Life Sunday 2024 “Created for a Purpose”
January 21, 2024 Ephesians 2:10
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
“Mater artium necessitas” is Latin for ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’
In other words: inventions were created because there was a need, or purpose. That idea is traced back to the Greek philosopher Plato almost 400 yrs before Jesus. However, long before Plato is this truism: All created things have a purpose. That purpose may be obvious or not-so-obvious; but it’s logical that intentional designs have ‘intention’ or purpose. So, there is no invented thing that was built without purpose in mind. Everyone knows the purpose of a shovel or a chair or a pencil. They were created for digging, sitting, & writing.
Some of you may remember that back in the mid-70s, the pop-top of a can of soda/beer changed from a ‘tab’ that ‘came off’ to the one we have today, which stays attached to the can. Why did it change? Recently I learned that one purpose of that new tab was so that it could be rotated with the tab-hole over the mouth of the can to hold a drinking straw in place.
Who knew? The human ability to purposefully invent is kind of impressive. Even when the outside observer cannot discern an item’s purpose, that doesn’t mean the item has no purpose.
++++++++++++++++
Now, if humans have the ability to create with purpose, where did that ability come from?
WE would argue that it came from humanity’s Creator, & from the fact that WE were created for a purpose. Worldly-minded people don’t like to acknowledge a Creator; but just because an outside observer denies that there is a Creator – doesn’t mean there isn’t one. In fact, creation itself, it’s beauty & detailed purposes, proclaim that an Inventor exists. And it isn’t us; we are part of the creation; therefore, we too have a Creator. Christians are convinced that this Creator is the God who revealed Himself in the Bible. Today we celebrate that human life is sacred to the Creator who made us, & God has designed male and female for a purpose.
Many doubt that truth of purpose. Some statistics show we are suffering from a pandemic of purposelessness. One group, called Monitoring the Future, which studies American youth, says that nearly 45% of middle school & high school students say that their life is not useful; it’s without meaning. 20 yrs ago, that number was 25% (not 45); a big increase came during & after the recent Covid-19 pandemic.
Youth who think they have no purpose grow into adults who suffer from depression & fears of meaninglessness. But, don’t blame it on covid. When crowds of people are screaming for the right to kill their babies-in-the-womb, human life is devalued. If brand-new human life is cheapened, many will not see purpose, meaning, or value to their lives. Without value, there’s no reason not to live carelessly, immorally, destructively, & with no thought about future consequences == that’s what happens when a soul thinks their life has no purpose.
+++++++++++++++++++
In direct contrast to this, our Creator-God assures the readers of His Word that we ALL have purpose. In Ephesians 2:10, thru Paul, God-the-Holy-Spirit says to those who have heard & believed they are redeemed by Christ: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
That’s quite a verse. God declares that human beings, redeemed by the blood of Christ thru faith, renewed in His image, are His workmanship. The One who created the world & all that exists by speaking it into existence, is the same God who has re-created us in Christ Jesus by speaking His Spirit-filled Word into our soul. That Living Word found our soul, dead in sin, and spoke in us a new birth into faith in His Savior for mankind.
In Genesis, when God took just 7 days to create the universe & world, He called each work of His hand ‘good.’ (Gen. 1:10,12,18,21,25). When lastly He created man, ‘a-dam’, male & female, He finally declared everything to be ‘very good.’ (Gen 1:31). And now, our creating Father, thru the redeeming work of His Son, Jesus, now gives to those who believe & are baptized the same approval. You are God’s workmanship, & very good; you are not a mistake, not an accident, not a blob of cells that was just the natural reaction when a male & female came together. You are a purposeful, carefully crafted work of the powerful Creator.
In Psalm 139 He says that HE knit you together in your mother’s womb; with the purpose that you would have life, & have it to the full – in Christ Jesus.
+++++++++++++++++++
To what can we compare this value, meaning, & purpose of being a carefully crafted work of the Creator? Imagine traveling back in time to witness one of the great artists – like
da Vinci, or Michelangelo creating one of their masterpieces. As we would watch them work, who among us would go up & say, ‘Mike, I think David’s arm needs a little more stone carved off of it.’ Or, ‘Leo, why don’t you have Mona Lisa show some teeth in her smile.’
And once they were finished, would we go up & try to chisel off a little, or add a bit of paint here or there? Wouldn’t we simply enjoy having witnessed the master at work, and then marvel at the beauty of what he created? Another way to say that is: we would appreciate the masterpiece with its intended purpose. Yet, those statistics said that many who might enjoy an old sculpture or painting will look in the mirror at God’s living biological masterpiece and fail to see the beauty of what He has made. The Word says that -in Christ- we are God’s workmanship; and He calls on us to recognize that truth. Psalm 139 confirms that we are God’s hand-crafted work; and Ephesians 2 confirms that we were created for a purpose:
He created us for good works.
It’s a natural, but very wrong conclusion to think that -to get our Creator’s favor- we need to do good works; even Christians can be tempted to think this. But Ephesians 2 doesn’t say that, or even allow for it. God’s favor is by His grace. God’s favor is received before the works are expected. The workmanship is completed so that, then, the good works can be done. An instrument cannot produce music until it’s completely made. So the works aren’t ‘good’ until the believer is made good in Christ. Doing God’s good things are the result, or the fruit, of the Master’s finished work.
This truth illustrates what good works actually are: they are God’s purposes being done thru us. The Bible illustrates that the kingdom’s work has been done by young & old, male & female, rich & poor, healthy & sick. God creates various tools to accomplish His work, in His way. Believers accomplish the kingdom’s good works by serving their neighbor’s body or soul; we are acting as the hands & mouth of Jesus. Lutherans have long called this the ‘doctrine of vocation.’
The doctrine of vocation describes the believer’s purpose. The word vocation can be different than the job or career you have. Vocation carries the idea of a calling; what you were made for, & equipped for. The Christian’s calling comes from God, and involves age & abilities, aptitude & station-in-life.
Each one of us has some callings in the areas of the family, the church, & the community. Being a child or a parent is a calling; being a student or employee is a calling; being a citizen & a trained worker has purpose; being retired & a volunteer is a certain vocation.
The parts you play in the body of the church are callings; & the church is the body of Christ, so He equipes us as He sees fit. The big or little responsibilities we feel for our neighbors are part of our vocation of bringing the kingdom of God among our neighbors.
++++++++++++++++++++
A big part of recognizing Life Sunday is to hold up the calling of motherhood.
When God’s Word says to ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself,’ for mothers, their neighbors are the children of their household. In this vocation, mothers serve their children by feeding them, changing diapers & dressing them, training them in life-skills, disciplining & comforting them. Remember in Matt.25, when the sheep say to Jesus, ‘when did we see You hungry and feed you, or sick & take care of You?’ Jesus responds: ‘when you did it to the least of these, you did it to Me.’ Of course, that truth is also applied to the vocation of fathers.
This is how our Creator brings purpose, meaning & value into each one of our lives; it’s so simple that the worldly-wise overlook it as ordinary, dull, & boring. People who don’t know the Creator go searching for purpose in life and will focus on big, noticeable, laudable & unique works to do. They want to start the next great non-profit, or a world-recognized charitable foundation, or a new mission outreach in a 3rd-world country. These can be good ways to love our neighbors, but life’s purpose for most of God’s people is much more simple, daily, & mundane. The doctrine of vocation teaches us that, in the most ordinary duties of life, we have our Creator’s purpose. And we are to be faithful in His callings.
So, finally, this is what Paul means in our verse when he says that these good works we are to do, God has ‘prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.’ That’s how well our Creator knows us: As He gave us life, He has also planned our purpose in what we should be doing -in the family that He would put us in, -in the church we would be part of, -& in the community where we live. That’s how knowledgeable & gracious He is to us = to plan for us those purposes to help, serve, & comfort our neighbors in His name. God has planned those things so that we will walk in them.
So then, if God has planned them, then we will want to be faithful in walking in them. We will want to do His right things; daily choosing the ‘good’ thing over the ‘bad,’ helping & not hurting, doing & not ignoring. This is what it means to follow our Savior & Lord Jesus.
Oftentimes, we will not see some grand result from those little things. In our view, it’s like looking at the backside of a tapestry. It can look kind of messy & incomplete.
But we have God’s Romans 8 promise: that He is working all things ‘together for good,
‘for those who are called according to his purpose.’
Just as all human inventions were created because there was a need or a purpose,
so all of God’s created things have His purpose. Because of Jesus we can never say our life
is useless or has no meaning. You & I are created with God’s purposes; our neighbors also have God’s purpose.
In Christ Jesus, we have been brought into His kingdom to have life, & have it to the full. And so, in Christ Jesus we will want to carry out, each day, our doctrine of vocation.
For the Word of the Lord is true: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Amen