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.”
