Richard Kuns

Today we remember the life and writing of Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471).  We know little about his life, except for one of the most read devotional books ever written, The Imitation of Christ.”  The book was originally four separate tracts written between 1420 and 1427 for novices in the spiritual life. If you search Amazon for the book, you will find it in multiple editions, multiple bindings and multiple languages.  It is said that by 1779 there were already 1800 editions of the book.

Thomas lived and wrote this enduring book during troubled times.  The 14th Century is called “The Calamitous Century” by historians.  Two years before his birth (1378) the church experienced the Great Schism with competing popes in Rome and Avignon.  Thirty years before his birth the Black Plague (“The Great Pandemic”) had swept from Asia, through Europe and into the British Isles killing an estimated 75 to 200 million people.  Towns and villages across Europe experienced uprisings and peasant protests against the ruling institutions.  The countryside was rife with marauders attacking travelers, stealing their goods and sometimes killing them. Just eight years after his death the Spanish Inquisition began.

In the midst of the turmoil, fear and confusion throughout Europe, Thomas wrote these words:

We must imitate Christ’s life and his ways if we are to be truly enlightened and set free from the darkness of our own hearts.  Let it be the most important thing we do.

Each generation believes they live in the most troubled time ever and ours is no exception.  We make choices everyday about how we respond.  Thomas a Kempis responded, in his time, by rooting himself in the teaching of Jesus and urging us to live out our lives by imitating Christ.  In our time, that is seen as impractical, indeed to the “modern” ear it sounds like foolishness of the most exaggerated sort.

The Good News of Christ crucified and risen is shown by how we chose to live our lives in the cauldron of everyday life.  It is the life we live that becomes the power of the Gospel and the living expression of God Image and Likeness.  I love these words written by Dr. Paul Brand:

Where is God in the world?  What is God like?  We can no longer point to the Holy of Holies or to a carpenter in Nazareth.  We form God’s presence in the world through the indwelling of God’s Spirit.  It is a heavy burden. (In the Likeness of God, p. 227, Philip Yancey, Dr. Paul Brand)

God is asking us to be the chief bearers of his likeness in the world.  As spirit, God remains invisible on this planet, relying instead on us to give flesh to that spirit, to bear the image of God. (op. cit., p. 242)

…God’s people who are called, more than two dozen times in the New Testament, Christ’s Body. All of us joined to him are an extension of the Incarnation.  God reproduces and lives out his image in millions of ordinary people like us.  It is a supreme mystery… collectively, in all our diversity, we can come together as a community of believers to restore the image of God in the world… (op. cit., p260f)

Today I challenge you to rise from your bed each morning, stand before the mirror in your bathroom and remind yourself as you look at the mirror’s image reflecting back:  I am God’s Image and today I chose to be God’s likeness.  

Richard R. Kuns for Dr. Justin Appel