Send in the Clones
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Thanksgiving for the church at Thessalonica
1:1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
1:2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly
1:3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
1:4 For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you,
1:5 because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
1:6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired from the Holy Spirit,
1:7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.
1:8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it.
1:9 For they report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
1:10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead--Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.
Who remembers Dolly, the sheep? What was special about her? Yeah, she was the first successfully CLONED mammal. That happened in Scotland, back in 1996, and Dolly lived a relatively normal life, dying in 2003. After Dolly, many other animals have been cloned successfully. Cloning involves using the DNA from a donor cell and putting it into an ovum of the species. The resulting animal is genetically identical to the animal from which this somatic cell is used in the cloning process. As far as anyone knows, no human has been cloned, despite shady “reports” that this has been tried in China. If you want to see a humorous movie scene involving cloning, watch Woody Allen’s “Sleeper.” He and Diane Keaton are dissidents in a future totalitarian society, masquerading as cloning scientists, and they are charged with cloning a dictator from his nose, the only part of him found after he was assassinated by a bomb. They have no idea what they are doing, and while trying to fool the authorities, they lay out a suit of clothes from the late dictator’s wardrobe, place the nose where the face should be, and tell the gathered political operatives that they will attempt to “clone him into his clothes.”
While cloning may never be the most popular way to replicate life, it is part of the latest generation of disease-fighting drugs called “monoclonal antibodies,” which are cloned from a single white blood cell, and produced to attack specific diseases such as types of cancer, in a specific patient. Years ago, in the early days of monoclonal antibodies, I had a young parishioner who was experimentally treated for juvenile-onset rheumatoid arthritis with them, and the results left her to live a mostly normal life, after an early fear of debilitation.
So we know a little about cloning, now, but what does this have to do with our Bible passage this weekend? We’ll get there; be patient.
How do we make disciples in the church, today? This is an important question, especially for United Methodist Christians, as we are charged with “making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” First of all, I have to confess that, while I strongly affirmed the “vision” of making disciples of Jesus Christ, for this IS what Jesus told us to do, I have always balked at the phrase added years ago by the bishops, “for the transformation of the world.” While we Christ followers DO believe that becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ may help bring about a new and better world, especially if we live according to the teachings of Jesus, this particular phrase, “for the transformation of the world” sounds crusading, to me. It has the potential for leaning toward exclusivism—might we believe that ONLY disciples of Jesus Christ can participate in bringing about a better world? I sincerely hope not. And what are we “transforming the world” into? A “Christian” world? Things can be “transformed” but not always in a positive way. It is safe to say that Vladimer Lenin “transformed” Russia and Mao Tse-Tung “transformed” China, but not necessarily in ways we are happy about. The designated hitter rule has “transformed” Major League Baseball, but again, not all of us are happy about that, either. You see what I mean? One has to read a lot more verbiage from the United Methodist Church to get a picture of just how we would like to see the world “transformed,” and not all of us see that the same, either. A whole pile of people and churches opted out because THEY didn’t like our view of transformation, and the two resulting factions may be working against each other, thanks to these divergent views. But, back to disciple-making.
How DO we make disciples? Some would say through preaching, Christian education, Bible study, etc., which have been the standard Modus Operandi of the Christian church for millennia. While I wouldn’t argue against this formula, it is clear that we are now in an age when more people eschew attending a church (or a church-related class) than DO attend, so these methods aren’t effective unless someone parks it in the pew. Oh, I realize that COVID opened the floodgates to “streaming” our services to the masses, but again, if someone isn’t already acclimated to the “church scene,” they probably aren’t going to sit through your worship service on YouTube or Facebook. Some churches have been effective with iterations of the “The Church has Left the Building” campaigns, enlisting people—including some “unchurched folk”—into acts of Christian mission or charity, and thereby exposing them to the values of discipleship. Even this, though, has had a limited effect, and rather quickly became somewhat trite, as for many in the “target” audience, the whole idea of “church” continues to be a non-starter, whether it is in the building or OUT of it. I’m not saying that the church is out of the picture when it comes to making disciples, but it should see itself as the “training ground” for disciple-makers, and as a “vehicle” for facilitating this process.
Individual witnessing has been, for the longest time, the preferred method of the evangelical community for “bringing people to Christ.” Unfortunately, unlike the original twelve disciples—and most especially Andrew, who was good at literally bringing people TO Jesus—“soul-winning” became a kind of pelt-collecting enterprise. Some “technique,” be it the infamous “Four Spiritual Laws” of Campus Crusade for Christ, or the tasteless, scary theology of the little, cartoon “witnessing” tracts by evangelical author/artist Jack Chick, was used to “break the ice” to talk to a friend, family member, or even a total stranger, “about Jesus.” Questions like “Do you know Christ as your personal Savior?” or “If you were to die tonight, are you sure you would go to heaven?” were the openers, any variation of which reduced a complicated understanding of the “eternal soul” to a punchline. The “goal” was to get the targeted individual to “confess” that they “needed” Jesus, and to say the “sinner’s prayer,” after which their soul was believed to be “saved,” and the witnessing individual could check them off the list of the damned. An effort may or may not be made to “connect” the “saved” individual to any kind of supportive, spiritual community, and often, no conversation about the individual’s religious history was even broached. Now, let me say that there is NOTHING WRONG with witnessing one’s faith in Christ to another person, provided it is done in love of God and this “neighbor,” and not just as a “technique” or as a bragging rite. I always told my congregations that one of the best witnesses (other than just being a loving neighbor and doing kind, caring, “acts of mercy” as Mr. Wesley would call them) a person could do was to offer to pray for a person going through some ordeal, and ask if it would be OK to put them on our church’s prayer list, so that others may pray for them, too. Most all folk will acquiesce to this, and when some positive change happens in their situation, they will “seek you out,” and will often want to hear more about a person and a church that would pray for someone they didn’t even know. I would tell my parishioners that it is much easier to witness to your faith when you are on the other end of such an “interview,” than it is to use some scary line to “cold call” a witness, such as the “Four Spiritual Laws” types might do. “Scary” is an important word here, as often the “cold call” witness uses fear (of sin, death, hell) to “sell” the target on “meeting Jesus.” Faith that begins with such a fear often is lived out in fear, rather than in the “perfect love” that the Bible tells us should “cast out” all fear. It is also unfortunate that so many folk left in our churches today, began their faith journey with such fear, and have been quasi-paralyzed by it, since. If our church “smells” of this kind of fearful language and theology in its effort to “bring people to Jesus,” most modern folk—especially the younger ones—will not apply.
Now, on to the main point of this meandering sermon…in this text from First Thessalonians, the Pauline author introduces one of the major themes in Paul’s teachings. Paul’s idea of “witnessing” or leading people to faith in Jesus Christ is to CLONE them! Read verse 6: “you became imitators of us and of the Lord...” Throughout the teachings of Paul, as reflected in the writings reflecting them, Paul basically tells his audiences, “If you want to know how to follow Jesus, FOLLOW ME,” or “Do what I do.” He often literally says “imitate me,” or “imitate US,” as he does in this passage. You see, Paul had developed his faith into something he was CONFIDENT was truly a “discipling” and genuine faith, and he believed that if a prospective disciple were to “do as I do,” this person would join Paul and other Christians on the path of discipleship. One of the important phrases that comes out of the Alcoholics Anonymous “rooms” is this: “If you don’t have faith, act as if you DO have faith, and faith will be imparted to you,” otherwise known by AA folk as “Fake it until you make it.” DO what is necessary to “look” like a disciple, and you will be formed INTO one. This is precisely what Paul is saying here! He wasn’t concerned with “saving souls,” as he believed that if a person was to join others on the Christian faith journey, they would be embraced by the “exceeding abundant” grace of God (saved) AND would be embraced by other Christians in the community of faith, leading to both healthy nurture and effective Christian mission and service, both of which would “build up” the Body of Christ, and partner with God in unfolding the Kingdom of God on earth. Paul’s idea was so much more “organic” than either the evangelical “button-holing” witness OR the various “systems” the church had manufactured over the centuries to “make disciples.”
I have seen this Holy Spirit-based “cloning” work on multiple levels. I have witnessed church folk inviting non-churched folk on mission projects such as Habitat for Humanity-type building restorations in poor communities, to assembling cleaning buckets for UMCOR, to helping at a food pantry. The invitee gets to do something that makes them “feel good” about themselves, and that witnesses to an “authentic” manifestation of human (and even divine?) compassion. Relationships are formed, and trust is built. Often, at some point, the invited individual begins to ask about the kind of FAITH that leads one to DO these things, not just out of curiosity, but out of a real interest in trying such a faith on for size, personally. By being invited to join in the work, and in seeing genuine Christianity in practice, they “build their own theological bridge” to belief. They have been “cloned” by others, led only by a legitimate love for them, and a desire to expand the circle of caring, support, and service.
Here’s a story I heard from a colleague years ago. She was assigned to a rural charge of a couple tiny, struggling churches that were “hand-wringing” over the fact that they were sort of dying off, and that their own “children” were no longer interested in attending worship. This new pastor asked them, “What are you good at doing?” After the typical moments of awkward silence in the wake of a question such as this, one person said, “We make REALLY GREAT funeral dinners, or so we have been told.” The pastor suggested that they might consider offering themselves out to MAKE funeral dinners for other local churches, for when they had funerals. They decided to give that a try, and the small “team” began to get a few funeral gigs. As their efforts were warmly received and appreciated (and unexpectedly had become effective fund-raisers!), they needed more people to help fix and serve the dinners, so they invited their “kids” to help, as well as other friends beyond their small church. These agreed, not only to help with a noble cause, but because they also heard they were having a lot of fun DOING it together. Soon, the funeral dinner team was asked if they might serve the “commitment dinner” for a much larger church that was embarking on a building program, and so they did, but this required even more volunteers. Sunday mornings became a time to “celebrate” the work they were doing for others, AND to plan the upcoming dinners. Sunday mornings had become both FUN and purposeful again, and guess what? The churches grew, and many of their “kids” were back! They cloned themselves through compassionate service and witness. Very “Pauline” of them!
John Wesley, the “father” of Methodism, did believe not only in “systems” of spiritual formation and discipleship, but also in Paul’s “do as I do” philosophy, as well. If you were raised in the Methodist/United Methodist tradition, you know about the “Holy Club” at Oxford and the “bands” or “class meetings” that Wesley had his people engaged in. Each group was a “discipling” group wherein participants were accountable to one another as well as to God, for their spiritual development, prayer life, attention to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and acts of mercy to those in need. Holy Club members gave of themselves financially, even to the point of sacrifice, to fund the work they did for the poor, the destitute, and the incarcerated. This was all part of Wesley’s system. However, his overall goal was to raise up OTHER disciples by having his adherents “live out” the Gospel in such a way that others would “see” Christ alive in them, and in their acts of mercy and grace, and would want to align their own lives with these others; in short, they would want to “clone themselves” to be the good and caring people they saw in Methodists. It certainly worked in John Wesley’s day, and personally, I believe this iteration of Paul’s “If you want to follow Christ, follow me” idea will work again in our time. So many are skeptical of the wide swath of people and philosophies that are labeled “Christian” in our day. In the name of Christ, some are endorsing a form of autocratic government that is squeezing the life out of people, especially the marginalized. In the name of Christ, others are baptizing (or at least looking the other way) as refugees and immigrants are being rounded up, separated from family members, incarcerated in “centers” that sure look like the internment camps utilized against Asians during the Second World War, or are being exiled to countries far from the ones they came from. In the name of Christ, some have so robbed women of their reproductive rights that they are being relegated to second-class citizens, or are made to feel they are the “possessions” of their male counterparts. Still others preach doctrines and dogmas that exclude people whom God loves, or that so tightly defines who is “in” and who is “out” in the Kingdom of God that reasonable people are choosing to stay away from their “brand.” The term “Christian” has become a derogatory term in much of our American society, due to these excesses and abuses.
It is time to hear Paul’s words, and to begin “cloning” again, but this will require those of us who care to “re-enlist” as serious disciples who will sacrifice personal “rights” and privileges in order to become the “somatic cells” necessary for the process. Many years ago, I heard a wise preacher say, “YOU may be the only Bible some people read.” If the Christ we represent by our lifestyle and our priorities is not one true to the Jesus Christ of the Bible, or is so distorted by human-derived rules and practices that scare others away, then we are doing a disservice to God. There’s a famous quote attributed to Ghandi that goes like this: “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Ghandi didn’t say it, of course; it was actually written by a more modern newspaper columnist, but it does carry some of Ghandi’s philosophy, namely that people will see in us what they will see. If what they see is not what we WANT them to see, then WE must change. Hence, if we DO want people to see our lives as a reflection of Jesus Christ, we must act more like Jesus and live into his teachings, especially those of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew five and following.
It is important to note that this personal transformation project is meant by Paul to be a JOYOUS one, and not a chore. Paul tells the folks in the church at Thessalonica that even though they are under strong persecution, the “joy of the Lord” and the Holy Spirit will keep their spirits buoyant and celebratory. Following Jesus is a loving, joyful thing, not like “boot camp” or a “war.” After all, who on the outside looking in would want to pattern their lives after a people who are always wailing, weeping, and “gnashing” their teeth? Or who are marked more by their drudgery to “duty” than to celebrating their redemption?
From Paul’s and Wesley’s perspectives, the way the church can AGAIN become relevant in today’s world is to “Send OUT the clones!” It’s time we begin to again “mirror” Jesus more than we mirror the world. Amen.
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