Role Models
A Sermon of The Rev. Dr. David A. Killian, Rector
All Saints Parish
Brookline, Massachusetts
March 7, 2004
Second Sunday in Lent
Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1
I
"Imitation," it is said, "is the sincerest form of flattery." In today’s epistle St. Paul invites the Philippians to "join in imitating me and observe those who live according to the example you have in us."
Throughout history, human beings have looked to the strongest, the bravest, or the wisest for clues on how to live and what to think. Parents, coaches, chiefs, priests, great warriors all serve as role models for the young.
Children are among the world's greatest imitators. Note how they often try to walk like their fathers and mothers, dress like them, and talk like them. I remember as a child buying candy cigarettes and pretending that I was my father, and in our childish interchange, when asked what brand I was smoking, it was Lucky Strikes, of course, the same brand as my father's. Some parents are dismayed when a child, showing off before company, blurts out a shocking word. Whereas the embarrassed parents look at one another and lamely tell the company that they don't know where their child learned that word, no one is really fooled. All know that imitation begins in the home.
Early in the 19th century, Parson Weems wrote his famous Life of Washington to provide young Americans with a role model to emulate. The cherry tree myth, designed to praise Washington's honesty, inspired other boys to tell the truth, regardless of the consequences. Tales of his courage and magnanimity inspired others to imitate his deeds. Not a bad idea, when you consider that this book was one of the few books possessed by a boy who also achieved greatness, Abraham Lincoln.
Today, people follow the advice of celebrities. If Oprah Winfrey endorses a book, it is nearly guaranteed to sell a million copies! Advertisers know that children and young people imitate their media heroes. This is why they pay huge sums of money to athletes, movie and rock stars and other celebrities to appear in their ads. If so and so eats Wheaties or wears Nikes, then the young and the naive will want them too.
Christians through the centuries have emulated saints, women and men who followed Christ closely, and are therefore worthy of imitation. Stories about their lives are remembered and told and we celebrate their feast days. Children are named after them in the hope that they will grow up to imitate them. Such saints, if the stories do not turn them into saccharine images devoid of life, provide us with role models for our daily living.
II
Who inspires us today? Let me give two examples of teachers who changed my life. One led me -- and millions of Christians -- to overcome centuries of hostility between Protestants and Catholics. The other taught me to see that Christian belief does not negate the Jewish covenant. The first was a Roman Catholic Pope, John XXIII; the second was an Episcopalian scripture professor, the Rev. Dr. John Townsend.
John XXIII, or Angelo Roncali as he was known before his election to the papacy at age 80 in 1958, was chosen because his fellow cardinals wanted a safe, middle-of-the-road, elderly Pope who would serve as a caretaker for a few years. What a surprise they would receive! In 90 days John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council to bring about an aggiornamento or "updating" of Catholic policies and practices. One of his major changes involved Catholic behavior toward Protestants. Previously, Catholics held themselves separate with their own schools and organizations and rarely attended weddings or funerals in Protestant churches. As a teenager, I dated a Lutheran girl and we had fierce arguments. I said Catholics were going to heaven and Protestants were going to hell. She said, no, Protestants were going to heaven and Catholics were going to hell. Our little battle as teenagers was minor compared to the wars and bloodshed for centuries. John XXIII changed all that. He declared an end to the 400-year war between Catholics and Protestants. He welcomed Protestants to the Vatican as brothers and sisters and set an example for all Catholics to do the same. He taught Catholics to recognize Protestant churches as graced communities and reminded us that there is only one Body of Christ. Protestants called him their Pope too and the ecumenical movement forged ahead. John XXIII is the single most important influence in my decision to become an Episcopalian for he showed me that there was only one Body of Christ.
Pope John removed references to the "perfidious Jews" from the Good Friday liturgy. He taught Christians that Jews were not guilty of deicide and should not be called "Christ-killers," an accusation that had spurred anti-Jewish attacks for centuries. Because of Pope John’s example I participated in an interfaith pilgrimage to Israel with Jewish, Protestant and Catholic leaders in 1972. But, it was the Rev. Dr. John Townsend, a professor of scripture at Episcopal Divinity School, who taught me the enduring value of the Jewish covenant. John Townsend elucidated scripture passages from St. Paul that demonstrated God’s unending covenant with the Jewish people. Previously I had believed that the Christian covenant superseded the Jewish -- making the Jewish covenant outdated and inferior. Dr. Townsend explained with great clarity Paul’s teaching that God’s covenant with the Jews has never been revoked. Gentiles are a new shoot grafted onto the original Jewish tree. Jews do not have to become Christian in order to be saved. Rather, they need only be faithful to their covenant.
III
When I look at Pope John XXIII and John Townsend I am reminded of the power of human beings to do good. Pope John was the great catalyst that helped Catholics and Protestants end four hundred years of hostility. John Townsend is part of the effort to help Christians recognize their Jewish roots and renounce anti-Semitic attitudes and actions. Because of them and people like them, Catholics, Protestants, and Jews have been helped to accept one another and work together harmoniously in jobs, schools, neighborhoods and organizations such as the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO). There is still much to be done. But great progress has been made. For this we give thanks to God.
Amen.