August 29, 1999 - LESSON: Ephesians 5:1-5

SERMON TITLE: When the Imitation is Real

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. This sounds like a dumb sermon title.
    1. When the imitation is real.
    2. It is based on two thoughts:
    3. We are imitators and all of our natural lives is but imitation.
      1. The Roman philosopher, Seneca(1) wrote "All art is but imitation of nature."
      2. Charles Caleb Colton(2) observed, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."
      3. Gerog Christoph Lichtenberg(3) counter-observed, "To do just the opposite is also a form of flattery."
      4. William Wordsworth, in Ode, Intimations of Immorality from recollections of Early Childhood (1807) writes about the child

        "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."

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      5. We imitators living in an imitation world.
        1. Imitation cloth
        2. Imitation tires
        3. Imitation food
        4. Imitation drugs
        5. Imitation lives.
      6. 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 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.
    4. The second thought is that we are encouraged to be "Imitators of God."
      1. Ephesians 5:1-2
        1. 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,
        2. 2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
        3. How are we going to be imitators of the One whom we probably do not know except in a casual way.

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  2. So into this mix let us put one further idea.
    1. "Jay Leno knew he had the perfect comedy routine. Roving through the audience of his late-night talk show.(4)
      1. Leno asked people how much they knew about the Bible.
      2. 'Name one of the Ten Commandments,' he asked.
        1. A hand went up: 'God helps those who help themselves?'
      3. Leno went on: 'Name one of the apostles.'
        1. No answer.
      4. But when he asked his audience to name the four Beatles,
        1. the names 'George, Paul, John, and Ringo' flew from the crowd.
    2. "Last year Gary M. Burge(5) 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. "Recently, on Children's Sunday, Lillian Daniel, Senior Minister, Church of the Redeemer, UCC, New Haven CT(6) 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 die 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.

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      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, Shatakai, 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.
      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.
  3. 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.
      2. You and I are the imitators.
    2. What are we imitating and why?
    3. 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 imitators.

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    4. 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 phony.
      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.
  4. We can be trained to identify the imposter's who are passing themselves off as real.
    1. And that includes our selves.
    2. Be imitators of God.
      1. What God?
        1. I was talking with a person who believed that god was in control of everything, even an individual's thoughts.
        2. I did not attempt to dissuade him.
        3. What kind of a god is this?
        4. 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 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.

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

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. Epistles 65,3

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

3. Aphorisms

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

5. Ibid, page 45

6. 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

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