Sunday Service - 20 Oct 1963

Once a king sent his sons to a famous archer to learn how to shoot. The teacher set up a clay bird as target. He told the boys to draw their bows and tell him what they saw. “I see a forest,” said the first, “with a bird in the foreground.” “I see a tree with a bird in it,” said the second. “I see a bird on a branch,” said the third. But the teacher growled, “You will never make archers.” The fourth said, “I see nothing but a bird’s eye.” And the teacher smiled. “You are worth training,” he said. Do you know why the teacher said that? The eye is the vital spot to aim at. The fourth boy was not looking at a forest or a tree, but at the one vital thing that he had to hit.

In religion as well as in archery we need a definite aim. What is our aim in our Christian religion? The baptism service says that the aim of every Christian is to follow the example our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto him. Every Christian ought to strive to be like Jesus Christ. The standard of what a Christian should be is the life of Jesus Christ. We measure our lives by the life of Jesus Christ. Every Christian ought to be like him.

This is one reason why it is so important to read the New Testament, and especially the Gospels. Unless we know what Jesus did we cannot know what we ought to do. Our imitation must not be only in outward details. Once a year the Pope sends for twelve beggars, and washes their feet in imitation of Jesus Christ. But that kind of imitation is little more than a form. There is not much true likeness to Christ in that.

John W……. was a queer religious teacher in England a century ago. He gained disciples not only in England, but in America and Australia also. He taught that Christians ought to wear long hair because Jesus did, that Christians should abstain from eating pork because Jesus did, that Christians ought to pray in Hebrew because Jesus did. So he and his disciples never cut their hair, never touched bacon, and they laboriously learnt by heart many Hebrew prayers. But we can see that this is not what is meant by following in his steps. The world needs Christ-like lives. But that does not mean that we must wear the same clothes or talk the same language as Jesus did in Galilee. The Christ-like spirit is the important thing.

Imitating Christ does not mean that all Christian lives must be exactly alike. You have watched a drawing class drawing from a model. Often they sit round the model in a circle. No two get exactly the same view and the light falls differently for each. But each tries to copy what he sees as well as he can. The saints also see Christ from different points of view. Each tries to copy what he sees, but all are not alike. Let us, this evening, look at three saints who saw Jesus from different points of view.

In 1206 there was a young man in Italy who behaved so queerly that his friends thought him mad. That was Francis of Assisi of whom you heard recently. Francis had been one of the riches youths in the city, but one day he heard the call of Christ and decided to follow him. The points in our Lord’s life which struck him were his poverty and his kindness. He decided to be as poor and as kind as Jesus. He gave all his possessions to the poor and vowed that as long as he lived he would never own anything. Christ had said, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not somewhere to lay his head.” Francis made up his mind to be like his Master. He walked about Italy barefoot, lending a helping hand to every one in need, helping old women to carry their burdens, nursing the sick, and everywhere speaking to the people cheerfully of God’s love. If people gave him food he accepted it, otherwise he was content to go hungry. If they offered him a bed he accepted it. If not, he slept under a hedge. For 20 years, no beggar was quite as poor as he was. Yet no man ever did more good. He would live for weeks in one of the leper settlements, teaching the poor creatures how to bind one another’s wounds, and how to live in decency. He sought the brigands in their mountain caves, and brought them back to an honest life. Thus Francis of Assisi became a saint by following the example of Christ.

Two hundred years later in Holland Thomas a Kempis decided to follow our Lord’s example. The point that fascinated him was our Lord’s quiet humility. Jesus never pushed himself forward. He shunned the world’s great cities such as Rome and Athens. He did not often visit even Jerusalem. He loved the little villages of Galilee. He loved even better to retire to a desert place for prayer. So Thomas found a small Dutch monastery and spent more than 60 years within its walls. His work was to write out copies of the Bible for those were days before printing. He wrote for the younger monks, the famous book – ‘The Imitation of Christ’. It is considered to be the best book outside the Bible. He says in one place, “If you would be God- like, remain as hidden as God.” He was very unlike St. Francis, but he too became a saint by trying to imitate Christ.

The third person we are considering this evening is Father Damien. He was a Belgian priest who died in 1889. He tried to imitate Christ. “Christ left his home to be a missionary,” he said. So Damien went as a missionary to the Sandwich Islands. The Government trying to stamp out leprosy had banished more than 200 lepers to the lonely island of Molokai. Damien said, “Christ sacrificed his life for others, I ought to do the same.” He went to Molokai to help them, though he knew it meant the certainty of a loathsome death. The lepers there were dirty, drunken and disagreeable. But for 16 years he was doctor, priest, schoolmaster and magistrate to the lepers on the island. In time he became a leper and among his lepers he died. He did this fine thing because as a Christian he tried to follow the example of Christ.

We too must take Christ as our example. St. Peter wrote in his epistle, “Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21) Following the example of Christ, following in his steps. That is the mark the Christian should aim at. The old Greek word for sin meant, “missing the mark”. Every time we fail to be Christ-like we are guilty of sin. Let us therefore not go through life aimlessly. Let us by constant study of the Gospels and by surrender of our own self wills, make it the one aim of our life – to follow the example of Jesus and grow like Him.