Harris Creek Baptist Church

I always hated those two part tv shows. And yet I have broken this particular theme up into at least three parts. It sort of feels hypocritical, but I had to think hard about why I wrote what I did so I could explain it with some degree of clarity. Some writing, says Peter Kreeft in his book Summa of the Summa, ( this is an introduction to the best of St Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica,) seems clear, but becomes cloudier the more you think about it. This is the way of much of contemporary philosophy. Some writing (Aquinas’ Summa) seems muddled at first, but becomes crystal clear as you think about it. What I am aiming at is Aquinas rather than Derrida.

Why would your greatest day be the day you discovered your purpose? Shouldn’t a pastor say something to the effect of the day you “found the Lord?” Shouldn’t it be the day that you recieved the gift of salvation, redemption from sin? Yes, but at the risk of trivializing that moment, that moment simply is another step to finding purpose. The Westminster catechism states that the chief end of (wo)man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We can do neither of those things without first starting that saving relationship. We cannot glorify God nor enjoy him forever with out accepting his means of starting that relationship. I cannot be married unless I first say “Hi” to the cute girl I met minimally, and really until I say “Would you like to have dinner?” I am merely fooling my self about whatever imagined relationship I have. (I think my first inkling of a date with my wife was to go to T J Cinnamon’s and get a sticky bun.) No one finds their purpose unless they find it in Christ. But so many in the church have punched that ticket, they asked for that date and then they never go any further. Oh, they periodically arrive at the same restaraunt, and wave. They are dressed for a date, they exchange requests for something they need from the other party. But they have not taken the crucial step of digging in and finding out where this is going. They don’t have a real relationship.

So to find our purpose we must have a vital relationship with the one who created us, purposefully created us, and who is directing all ends to his desired goal. It is this purpose, this teleology, the final cause of things that is missing from our lives. I’ll post more about that. Because I think it is this teleology that is missing from our world. Even in Christian circles, even with the advent of Purpose Driven Life, we are still subservient to a world where meaning is reduced to the natural laws of cause and effect. It is the world where science is the ultimate arbiter of all truth. But it is a dreary world, and an opportunity to bring the great hope of the world, The person of Jesus Christ, who with the Father and Spirit, created and sustains this world and guarantees it will achieve his ends, his purposes for it. That is a world with meaning. I have much more to say about that!

So here is to your greatest days. The day you started this life, and the day you found out what your particular life is for. All our greatest days flow from these two, as gifts from God who gave us this life, and gives us our purpose

Peace be with you!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Christian Life, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.