On Resembling God

Trinity Sunday

May 22, 2005

On Resembling God

As soon as a baby is born, friends and relatives begin playing the comparison game. They all begin to argue over which parent or relative the baby most resembles.

"Will you look at that! He looks just like his father," or "Isn't that cute? He has his mother's nose." Of course when I was born the comment was, "He looks just like his grandpa - fat with no hair."

After the baby comes home from the hospital, the parents indulge in a different kind of comparison. The mother says, "He's just like his father, always hungry or complaining about something." And the father says, "He's his mother's child all right, cranky, stubborn, and demanding his own way." Whatever the comparison, physical or behavioral, there is the assumption that the child resembles its parents. For good or bad, this child is the sum total of 46 chromosomes, 23 from Mom and 23 from Dad.

It is often remarked about older married couples that they begin to resemble one another. That may send shivers down many a spine, but you know it's true. We all know married couples to whom this applies. We may think this resemblance is physical, but how can that be? They don't share the same genetic code that determines the shape of their face, nose, eyes, ears, and so on. How is it then that we say, "Isn't it interesting that so and so and so and so look so much alike?"

You may even have a picture of this couple and be surprised that when you show it to someone, that person doesn’t see the resemblance. What you have perceived as a physical resemblance was, in fact, a resemblance in mannerisms. Individuals who have lived with a mate for a long time may unconsciously copy from each other such things as facial expressions, posture, speech patterns, and so on. They have become so emotionally one that they appear to friends to be physically alike, although a stranger seeing only their picture might find little resemblance.

Resemblance, then, can result from two sources: parentage and long association. We inherit characteristics from those who give us birth; we acquire characteristics from those with whom we have a long time intimate association.

If this is true with babies at birth and with some adults in marriage, can we expect a spiritual parallel for those who, a) are "born of God" and b) who live long and intimately in His presence? In the opening address in the baptismal service, the pastor reads, "We are born children of a fallen humanity; in the waters of baptism we are reborn children of God..." Here is the fulfillment of Jesus' commands to Nicodemus, "You must be born again", and "you must be born of the water and the Spirit." We are children of God? Ought we not bear some resemblance to our heavenly Father?

Not only ought there be a resemblance in our lives to God because He once made us His children, but also because, at least from God's side, there has been a constant presence of God in our lives. That is we have enjoyed a long and intimate association with God. St. Paul writes, "All who are led by the Spirit of God are (children) of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of family members. When we cry, 'Abba! Father' it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ..." If you read in greater detail Romans 8 from which these verses are taken, you will find Paul arguing that there ought to he evidence in our lives that we have been born of God, and that, through the Spirit, we have had a long intimate association with God.

Today is Trinity Sunday, the only Sunday in the church year in which the emphasis is one of doctrine. Nowhere in the Bible is the word "Trinity" nor the phrase "three-in-one". It is a term invented by the church to describe how God appears and works in the world. Although the term is invented, that which it describes is not - it is biblical. Jesus called God "Father" and instructed his disciples to pray "Our Father". The New Testament affirms Jesus as the Son of God, and also the fullest expression of God. Jesus said, "I and the Father are one. He who has seen me has seen the Father." And references to God as Spirit, in Old Testament as well as new, are simply too many to number. The Trinity, identifying God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, while at the same time preserving the idea of God as one has been a useful tool in the church to describe who God is and how he acts. It may also prove this morning to be a useful tool as we ask ourselves how we have come to resemble God.

How do we come to resemble God the Father? Like father, like son, or so they say. God has given me life. He has created me "in his image". In a special way in baptism he has made me his son, and become my Father. Can others look at me and say, "I know who His father is; there is a striking resemblance"?

God, my Father, loves unconditionally. Do. I love unconditionally, or do I love only when others love me, or if there is some profit it loving? God, my Father, is patient with my frailties and failings. Am I patient with the frailties and failings of others, or am I critical of those whose performance falls short of my expectations or standards? God, my Father, returns good for evil, love for hate, and continues to give of himself even when others just take. Like father, like son?

How do we come to resemble God as son of God? In baptism I was born of God the Father. But since then I have been in fellowship with Jesus, his Son. That has been a life-long intimate association. Is my life any different because I have lived it with Jesus? Jesus lived with a single beacon lighting his way - the will of his heavenly Father. Do I always seek first God's will, or do I yield to my own selfish wishes and base desires? Jesus faced every danger confident of God's presence. Do I face life with a similar confidence, or do I cringe in despair and doubt?

Jesus' life is an example of what it means to be a Son (or daughter) of God. If he fed the hungry and cared for the needy, so will I. If He trusted in God's promise to provide, so will I. If He ate with sinners and social outcasts to bring to them God's love and saving power, no outward appearance will prevent me from doing the same. I claim the title Christian. I bear Christ's name. Jesus and I are brothers, that is, we are both children of God, he by God's direct intervention in human history, and me by adoption in baptism. As siblings we share the same family traditions and values. If my relationship with Jesus is to be believed by others, then my life's values and behavior need resemble his. Obedience to God's word will be apparent. People will be more important than possessions. And giving will be far more evident than taking. It is a haunting question that we must all ask. Can others look at Jesus and us and recognize us as siblings? Do our lives look like they have been lived in intimate association with Jesus?

I believe in the Holy Spirit. Just as we live lives in Jesus, we live our lives with the Holy Spirit in us. Does my life, does yours, evidence that indwelling of the Holy Spirit? If so, the fruits of the Spirit will be evident. Paul writes in Galatians 5:16-23, "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh-; for-these are opposed to each other, to prevent you doing what you would. Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the spirit."

I have been baptized and am a child of God. You have been baptized and are children of God. We have been blessed with a divine parentage and have had a lifetime of intimate association with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All that we might come to resemble Him that others might see God in our lives. May God so dwell in us and may we so respond that others might say of you and me: "I know who their Father is; He is God. The resemblance is striking.”

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.