be an imitator. You are going to be real, authentic.

      1. But then what is real?

      2. Only God is real.

      3. Everything else is fictitious.

      4. Everything else is counterfeit.

        1. You go to the bank with a fifty-dollar bill among the deposit that you want to make.

        2. The cashier examines your money and tells you that the fifty-dollar bill is a fake.

        3. How can you know?

        4. Often you cannot.

        5. We are not trained to spot counterfeit money.

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. We can be trained to identify the imposter's who are passing themselves off as real.

C. Thomas Hilton, Be My Guest, Sermons On The Lord's Supper (9) writes:

In a small college town, a tavern frequented by students ran the following ad in the campus paper during the days before Parents' Weekend: Bring Your Parents for Lunch Saturday. We'll Pretend We Don't Know You.

The ad was soon challenged by the college chaplain, who posted a revised version on the campus bulletin board. It read: Bring Your Parents to Chapel Sunday. We'll Pretend We Know You Well.

    1. We don't play pretending, pretentious games.

    2. Be imitators of God.

      1. What God?

        1. You can choose the descendants of Baal, Dagon, Astarte.

          1. You can set up a shrine.

          2. You can create a high place and offer them worship.

          3. A god who is not god.

        2. I was talking with a person who believed that god was in control of everything, even an individual's thoughts.

        3. I did not attempt to dissuade him.

        4. What kind of a god is this?

        5. This is not my god.

    3. I love and serve and share life with the God of Jesus!

      1. Not a God who controls all of life, only part of life.

      2. This is the God who provides information in abundance so that I may, as far as is humanly possible, understand myself, you and the world.

      3. This is the God who encourages, again within human limitation, the use of one's own power, with divine assistance to reach as high as one is able in the development of the total self.

      4. This is the God who encourages the development of personal skills and talents, and provides assistance.

      5. This is the God who helps one to live confidently and successfully amid the constant dangers and trials which come to the individual.

    4. Only God can help us tell the difference between the imitation and the real.

      1. In the, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis is this thought. (10)

HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness," says the Lord.[1] By these words of Christ we are advised to imitate His life and habits, if we wish to be truly enlightened and free from all blindness of heart. Let our chief effort, therefore, be to study the life of Jesus Christ.
The teaching of Christ is more excellent than all the advice of the saints, and he who has His spirit will find in it a hidden manna. Now, there are many who hear the Gospel often but care little for it because they have not the spirit of Christ. Yet whoever wishes to understand fully the words of Christ must try to pattern his whole life on that of Christ.
What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity? Indeed it is not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God. I would rather feel contrition than know how to define it. For what would it profit us to know the whole Bible by heart and the principles of all the philosophers if we live without grace and the love of God? Vanity of vanities and all is vanity, except to love God and serve Him alone.
This is the greatest wisdom -- to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.
Often recall the proverb: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the ear filled with hearing." (11) Try, moreover, to turn your heart from the love of things visible and bring yourself to things invisible. For they who follow their own evil passions stain their consciences and lose the grace of God.

      1. We have ears that hear and eyes that see and minds that may comprehend.

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)

CONCLUSION:

  1. What we have been exploring for these past weeks is real.

    1. Check out the Letter to the Ephesians up to this point and you will realize that Paul is not only telling us about God, but also about ourselves.

      1. Our strength and weaknesses.

      2. Our knowledge and ignorance

      3. Our potential and how to achieve it

  2. Let us truly stop imitating the world and the things of the world and begin in a very determined and specific way to become imitators of God; the God of Jesus Christ.

    1. The Good, Clean Funnies List [gcfl-info@gcfl.net]

    2. Dave Lewickl, Jeffersonville, PA

    3. Epistles 65,3

    4. Lacon, (1820-1822), vol. 1, no. 183

    5. Aphorisms

    6. Gary M. Burge, The Greatest Story Never Read, "Christianity Today, August 9, 1999, page 45

    7. Ibid, page 45

    8. The Rev. Lillian Daniel, Senior Minister, Church of the Redeemer, United Church of Christ, New Haven. CT, I Love to Tell the Story to Those Who Know It Least: biblical preaching in a post-Christian Age, Christianity Today, August 9, 1999, Page 49

    9. Cited in C. Thomas Hilton, Be My Guest, Sermons On The Lord's Supper (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1991), 89.

    10. Book One: Thoughts Helpful in the Life of the Soul. The First Chapter: Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth

    11. Eccles. 1:8.

    (Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)  (Back to Sermons 2008-2009)
    (Back to Sermons Home Page)  (Back to Shultz Home Page)