Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, Matthew 16:21-28, 9/3/2023
How many times have you walked into a room and rummaged through a drawer then asked yourself:
What am I looking for in this drawer?
How many times have you walked into a room and asked yourself:
What am I doing in this room?
How many times have you walked into a room and asked yourself:
What room is this?
I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds that staying focused and on-track with life is a struggle!
And getting off track can happen with little things like that - and with big things:
When I get off-track I can forget some pretty important things:
Like who I am - and whose I am.
I can forget God’s promises
I can forget God’s provisions
I can forget God’s purposes
And that’s where this message is going this morning -
It’s called ‘A Life of Purpose’
Maybe you came here anxious - about bills, about a loved one, about your health -
Maybe you came here angry - because a relationship or situation just isn’t working out.
Maybe you came here exhausted - burdened with the problems of a divisive world that’s lost its moral center - and what that means for our country and the world.
These negative things we carry can be attributed to our loss of purpose.
Our purpose is to live in God - To love others - To walk in faith
Trusting God is who God is and God does what God does - by providing, protecting, and being with us always!
One of my favorite books, I try to read it every year, it's by a German Jew named Victor Frankel it's called Man's Search for Meaning.
Victor Frankel survived the death camps of Nazi Germany.
He endured torture.
He endured starvation.
He endured the prospect of death at any moment for a very long period of time.
And one of the most significant things he ever wrote about was purpose,
The importance of having a 'why' to live for.
When people ask him ‘how’ he survived the dead camps - he famously said you can endure any 'how' as long as you have a 'why'.
In other words, as long as you have your purpose down, you can get through just about anything
When you're confident in your purpose, you're hopeful
When you're confident in your purpose, you're not stressed
When you're confident in your purpose, you're joyful
Because you are living authentically and faithfully, trusting in God to do what God has promised.
So what does "A Life of Purpose" look like?
A Life of Purpose does four things:
It seeks God, listens to God, obeys God, and finds its home in God.
So let's unpack these!
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Now that summer's over and I have to go from those stretchy shorts to pants again I've found I've put on a few pounds -
So I'm doing that keto diet for a few months.
This means going into a restaurant and putting on the keto lenses, I'm on the lookout for cheese omelets, spinach dishes, healthy salads.
There are lots of other things on the menu, but I don't stop to read about the, they're not what I'm looking for.
The first step to living a life of purpose is to look for God.
Find God in nature,
In the circumstances around you,
In the opportunities that come your way.
Look for God in the people God puts across your path.
Don't get distracted by the other things on the menu,
The new car, clothing, house
The celebrity gossip, the insane politics!
Power, prestige, riches, or sex.
You're on a mission!
Don't let anything get in your way!
Look for the Lord Jesus, you will find him!
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One of the most impressive diagnostic tools I see doctors use is the stethoscope.
That's the funny looking rubber gizmo they wear around their necks and use to listen to your heart and lungs.
Doctors say they can detect a faulty heart, high blood pressure, pneumonia, and other life-threatening problems just by listening.
And once they listen, they can prescribe - less salt, more exercise - but first, they listen.
Living a life of purpose involves listening.
Listening to our heart.
Listening to God's description of who we are.
Listening for God's promises and direction.
Writer Parker Palmer famously said,
“I can’t tell you which way my life should go until I Iisten to what my life is telling me."
More than likely, God has given you a dream, a goal, a desire, our purpose is to listen to that.
Go back to it - Don't forget it!
Don't listen to those other voices, competing for your attention.
Listen to God to set your direction and tell you who you are and what your unique purpose is.
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When I was in college, I knew someone who got good grades in the classroom but lacked something you and I might call street smarts - anybody know anyone like that?
That would be me!
So we're freshmen, first month in the dorm, never getting enough food, always hungry, and I'm complaining, and my roommate says to make a box of Kraft Macaroni and cheese.
But I'd never done it.
He said, boil the water
Strain the pasta,
Add the envelope of cheese and butter
And you're good
It's all explained on the back of the box.
I thought, how easy, who needs the box?
I did, after I dumped the powdered cheese into the boiling water and pasta ..
You see, it does no good to have direction and not do it.
Our third step to living a life of purpose is to obey.
God has told us how to live - we heard it in our Romans reading:
Live honest, generous, charitable hopeful lives.
Treat others like we want to be treated l.
Pray for those who don't like you.
Don't return aggression with aggression, vengeance is not ours!
We have direction in our hearts, our community, in scripture.
Don't throw the box away!
Take time to read it and obey it!
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One of my favorite cartoons shows two fish swimming around a fish bowl.
The first fish says, ‘Boy this water is cold!”
The other fish stops and says:
‘What water?’
The first fish had a sense of discomfort to notice that the water had changed.
The second fish knows no other home than in that water.
The fourth step in Living a Life of Purpose is to make God our home -
To get comfortable with God and God’s ways.
It’s to look to God for all our needs - especially those of approval and acceptance.
Earlier this week I had a call from a woman asking for direction.
She said that God had given her a dream to minister to incarcerated women.
She brought this up to her pastor who told her it was a bad idea.
I told her that if God had told her to do something and someone else had told her otherwise - even the pastor - then she is best to listen to God.
Finding our home in God means looking to God for approval and acceptance, not our pastor, friends, or family.
Where is your home in God?
Do you sense God in nature?
Your prayer closet?
Where are you seeking approval or acceptance?
Let your faith be your comfort - your happy place - of joy and encouragement as we make God our home.
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There is no one who exemplifies living a life of purpose better than Jesus.
In this morning’s Gospel he is clear about who he is and what he’s going to do.
Even good old St. Peter - who rocketed into the big leagues last week when he called Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God - couldn’t get it right -
He tried to draw Jesus off course, before Jesus sent him back to the minor leagues: ‘Get behind me Satan!’
Jesus knew his purpose.
Jesus wants us to know ours.
This is why he uses this rather stark language:
Deny yourself.
Take up your cross.
Lose our lives to find it.
What does this mean?
One of the more vexing problems you and I face today is the problem of poverty.
At any given moment, I don’t care who the president is, we have 10-20% of our population, poor - they don’t have adequate housing, education, medical care -
This is tough especially on Seniors and kids.
Yet we go about our lives as Americans thinking,
‘Well, that’s just the way it’s supposed to be!’
‘I guess we’ll have to come up with some government policy to help!’
‘It’s not my problem, someone else is going to have to fix it.’
I’m not pointing fingers, I’m right there with you.
But what I think what Jesus is trying to say is that the life we’re currently living - that allows such inequality to persist - has to change - has to die.
That ‘old self’ that doesn’t do anything about poverty, has to go -
We have to lose that life - and find a new one -
We need a ’new life’ - in God - that will live into God’s purposes of health, joy, prosperity, and abundance not just for the 80% - but for ALL people.
As we live into our purpose - by seeking God, listening to God, obeying God, and finding our home in God - I will not be surprised if some of you here step forward and want to lead the rest of us into this ’new life’!
It is a ’new life’ of equality and justice for ALL people -
Of hope and abundance for ALL people -
Of joy and fulfillment for ALL people -
GOD has called to do these things –
and if you believe God can bring it to pass, can get an amen?