This is a discussion introduction, I don’t really give sermons anymore, I gave on Memorial Day Sunday 2009. Nothing about patriotism is in it. I think the subject is a bit more important because in it is the seed of a lasting world peace so there will truly be no more war.
Ecclesiates 12:13 – “The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep the commandments.”
The Shorther Westminster Catechism says, “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”
We sing praise songs and hymns.
We lift up supplication and adoration to God in our prayers.
We enjoy fellowship and communion with each other – and then we go home.
People who go to church don’t always “get” what it’s all about. They don’t understand  the pageantry or the symbolism, the words (like perichoresis or homoouisios) or see the point of all that goes on. But what they do know, what they clearly recognize is that they enjoy being around others that are doing the same thing.
Now I know that those of us who do not have a long history in our denomination (What was the Worldwide Church of God and is now Grace Communion International, www.gracecommunion.org) don’t always understand some of the things we talk about from our past like:
•    Third tithe
•    Night to be Much Observed
•    The Young Ambassadors
But I want to describe one thing that I hope will stay in your mind, because keeping it always in mind will help you understand what this “whole duty of man” concept is all about.
I want to tell you about an annual event we experienced known as the Feast of Tabernacles. You can find it described in Leviticus 23:33 and Deuteronomy 16:13. Jesus, himself, spoke in the Temple during the Feast in John 7. But for us, the feast was THE big event of the year.
•    We were commanded to save a second tithe, yes I said second as in another 10% of our money, so we could celebrate – and, boy, we knew how to party.
•    We were to gather “at the place where God would place his name” together.
•    Our kids would count the full moons until the Feast would arrive.
Our excitement grew as we would get closer and closer to the Feast site and you would start seeing the little green stickers, just like you had on your car, on cars from different states and Canada.
Or there would be an awe in the eyes of people who traveled with their second tithe mone to lands they’d previously only dreamed about.
The next thing you knew, you were checking into your hotel, or pull up in your RV or set up your campsite and you knew you had arrived. WOW! It brings a smile to my face just to think about it. But the excitement wasn’t over, it was still building.
And it continued to grow as the first night’s church service would open with rock concert anticipation. The roar of people in conversation and in joy was deafening, yet pleasing as you could see smiling faces everywhere and hear laughter. Then the worship conductor would welcome us and we would all start singing in unison:
Glorious things of thee are spoken;
Zion, city of our God
He whose words cannot be broken
Formed thee for His own abode!
For the next 8 days you were together eating, drinking, talking and singing in glory to our God. Friendships were made. Romances started. Games would be played. Sites would be seen. Serving and giving and loving and sharing would be in abundance. City officials would tell us how we had transformed an area in such a short time. There was a genuine joy everywhere you went.
Then, on the eighth day, after the last song of the 10th church service was sung and the closing prayer had been done, it was over.
•    Tears were shed as good-byes were made.
•    Promises to stay in touch were made
•    See you next year!
The let down and sadness were obvious. We were leaving the joy of the Feast, to enter back into “The World.”
What we had then we did not understand, for God was still revealing his true identity to us. What we now understand, we long for even more since the Feast is all but gone in its celebration. For what we experienced then at the Feast, and experience now every time we come together, is the joy of communion, real communion with God. It is the communion He has enjoyed for all eternity and for which we have been made.
So now what? Now that we know we are united in Christ in communion with the Trinity
Now that we can understand what communion is like and the joy and love that comes from it (1 Corinthians 13)
Now we have a choice to make. It’s not a one-time choice either.
Now we have to choose whether to take this communion with us, choose to remain in its joy, or we can surrender to Satan’s whisper, “But God doesn’t do this in the ‘real’ world.” Or “That’s just an emotion. You can’t live on emotion.”
The joy of communion with God is a choice. It’s there. It’s real. We can surround ourselves and wrap ourselves in its presence; or we can deny its presence because of what we see going on around us. All of that is really there, too, but all that is what you get when you don’t live in God’s communion. As Morpheus tells Neo in the movie, “The Matrix,” as God told the Israelites and tells us still today, “Choose wisely.”