John 1: 43-51
Just a question, are any of you --- besides being members or visitors of this church --- are any of you also members of the Church of Elvis? For those of you too young to know from the 1950's until his death from a drug overdose in 1977, Elvis was a pop culture icon. According to Wikipedia, Elvis Presley "was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century." Elvis as he is often referred to is listed as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King" based on the fact that he is the best-selling solo artist in the history of popular music.
Back to the question with which I started, the Church of Elvis is actually the name of a documentary produced in 2010 that explores how "faith influenced the man and his music and how in turn" Elvis "inspired near religious adulation."
Just think about it with me, as the documentary points out, the Church of Elvis has its sacred texts --- Elvis's records and films. The Church of Elvis has disciples --- fans; and relics --- the scarves, clips of hair. The Church of Elvis has pilgrimages ---Tupelo, Mississippi and Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. The Church of Elvis has a shrine --- Elvis' gravesite. And all the appearances of a resurrection --- reported Elvis sightings.
The Church of Elvis also has one other important element --- impersonators even though these impersonators, people who dress and sing in his style, do not like to be called impersonators because who could really impersonate the King! Rather these missionaries of the Church of Elvis prefer to be called tribute artists.
I bring up this illustration about the Church of Elvis because I think there is a lot of confusion about what it means to be called by Jesus and to be "like" Jesus. We may sing "Lord, I Want to Be like Jesus in-a My Heart" without considering what, exactly, does it mean to be like Jesus? We sing: "To be like Jesus/ to be like Jesus/ all I ask, to be like him/ All through life's journey from earth to glory/ all I ask, to be like him." Some of us have even been impressed by the 15th-century work The Imitation of Christ by Thomas á Kempis.
Nevertheless I wonder are we called to be fans, impersonators, tribute artists or something completely different as disciples of Jesus Christ; to answer that question look at our gospel --- the calling of two people who became disciples of Jesus. One was Philip and the other was Nathanael, and it is their story that may help us arrive at a different understanding than the Church of Elvis.
First, have you ever noticed that none of the disciples are ever like Jesus? For example, in terms of personality and considering their drive to excel, neither Philip nor Nathanael in today's gospel was much like Jesus to begin with. Nor do we have a biblical record of them becoming little Mini-Me's of Jesus.
Philip, according to the biblical record, seems to have had something of the missionary instinct, going to tell his friend Nathanael about meeting Jesus. But although he had a desire to tell Nathanael about Jesus, Philip was not quick to understand that Jesus was not limited by the things that limit others. For example, that's why we hear later that it was Philip who told Jesus that they did not have sufficient resources to feed the 5,000. Philip also seemed not ready to act decisively, for when some Greeks approached Philip about meeting Jesus, Philip took the request to Andrew rather than acting on his own.
And then we have Nathanael. Nathanael is the other man in today's event; Nathanael appears as an honorable skeptic --- a religious skeptic. Hearing that Jesus was from Nazareth, Nathanael wonders aloud if anything good can come from that place. Although he is called Nathanael in the gospel of John, he's usually presumed to be the disciple called Bartholomew in the other three gospels. And there's no detail at all about him under that name in those gospels. He certainly is not outspoken like Peter or even verbal about his doubts like Thomas.
From John's gospel we see that Nathanael does seem to have one virtuous characteristic; for Jesus calls him "an Israelite in whom there is no deceit." That's unquestionably a compliment, but the lack of deceit --- or what other translations call "guile" --- is hardly the same thing as active discipleship. And we also see that even as he starts to believe Jesus is the Son of God, it is not because he has some faith, but because Jesus told him something about himself that a regular human being could not possibly have known.
Regardless of what we see, the point is neither Philip nor Nathanael is a copy of Jesus, but then, did you also notice Jesus does not ask them to be! Instead of asking for fans, impersonators or tribute artists, Jesus simply says "Follow me," and apparently they do --- for the rest of their lives. According to some traditions, both men carried the gospel to other parts of the world and died martyrs' deaths. We have no way of knowing if any of those stories are true, but they suggest that at minimum, Philip and Nathanael remained faithful to Jesus, but not copies.
Let me return to my point; even though Philip and Nathanael become lifelong followers of Jesus they did not become impersonators or tribute artists. Instead they opened the personalities they already had to be directed by God. No doubt Philip continued to have the same abilities and the same inabilities he had before Jesus called him, and likewise with Nathanael. It was only in their willingness to be used by God that they could be described as Christ like.
That is exactly what we should be thinking about when we are talking about being like Jesus. We are not called to be his twin but his disciple. We are not called to impersonate or be a tribute artist or to acquire a new personality or a new skill set. Certainly we may need to clean up --- repent--- which may entail being careful with our addictive, judgmental or graceless personalities. Nevertheless as we see in today's gospel Jesus asks that we put ourselves at God's disposal.
Think about it. The fact is if we were to really try to be like Jesus in the sense of copying his mannerisms and his way of dealing with daily tasks, we would end up frustrated because we simply do not have that kind of information. And although we have four gospels, none of them is a biography. Instead the gospels are testimonies about Jesus that include some biographical incidents, but even those are told through the lens of the faith of the gospel writer or the conviction of the Christian community to which the gospel writer belonged.
That's especially true in John's gospel, and the writer of John freely admits it. Near the end of his gospel, John writes, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name" (John 20:30-31). The writer of John's gospel in not interested in writing a biography but instead wants what he has written so people come to come to understand what Jesus is saying when he says, "follow me."
I think it is vital for us disciples of Jesus to remember that Jesus never said "Be like me" but "Follow me" because if you look around at the critics of Christianity you would think that most of us are deluded, poor thinkers or mindless sheep. Or we are "evangelical" based on whoever is running for President. To be honest I suppose there are a few who fit that description but those labels in no way cover the broad population of the church. The church is comprised of dull people, smart people, brilliant people, and slow people and people from a range of political views. There are single-talented people and multitalented people. There are cowards for Jesus and heroes for Jesus. In worship, we will find friendly people, cranky people, and irritable people, and unruffled people, shy and welcoming people. The church has its share of both doers and thinkers. There are no types left out.
That is to say that when Jesus calls us to follow him, he does not ask us to cease being the unique persons that we are and become his twin, mirror or otherwise. But rather Jesus calls us to open ourselves to be God's persons. We are striving to be like Jesus in loving God and loving our neighbor, but we have to do that through our own talents, abilities, hang-ups, shortcomings and insights. We are to be disciples, not twins. We are to follow not be tribute artists with white robes and fake beards. Our prayer is to be something like, "O Lord, take who I am, all that I have got and use it for the kingdom. Where I fall short, mold me as you want me to be ..."
Do you remember years ago when there was a fad to wear bracelets that had written on them WWJD --- what would Jesus do? It is a useful way to approach puzzling circumstances. A more realistic version would be, WSIDAAFOJ? What Should I Do As A Follower Of Jesus? But, then, that would be hard to get on a wrist band.
We need to know as much as we can about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, so by all means read the Bible. Let us learn new disciplines like worship, solitude, service, chastity, prayer, sacrifice, etc. And for some of us it is helpful to take a pilgrimage like I have taken to Israel, and followed in the footsteps of Paul through Greece. But more importantly, we need to open ourselves to God, all that we are, so we can allow God's spirit to flow through who we are. We can never be just "like" Jesus, and Jesus does not want impersonators or tribute artists, but we can live in his name so that people catch a glimpse of him through us. Amen.
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