On Sunday we are going to be looking at a classic question that has been discussed among ethicists for years. I know that might not get you leaping off your seat, but my guess is that this question you’ve experienced or had to answer. It is this: why do people who follow the same God live and act so differently? Why is it that some followers of Jesus live and look so much like him, and others…well don’t?

You might have encountered this phenomenon before. Maybe when watching the news and seen a “Christian” you say to yourself, “I don’t think we believe the same stuff”. Maybe when you hear of how a friend was treated in a church you say to them, “I don’t think that’s how Jesus would have acted.” how someone was treated. You’ve encountered how people can be following the same person, but live and look very different.

On Sunday we are going to explore why this happens, and more importantly how we live differently. If we are followers of Jesus we need to live and look like Jesus. The point though is that it is not enough to simply do the same actions that Jesus did. We need to do them in the same manner Jesus did. Stanley Hauerwas, a brilliant ethicist and theologian writes this:

No one can become virtuous merely by doing what virtuous people do. We can only be virtuous by doing what virtuous people do in the manner they do it.

That’s what we are discovering on Sunday, the manner in which Jesus’ actions occurred. We are going to be looking at what attitude should shape our actions as apprentices and followers of Jesus. Because the hope is that when your family, friends, and neighbors get to know you – you might start to remind them of Jesus in our actions, thoughts, words, and most of all…lives…