Karaoke

Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 4:25-5:2 ESV). I always found it a bit amusing that the judges would be hard on the contestants of American Idol for being too “karaoke.” They wanted each of them to be more original in their interpretation of some of the greatest hits. I suppose that’s understandable; however, there is a reason the original was such a hit in the first place. Imitation of something that is good and successful is one of the greatest forms of compliment and honor. The apostle tells us in our reading today that we should be imitators. Are you an imitator? Consider this before you answer too quickly. As I said earlier, imitating is not always a bad thing. Psychology tells us that imitating is a positive thing, citing that it aids in alleviating symptoms of depression and other psychological disorders. In the case of depression, if you act like you don’t have depression you can sometimes trick your mind into believing that you in fact don’t have depression. A little weird, but it works. But there is an even better reason to be an imitator. God desires that we imitate him. His desire is that our actions, thoughts, and mannerisms be modeled after him. We imitate God by living in love with those around us, the same type of love Christ displayed to us by offering himself as a sacrifice for us. Living in love displays to a watching world whose we are. As Christ’s disciples our actions, our love, serves as a mirror by which others can see Christ, thereby seeing God. Jesus commends this way of living to us in his Sermon on the Mount: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (cf. Matt. 5:16 NRSV). It is not as easy as it may at first appear to sing Karaoke. With practice it can be done. We can retrain our voices to imitate other patterns; we can also train our minds to imitate the decisions and practices of the Lord. Make that your commitment today.