Purpose Driven

Purpose Driven (September 11, 2005)

The Great Ends of the Church - Part 1

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.” Romans 10:15

The other day I passed a small store on Metropolitan Avenue near me. It advertised “checks cashed” and “money transfers”. A sign announced “Western Union”. I thought to myself, my how the mighty are fallen. Western Union used to be a huge company, with a mammoth building downtown on Hudson Street. Western Union was a household name. Little boys wanted to be Western Union messengers. Today, it is reduced to tiny stores such as the one I saw and millions have probably never heard of it. My father worked for Western Union all his life and watched its steady decline.

Western Union is a classic case of a company which forgot its purpose. It forgot that its purpose was communication. Instead, it thought it was in the telegraph business.

For the past several years two books by a California pastor have been selling millions of copies: “The Purpose Driven Life” and “The Purpose Driven Church”. An article on their author, Rev. Rick Warren, even appeared in a recent New Yorker magazine. What he writes, the article notes, is not all that new, but it is the force and clarity with which it is presented. Both churches and individual lives prosper when they are clear on their purpose.

Churches in the Reformed tradition have always made a point of purpose. The first question of the shorter catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” Right there in the question we see the importance of purpose, or end. The answer is marvelous, but today mostly ignored. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”

Presbyterians, you see, have always been focused on man’s purpose, man’s end. In fact, there is a certain amount of humor attached to this focus. Back in Scotland in the old days there was considerable rivalry between Episcopalians and Presbyterians. It even spread to the children. The Presbyterian kids would taunt the Episcopalian kids and their emphasis on liturgy: “Pisky, Pisky, bend and boo, Up and down all service through.” The Episcopalian kids had a good comeback: “Presby, Presby, dinna bend; Sit ye down on man’s chief end.”

What about the purpose of churches? The Book of Order says clearly what Presbyterians believe is the purpose of purpose of the church. It is called the Great Ends of the Church and they are six. They are as clear as clear can be. They provide a marvelous yardstick for the church as a whole and for every individual church to measure how it is doing. The Presbyterian Church recently has been trying to promote more attention to “the Great Ends”. A video was produced, as well at least one book.

There have been conferences on the Great Ends. The Great Ends often are mentioned in the General Assembly, such as the one I went to last year in Virginia. Perhaps this has something to do with Rick Warren’s books and perhaps it does not. Who knows? But the Great Ends have been around longer than Pastor Warren, and the Westminster shorter catechism even longer. And longer than that has been the words of Jesus himself establishing clearly what the absolute priority is – seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

As we begin the year with “homecoming” Sunday we will focus for the next six Sundays on these Great Ends. The proclamation of the Gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God, the maintenance of divine worship, the preservation of the truth, the promotion of social righteousness, and the exhibition of the kingdom of heaven to the world. There are several things to be said:

First, the Great Ends all go together. We are not to “cherry pick” the ones we like and leave out the others. They all work together for the Church or they don’t work at all. If we see that they all work together we will not try to separate, say, social action from evangelism.

Second, the Great Ends are totally faithful to the biblical witness. They are not made up out of whole cloth. They are consistent with the Reformed understanding of what scripture teaches us to believe and do as the People of God.

Third, if the Church thinks of itself as a ship, which is the traditional image, then the Great Ends are the ship’s rudder. Without this rudder, the ship is without guidance and helpless in any storm.

There are many things churches do – and should do – which are also done in some way or another by other groups, and often better. Churches should be involved in education – and in America churches started all the famous colleges. But today most education is carried on without the Church. Churches can be great places to meet people – but so are many other places. Churches have groups where, for instance, seniors can have social activities. But so do senior centers, and often better. Churches should certainly be involved in relief of refugees and disasters, but so we know are many other groups. But if churches do not proclaim the gospel, no one else will.

This is the first of the six great ends. The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind. It appears to be the least practical thing which can be imagined. It doesn’t feed anybody, clothe anybody, house anybody. It doesn’t build anything. It uses a word – “proclamation” – which can be a turn-off to many. Time to switch the channels. And it uses an old English word – gospel -- which is hardly everyday language. Altogether it seems the most impractical thing imaginable. But there it is as the first of the six purposes of the church.

If you go to the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church at Fifth Avenue and 55th street and go inside the huge sanctuary you cannot help noticing that in the center is a pulpit. That says more clearly than anything that the chief business of the church, or to put it another way the first of the six ends of the church, has to do with the pulpit, with proclamation. The Church does many things, but above all it has a message. That message is to be proclaimed. That message is not or should not be about the excellent oratory in the pulpit. It should not focus on the messenger but on the message, and that message is of a Savior, a Jew born in a specific time and place some 2000 years ago in an obscure corner of the Roman Empire who, Christians believe, is the Savior of the world, the promised Messiah, and this is gospel, which means “good news”.

The first four books in the New Testament are all called gospels. They are not strictly speaking biographies of Jesus. They are the “good news” of Jesus – it is what he proclaimed, how and what he taught, but most importantly how he died and, we believe, rose again. John’s gospel says, “No one has ever seen God” – a fairly obvious statement – “It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” Christians believe that God is not remote and unknowable, instead God has chosen to make himself known, first through his chosen people and then in a human life, in Jesus of Nazareth.

The early Christians affirmed that God has spoken most clearly in what they called “these latter days” in the fullness of time in the birth, life and death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And the Church has proclaimed that through the power of the Holy Spirit this speaking of God is available to us now. “Jesus died on the cross” is a historical observation. “Jesus died for us” is a statement of faith and the benefits of having that statement applied to our hearts, and reminding us that he is God-With-Us, Emmanuel, are, by the power of the Spirit, able to save us now, to help us live joyfully, to overcome anxiety and fear, and to open to us a new way of living for others, just as Christ himself was the Man for others.

This is why these first four books are called Gospels – they are messages, proclamations, of God’s saving activity. God was in Christ, wrote St. Paul, reconciling the world to himself, and so in the life and sacrificial death of Jesus we can see and hear and even “feel”, to quote the first letter of John, who God really is. We don’t have to settle for vague generalities, such “the Force”, “or the Great Mover”, or other such abstractions, nor do we have to wallow in uncertainty and confusion, but we can look at Jesus Christ and see all that we need, all that God intends for us to know, all that’s really necessary, to know and love God, and that leads to health, wholeness, salvation, not only in the next life but in this one, for in Christ we have God-with-us – as, by the way, Rev Ruth says in the introduction of her beautiful new book.

Dr. David H. C. Read was a wonderful minister who served the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church for over 40 years, wrote tons of fine books, had a powerful radio ministry, but never sought to point attention to himself. He had none of the pomposity that seems to afflict some of today’s television preachers. He was from Scotland and in World War II he was with his unit when they were captured by the Germans and he was in a prisoner of war camp for most of the conflict. He said that when he began his ministry in a small country church in Scotland the pulpit had a small carving which could be seen only by the speaker. It said, “Sir, we would see Jesus”. He said he never forgot that. The minister’s job is not to point to himself or herself, it is to point to our Lord, to proclaim his gospel.

Earlier we said that the proclamation of the gospel would appear to be the least practical thing imaginable. I would argue that the basic gospel message of God’s love for humankind in Jesus Christ has had enormous practical consequences to lift people up, to spread education and health and welfare and relief for all people, and has done more to bring people together than any government programs or even private relief programs on record. It is not an accident that the symbol of the world’s largest and best known relief organization is a cross.

Today as we begin again for the year we come to the Lord’s Table. That table is a reminder of the central focus of our life together. The table, like the cross itself, is a visible reminder of what is our focus, our End – fellowship now and in the life to come with Him who gave himself for us and for our salvation, and who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, feeds us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation, until he comes again.