Anna my 2 year old and I have a night time ritual. When I have taken her clothes and nappy off I
shout at the top of my voice ‘Anna, your bottom is delicious’! I then chase her round the house before
catching her and blowing a raspberry into her bottom. Great fun!
The other day we went swimming together and we had to get changed in a
communal changing rooms. I am not one to
want to show off my size 8 figure so try to disrobe and dress in the most
discreet way possible. However, when I
had discreetly dropped my last item of clothing, Anna shouted at the top of her
voice ‘Daddy, your bottom is delicious’, and then came and blew a raspberry
into it! The looks we received! The point of this illustration is that we
become like our parents. Like it or
not! The things we do, the things we are
passionate about often passes onto the next generation and the characteristics
we have both good and bad also seem to flow through the generations. Something within us cannot help but become imitators
of our parents.
Paul in his letter to the Church at Ephesus challenges
us all to be ‘imitators of God’. In the
same way we are becoming like our parent we should be becoming like our great
God as revealed to us by Jesus Christ.
But is that even possible? Can we
imitate Jesus who was whipped, beaten, nailed to a cross, ridiculed by all and
looking out at those who did it said ‘Father forgive them’? Can we imitate this incredible man?
Then along comes Stephen in Acts 6 and 7. A man anointed with the task of food
distribution to the poor. But when we
are anointed by God expect the unexpected.
Because not only did he feed the poor but he healed the sick, displayed
miraculous signs, evangelised and preached the Gospel. So much so he attracted the attention of the
wrong men and found himself arrested.
Instead of going quietly he decided to preach an epic sermon starting at
Genesis 1:1 until the present day. His
talk had the great crescendo of accusing those listening of crucifying the
messiah. This did not go down well,
funny that! They grab him, they throw him into a pit outside the city, they
take their jackets off and lay them at the feet of a man called Saul who is
applauding these actions, they pick up stones and begin to throw them at
him. And as the blood starts to pour,
the muscles start to twitch and the breaths become rapid, Stephen does the most
amazing thing, he says ‘Father, do not count this sin against them’. Stephen in life's most difficult place,
darkest place imitates Jesus with the words of ‘Father forgive’. And as Stephen is about to take his last
breath he says, ‘Father I give to you my Spirit’, again imitating Jesus on the
cross. An incredible man was
Stephen. Imitating Jesus even in the most
difficult place. The reason I believe he
could do this was because he had the reflexes of Jesus.
I used to play cricket.
I love everything about the game.
And as you can see by the picture above there are lots of places to
field. One of the positions is far away
from the batsman and is called ‘long off’.
It is really easy for good fielders to stand there because you have a
long time to get yourself ready to catch the ball. You can get yourself set, put hands in the
right position and 99 times out of hundred the ball should be caught. My favourite position was the closest to the
batsman and is called ‘silly mid off’.
There you have no time to think about it. The batsman whacks the ball and every now and
again something within you just jumps or dives and you come up grasping the
ball to the applause of your team mates.
You have not planned to do it but something in you has taken over and
responded for you. Your reflexes. Stephen is a silly mid off Christian. Something within him takes off and responds
like Jesus without thinking. I don’t
know about you but I am more of a ‘long off’ Christian. When I have time to ready myself, reflect,
pray and talk it through I usually get it right. But when I have to respond in the moment I
often miss the chance to imitate Jesus.
The opportunities of prayer, of sharing the gospel and of serving the
poor I have missed in my life is scary.
But Stephen is an example of a silly mid off christian with the reflexes
of Jesus, so how can we join him?
The reason our children are like us, and the reason we
are like our parents etc… is because we spend so much time with them, watching
them and being formed by them we soak up their ways. The reason we become good at catching is
because we practise, practise and practise.
The reason Stephen is so much like Jesus is because he spent so much of
his time with him, studying the word and praying. Stephen had a healthy spirituality. If we want to have the reflexes of Jesus we
need to develop a healthy spirituality.
Spirituality is a scary word in my head. It conjures up images of monks, of the
dessert fathers, of Nuns and of Spiritual Saints. I think of people who have there heads bowed
so much their backs have become crooked, and who have spent so much time on
their knees they have blisters on them.
When I think of being spiritual I think of myself as an absolute failure
as the image in my head is so far removed from anything I can envision myself
ever becoming. But spirituality never
needs to be scary.
Mike Yaconneli wrote the most wonderful book called ‘Messy
Spirituality – Christianity for the rest of us’. And in it he writes, ‘Spirituality looks like
whatever you and I look like when we are thinking about Jesus, when we are
trying to find Jesus, when we are trying to figure out what real Christianity
looks like in the real world’.
What ever it is we do when we think about God stuff,
whether it is a lie in with a coffee, walking by sea, river or mountain, sat in
a cathedral, debating with like minded people, singing worship songs, listening
to sermons… whatever it is we do when we are thinking on Jesus that is us being
spiritual. And if we want to have the
reflexes of Jesus we must spend as much time in these places as possible. And
as we do, our great God will speak to us, shape us, fill us, guide us and
slowly and surely we will begin to imitate him in the most incredible
places. We will be silly mid off
Christians!
May you discover your spirituality, may you spend as
much time as possible there and may you then be known as a silly mid off
Christian transforming the people and communities around you in Jesus
name.
