No Other

Ken Robinson in his inspirational TED talk about education spoke of the importance of giving people the opportunity to be creative not only when they are young, but throughout their formal education and beyond. Our education system currently teaches creative thinking out of pupils as they must learn for a test and not for real world problems. As art classes, bands, choirs, drama, and sports diminish children lose more and more chances to learn to think and be creative. Adult life is no better.

While modern employers seek to provide some new ways to work, how often are recess or art breaks part of work? Still, within every one of us resides a creative force that connects us to our Divine Creator. Do you remember a time when you were young and creative? Or, perhaps are you still young or at least young at heart? 

By the grace of God I have never completely jettisoned my inner child. One may joke about how many stories I remember from my childhood, but those foundational tales continue to impact me today. One such tale still lives vividly within my soul.

I have said in previous sermons that I had many imaginary friends growing up—not just one, but many! We would play and run around and go on adventures wherever we were. Quite often this benefited my parents who did not have to entertain me. However, there was one time every week when I had to use my creative powers in a more confined way. 

One evening a week I had to go with my mom to pick up my sister from dance rehearsal. When it was too dark I had to sit in the car and entertain myself. However, over the course of time my mom and I developed a game that still makes me laugh. My sister’s dance studio was on a busy street, so many people walked by on their way to other stores or restaurants. As people walked by my mom would ask, “Is that your sister?” For example, a 50 year-old-man with a mustache strolled by and my mom said, “Is that your sister?” The same with a mother pushing a baby stroller or a kid on a skateboard. Each time I would erupt in laughter. I found this creative game so funny because I knew these people were not my sister, until finally it was my sister walking to the car. 

What happens though when we are looking for God? When we seek out the Messiah? In both the passage from Isaiah and our Gospel lesson from Luke these questions of God’s identity hover over the text. There is only one God. God is the one who creates all: light and dark, weal and woe. God says I am the one and there is no other god. Whereas I had a really easy time as a kid spotting which person was my sister walking up to me, I believe we continually struggle with identifying that there is only one God!

Often we try to make God into our little deity who shows up for our group of people and so conveniently leaves out those whom we do not like or who see God differently than we do. As we look at Luke’s story of John’s disciples going to see if Jesus was the Messiah—recall we heard Matthew’s version this past Sunday—we discover that John the Baptist is wondering about the identity of God. In particular, John wants to know is this the Messiah who came to show the world the way back to God?

The response sounds almost identical in Luke as it does in Matthew: “The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.” Jesus’ answer does not directly respond with a yes. Instead, he points a finger to the examples that correspond with how the people of Israel have been expecting to see God’s coming. The wild thing is that this is still how we see God coming into this world.

I think I need to resurrect that old game I used to play while waiting for my sister, but this time I am going to wonder, “Is that God coming?” Regardless of where someone was born, where they live, or what religion they practice if they take part in creativity within this world, if they take part in the healing of this world, if they are uniting “individual” parts of this world then they are from God, the one God. For there is one Lord, and there is no other; besides God there is no god.

Ignatius of Loyola: Imitating Christ, Made in the Image of God

Today's Epistle reading comes from Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (1031-11:1):

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

That last line gets me going a little bit. Paul tells those reading this letter that the way to be like Christ is to be like him. Wow! Isn’t that presumptuous. Of course, typically when we have such a reaction to some negative trait in someone else, that typically means that we possess that same characteristic somewhere within ourselves. Put simply, if you spot it, you got it. Even if this is true, and I am presumptuous, isn’t it a bold statement for Paul to say, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”?

Well, it might seem easy to sit back and criticize Paul for being a bit full of himself from our perspective, but honestly, as we have been reading 1 Corinthians in the Rector’s Bible Study with Evan, I have found myself liking and respecting Paul more and more. At the time the people in the church of Corinth were WILD! They were having affairs with their step mothers, they were having separate celebrations of the Eucharist, which negates even having COMMUNION in the first place, and they were getting drunk and going to church. At this point in his letter, he is summing up a major point he has been making, namely, “whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God” AND “Give no offense” to others, “so that may be saved.” 

Honestly, this recaps what Paul is trying to pass on to the Corinthians. Do everything for the glory of God and do nothing that offends others causing them to stumble on the path toward God. He has been addressing various concerns throughout his letter: Don’t eat food sacrificed to idols. You may know that there really are no other gods, but someone else might stumble because of what you do. Don’t drink heavily before coming to church, sure you may be able to handle your wine, but others will get the wrong impression. Don’t start communion without others, this defeats the whole purpose of coming together. In each of these examples we might get caught up in Paul saying “don’t,” but truthfully it is not about his prohibition on certain actions, rather it is about the intention Paul has behind these actions.

Contained within Paul's example is his intention to imitate Christ. We have different issues within our community than the people of Corinth. Still we seek examples of how we might be imitators of Christ. Even thinking of this is a bit intimidating. How will we ever imitate Christ? When I started to think, “How do we imitate Christ?” I looked at the word imitate and found myself thinking of a connected word: image. We are made in the image of God. This is good news. We are formed through Christ in God’s image. Still it is helpful for us to find clear examples of how to become vibrant images of Christ.

We have the white altar hanging set up just like last week when we celebrated the example of Thomas A Kempis. Again we are celebrating another of “God’s All-Stars” who lived his life in such a way that the Gospel was made clearer. Today we remember Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatius was born into a noble Basque family in Spain and fought as a knight seeking worldly glory. When injured during the Battle of Pamplona in 1521, he was forced to recover and during this time he had a conversion experience that shifted the trajectory of his life to aim straight towards God.

He went on retreat and discerned a call to ordained ministry, so he moved to Paris where he studied. There he met others who together founded the Society of Jesus, now known as the Jesuits. For the rest of his life, Ignatius lived in immense poverty, often praying seven hours a day in a cave. His book Spiritual Exercises has provided a spiritual framework for many to find God in their everyday life. It can be difficult to look at the life of someone who turned away from the comfort of their noble birth to live in poverty praying half of their waking hours. Even to someone who spent the last three years praying the daily office that seems unrealistic.

Our call though is to be imitators of Christ. This is not easy work. Perhaps we imitate Christ like Paul did, by encouraging others who were just starting off on their Christian journey. Maybe we are like Ignatius and we use our wealth to empower the weak. Or, perhaps we find the example of another person in our lives to be the best way to imitate Christ. We are made as Children of God, but we are challenged to open up to how God is making us more Christ-like. How will we be imitators of Christ?

We are made in the image of God, we are called to imitate Christ, and we are strengthened when we become Christ’s Body together. Amen.