Peace Packages -- FPC sermon excerpt
A Hollywood studio lamp, straight out of the 1940s. An eight-foot tall architectural model of the Eiffel Tower. A space pen that works upside down and underwater.
Are any of these items on your Christmas list? If so, Santa is going to have to visit Restoration Hardware.
This high-end store is where people go when they want to step back in time, and buy an item that reminds them of some golden age from the past. Paris in the 1880s. Hollywood in the 1940s. The space race of the 1960s. It’s a very cool place — I love to wander through it.
At Restoration Hardware, people look back with longing, feeling that something precious has been lost. They want a missing treasure to be restored.
And so do many of us. We look to the past — to our childhoods, our college years — and search for something to complete us.
Now maybe we don’t feel the kind of void that can be filled by a Hollywood floor lamp, crafted of solid aluminum and steel, retailing for $1,995. Yes, that’s right — one lamp, two thousand dollars. Must be a good one, but it is not going to give us the light we need.
Our darkness is not going to be eliminated by a Hollywood floor lamp. Wandering through the darkness of daily life, we stumble and fall, hurt ourselves and others, crash into obstacles and leave a trail of debris behind us. We long for a lantern that will light our path, a beacon to guide us and lead us home. And so we light a candle — an Advent candle. This is done on the first Sunday of the Advent season, and again on the second, third, and fourth.
Each Sunday we light another candle and look for the coming of the Lord. We want the Lord to restore us. Restore our hope. Restore our peace. Restore our joy. Restore our love.
We know we need restoration. Not Restoration Hardware.
Psalm 85 begins with a line that was spoken by the people of Israel, back in their homeland after a time of exile in Babylon: “Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob” (v. 1). The people are thankful that their long captivity is over, and that God has forgiven their iniquity and “pardoned all their sin” (v. 2).
But still, something is missing.
The emptiness they feel is very similar to the void that remains deep within us after we earn a degree, start a job, move into a bigger house, or drive a new car off the lot. We know how fortunate we are. We appreciate God’s favor toward us. But still we wonder why everything we thought we wanted still isn’t enough. We wonder why good fortune in this life gives us everything but a sense of peace.
Saint Augustine had it right when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (Confessions, Book I, Chapter 1).
True peace will escape us until our restless hearts begin to rest in God. Serenity cannot be granted by a diploma, a promotion, a McMansion, or a luxury sedan. It comes to us as a gift from God, and it includes forgiveness of sin and the restoration of our relationship with the Lord.
True peace comes as a peace package.
Are any of these items on your Christmas list? If so, Santa is going to have to visit Restoration Hardware.
This high-end store is where people go when they want to step back in time, and buy an item that reminds them of some golden age from the past. Paris in the 1880s. Hollywood in the 1940s. The space race of the 1960s. It’s a very cool place — I love to wander through it.
At Restoration Hardware, people look back with longing, feeling that something precious has been lost. They want a missing treasure to be restored.
And so do many of us. We look to the past — to our childhoods, our college years — and search for something to complete us.
Now maybe we don’t feel the kind of void that can be filled by a Hollywood floor lamp, crafted of solid aluminum and steel, retailing for $1,995. Yes, that’s right — one lamp, two thousand dollars. Must be a good one, but it is not going to give us the light we need.
Our darkness is not going to be eliminated by a Hollywood floor lamp. Wandering through the darkness of daily life, we stumble and fall, hurt ourselves and others, crash into obstacles and leave a trail of debris behind us. We long for a lantern that will light our path, a beacon to guide us and lead us home. And so we light a candle — an Advent candle. This is done on the first Sunday of the Advent season, and again on the second, third, and fourth.
Each Sunday we light another candle and look for the coming of the Lord. We want the Lord to restore us. Restore our hope. Restore our peace. Restore our joy. Restore our love.
We know we need restoration. Not Restoration Hardware.
Psalm 85 begins with a line that was spoken by the people of Israel, back in their homeland after a time of exile in Babylon: “Lord, you were favorable to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob” (v. 1). The people are thankful that their long captivity is over, and that God has forgiven their iniquity and “pardoned all their sin” (v. 2).
But still, something is missing.
The emptiness they feel is very similar to the void that remains deep within us after we earn a degree, start a job, move into a bigger house, or drive a new car off the lot. We know how fortunate we are. We appreciate God’s favor toward us. But still we wonder why everything we thought we wanted still isn’t enough. We wonder why good fortune in this life gives us everything but a sense of peace.
Saint Augustine had it right when he said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (Confessions, Book I, Chapter 1).
True peace will escape us until our restless hearts begin to rest in God. Serenity cannot be granted by a diploma, a promotion, a McMansion, or a luxury sedan. It comes to us as a gift from God, and it includes forgiveness of sin and the restoration of our relationship with the Lord.
True peace comes as a peace package.
posted by Henry Brinton | 8:47 AM
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