"A Spittin' Image"    San Williams, UPC

Eph. 5:1, Phil. 2:1-2, II Cor. 3:18

Introduction:  This summer we’ve been digging into the meaning of Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God. But our summer focus is not an abstract theological conversation.  We’re not simply interested in the idea of the Kingdom of God, but rather in its manifestation in our lives and world.  I recently read that the criterion for whether something is a manifestation of the Kingdom of God is the person of Jesus.  That is, if something looks like Jesus, it’s a manifestation of the Kingdom. 

(Read scriptures:  Eph. 5:1, Phil. 2:1-2, 2 Cor. 3:18)

One of the family stories around the time of my birth involves my grandmother’s words when she first laid eyes on me. Family lore has it that she took one look at me and exclaimed, “My word, that child looks just like Elmer.”  Elmer Sansom was my maternal grandfather.  “Definitely a Sansom,” the relatives said about me (especially the Sansom relatives).  Nowadays, however, when I look in the mirror, the face staring back at me more and more resembles that of my father. 

 You’ve probably heard people use the expression, “spittin’ image.” People, especially in the South, can be heard to say: “You’re the spittin’ image of your momma.”  Isn’t that a strange expression?  “Spittin’ image.” No one knows for sure the origin of this idiom.   Some have suggested that it came from saying that someone is so similar to another that the person appears to have been spat out of his mouth.  Others have suggested that spittin’ image is shorthand for spirit and image.  This rendering of the idiom goes beyond physical appearance to include character and temperament.  It means that you remind people of that person.  You have the other person's charisma.  You do the same things he or she did.  Well, we Christians are supposed to be the spittin’ image of Jesus.  As our scriptures said, “Be of the same mind, having the same love and in full accord with Christ Jesus.”  In other words, Christians are those folks who share the spirit and image of Jesus. The whole point of church is to so live that when people look at us they see Jesus.

But of course, that’s the challenge, isn’t it?    Unfortunately, we Christians have a huge image problem.  Surveys show that when people today hear the word Christian, most of them don’t think of people who look like Jesus.  For example, a recent survey of young adults showed that the three most common perceptions of Christians by onlookers are that we are anti-homosexual (an image held by 91 percent of the folks surveyed), judgmental (87 percent), and hypocritical (85 percent). How sad that the behavior and attitudes for which Jesus scolded the religious elites around him are the very traits for which modern Christians are known. 

 And our image isn’t helped by stories like the one that appeared in The New York Times last week, about the pastor in Kentucky who promoted a Bring Your Gun to Church Day.  He invited his congregation to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans.”  Now carrying firearms to church may be a way to express your second amendment rights— though that, too, is debatable—but it’s hardly a way to make the church  look like Jesus. 

Of course, it’s easy to point out the failings of others. Do we Presbyterians also have an image problem? I read this week that last year the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) suffered the biggest numerical and percentage net membership loss since the denomination’s creation by merger in 1983.  Are we as a denomination failing to present a clear and compelling image of Jesus, one that draws and holds people, especially young people?     

Remember how John the Baptizer sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was the one they were expecting?  Jesus didn’t answer with a simple “yes.” Rather, he told them to go tell John what they saw him doing.  Jesus knew that John could read the trail of crumbs.  John knew that when lepers were healed, the blind saw, the dead rose, and the good news was preached to the poor, the one they were awaiting had indeed arrived.

So the question before the church today is what kind of trail of crumbs are we leaving?  If someone asks if we are Christ-followers, can we say, as Jesus did, “Tell me what you see?” 

In 137 AD, the Greek Apologist, Aristides, wrote to the Emperor to tell him what he saw in the Christians of that day.  Here’s a portion of what he said:  “…These Christians do not covet what belongs to others.  They show love to their neighbors…They speak gently to those who oppress them, and in that way they make them their friends. It has become their passion to do good to their enemies…”   In short, Aristides was saying  that these Christians are the spittin’ image of Jesus. 

And Justin, who was martyred in 165 AD, described the Christians of his day this way:  “We ourselves were well conversant with war, murder and everything evil, but all of us throughout the whole wide earth have traded in our weapons of war.  We have exchanged our swords for plowshares, our spears for farm tools…now we cultivate the fear of God, justice, kindness, faith, and the expectation of the future given us through the crucified one...the more we are persecuted and martyred, the more do others in ever increasing numbers become believers.”  Justin is describing Christians look a lot like Jesus.   

Speaking of looking like Jesus, there’s an old story of a Bishop whose cathedral was about to be robbed.  The bandits demanded he turn over the “treasures of the church.”  So the Bishop went into the shelter and gathered up the poor, saying, “These are the treasures of the church.”  The Bishop’s actions look like something Jesus might have done.

In his recent book called Imminent Domain:  The Story of the Kingdom of God and its Celebration, Methodist theologian Ben Witherington tells about a 19th-century medical missionary in Armenia named Dr. Sheppard.  Dr. Sheppard was once brought a small man who was near death and enduring much suffering.  Dr. Sheppard slowly ministered him back to health, but he also shared the gospel of Christ with the man.  In due course, the man was restored to health, and he became a Christian.  He returned to his own village and, like many a new convert, he could hardly stop talking about Jesus. At one point, an irritated listener responded to the small man: “Why should I believe you?  You have never even seen this Jesus.  On your own account of things, he died long ago.”  Undaunted, the little man immediately responded:  “To the contrary, I have seen Dr. Sheppard, and Christ lives in him. And furthermore, Christ now lives in me.”

Friends, something hopeful is happening in the church today.  Many Christians are returning to the essence of our faith, which is the person of Jesus. As one person put it, “We are to follow in the footsteps of our rabbi so closely that we get his dust on us.”   Then we find ourselves saying the kind of things he said and doing the things he did—welcoming the stranger, caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, showing kindness, proclaiming justice for the oppressed, loving even our enemies, forgiving our debtors, trusting in God’s goodness.

In a few moments, you’ll be invited to the Table to commune with Christ.  I urge caution. Be warned that we come to Christ’s Table to be transformed into his spirit and image.  It’s a travesty to partake of the body and blood of Jesus with no desire or willingness to be more like him.  At this Table we digest life of Christ, so that so that his spirit and image can be seen in us.  Wouldn’t it be a tremendous compliment to hear others say of us: “My word, those Christians at University Presbyterian Church are the spittin’ image of Jesus!”