Sermon 6th March 2011
Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Matthew 28 verses 16-20
Here's one for anyone who has ever been driven mad by some kind of public works, be it as a pedestrian, a cyclist, or a driver - i.e. it's for all of us! This fictional action takes place in a leafy suburb, where an intrigued onlooker observes how two industrious workmen slave away all day. One digs a hole, and the other follows behind him, and fills the hole in. They work up one side of the street, then down the other, and then move on to the next street. They work hard all day long one workman digging a hole, the other then filling it in again.
In the end our onlooker overcomes their British reserve, in order to satisfy their natural curiosity, and solve the mystery. He politely says to the hole-digger, “I'm impressed by the effort you two are putting in to your work; but I really don't get it. Why are you digging these holes, only to have your colleague fill them up again?”
The hole-digger wipes his brow, and sighs. “Well, I can see it probably looks odd, because we're normally a 3-person team. But the one who plants the trees called in sick today.”
As is often the way, the sermon-connection is perhaps a little tenuous. My best effort to make one is that it can be easy to keep on living life in what become our habitual ways. We don't always stop to think about what the point of it all is. Mind you, my hope very much is that if that was true of any Parish of Herne Hill regulars then this is already a past issue for you! Nobody could have sat through the last 6 weeks here without at least asking some key, fundamental questions: what does life mean; why are we here; and how should we live?
Today marks the end of our first run through this very helpful book, The Purpose Driven Life. I don't plan to say too much by way of concluding thoughts on what we have learned so far. That's not least because we're starting it all over again next week! As I said at the outset, there's far too much material under each of the book's 6 headings to be covered in just one sermon. The American author, Rick Warren has produced a book that is meant to be literally life-changing. Its deliberate aim is to get people to stop and ask such questions – on the basis that God created all of us for particular purposes. The idea is that life can't, and won't, make sense until we start to live out the purposes which we have been made for. These are important, and eternally valuable matters, then. So they are well worth giving a decent amount of time to – whatever stage of life, or faith we are currently at.
Plenty of other people have been here before us – at least 30 million in the book's first 5 years! We have decided to join in, by making this our Lent book. More details next week on how it's all going to work – but it starts in earnest from this Wednesday. This Lent we are all invited to read one of this book's short chapters per day – except on Sundays! And if you're worried that you have missed what we have said on it so far, it's all posted on our website, or we can print copies for you. There is no excuse for not getting involved, then: purposefully!
This is about each of us actively choosing to go on the most significant journey that we could ever make. Yes, many of us are Christians, and some of us have been for a long time. If that's you, it could be a case of taking what you already know and re-focusing it for your next step forward in faith. Lots of people I've been talking to share my sense that God is up to stuff across this parish at the moment. And I'm sure that this process is a key part of that. It's like God is inviting us to be clear about what we truly believe. More than that, it's like He's inviting us to be intentional about what we then do – individually and corporately. That, in turn, must come out of understanding what God wants for us and from us – personally and as church.
So today we arrive at Rick Warren's final suggested God-given purpose for our lives. Yes it's the one that so many have been desperate to get to – because it's that God has Made us for Mission! We will explore that in about as much detail as we have the book's four other suggested purposes – but we also do need to set it in context. One of the many quotes that I have noted from this book is: “Blessed are the balanced”. No, that's not one of Jesus' Beatitudes (as his “Blessed are ...” statements are known) in modern language! It is from Rick Warren, but it's still vital that we hear it.
As we read throughout this book, God has made us each different. Yes, we are all made for these same five key, Godly purposes; but God gives different people different passion-levels for each of them. It's part of the unique person that God has made you that you should express that passion – without expecting everyone else to feel the same way too! It's definitely not true that I am right by emphasising one area, and anyone who doesn't do what I say is wrong. We each need to listen just as much to the passions of those who care equally as deeply about God's other purposes for our lives. That is how we will achieve a Godly balance, for our own life, and also for our life together, as a church.
This principle cuts both ways, of course! We need people who are passionate about each of these 5 life-purposes. If we don't, we'll be missing out on some of what God wants for us. The picture the New Testament most often uses of the church is that of the body: we need eyes and ears; hands and feet; and every other part too! In the purpose-driven language of this book, then, we need people who are passionate about how we are: Planned for God's pleasure; Formed for God's family; Created to become like Christ; Shaped for serving God – and just as passionate about us being Made for mission too! In other words, every church needs at least some people who are passionate about worship; and about fellowship; and about discipleship; and about ministry; and about evangelism.
The Bible passage that we have hung this one on – not surprisingly – is that known as Jesus' Great Commission. Rick Warren is swift to point out that all four gospels record some version of this encounter between Jesus and his disciples at the end of his life. We also find it at start of Acts, right before Jesus was taken into heaven. And of course we are meant to pay special attention to someone's parting words. When they know this is 'it', the very last thing that anyone says is what they most want us to remember. So, as Rick Warren puts it, we have to see this for exactly what it is – it's Jesus' Great Commission, not his mild Suggestion! It's for us to do, not to think about whether we might possibly feel like it, maybe!
For some reason, this is the Godly purpose that most of us find it hardest to be passionate about. There is something rather exposing about having to reveal who and what we are – especially in this current anti-faith era. But aren't you glad that someone once did that for you? And if you don't now do it for someone else, how will they ever hear or know the good news of Jesus? And of course it's based on the example of Jesus himself. He chose to give up the glory of heaven, to die in shame on a cross – for you! The nature of God is to reach out in love; and that's whose image you have been made in. Here's a God-given purpose to get truly passionate about, then!
Rick Warren has plenty of practical suggestions in his book to help us get over our fears. He helpfully points out how this call applies to our community, country, other cultures and nations simultaneously. Like so much else, you can read the detail of it for yourselves when you get there in Lent. But I will (hopefully!) encourage you with one specific thought from the book. 'All' we have to do is to tell our story! We are called to be 'witnesses', look: not experts, but witnesses. Nobody else shares your story – literally nobody: present, past or future. Only you can tell it – and you must, because you are part of God's on-going work. Yes, you are part of the evidence for the reality of God's grace and love: you!
Again Rick Warren has practical tips on how we can all do that effectively and honestly, in good times and in bad alike. And we are all called to live out this purpose, remember! It may not be your primary area of passion, perhaps; but it is just as much part of you, and us, living a Godly, purpose-driven life as all the others are! You have been Made for mission. Your calling is to continue Jesus' own mission, to tell and show everyone the love of God. And, be encouraged! Above all, we are to do it in the light of Jesus' very specific promise that he also made here: that he will be with us in the doing of it, every step of the way!
So, there you have it: edited highlights of living a Godly, purpose-driven life. In these 6 weeks we have addressed, and answered, the three basic life issues that many struggle with: Who am I? Do I matter; and, 'What's my place in life?' As Rick Warren says, the answers are found in God's 5 purposes for us – which are about Him, not us, remember! We are: Planned for God's pleasure; Formed for God's family; Created to be like Christ; Shaped for serving God – and Made for mission. Now that we know all that, the blessing lies in living it out. How amazing that we can spend all of this Lent working that out, on our own, and together! So let's pray that we will ...
Here's one for anyone who has ever been driven mad by some kind of public works, be it as a pedestrian, a cyclist, or a driver - i.e. it's for all of us! This fictional action takes place in a leafy suburb, where an intrigued onlooker observes how two industrious workmen slave away all day. One digs a hole, and the other follows behind him, and fills the hole in. They work up one side of the street, then down the other, and then move on to the next street. They work hard all day long one workman digging a hole, the other then filling it in again.
In the end our onlooker overcomes their British reserve, in order to satisfy their natural curiosity, and solve the mystery. He politely says to the hole-digger, “I'm impressed by the effort you two are putting in to your work; but I really don't get it. Why are you digging these holes, only to have your colleague fill them up again?”
The hole-digger wipes his brow, and sighs. “Well, I can see it probably looks odd, because we're normally a 3-person team. But the one who plants the trees called in sick today.”
As is often the way, the sermon-connection is perhaps a little tenuous. My best effort to make one is that it can be easy to keep on living life in what become our habitual ways. We don't always stop to think about what the point of it all is. Mind you, my hope very much is that if that was true of any Parish of Herne Hill regulars then this is already a past issue for you! Nobody could have sat through the last 6 weeks here without at least asking some key, fundamental questions: what does life mean; why are we here; and how should we live?
Today marks the end of our first run through this very helpful book, The Purpose Driven Life. I don't plan to say too much by way of concluding thoughts on what we have learned so far. That's not least because we're starting it all over again next week! As I said at the outset, there's far too much material under each of the book's 6 headings to be covered in just one sermon. The American author, Rick Warren has produced a book that is meant to be literally life-changing. Its deliberate aim is to get people to stop and ask such questions – on the basis that God created all of us for particular purposes. The idea is that life can't, and won't, make sense until we start to live out the purposes which we have been made for. These are important, and eternally valuable matters, then. So they are well worth giving a decent amount of time to – whatever stage of life, or faith we are currently at.
Plenty of other people have been here before us – at least 30 million in the book's first 5 years! We have decided to join in, by making this our Lent book. More details next week on how it's all going to work – but it starts in earnest from this Wednesday. This Lent we are all invited to read one of this book's short chapters per day – except on Sundays! And if you're worried that you have missed what we have said on it so far, it's all posted on our website, or we can print copies for you. There is no excuse for not getting involved, then: purposefully!
This is about each of us actively choosing to go on the most significant journey that we could ever make. Yes, many of us are Christians, and some of us have been for a long time. If that's you, it could be a case of taking what you already know and re-focusing it for your next step forward in faith. Lots of people I've been talking to share my sense that God is up to stuff across this parish at the moment. And I'm sure that this process is a key part of that. It's like God is inviting us to be clear about what we truly believe. More than that, it's like He's inviting us to be intentional about what we then do – individually and corporately. That, in turn, must come out of understanding what God wants for us and from us – personally and as church.
So today we arrive at Rick Warren's final suggested God-given purpose for our lives. Yes it's the one that so many have been desperate to get to – because it's that God has Made us for Mission! We will explore that in about as much detail as we have the book's four other suggested purposes – but we also do need to set it in context. One of the many quotes that I have noted from this book is: “Blessed are the balanced”. No, that's not one of Jesus' Beatitudes (as his “Blessed are ...” statements are known) in modern language! It is from Rick Warren, but it's still vital that we hear it.
As we read throughout this book, God has made us each different. Yes, we are all made for these same five key, Godly purposes; but God gives different people different passion-levels for each of them. It's part of the unique person that God has made you that you should express that passion – without expecting everyone else to feel the same way too! It's definitely not true that I am right by emphasising one area, and anyone who doesn't do what I say is wrong. We each need to listen just as much to the passions of those who care equally as deeply about God's other purposes for our lives. That is how we will achieve a Godly balance, for our own life, and also for our life together, as a church.
This principle cuts both ways, of course! We need people who are passionate about each of these 5 life-purposes. If we don't, we'll be missing out on some of what God wants for us. The picture the New Testament most often uses of the church is that of the body: we need eyes and ears; hands and feet; and every other part too! In the purpose-driven language of this book, then, we need people who are passionate about how we are: Planned for God's pleasure; Formed for God's family; Created to become like Christ; Shaped for serving God – and just as passionate about us being Made for mission too! In other words, every church needs at least some people who are passionate about worship; and about fellowship; and about discipleship; and about ministry; and about evangelism.
The Bible passage that we have hung this one on – not surprisingly – is that known as Jesus' Great Commission. Rick Warren is swift to point out that all four gospels record some version of this encounter between Jesus and his disciples at the end of his life. We also find it at start of Acts, right before Jesus was taken into heaven. And of course we are meant to pay special attention to someone's parting words. When they know this is 'it', the very last thing that anyone says is what they most want us to remember. So, as Rick Warren puts it, we have to see this for exactly what it is – it's Jesus' Great Commission, not his mild Suggestion! It's for us to do, not to think about whether we might possibly feel like it, maybe!
For some reason, this is the Godly purpose that most of us find it hardest to be passionate about. There is something rather exposing about having to reveal who and what we are – especially in this current anti-faith era. But aren't you glad that someone once did that for you? And if you don't now do it for someone else, how will they ever hear or know the good news of Jesus? And of course it's based on the example of Jesus himself. He chose to give up the glory of heaven, to die in shame on a cross – for you! The nature of God is to reach out in love; and that's whose image you have been made in. Here's a God-given purpose to get truly passionate about, then!
Rick Warren has plenty of practical suggestions in his book to help us get over our fears. He helpfully points out how this call applies to our community, country, other cultures and nations simultaneously. Like so much else, you can read the detail of it for yourselves when you get there in Lent. But I will (hopefully!) encourage you with one specific thought from the book. 'All' we have to do is to tell our story! We are called to be 'witnesses', look: not experts, but witnesses. Nobody else shares your story – literally nobody: present, past or future. Only you can tell it – and you must, because you are part of God's on-going work. Yes, you are part of the evidence for the reality of God's grace and love: you!
Again Rick Warren has practical tips on how we can all do that effectively and honestly, in good times and in bad alike. And we are all called to live out this purpose, remember! It may not be your primary area of passion, perhaps; but it is just as much part of you, and us, living a Godly, purpose-driven life as all the others are! You have been Made for mission. Your calling is to continue Jesus' own mission, to tell and show everyone the love of God. And, be encouraged! Above all, we are to do it in the light of Jesus' very specific promise that he also made here: that he will be with us in the doing of it, every step of the way!
So, there you have it: edited highlights of living a Godly, purpose-driven life. In these 6 weeks we have addressed, and answered, the three basic life issues that many struggle with: Who am I? Do I matter; and, 'What's my place in life?' As Rick Warren says, the answers are found in God's 5 purposes for us – which are about Him, not us, remember! We are: Planned for God's pleasure; Formed for God's family; Created to be like Christ; Shaped for serving God – and Made for mission. Now that we know all that, the blessing lies in living it out. How amazing that we can spend all of this Lent working that out, on our own, and together! So let's pray that we will ...
posted by Parish Administrator at 11:27 am
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