Lord and savior, help us to remain in the world but not of the world so that we may continue to proclaim your truth and grace in the midst of a world that needs to know how it falls short of your glory and continues in need of your grace. Amen.
As we travel our Lenten journey together and are in the midst of considering our calling as baptized Christians and our purpose in life we must allow scripture and the Word of God to address and define our lives. We are confronting the question, “What is it that God has created you for and called you to be?” “”What is God’s purpose for your life?”
If we listen to the world it is easy to find numerous definitions of who we are and what our purpose is in life. Defining ourselves by the modern American vision of success our purpose is to be successful in business, to gain economic independence, to have an ability to execute responsibilities and manage work for ourselves and others, and to avoid hearing those words at the end of every episode of The Apprentice, “You’re fired.”
Or we might define our purpose in terms of family and our family relationships; being a good spouse, a good parent, a good child, etc. Defining who we are and our purpose by our internal visions of what is right and good in each of those roles. In doing that fulfilling our purpose successfully can still be confused and distorted by measuring our success by our children’s success or our parents success or whoever. And worse, our failure by our inability to protect absolutely all our loved ones from disease, tragedy, or struggle. And in placing or purpose and measure of success and failure in these things we again become contorted and distorted from God’s vision and purpose for our lives and we struggle with pride and/or fear, sin and/or suffering.
Turning to scripture, to the Word of God in Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible we can find God’s vision for human life, for my life, for your life. Doing that we find ourselves empowered to confidently pursue all of our relationships in proper balance. Family becomes a responsibility and a gift from God but it is not the purpose of life in itself. Work becomes a gift from God but it is not an end in itself and does not define us.
Turning to the Word of God we find ourselves defined by lives called to be lived in unity with Christ. Lives filled with his grace and purpose handed on to us. “John 17:19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Our purpose is to live in unity with Christ and to fulfill God’s love in the world.
Living in unity with Christ has a lot of implications for daily living; living in and among our family, living professionally in our workplace, living in the world but not of it. Allowing the Bible and the living Word of God in Jesus Christ to define our lives and our purpose restores relationships and labor to their proper places, gifts from God to be used and shared but things that cannot completely or ultimately define us. Rather we with God’s grace and through God’s Word define them.
As we move forward this Lent let us hear God’s Word and may it define us and give us purpose so that we can live with confidence, courage, and conviction as Christians.
As we travel our Lenten journey together and are in the midst of considering our calling as baptized Christians and our purpose in life we must allow scripture and the Word of God to address and define our lives. We are confronting the question, “What is it that God has created you for and called you to be?” “”What is God’s purpose for your life?”
If we listen to the world it is easy to find numerous definitions of who we are and what our purpose is in life. Defining ourselves by the modern American vision of success our purpose is to be successful in business, to gain economic independence, to have an ability to execute responsibilities and manage work for ourselves and others, and to avoid hearing those words at the end of every episode of The Apprentice, “You’re fired.”
Or we might define our purpose in terms of family and our family relationships; being a good spouse, a good parent, a good child, etc. Defining who we are and our purpose by our internal visions of what is right and good in each of those roles. In doing that fulfilling our purpose successfully can still be confused and distorted by measuring our success by our children’s success or our parents success or whoever. And worse, our failure by our inability to protect absolutely all our loved ones from disease, tragedy, or struggle. And in placing or purpose and measure of success and failure in these things we again become contorted and distorted from God’s vision and purpose for our lives and we struggle with pride and/or fear, sin and/or suffering.
Turning to scripture, to the Word of God in Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible we can find God’s vision for human life, for my life, for your life. Doing that we find ourselves empowered to confidently pursue all of our relationships in proper balance. Family becomes a responsibility and a gift from God but it is not the purpose of life in itself. Work becomes a gift from God but it is not an end in itself and does not define us.
Turning to the Word of God we find ourselves defined by lives called to be lived in unity with Christ. Lives filled with his grace and purpose handed on to us. “John 17:19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. 20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Our purpose is to live in unity with Christ and to fulfill God’s love in the world.
Living in unity with Christ has a lot of implications for daily living; living in and among our family, living professionally in our workplace, living in the world but not of it. Allowing the Bible and the living Word of God in Jesus Christ to define our lives and our purpose restores relationships and labor to their proper places, gifts from God to be used and shared but things that cannot completely or ultimately define us. Rather we with God’s grace and through God’s Word define them.
As we move forward this Lent let us hear God’s Word and may it define us and give us purpose so that we can live with confidence, courage, and conviction as Christians.
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