Sermon 16th January 2011

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Colossians 1:9-14
Well there's a question! Is it a circus? Or an onion? Maybe
a minefield? Or a roller-coaster? Perhaps a puzzle? How
does a carousel grab you? Some may prefer a 10-speed
bike? Others a game of cards? Still others, a symphony?
Or a dance? For the more serious-minded, it's a journey,
perhaps? By nature of the question itself, there is no one
universal, or definitive answer, of course. Each of us has
to say for ourselves – and most of us probably could do
too, with just a few minutes to put it into words ...

So, what is the question, then? Has anyone worked it
out yet? ... How do you see life? How do you fill in the
dots: “Life is a ... or like ... ?” To put it more grandly, What
is your life-metaphor? Whether consciously or not, most
of us do have one of them. The list that I began with are
all life-metaphors that I, or others, have heard people
claim for themselves. And they do matter, because how
we see our life almost always shapes our life, even if we
don't realise it. Our life-metaphor usually determines our
values, our expectations, our relationships, and our goals.
So, if we think life is a party, our primary aim will be to
have fun. If we think life's a game, or a battle, we want to
win; and so on ...

How we see our lives shapes our lives: so says the author
of the book that we begin studying today. And no, it's not
a line that you'll find in Paul's letter to Christians in ancient
Colosse! That's because we're temporarily departing
from study of specific book and passages from the Bible.

Instead, from now until the end of Lent, adults will focus
on a book written by a contemporary Christian leader. And
we're in good company: more than 30 million copies of
this book had been sold by 2007. A Google search on the
title, “The Purpose Driven Life”, produces over 3.5 million
links; and it even has its own entry in Wikipedia!

None of that is in itself any reason for us to study this
book, of course. Nor even is the fact that in its pages are
quotes from, or references to, no less than 1 200 Bible
verses – though that will hopefully reassure some. It's
not even that I fundamentally agree with the author, Rick
Warren, about how we see our life shaping our life. What
matters most is that we truly believe that this is the right
time for this church to ask, and answer, some of these
sorts of fundamental questions. As the sub-title of the
book asks, “What on earth am I here for?” And, as the
introductions adds, “How then do all pieces of my life fit
together?”

For reasons I'll explain shortly, those questions don't best
summarise the core of this book. But I'd best first confess
that this series was largely my own idea. I read this book
on sabbatical last year, and found it both very exciting,
and challenging. Given my enthusiasm for it the preaching
team needed little convincing that we should offer this
chance, for all of us to go on this same spiritual journey.
We then thought it best to make it a guided venture, so
together on Sundays. And our original 'excuse' for doing it
(inasmuch as we needed one) was Lent.

When we get there, in mid-March, we'll explore the biblical
significance of setting aside a potentially life-changing 40

days. But we quickly identified a problem with this plan.
To do this journey full justice is going to take more than
6 Sundays together. It is indeed designed to be a 40-
day journey. The book is deliberately written in 40 short
chapters, for reading and absorbing at the rate of one per
day. Of course we hope that's how many of us will want
to do it. We're offering to bulk-buy as many copies of the
book as people want – at about £5 each, for those who
can afford it. But we're encouraging you to wait until Lent,
and read it then, a chapter a day – except on Sundays!

On Lent's Sundays the preaching team will then offer our
considered thoughts on the book's 6 headings. But: most
of those headings occupy 7 days of reading, thinking, and
praying. There's far too much material to try and cram
into one summary. And so we decided to have 2 bites
at it. Between now and Lent comes the first round. The
plan is for these next six Sundays to inform, enthuse, and
challenge you – and to make you want to dig deeper for
yourselves. Then in Lent we'll have a second, more in-
depth go at it all. Again, the Sundays can only provide
summaries. But the hope is that in Lent many will of us
be reading the book, talking about it with others, in small
groups, after church – and buzzing!

Above all, the aim is that in Lent we'll help each other
to find ways to live out its truths. That's what we should
want to do, as we discover our life-purpose. It is a very
practical book, that aims to help us live new, changed
lives once we've answered that foundational question:
What am I here for? That's what the first section is about:
asking that precise question. The rest of it then is about

the 5 key purposes that Rick Warren says are our reason
for being. Those purposes aren't secret in any way: you'll
even find them on our programme card. Note how they
cleverly each begin with the same letter too. So, you
were: Planned for God's Pleasure; Formed for God's
Family; Created to become like Christ; Shaped for Serving
God; and Made for a Mission.

Hopefully at least some of you have spotted what's
missing from that list of purposes? It's the word 'I'. As
I said, those questions, “What on earth am I here for?”
and “How do all the pieces of my life fit together?” don't
summarise this book fairly. Well, here's the reason why
they don't: it's not about you. No, it's all for Him. At the
end of each chapter there's a short summary of what
ground it has covered. And there are two of those short
summaries from this first section: “It's not about you”,
and “It's all for Him”. And we can't ever forget that.

As I say, in this series our main focus isn't on the Bible
in our usual way. But each week there will be a relevant
passage to keep us on a straight path. Several are from
this particular letter, Colossians. It's specially useful one,
because this was Paul's advice to young Christians who
were needing to stand firm in challenging times. What
they believed, and were trying to live out was being
questioned in very subtle unGodly ways, and they needed
help. So Paul opened with this magnificent prayer for
them – in which the Colossians' role was pretty minor.

Of course, as ever it's a prayer that deserves full study in
its own right. But for now 'just' take the points from it that
we need to keep us on track. Simply put, they come down

to that these believers will stay fixed and focused on God.
Paul's prayer was that God would fill them with the Spirit's
wisdom and understanding. He prayed for that so that the
Colossians would be able to live as Jesus wanted them to
– and please him by doing so. They would then produce
every good fruit that God expects from His people, and do
it all in His strength. That way they would also be able to
endure everything with patience, and be joyful too. Their
joy, Paul prayed would fill them with thanks for what God
had done for them. He alone could, and had, rescued
them from the eternal death of sin, and brought them into
His kingdom.

I hope you see the common denominator in there again?
It's not about you. No, it's all for Him. Rick Warren is quite
right to stress that his isn't a self-help book. It's not at all
about how we can live a more fulfilled, happier, or better
life – except as an added bonus. It is about discovering
God's purpose, and then living for, and in, that. As he
says, we wouldn't expect invention to explain itself. We'd
ask the inventor to do that. So God as the inventor, or
Creator is the only place to start any search for meaning
in life. And that's just as well too.

There's an account in here of how a philosophy professor
wrote to 250 of the world's leading philosophers and
intellectuals in the late 1980's. The question he invited
them to answer was “What's the meaning of life?” He then
published their responses – including from those honest
enough to say they didn't have a clue! Others admitted
they had guessed, or had made it up. And some asked
him to write back and tell them if he found life's purpose!

There is alternative to human speculation about it, though.
We can turn to God's revelation of himself through His
Word in the Bible, and made human in Jesus. What He
made life, and us, for isn't any mystery, or secret. All we
need are eyes that are open to see it, ears that are open
to hear it, and then hearts that are open to receive – and
to live – it.

This is the life-changing adventure that's in store for all
of us through to the end of this Lent. It will be all new to
some people. Yes, of course others have already come
to the point of knowing that we are made to “live and
move, and have our being in Christ”. If that's where you
already are, seeing your purpose set out as clearly, and
as challengingly as it will be will be refreshing at the very
least. You'll have the chance to recommit yourself to living
on purpose, for God's purpose. And the repercussions of
doing that, both personally and corporately, promise to be
amazing. In closing I do want to inform, to enthuse, and to
challenge you, then – and make you want to dig deeper
for yourself. So, go on, dare to: this week write down how
you do see life. Write down too how your life-metaphor
shapes your life, and you. Then get ready for how next
time on this section I'll speak on the three key biblical life-
metaphors: how life is a test; how life is a trust; and how
life is a temporary assignment. But now let's pray ...