Living on purpose
Commentary
Note: This installment is from the Emphasis archives.
e. e. cummings' marvelous poem "i thank You God for most this amazing" gives us a hint as to what it means to live on purpose. The words to the poem are available online at Poetry-Chaikhana, and it is worth your time to look them up.
cummings lifts purpose-filled living above the normal grind of repetitive day-to-day sameness. Theologically, this is what Rick Warren, in his best-selling books, has tried to do for pastors and church leaders (The Purpose-Driven Church) and also for Christians generally (The Purpose-Driven Life). To live on purpose is to have a well-developed sense of self, an ongoing assessment of life around oneself, a linear understanding of time and progress, a goal toward which one is moving, and a community of fellow pilgrims who nurture the mutual determination to keep going.
Often we lack purpose. One couple tells of sending their daughter to college. Instead of a degree, she came home with a boyfriend. When the younger folks expressed their desire to get married, the father thought a little heart-to-heart chat was in order. Taking his daughter's fianc © aside, he asked, "What do you hope to do with your life?"
"I'm not really certain, sir," came the reply, "but I have confidence that the Lord will provide."
"Do you have a place to live?" the father continued.
"No, sir," was the answer, "but the Lord will provide."
"What about an income? Do you have a job or some kind of career lined up? How will you take care of our daughter?"
"We are in love," said the young man, "and the Lord will provide."
Later, when the pair of young lovers was gone, the wife asked her husband how his talk with the would-be groom had gone. "Well," he said, "I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I find him shiftless and ill-prepared for both life and marriage. Yet on the other hand, I get the feeling that he thinks I'm God!"
We are, at times, both -- shiftless and trusting; life-blown and purpose-driven; meandering and marching under orders. This side of Easter, it is good to remember again some of the purposes that make life in the Spirit real life.
Acts 4:32-35
This is a powerful picture of Christianity lived on purpose. There are a number of qualities raised to prominence. First, there is unity of identity ("one in heart and mind"). This could never mean mechanistic robot-like spiritual cloning (think of Pink Floyd's powerful song "We Don't Need No Education" and the video that portrayed public schools as dehumanizing machines churning out cookie-cutter replicas, obediently civilized); rather, it means caught up together in a common purpose. The passionate unity displayed by early Communism as it coupled with the international workers' movement (summarized in John Reed's powerful description, Ten Days That Shook the World, and portrayed in the 1981 Warren Beatty film, Reds, based on it) carries something of the energy displayed in this first small Christian community.
Second, there is unity of possessions ("No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had"). It is tempting to see in this early expression community a type of nascent Communism. But, as the story of Ananias and Sapphira (which follows immediately in 5:1-11) shows, no Communism of modern varieties can claim this scene as its own. The unity of possessions was not a collective ownership but a rich generosity. Private property was not excluded in this Jerusalem community; instead, there was a heightened sense of responsibility that placed every need in the public eye and challenged every resource to be used for the good of the group as a whole.
Third, there was unity of creed. The brief statement that "the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" carries great weight. The emphasis is on "resurrection." We are so used to people believing in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter that we cannot fully engage what it was like to live in a world where that idea was scandalous. Among the Jewish people Jesus' death proved he could not be divine, for God acts in power, and is not subject to crucifixion. But Jesus' resurrection confused things. How could a God powerful enough to turn back the universal authority of death still be subject to death as Jesus was? It was a theological conundrum. Similarly, in most of the rest of the Mediterranean, Hellenized world, the idea of deities actually taking on flesh and blood so that they become susceptible to death was ludicrous. The great thing that makes gods gods and not human was their general transcendence above physical reality and not being bound or consumed by it. Human spirits needed to be liberated from flesh; so why would God invest in flesh and blood, and become trapped and annihilated in it? Yet the Christian testimony of deity incarnate, deity mortified, and deity risen with human flesh and blood challenged all of this. Moreover, this testimony of the resurrection of Jesus was not a peripheral teaching; it was, in fact, the central element of Christian speech. It was the key declaration that bound these very diverse people together.
Fourth, there is unity of mission. Because possessions instantly became secondary to care for people, there was a great deal of energy released from this community. People mattered. People were cared for. People received attention.
Visitors came to a worship service I led years ago. They were vacationing with a family who belonged to our congregation. The visitors were not Christians and had never before been at a service of Christian worship. When I talked with them afterward, the thing that caught their attention most was the prayer for people who had special needs. They had never been in a public gathering where specific needs of people were highlighted, and a group consensus was developed to orchestrate care for these folks. They were very impressed.
Fifth, there is unity of submission. Gifts are brought and laid "at the apostles' feet." This is more than a reference to how collections are gathered. This has to do with recognition of the authority of the apostles within the community. Church government over the years has sometimes misshaped this in two directions. Where apostolic authority seeps into the organizational structures of the church, it often becomes a self-preserving authoritarian system. Oppositely, where apostolic authority defuses throughout the community it can easily become mere democracy, and lose direction with every shifting majority vote. The unity of submission in the early church reflected a broad recognition that Jesus continues to give shape and purpose to his people, and does so through wise and gifted leaders. There are no leaders without followers; there are no followers without leaders.
Where these five expressions of unity continue, the church is true to its origins. It also breathes with a great sense of purpose: relationships matter, generosity abounds, worldviews are challenged, neighborhoods are changed, and respect grows.
1 John 1:1--2:2
John wrote this letter late in his life. It may well have emerged after the book of Revelation, and around the same time as the gospel. Stories abound from early Christianity about John's elderly years as senior statesman of the church in Asia Minor, with primary pastoral responsibilities in Ephesus. He was brought on a litter to the front of the worship gathering week by week, infirm and wizened. When asked to speak a word from the Lord, John is reported to have said the same words again and again, "Little children, love one another."
"Brother John," they challenged him, "why do you always tell us the same thing?"
"Because that is all there is," he would reply. "Love is of God, and those who live in love, live in God."
Whether the tales are true or not, the ideas conveyed by them do emerge repeatedly throughout the first letter of John. The primary issue John was responding to appears to have been some early forms of gnostic Christianity.
The cosmogony described in gnosticism was quite specific. The good deity is pure spirit and cannot meddle in physical reality. Therefore there is a second deity, a lesser deity, a mean-spirited deity who created the world that we know. This is the God of the Old Testament, a God of vengeance and a God of harsh rules. Each of us human beings has a spark of divinity within us. It is trapped by our physical stuff, and often not recognized in our day-to-day interactions. Our greatest need is to have this divine spark released from its fleshly prison. Jesus is the one who showed us how this could happen. Jesus was an apparition, a manifestation of the good God who appeared to be human like us. Of course, Jesus could not be human, for that would mean that he was trapped in flesh like the rest of us. Jesus appeared among us as the great teacher who had the right wisdom (Greek gnosis) that would allow us to learn the method of escape from the physical into the spiritual. His teachings, if rightly understood and properly chanted, give some people the ability to transcend the flesh and escape from this existence to a higher expression of our divine core of being.
Because physical reality and flesh are inherently evil, it is important to ignore them, or to bother with them only because this is our lot for the time we are here. We have no responsibility to care for one another or to try to make life better for one another, since "life" and "flesh" are polar opposites. To try to help others here is, in fact, to promote the nasty lie that we are okay as fleshly creatures.
Furthermore, Jesus provides his secret knowledge only to those who practice mystery rituals developed among those "in the know." Therefore the gnostic Christians became a sort of secret society of those who were certainly better than anyone else. If these spiritual superstars played their words right they would be able to escape and no longer bother with life and others here.
With these ideas in mind it is clear to see why John writes as he does. First of all, he ties together the recent revelation of Jesus with the origins of the world in which we live. Jesus is both a revelation and a real human flesh-and-blood person. We saw him with our eyes. We touched him with our hands. John is promoting a teaching directly in contradiction to the tenets of gnosticism.
Second, the creator God and the human/divine Jesus are essentially the same, and they are essentially good. Gone is the gnostic idea that the creator God was a bad God that got us trapped in our difficulties. Instead, creation, creator, Jesus, and we are all essentially good. This is true even in our human physical form. Our physicality is not something to be escaped, but something to be affirmed. We are not divine sparks trapped in fleshly corpses; we are truly human and truly good, made to be the way we are.
Third, salvation through the work of Jesus is not a denial of our flesh, but an affirmation of our relationship with God. Rather than trying to win salvation by escaping our bodies, we need to recognize that we are saved (made perfect, walking in the light, living in the truth) in the context of our current existence. It is not merely a pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye that we are hoping for; we are made right and true and good within our current living circumstances.
Fourth, "perfection" is not to be understood as gnostic attainment of secret insight but rather in terms of a positive relational lifestyle. The gnostics could ignore the cries and needs of others because that was simply the unfortunate lot of all who are trapped in the flesh. To respond would be to mitigate the need to transcend the flesh, so the gnostics properly (in their own thinking) ignored the pain and suffering of others. What did it matter? Such was the inevitable end of all who lacked the secret wisdom (that they had) to escape. In contrast, John says that "perfection" is shown through good deeds and the help of others in need.
Looking at the Christian life in this way, John's emphasis on "not sinning" becomes meaningful. He is not proposing "perfectionism" in the way that some holiness theologies have put it forward. Rather, he is sharply contrasting the attitudes and lifestyles of those steeped in proto-gnostic thinking (perfection is only found through escape from this existence) from those who are deeply influenced by the true Jesus-in-the-flesh who encourages us to live here as Jesus himself did: with compassion and care for others, and affirming the life that we have, even if it is distorted by sin. This is what it means to "live on purpose."
John 20:19-31
On this Second Sunday Of Easter we consider the only story in the Bible which is specifically identified with this day -- the revelation of Jesus to his disciple Thomas. Thomas should not be seen as a bad guy. Too often he has gotten a bum rap because of his failure to quickly jump on the Easter bandwagon.
The truth of the gospel reveals more of deep substance about the man. For one thing, John tells us that Thomas was the one who was willing to go to Jerusalem during the worst threats against Jesus' life, and even die there with the master (John 11:16). Furthermore, it was Thomas who was honest enough to tell Jesus that he didn't understand the sometimes cryptic things Jesus would talk about (John 14:5). In other words, Thomas was a simple man in the best sense of the term. He was honest and good and loyal and true. You could count on Thomas. Thomas was well grounded. Thomas lived by convictions, and was even willing to die by them.
When Thomas refused to believe in the resurrection of Jesus because he was not with the others on the evening of that first Easter, it was not because he was ornery or cantankerous. It was simply because he had seen too many people go off on wild-goose chases when there was no goose to be had. The traumatic events of Passion Week ought to have made everyone a bit sober, and forced them to realize that wishful thinking is not enough to change reality.
But when Jesus physically appeared to Thomas along with the rest of the disciples a week later, Thomas was willing to change his mind and accept the reality of the resurrection. We are not even told that Thomas actually touched Jesus. The appearance may well have been enough.
Furthermore, Thomas becomes, in that moment, the patron saint of all who wrestle with doubt or disbelief. John concludes the scene with a call to belief, and indicates that Thomas' struggle is inherent in all who honestly investigate the signs offered by Jesus.
Application
How do we live "on purpose" this side of Easter? Rick Warren's five purposes are certainly instructive:
We live to worship God -- we are not the center of life, but God is. We are not the authors of creation, but its recipients.
We live to be in community -- there is no such thing as an "individual Christian." Historically, there have been many times when theologians declared that there was no salvation outside of the church. What they meant is that once one becomes part of Christ, one also becomes part of Christ's body. To live in symbiotic relationship with the rest of Christ's body and to engage in the compassionate acts of Christ brings us into community.
We live to grow -- the alternative to growth is death. All living things grow. We grow in insight, we grow in understanding, we grow richer in spirit. This is a purpose that has many spiritual overtones.
We live to serve -- Jesus continues to minister to others through our lives. The act of service is itself an expression of Christian character. A British doctor of a previous generation used to prescribe the "Service Cure" to his patients that were habitually depressed with no clear medical cause. These people were required to do at least one kindness per week to another human being for six weeks in a row. The doctor reported a near perfect healing rate for the ailments of mind and heart for these patients.
We live to witness -- Jesus came to seek and save the lost. We cannot be Jesus, but we are certainly witnesses of Jesus. The church is a missionary enterprise, expressing the wonderful news that God lives, God cares, and God brings God's people into a renewed future through the work of Jesus.
Today would be a great day to remind people that they live on purpose and for great purposes. They are called to be God's people!
An Alternative Application
John 20:19-31. The gospel story of Thomas is one that fits particularly well today. Perhaps a review of the primary types of doubt (see, for instance, Os Guinness' great book In Two Minds or Wayne Brouwer's Walking on Water: Faith and Doubt in the Christian Life) might be in order. Then some encouragement to doubt well, but to doubt with the purpose of clarifying belief would be in order. Sermons on healthy doubt need to be preached often.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 133
Living in unity is a beatific vision. How wonderful it would be in our nation if, rather than vitriolic polarization, we would have unity. It would, as this psalm suggests, be "like the precious oil running down on the beard of Aaron." Imagine a day when national security is understood to be the result of building unity across the face of the globe, rather than hording the world's resources and maintaining a military force powerful enough to maintain our riches.
Focus the lens down now, closer to home. Dream a dream, if you can, of communities no longer divided by race or economic standing. Give birth in your heart to a new sense of unity. Sing a song of a unity that is not forged in stamped-out conformity, but rather, a unity that is woven of the tapestry of our God-given differences. This is a coming together rooted in the conviction that each person, and that truly means everyone, is created in the image of God.
The unity called for in this psalm is not this former kind of unity. It is a shalom unity. A holistic coming together that draws upon the strengths of all and makes secure the weaknesses of each person, community, or nation. This unity is nothing less than the kingdom of God. The building of such a unity is perhaps the primary calling from our God.
Here we are given a vision of its beauty. It is like the "dew of Hermon," a pastiche of a mist-shrouded morning in a pastoral setting. It is an ideal that is often brushed off as unattainable and seldom, if ever, strived for by us or any previous generation.
Unity is a blessing "ordained by God." It is, therefore, something that each pastor and congregation, each community across the nation ought to strive to achieve. Take a moment. Close the eyes. Still the heart. Allow a vision of a first step to God's unity in the community. Don't think big. Think of something that is "do-able." One idea might be a "community partners" ministry, reaching out to those in the community that the church doesn't connect with at this time. Another effort might be a tutorial ministry that offers homework help with positive adult role models for children in your community that need both the help and the positive input.
Unity comes, not with a noble pronouncement, but with small steps such as these, taken prayerfully, and hearts full of God's love. Truthfully now, prayerfully, what steps can you take? When will you take them?
e. e. cummings' marvelous poem "i thank You God for most this amazing" gives us a hint as to what it means to live on purpose. The words to the poem are available online at Poetry-Chaikhana, and it is worth your time to look them up.
cummings lifts purpose-filled living above the normal grind of repetitive day-to-day sameness. Theologically, this is what Rick Warren, in his best-selling books, has tried to do for pastors and church leaders (The Purpose-Driven Church) and also for Christians generally (The Purpose-Driven Life). To live on purpose is to have a well-developed sense of self, an ongoing assessment of life around oneself, a linear understanding of time and progress, a goal toward which one is moving, and a community of fellow pilgrims who nurture the mutual determination to keep going.
Often we lack purpose. One couple tells of sending their daughter to college. Instead of a degree, she came home with a boyfriend. When the younger folks expressed their desire to get married, the father thought a little heart-to-heart chat was in order. Taking his daughter's fianc © aside, he asked, "What do you hope to do with your life?"
"I'm not really certain, sir," came the reply, "but I have confidence that the Lord will provide."
"Do you have a place to live?" the father continued.
"No, sir," was the answer, "but the Lord will provide."
"What about an income? Do you have a job or some kind of career lined up? How will you take care of our daughter?"
"We are in love," said the young man, "and the Lord will provide."
Later, when the pair of young lovers was gone, the wife asked her husband how his talk with the would-be groom had gone. "Well," he said, "I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I find him shiftless and ill-prepared for both life and marriage. Yet on the other hand, I get the feeling that he thinks I'm God!"
We are, at times, both -- shiftless and trusting; life-blown and purpose-driven; meandering and marching under orders. This side of Easter, it is good to remember again some of the purposes that make life in the Spirit real life.
Acts 4:32-35
This is a powerful picture of Christianity lived on purpose. There are a number of qualities raised to prominence. First, there is unity of identity ("one in heart and mind"). This could never mean mechanistic robot-like spiritual cloning (think of Pink Floyd's powerful song "We Don't Need No Education" and the video that portrayed public schools as dehumanizing machines churning out cookie-cutter replicas, obediently civilized); rather, it means caught up together in a common purpose. The passionate unity displayed by early Communism as it coupled with the international workers' movement (summarized in John Reed's powerful description, Ten Days That Shook the World, and portrayed in the 1981 Warren Beatty film, Reds, based on it) carries something of the energy displayed in this first small Christian community.
Second, there is unity of possessions ("No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had"). It is tempting to see in this early expression community a type of nascent Communism. But, as the story of Ananias and Sapphira (which follows immediately in 5:1-11) shows, no Communism of modern varieties can claim this scene as its own. The unity of possessions was not a collective ownership but a rich generosity. Private property was not excluded in this Jerusalem community; instead, there was a heightened sense of responsibility that placed every need in the public eye and challenged every resource to be used for the good of the group as a whole.
Third, there was unity of creed. The brief statement that "the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" carries great weight. The emphasis is on "resurrection." We are so used to people believing in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter that we cannot fully engage what it was like to live in a world where that idea was scandalous. Among the Jewish people Jesus' death proved he could not be divine, for God acts in power, and is not subject to crucifixion. But Jesus' resurrection confused things. How could a God powerful enough to turn back the universal authority of death still be subject to death as Jesus was? It was a theological conundrum. Similarly, in most of the rest of the Mediterranean, Hellenized world, the idea of deities actually taking on flesh and blood so that they become susceptible to death was ludicrous. The great thing that makes gods gods and not human was their general transcendence above physical reality and not being bound or consumed by it. Human spirits needed to be liberated from flesh; so why would God invest in flesh and blood, and become trapped and annihilated in it? Yet the Christian testimony of deity incarnate, deity mortified, and deity risen with human flesh and blood challenged all of this. Moreover, this testimony of the resurrection of Jesus was not a peripheral teaching; it was, in fact, the central element of Christian speech. It was the key declaration that bound these very diverse people together.
Fourth, there is unity of mission. Because possessions instantly became secondary to care for people, there was a great deal of energy released from this community. People mattered. People were cared for. People received attention.
Visitors came to a worship service I led years ago. They were vacationing with a family who belonged to our congregation. The visitors were not Christians and had never before been at a service of Christian worship. When I talked with them afterward, the thing that caught their attention most was the prayer for people who had special needs. They had never been in a public gathering where specific needs of people were highlighted, and a group consensus was developed to orchestrate care for these folks. They were very impressed.
Fifth, there is unity of submission. Gifts are brought and laid "at the apostles' feet." This is more than a reference to how collections are gathered. This has to do with recognition of the authority of the apostles within the community. Church government over the years has sometimes misshaped this in two directions. Where apostolic authority seeps into the organizational structures of the church, it often becomes a self-preserving authoritarian system. Oppositely, where apostolic authority defuses throughout the community it can easily become mere democracy, and lose direction with every shifting majority vote. The unity of submission in the early church reflected a broad recognition that Jesus continues to give shape and purpose to his people, and does so through wise and gifted leaders. There are no leaders without followers; there are no followers without leaders.
Where these five expressions of unity continue, the church is true to its origins. It also breathes with a great sense of purpose: relationships matter, generosity abounds, worldviews are challenged, neighborhoods are changed, and respect grows.
1 John 1:1--2:2
John wrote this letter late in his life. It may well have emerged after the book of Revelation, and around the same time as the gospel. Stories abound from early Christianity about John's elderly years as senior statesman of the church in Asia Minor, with primary pastoral responsibilities in Ephesus. He was brought on a litter to the front of the worship gathering week by week, infirm and wizened. When asked to speak a word from the Lord, John is reported to have said the same words again and again, "Little children, love one another."
"Brother John," they challenged him, "why do you always tell us the same thing?"
"Because that is all there is," he would reply. "Love is of God, and those who live in love, live in God."
Whether the tales are true or not, the ideas conveyed by them do emerge repeatedly throughout the first letter of John. The primary issue John was responding to appears to have been some early forms of gnostic Christianity.
The cosmogony described in gnosticism was quite specific. The good deity is pure spirit and cannot meddle in physical reality. Therefore there is a second deity, a lesser deity, a mean-spirited deity who created the world that we know. This is the God of the Old Testament, a God of vengeance and a God of harsh rules. Each of us human beings has a spark of divinity within us. It is trapped by our physical stuff, and often not recognized in our day-to-day interactions. Our greatest need is to have this divine spark released from its fleshly prison. Jesus is the one who showed us how this could happen. Jesus was an apparition, a manifestation of the good God who appeared to be human like us. Of course, Jesus could not be human, for that would mean that he was trapped in flesh like the rest of us. Jesus appeared among us as the great teacher who had the right wisdom (Greek gnosis) that would allow us to learn the method of escape from the physical into the spiritual. His teachings, if rightly understood and properly chanted, give some people the ability to transcend the flesh and escape from this existence to a higher expression of our divine core of being.
Because physical reality and flesh are inherently evil, it is important to ignore them, or to bother with them only because this is our lot for the time we are here. We have no responsibility to care for one another or to try to make life better for one another, since "life" and "flesh" are polar opposites. To try to help others here is, in fact, to promote the nasty lie that we are okay as fleshly creatures.
Furthermore, Jesus provides his secret knowledge only to those who practice mystery rituals developed among those "in the know." Therefore the gnostic Christians became a sort of secret society of those who were certainly better than anyone else. If these spiritual superstars played their words right they would be able to escape and no longer bother with life and others here.
With these ideas in mind it is clear to see why John writes as he does. First of all, he ties together the recent revelation of Jesus with the origins of the world in which we live. Jesus is both a revelation and a real human flesh-and-blood person. We saw him with our eyes. We touched him with our hands. John is promoting a teaching directly in contradiction to the tenets of gnosticism.
Second, the creator God and the human/divine Jesus are essentially the same, and they are essentially good. Gone is the gnostic idea that the creator God was a bad God that got us trapped in our difficulties. Instead, creation, creator, Jesus, and we are all essentially good. This is true even in our human physical form. Our physicality is not something to be escaped, but something to be affirmed. We are not divine sparks trapped in fleshly corpses; we are truly human and truly good, made to be the way we are.
Third, salvation through the work of Jesus is not a denial of our flesh, but an affirmation of our relationship with God. Rather than trying to win salvation by escaping our bodies, we need to recognize that we are saved (made perfect, walking in the light, living in the truth) in the context of our current existence. It is not merely a pie-in-the-sky-bye-and-bye that we are hoping for; we are made right and true and good within our current living circumstances.
Fourth, "perfection" is not to be understood as gnostic attainment of secret insight but rather in terms of a positive relational lifestyle. The gnostics could ignore the cries and needs of others because that was simply the unfortunate lot of all who are trapped in the flesh. To respond would be to mitigate the need to transcend the flesh, so the gnostics properly (in their own thinking) ignored the pain and suffering of others. What did it matter? Such was the inevitable end of all who lacked the secret wisdom (that they had) to escape. In contrast, John says that "perfection" is shown through good deeds and the help of others in need.
Looking at the Christian life in this way, John's emphasis on "not sinning" becomes meaningful. He is not proposing "perfectionism" in the way that some holiness theologies have put it forward. Rather, he is sharply contrasting the attitudes and lifestyles of those steeped in proto-gnostic thinking (perfection is only found through escape from this existence) from those who are deeply influenced by the true Jesus-in-the-flesh who encourages us to live here as Jesus himself did: with compassion and care for others, and affirming the life that we have, even if it is distorted by sin. This is what it means to "live on purpose."
John 20:19-31
On this Second Sunday Of Easter we consider the only story in the Bible which is specifically identified with this day -- the revelation of Jesus to his disciple Thomas. Thomas should not be seen as a bad guy. Too often he has gotten a bum rap because of his failure to quickly jump on the Easter bandwagon.
The truth of the gospel reveals more of deep substance about the man. For one thing, John tells us that Thomas was the one who was willing to go to Jerusalem during the worst threats against Jesus' life, and even die there with the master (John 11:16). Furthermore, it was Thomas who was honest enough to tell Jesus that he didn't understand the sometimes cryptic things Jesus would talk about (John 14:5). In other words, Thomas was a simple man in the best sense of the term. He was honest and good and loyal and true. You could count on Thomas. Thomas was well grounded. Thomas lived by convictions, and was even willing to die by them.
When Thomas refused to believe in the resurrection of Jesus because he was not with the others on the evening of that first Easter, it was not because he was ornery or cantankerous. It was simply because he had seen too many people go off on wild-goose chases when there was no goose to be had. The traumatic events of Passion Week ought to have made everyone a bit sober, and forced them to realize that wishful thinking is not enough to change reality.
But when Jesus physically appeared to Thomas along with the rest of the disciples a week later, Thomas was willing to change his mind and accept the reality of the resurrection. We are not even told that Thomas actually touched Jesus. The appearance may well have been enough.
Furthermore, Thomas becomes, in that moment, the patron saint of all who wrestle with doubt or disbelief. John concludes the scene with a call to belief, and indicates that Thomas' struggle is inherent in all who honestly investigate the signs offered by Jesus.
Application
How do we live "on purpose" this side of Easter? Rick Warren's five purposes are certainly instructive:
We live to worship God -- we are not the center of life, but God is. We are not the authors of creation, but its recipients.
We live to be in community -- there is no such thing as an "individual Christian." Historically, there have been many times when theologians declared that there was no salvation outside of the church. What they meant is that once one becomes part of Christ, one also becomes part of Christ's body. To live in symbiotic relationship with the rest of Christ's body and to engage in the compassionate acts of Christ brings us into community.
We live to grow -- the alternative to growth is death. All living things grow. We grow in insight, we grow in understanding, we grow richer in spirit. This is a purpose that has many spiritual overtones.
We live to serve -- Jesus continues to minister to others through our lives. The act of service is itself an expression of Christian character. A British doctor of a previous generation used to prescribe the "Service Cure" to his patients that were habitually depressed with no clear medical cause. These people were required to do at least one kindness per week to another human being for six weeks in a row. The doctor reported a near perfect healing rate for the ailments of mind and heart for these patients.
We live to witness -- Jesus came to seek and save the lost. We cannot be Jesus, but we are certainly witnesses of Jesus. The church is a missionary enterprise, expressing the wonderful news that God lives, God cares, and God brings God's people into a renewed future through the work of Jesus.
Today would be a great day to remind people that they live on purpose and for great purposes. They are called to be God's people!
An Alternative Application
John 20:19-31. The gospel story of Thomas is one that fits particularly well today. Perhaps a review of the primary types of doubt (see, for instance, Os Guinness' great book In Two Minds or Wayne Brouwer's Walking on Water: Faith and Doubt in the Christian Life) might be in order. Then some encouragement to doubt well, but to doubt with the purpose of clarifying belief would be in order. Sermons on healthy doubt need to be preached often.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 133
Living in unity is a beatific vision. How wonderful it would be in our nation if, rather than vitriolic polarization, we would have unity. It would, as this psalm suggests, be "like the precious oil running down on the beard of Aaron." Imagine a day when national security is understood to be the result of building unity across the face of the globe, rather than hording the world's resources and maintaining a military force powerful enough to maintain our riches.
Focus the lens down now, closer to home. Dream a dream, if you can, of communities no longer divided by race or economic standing. Give birth in your heart to a new sense of unity. Sing a song of a unity that is not forged in stamped-out conformity, but rather, a unity that is woven of the tapestry of our God-given differences. This is a coming together rooted in the conviction that each person, and that truly means everyone, is created in the image of God.
The unity called for in this psalm is not this former kind of unity. It is a shalom unity. A holistic coming together that draws upon the strengths of all and makes secure the weaknesses of each person, community, or nation. This unity is nothing less than the kingdom of God. The building of such a unity is perhaps the primary calling from our God.
Here we are given a vision of its beauty. It is like the "dew of Hermon," a pastiche of a mist-shrouded morning in a pastoral setting. It is an ideal that is often brushed off as unattainable and seldom, if ever, strived for by us or any previous generation.
Unity is a blessing "ordained by God." It is, therefore, something that each pastor and congregation, each community across the nation ought to strive to achieve. Take a moment. Close the eyes. Still the heart. Allow a vision of a first step to God's unity in the community. Don't think big. Think of something that is "do-able." One idea might be a "community partners" ministry, reaching out to those in the community that the church doesn't connect with at this time. Another effort might be a tutorial ministry that offers homework help with positive adult role models for children in your community that need both the help and the positive input.
Unity comes, not with a noble pronouncement, but with small steps such as these, taken prayerfully, and hearts full of God's love. Truthfully now, prayerfully, what steps can you take? When will you take them?
