1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 (NIV)

1Paul, Silas and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.
2We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 3We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. 6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

British supermodel Kate Moss is used to having her picture taken. She makes her living from it. But a few weeks ago a photo put her career in jeopardy. A picture of Moss using cocaine was published in a British tabloid. The resulting furor caused several firms to cancel their contracts with her.

A supermodel who was not really a model citizen.
A celebrity who behaved in ways we wouldn’t want those we love to imitate.

Yet we, in our society, are used to imitating celebrities. There is hero worship aplenty of sports figures, stars from TV, the movies and recording—people famous for one reason or another.

But being a celebrity, whether one is famous for a long time or just until the next fad comes by, is no guarantee of living a lifestyle that deserves to be copied.

Thankfully there remain true heroes whom we can look up to. There are sports figures, entertainment stars, notable leaders and even everyday folk in our world who, through their skill, their courage, their dignity and their compassion shoulder the burden of being models for the rest of us and do it with honour.

Most of the time, depending on our choices, modelling ourselves after our heroes can be a positive thing. But making the choice is the problem. Sometimes we honour the image of the person while losing track of their very human feet of clay.

There is a choice, though, that will never disappoint us. It’s the choice of seeking to model ourselves after Jesus—to be imitators of the Lord. It’s a choice we don’t often think about.

Perhaps we feel, in some way, that imitating Jesus is disrespectful.
Perhaps we think the goal is too high for us to attain.
Perhaps we know that we could never always be like Jesus so we don’t give it a thought.

But imitating Christ actually is a wonderful goal to strive towards. Of course, we’ll never be able to match Jesus but having the goal, itself, and doing what we can to reach it, can make all the difference in the world for us and for those around us.

That’s a truth the Apostle Paul understood. He honoured it in our Scripture lesson.

Our lesson from 1 Thessalonians is the opening of the letter. This is one of the earliest of Paul’s letters. He hadn’t been away from Thessalonica very long. He wrote to touch base with the Church he had started and offer encouragement. The last time he had been there the powers that be in the community had caused Paul and the small band of believers a great deal of difficulty. Indeed, Paul had had to escape the city by night.

And so Paul was delighted to hear that, despite persecution and suffering, the new believers of Thessalonica were doing very well.

He wrote, “6You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.”

Imitators of us—Paul and Silas.
And imitators of the Lord—whom Paul and Silas were imitating.
One of the ways this new group of Christians had grown in the faith—a faith that saw them able to withstand persecution and suffering—was to model themselves upon what they had seen of Paul and Silas and imitate what they knew of Jesus Christ.

It was a powerful learning tool for them.

It was also a powerful witness. Their growth in spiritual maturity wasn’t something that was known only to Paul. Their reputation for faithfulness was a model for other Christian communities.

Again, Paul wrote, “7And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere.”

Seeking to imitate the Lord is a wonderful goal. It can bring about many blessings for we who seek to grow spiritually and for those around us.

What does it mean, though, to be “imitators of the Lord”?
Are we all to try to become clones of Christ?
Are we to try to lose ourselves and all become the same?

I think to see our imitation that way takes away the gift God has given to us of our own individuality.

You and I are different. Each and every one of us is a unique creation of God and the experiences in our lives that have shaped and molded us.

God has never been interested in making robots. If that was God’s desire and plan we wouldn’t have been given our individuality. We wouldn’t have been given our free will. Instead, God delights in our uniqueness. God works through our different views and gifts and interests.

Who we are is respected by our Creator.
What God seeks is for us to become who we can be to the very best of our ability through the power of the Holy Spirit. And that is to be some reflection of Jesus.

Jesus was the most complete human being in the history of the world.
Jesus was perfect.
Jesus was whole.

Jesus always acted appropriately.
He always reacted appropriately.

He had all the qualities of humanity in just the right mix.
Love, compassion, patience, gentleness, understanding, wisdom, even anger and criticism.

Jesus was the whole package.

If we are to be imitators of Him we will seek to grow as like Him as we can, given who we are to begin with.

As we grow, each of us will never be able to mature in the same way. There will always be work to do. We will always remain, to some extent, broken. We will always remain individuals.

Some of the change will go against our nature and we may or may not be able to make progress.
Some of the change will be a revelation as we accomplish what we never thought possible.
Some of the change will be more a deepening of the way we already are.

The point is that no matter who we are—no matter how we are led to grow—no matter what changes we make—our model can always be Jesus.

For those who feel the need to become more gentle and kind—we look to Jesus caring for the children.
For those who feel the need to become more understanding—there is Jesus and the woman caught in adultery.
For those who feel the need to become more humble—there is Jesus, the Son of God, born in a stable, living most of his life in anonymity.
For those who feel the need to become more courageous—there is Jesus walking out of the Garden of Gethsemane ready for the Cross.
For those who feel the need to become more socially conscious and justice oriented—there is Jesus showing righteous anger as He cleared the Temple of the money changers.
For those who feel the need to become more prayerful—there is Jesus countless times, moving away from the disciples and the crowds to pray.
For those who feel the need to become more clever and sharp minded—there is Jesus fooling the Pharisees by telling them to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.
For those who feel the need to become more of a leader—there is Jesus coming to the disciples individually and calling each of them to “Follow me”.
For those who feel the need to become more nurturing to those who have struggled—there is Jesus, after Peter denied him, telling Peter to “Feed my sheep.”
For those who feel the need to be more determined—there is Jesus turning His face towards Jerusalem as He entered the last stage of His ministry.
For those who feel the need to be more light hearted—there is Jesus painting a word picture of camels going through the eye of a needle.
For those who feel the need to be more forgiving—there is Jesus calling out from the Cross, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”

No matter who we are—no matter what our strengths and weaknesses—no matter how we are led to change—we have the perfect one to imitate in Jesus Christ.

A man was visiting the White House during the Coolidge administration, and found himself seated across from the president at breakfast. The guest was nervous about eating in front of the nation's leader, and he didn’t want to do anything to embarrass himself, so he decided to watch the president closely and do what the president did.
When Coolidge added sugar to his coffee, the guest did the same. When the president added cream to his coffee, the guest did the same. When Coolidge poured a small amount of coffee into his saucer, the guest was confused, but he smiled at the president, and poured coffee into his own saucer.
The guest, however, didn’t know what to do when Coolidge leaned over and placed his saucer on the floor for the cat.

When we seek to imitate our Lord we won’t be doing it in a nervous, uncomfortable way.
We won’t be putting ourselves in a position where we might be embarrassed.

When we seek to imitate our Lord we will grow to be the person God wants us to be. And we will be a witness to the wonders of knowing and following Jesus Christ.

Modelling and living doesn’t get any better than that, no matter what any Supermodel might think!
(1597) © The Rev. Dennis Cook, St. Timothy’s Presbyterian Church, Ajax, ON, Canada