Why Are We Here?

The Rev. Joseph Winston

July 27, 2008

Sermon

Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1
One of the key tenets in the business world is to know why you are here. In
short, a company needs to clearly understand its entire product line, why these
different items fit together as one, and who purchases them. Comprehending these
various things makes it easy to articulate why you exist.
Businesses forget this rule of thumb at their peril. Starbucks recently learned
this lesson the hard way. Originally, this company provided a place for a great
cup of coffee and their early stores reflected this way of thinking.2 The aroma
of coffee greeted you at the door because they ground the beans that made the
coffee throughout the day. The person who made your cup of coffee took great
1
Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians
1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3
2
Anonymous, Starbucks, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks, July
2008).

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pleasure in giving you the drink since they were involved with every step of the
process. You actually wanted to come back into the store time and time again
because the store was physically inviting. Success brought changes to Starbucks.
The menu expanded from coffee, espresso, and cappuccino. Sweets came first
and then teas and sandwiches. Finally, they added energy drinks. In their financial
studies, efficiency trumped atmosphere. Pre-ground coffee and tea mixes became
the norm and out went all the coffee grinders along with the smell of fresh coffee.
Hard seats that asked you to quickly leave the store replaced the plush chairs and
comfortable couches that asked you to stay.
The results of these modifications at Starbucks are predicable. They no longer
know who they are. As a result, their customers went elsewhere for their cup of
coffee and the company lost money. Now, Starbucks is scrambling to fix their ill-
advised changes that moved them from a notable coffee shop into a place where
you get something to eat and drink.
One way that companies try to prevent this drift in their business plans is to
have a short and striking phrase that accurately describes why they are here. FedEx
is one of those successful companies that believes in the power of the slogan to
express what they do. An early and well-known example from this company would
be, “When it absolutely, positively has to be their overnight.”3 This catchphrase
tells us exactly why FedEx exists. They deliver. You know that and I know that.
This is why FedEx has continued to grow all these years. Another business that
effectively uses slogans is Apple. One of their current advertising phrases is, “It
3
Anonymous, FedEx, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx, July 2008).

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just works.”4 These three words tell us something about the competition. Their
solution to the problem is not all that good. Apple, on the other hand, gives the
consumer exactly what they need. The market has recognized this fact and has
richly rewarded Apple.
Companies both large and small are not the only ones who ask the question,
“Why are we here?” We humans have wanted to know the answer to this important
question as long as we have existed.
The ancient Greeks and Romans taught us that our primary job here on earth
was to revive the gods from their untimely deaths. This is seen in their worldview,
which we have inherited. In their mythology, all the gods first lived and then they
died. When dead, a god suffered the same fate as either you or I. Like a dead
person, a dead god is powerless. They cannot help their followers. They cannot
protect their disciples from the unwanted advances of other gods in the pantheon.
They cannot give their acolytes what they need.
There is only one way for the dead god to live again. Their followers must
obey strict rituals that will eventually awaken the sleeping god. Sometimes this
took offering food to the god. At other times, it required the dedication of children
to the deceased deity. And it might even be necessary to give the god our life.
Literally, the sacrifice of humans brought the dead god back to life.
Once revived, the god would richly reward all its disciples who brought it
back to life and strictly punish those who did not pitch in and help. This of course
4
Anonymous, Life of Apple Inc. slogans, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_
of_Apple_Inc._slogans, July 2008).

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motivated people. Slaves stood ready to help the god move from death to life.
Fertility rites provided the gods with the food, drink, and children that they needed
to live.
The philosophy of humanity’s role in serving the gods infiltrated Israel from
many different sources. One early example surrounds our first lesson from First
Kings.5 The Jews had turned away from the Lord and they were participating in
a male fertility cult known as Baal. Baal had his needs just like any other Greek
or Roman god. Altars needed to be built (1 Kings 16:32; 2 Chronicles 33:3). Baal
needed to be served (Judges 2:13). Sacrifices needed to be made (Judges 2:11,
3:7, 10:6, 10:10; 1 Samuel 11:10; 1 Kings 18:18; Hosea 11:2). Baal demanded
something else of his followers. In order to show how much they trusted Baal to
bring a bountiful harvest from the field and the family, Baal’s disciples needed to
slaughter their own children (2 Chronicles 28:3, 2 Chronicles 33:6).
Another example of how normal everyday people are expected to help the gods
can be found in the government of the day. The Roman emperor and their family
are deities. They demand both your worship and your tribute. If you forget either,
the authorities will be more than happy to extract their pound of flesh.
The Roman government’s official teaching that the emperor and his family are
to be worshiped, Israel’s past history with Baal, along with the nearly innumerable
Greek and Roman gods in the country that demand attention add up to one seemly
indisputable truth for the people. The purpose of humanity is to serve the gods.
5
The prophet Elijah, by the power of the Lord, had worked against this cult. In doing so, he
experienced the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. That is why he is hiding in today’s lesson
from First Kings.

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 Imagine then the surprise, both two thousand years ago and every other time
this Gospel is heard, when Jesus turns the tables upside down and tells everyone
that He, the Son of God, has come to serve ordinary people like you and I (Mark
10:45a).
Can you see the relief on people’s faces when they realize that they no longer
have to sacrifice their lives on the behalf of the gods?
Do you hear the Good News that we are no longer enslaved to gods?
Then why do we keep falling back into slavery?
It is true that we no longer have fertility cults named Baal. It is a fact that
we no longer worship gods with names like Zeus, Apollo, or Athena. We do not
believe that our government heads and their families are deities. But the reality
still remains. We are enslaved to the gods.
Today the name of the fertility cult is fashion. We sacrifice many of our chil-
dren to this god. In advertisements, we tell them that they need to have the right
looks along with the correct clothes. If they are missing one or the other, then they
are not worthy of being noticed. This drives some children to despair and actually
costs us millions of dollars per year in unneeded clothing and accessories. Our
young girls suffer the most at the hands of this god. Our constant message to them
is be attractive. Only then, we say, will you get the guy. We continue to tell our
girls this story, which can make them vulnerable to abuse from the first boy that
actually notices them.
Now our personal gods have names like Lexus, American Express, and our
mortgage company that owns our house. These gods are very jealous of our offer-

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ings and they demand every coin that we earn. We might think that we can escape
from their watchful eye, but we would be deceiving ourselves. When it is time to
pay off the bills, they ask us to do one just one more thing for them. Replace our
old car with a new one, buy something new, or get a bigger house.
We have completely replaced the worship of the emperor with the glorification
of the athlete. This one can do no wrong. Their performance on the field is all that
matters. Drug use is at least accepted if not outright encouraged. Their salaries
come from the offerings of fans. If the superstar feels like they have been slighted
in the least, they will refuse to grant us an appearance. We even record their mighty
deeds in a book for all the future generations to see.
Seen in each of our individual answers to the question of, “Why am I here?”
is a dark secret that all of us are very afraid to share. Deep inside each of our
hearts, in a private place that we go to when no one else is around, is that gnawing
feeling that we do not deserve to live. Our little secret, which we want to keep all
to ourselves, is that we want some explanation of why we exist at all.
We pray desperately that our gods will give us some sign of why we are here.
A fertility god like Baal tells us we are alive because we can give life. A god that
demands all of our attention like Zeus or the emperor speaks a different word to
us. This god’s gift to us is sacrifice. We believe we are here on earth because we
can give something away.
If truth were told, somewhere in the bottom of our gut we grasp this one tiny
kernel of truth. All these experiences promised to us by these gods as ways to
prove our value are completely worthless. Life is not ours to give. When we are

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very still, we can tell that something besides us animates us. This tells us that
we cannot take what is not ours and then use it to create a new life. Almost in-
stinctively, we have this sense that we have nothing good to give. It seems that
our bodies are filled with anguish about what we have accomplished, foul feelings
stream from our innermost being about those people all around us, and our eyes
ache from the tears that we cry day and night. Neither Zeus nor the emperor wants
gifts like these.
All of this pain weighs heavily on our hearts and we do not know why we
are alive. In our desperation, we want to be able to find some justification for the
reason of our existence. All of us want to find some small reason why God should
not just forget us and wipe us out of existence.
Jesus has an amazing word for those of us with heavy hearts. He has Good
News for all of us that question why we are alive. He brings relief from the pain
of life when He tells each of us why we are here.
He says to all of us that, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve
(Mark 10:45a).”
This short sentence tells us why we are here. You exist on earth because Jesus
wants to serve you.
It does not matter to Him what you have done or left undone in the past. Jesus
will work for you. It makes no difference to Him what you are doing right now.
Jesus will help you. He does not even care what might happen to you in the future.
He will continue to aid you.
You might feel that Jesus cannot be with you since He was born two thousand

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years ago. But that is not what we believe nor is it what we teach.
We know that Jesus can be found wherever one human is helping another. If
you are helping someone rebuild their flooded house, Jesus is there with you. If in
a moment of need you are holding someone’s hand, Jesus is there with you. If you
are telling someone about God, Jesus is there with you. The same goes if someone
is helping you. If someone is cleaning up after a storm, Jesus is there with you. If
you are being comforted by a friend, Jesus is there with you. If you are learning
about Jesus, Jesus is there with you.
The Christ that you find beside you is not a disembodied spirit nor is it some
perfect ideal that you can never touch. Instead, we know that it is the very same
Jesus that the disciples knew. He promised us this in today’s Gospel lesson and
we take Him at His Word.
Does this service by God’s Son make all your problems magically go away?
Christ’s life gives us the definitive answer to this question. Before His death, sin
and evil were Christ’s constant companions. While He suffered death on the cross
for our sake, these forces continued to torment Him. The same holds true for us.
Our difficulties will be with us as long as we live.6
It is especially important for us to remember that suffering is our constant lot
in this life today on the celebration of St. James who gave his life for the L ORD.
Through the school of hard knocks, businesses have learned the value of know-
ing why they exist. Successful companies often take this hard won knowledge and
6
However, it will not always be like this. Sin and evil were morally wounded by Christ’s victory
at Calvary and at the end of time when they will vanish forever.

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write down exactly what they are doing in a catchphrase that tells everyone why
they are here.
The Church functions in the same manner. We know why we are here. We exist
as the church because Christ serves us. As Lutherans, we say that this specifically
happens when Jesus comes to us in the Gospel and the Sacraments. We trust that
this actually occurs so much that this is our only officially recognized definition
of church. And that is what we say in our confessions. The church is precisely
located where the Christ comes to us in His Word and gives us the gifts that make
us His own.7
Jesus working for us right here and right now gives us another rather unex-
pected gift. We have time to spare. This happens because we no longer have to
justify our existence here on earth.
Jesus wisely tells us what we are to do with all this extra time that we now
have. We are to serve others. The language found in today’s Gospel lesson is much
stronger than this. All of us, everyone from the newest member of the church to
the oldest, are to be slaves to the entire world (Mark 10:44).8
I have seen many good examples of how we care for each other over the last
few weeks. You have done so much that I can only tell you about a few of them.
You have supported Susan on her trip to Peru where she will teach children about
7
Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article VII and VIII: The Church, 20; Robert Kolb and
Timothy J. Wengert, editors, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), p. 177.
8
Unlike the Epistles, Jesus tells us that all Christians, not just leaders, are to be in service of
others. S.J. John R. Donahue and S.J. Daniel J. Harrington; Idem, editor, The Gospel of Mark,
Volume 2, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), p. 313.

9
God. You gathered gifts for the counselors at Luther Hill, which included our own
Shawn. You have made it possible to send our confirmation youth to camp. You
gave a luncheon that celebrated the life of Austin Tong. You offered countless
hours of prayer. And every week a portion of your offering goes outside of these
doors and into the world where it helps others.
Probably the best example of how we serve one another is that baptism of
Jacob Kovar today. During the Baptismal rite, the Church promises to serve Jacob
as long as he lives. This work includes teaching Jacob how to pray, helping him
learn the Bible, and instructing him in the creeds. We also give our word that we
will be with him during every transition in life. This means that we have adopted
Jacob into our family. When the times are good, we will be happy with Jacob.
When times are sad, we will mourn with him. It does not matter to us what Jacob
does or does not do. Our Lord and Savior have joined us to him
This still leaves us with the little matter of the slogan. How do you want to tell
others about the work God does here?
“The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus.”9

References

Anonymous, FedEx, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx, July

2008).
9
Philippians 4:7.

10
Anonymous, Life of Apple Inc. slogans, (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/List_of_Apple_Inc._slogans, July 2008).

Anonymous, Starbucks, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Starbucks, July 2008).

John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J.; Idem, editor, The Gospel of
Mark, Volume 2, Sacra Pagina Series, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical
Press, 2002).

Kolb, Robert and Wengert, Timothy J., editors, The Book of Concord: The Con-
fessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress
Press, 2000).

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