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SERMON
NOTES Sunday, November 23, 2003
By Fr. Louis Mahue
“Almighty and
everlasting God, Whose will it is to restore all things in your
well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples
of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought
together under His most gracious rule; Who lives and reigns with You and
the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.”
Why
are you here today? In fact why are you here in church to day? I could
offer some suggestions; not because I know you, but because I know me and I
remember some of my reasons from the distant past.
o
I like to sing and I
could sing in the choir.
o
It's important to
establish church attendance in the habits and customs of children, and we
had children.
o
Perhaps it gives one a
better image in the neighborhood.
o
It's the proper thing to
do.
o
It's Christmas or Easter
and we, therefore, go to church.
o
I have to serve my turn
as reader, acolyte, altar guild, usher etc.
o
I have to see Marge to
get her recipe for gizmo fudge.
We
can come up with all sorts of reasons, but what about coming out of pure
love for Christ. How many of us can sit back and truthfully say that we
came for no other reason except out of intense love for Christ and what he
did for us?
Let's
try that question again with a different twist.
Why are you here?
Not
this morning, not this week, not this year, not in Chillicothe, not in
North America, but why are you here at all in this world and universe?
We
could take the approach that the universe was an accidental big bang, that
the formation of the earth was just an incidental result of the big bang,
that life developed as an accident on the newly formed earth, and that each
of us was the result of the union of one egg uniting, by accident, with one
of many thousand sperms. I'm afraid that many of us get up every morning to
have breakfast, do our daily chores, and come home for supper, TV, and
bedtime.
Our
lives become humdrum, a routine activity, automatic, and machine-like. Oh
yes, we also reproduce so that there will be someone to continue our creative
activity.
I
find it difficult to believe that we exist purely by accident for the
purpose of perpetuating our accidental existence. God has
given us life for a purpose and we are here to fulfill that purpose.
But
what is that purpose? God gives meaning to our lives. God gives us a
purpose.
We
believe that God created the universe, our world, and all that is within
it. He created life and gave us life; therefore, we should want to serve
him, not only on Sundays, but also on every day of our lives.
Serving
God in church is easily possible with the various committees, and various
functions in the church such as:
o
Readers
o
Greeters
o
Acolytes
o
Eucharistic ministers
o
Church wardens.
This
is relatively small congregation so you all are familiar with these
activities. You're doing them.
God
gave us life, but he also gave us Jesus, his only Son, who was crucified
for us so that we could be reconciled with God. He was a full and
sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.
He
ascended into heaven, but sent us the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in
our daily lives: We were also expected to spread the good news of Christ to
all people and we were directed to keep God's commandments.
We
have ample opportunities to tell people in our daily lives about Christ.
True, they've heard the word in passing, but they may not have heard it in
their hearts. If we live as Christians we will be noticed and we won't have
to stand on a soapbox on a street corner to be noticed.
Soon
we will be starting a new church. Actually we'll be transplanting our
existing church to a new facility. In doing so, we will also introduce a
service with a new format, hoping to attract people, who may find the
liturgy of the Anglican Church somewhat difficult to follow. Therefore we must
welcome these people into the church by taking part in the less traditional
service ourselves, and helping our brothers and sisters to find a home in
God's church with us. We must bring them into our church family.
Occasionally
I hear someone say, "I know I should be serving God, but I just don't
know what he wants me to do." Friends if you make yourselves
available, God will give you all you can do.
Jesus
came into the world to die for us. He was a gift from God to the world. We
are about to enter the season of Advent when we prepare for the worldly
arrival of Jesus. We celebrate Christmas for the birth of Christ, but we
must not lose sight of the fact that Jesus actually came into the world to
die as a full and sufficient sacrifice for our sins to reconcile us to God.
In
this morning's gospel you heard the words of Jesus to Pilate, "I was
born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the
truth." (John 18:37) He
knew why He was here. We must search our souls and be open to our findings
of why we are here.
In the name of the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
Related reading: The Purpose Driven Life by
Rick Warren
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