The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III
Happy New Year! We actually have three New Years around here:
- January 1, the actual start of each calendar year
- The first Sunday of Advent, which is the start of the liturgical year (and)
- Today: the start of the program year
Today is Rally Day — the day we kick off our Church school season and other programming events. We bless backpacks and welcome our children into a new season of learning. This coming Tuesday, we start a new Bible Study that will carry us through the rest of the program year. We will be reading and discussing Dr. Patrick Morley’s latest book What If Christianity Is True: Evidence Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. It promises to be an exciting journey.
As with any “new year” we should make resolutions. Maybe we can make a collective resolution: that all of us will reaffirm our commitment to Christ this year, and will be the workers in the vineyard who, regardless of when we showed up, will labor for the same prize. That prize is not just something we earn for the next life, something we inherit when we die. That prize also has to do with the life we live now.
To live in relationship with Jesus changes your entire perspective. So often we focus on the negative: how prices are going up, how we have to pay more in taxes, how we work and work and work but never seem to get ahead. Although those things may be true, there is a remedy for it. No, it is not about working harder, but, rather, understanding your purpose in life.
On one hand, that purpose is to spread the Gospel. When the resurrected Jesus appeared before the eleven remaining disciples at the end of Matthew, he told them to “go and make disciples of all nations” (28:19a). I do not think that was just a charge for them. It is for all Christians. Disciples make other disciples, as Mark Dever claims. As he writes, “part of being a disciple, in fact, is to disciple.”[1] It is not enough to be a Christian yourself. All of us are charged with being evangelists.
But it is also about you personally and the life you live. This is not a pep-talk to be all you can be or to be the most upstanding citizen imaginable. It is about the lens through which we see all of reality. You know those sunglasses people used to wear — the ones with the lenses that are all one color: like blue, red, or green. I guess some people still wear them, but they are not as popular as they used to be back in the ‘70s. Anyway, those glasses make you see all the world a certain way (of course). According to the philosopher Immanuel Kant, we all walk around with a filter like this. It’s called our consciousness. It was shaped (or colored) by all of the experiences we have had and all the beliefs we’ve acquired over the years. It is virtually impossible to see the world any other way. It is your unique, conscious perspective. Christians are called to make Jesus that lens.
I know — it is easier said than done. None of us comes close to being Jesus, but we will be closer to that goal if we try. We will never be perfect, as he is perfect, but if we take the Gospel to heart, we will be more Christlike, which is the point, which is the goal of our faith.
It begins with asking a few simple questions:
- Do I love the way Jesus loved?
- Do I forgive as often as he did?
- Is my life and my actions rooted in prayer?
If we are honest, the answer to most if not all of these questions is no. None of us are Jesus, although there are many people out there who think they are…but that’s a sermon for another time.
I read an article that was written a few months ago by Anurag Rao (I hope I am pronouncing his name correctly) in which he discusses becoming Christlike. He begins saying, “For believers, imitating Jesus is not merely an abstract ideal or a distant aspiration — it is an invitation to transformation, a daily journey of aligning one’s life with the character, values, and love demonstrated by Christ.”[2] It does not happen overnight. It is a lifelong process. According to Rao, it involves many steps and characteristics, and it goes beyond just being a good person. I want to briefly highly four of Rao’s points.
First, the foundation to this is knowing Jesus personally. You can know about someone, but that is different than knowing that person personally. “The journey toward Christlikeness begins with a personal relationship with Jesus,” Rao writes. It is transformative. It is holistic. It is relational.
Second, we are to embrace the virtues of Jesus. This is very different than the way the world understands virtue. The world “prizes power and recognition, [but] Christ calls us to a different path — one of self-emptying service.” In a practical way, we are to embody “humility, forgiveness, patience, and sacrificial love.”
Third, we need to be transformed by the Holy Spirit. There are far too many other people, places, and things looking to shape us: politicians, advertisers, even friends. Sometimes the transformation is painful. However, this is the work of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, in our lives.
Lastly, becoming Christlike is done in community, which is why the Church is such an important part of our spiritual edification. Paul refers to the Church as the Body of Christ. That’s us. You and me. We are part of that Body. By saturating ourselves with the Word and participating in the sacramental life of the church, not to mention fellowshipping with other believers, we are formed, informed, and transformed by Jesus.
There are other ways that we can become Christlike. These are just a handful of them. Again, as Rao states, it will not be an instantaneous change. It takes time, patience, and practice.
But it is something that we all need and desire, which is why we are here! You’re not going to experience such a change if you follow the ways of the world. In fact, in the opening chapter of the aforementioned book that we will be reading in Bible Study, Morley mentions how even when we find success in life, we often feel empty. He writes, “Both success and failure can leave us feeling empty. We work hard and achieve a goal that leaves us wondering, What’s the point. Or on another occasion, we can fail to achieve as goal that leaves us thinking, Why bother?”[3] In the end, we do not so much struggle against the evil that surrounds us as much as we do against futility.
We are saved not just from sin and death, but also from the ways of the world and from ourselves. There is a prize beyond what we can see, and it is about the here and now, not just the what will be. So, Happy New Year! We begin the trek together again. May God bless us as we do, young and old and everyone in between. Amen.
[1] Mark Dever, Discipling (Wheaton: Crossway, 2016), 20.
[2] Anurag Rao, “Becoming Christlike: The Journey Toward Imitating Jesus,” taken from Bible Analysis (online): April 1, 2026.
[3] Patrick Morley, Ph.D., What If Christianity Is True: Evidence Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, expanded ed. (Winter Park: Integrity Books, 2013), 3.