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Remembering Our Why
Jerry Morgan
August 19, 2018
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Remembering Our Why
It seems that so much of our days and discussions are focused on questions of "What" and "How". What will I do today? How will I do it? What do you do?
When I go to work, I spend a lot of time explaining to others what we do and how we do it.
I hear a lot of people ask Teri after enjoying some of her cooking, "How do you make that?"
Our students spend a lot, if not most, of their educational pursuits learning how or what. How to do math. What to do when writing a paper. How to do research. How to conduct a science experiment.
In sports, our coaches are training the athlete how to do the skills of the sports and what to do in certain situations. Even now in the NFL, players are having to learn or re-learn how to tackle and not lead with their head.
"What" and "How" are important, but not the most important. There is a deeper and more important question. The "What" and the "How" flow out of this more important, deeper question. The deep question is "Why".
If we don't understand "Why", what we do and how we do it can be mistaken. Can have the wrong result. Can put us in the wrong place. And that is even more true when it comes to theology.
So much of the time, we look at scripture to try to determine the "What" and the "How" and we miss the deeper questions of "Who" and "Why". We have tried to interpret the first couple of chapters of Genesis with a relentless focus on what God created and how God created while neglecting the deeper issues of who is this creative God and why did he create.
Historically in our fellowship, there has been a lot of emphasis on what we do as a church and how we do it especially in our Sunday worship service. Things like how we do music, baptism, and the Lord's Supper. While how we do those things and what we do when we gather has significance, the more important question is "Why".
Why do we gather? Why do we exist as a church? Why does any church exist? Why does the body of Christ in the world exist?
Could it be that the reason we exist as the body of Christ in the world is the same reason Jesus came and lived in the world? Seems to make sense. Today, let's look at his ministry and his teachings and remember our "Why".