Monday, February 19, 2018

FINISHING BY IMITATING


                A man I have known for 70 years, a colleague in ministry, a companion on trips, a competitor on the golf course, and who became my best friend, died recently.  I have thought of him a lot this past week and what I might say at his memorial service.  At the same time, I was thinking about what to say for our memorial service here today at the communion table.  These thoughts brought together several NT texts.

                2 Tim 4:7-8 came to mind as I thought about Orris.  Paul wrote it near the end of his life: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

                The idea of “finishing the course,” reminded me of Jesus. At one point in his ministry, Luke tells us in 9:51, Jesus “set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem.”  He was determined to follow that course, and eventually, with a few stops along the way, he made it to Jerusalem.  There, at the end of his journey he found a cross.  As he hung upon that cross, having accomplished all that his Father sent him to do, Jesus said, “It is finished.”

                I wondered, why was Paul able to say what he did at the end of his life?  I think much of the answer can be found in what he said earlier to the Corinthians.  In 1 Cor 11:1 he urged them, “be imitators of me, just as I also imitate Christ.”  Paul tried to imitate Christ.  He wanted to imitate his love, his forgiveness, his servanthood, even his sacrifice.  Therefore, he said in Phil 1:20-21, “It is my earnest expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that will full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ but to die is gain.”

                After Paul urged the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitated Christ he went on in the same chapter to express his disappointment in how they were observing the Lord’s Supper.  They were not “discerning the body,” that is the body of Christ.  They were not living out what the Lord’s Supper called for.  They were not imitating the love of Christ, his forgiveness, his servanthood and his sacrifice. 

                The call of the Lord’s Supper has not changed.  In it we can hear the voice of Christ himself saying, imitate me … imitate my love, imitate my forgiveness, imitate my servanthood, imitate my sacrifice. 

                If we do that we will be able to say with Paul at the end of our journey: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”