I have been meditating on brokenness lately, and that usually leads me to thinking about mosaics. At the school where I work, the art teacher runs a session for pupils on mosaics, using coloured paper rather than glass or stones for the mosaics they make. I’m constantly amazed by the pupils’ ingenuity and skill in using the tiny pieces and making them into a beautiful picture.

Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colours, known as tesserae. Some, especially floor mosaics, are made of small rounded pieces of stone, and called “pebble mosaics”. Other materials used include beads and shells. They are often found on floors and walls and were one of the earliest forms of decorative art.

What fascinates me about mosaics is how something which is broken into tiny, apparently meaningless pieces can become something beautiful, telling a story that is much bigger than its composite parts. The picture below tells the story of Ulysses and was probably made in the 2nd century A.D.

Our lives can often seem broken, our control of situations smashed by circumstances, our security and happiness devastated by life, as the story of Job demonstrates. Yet the Bible firmly declares that God is able to make something beautiful out of brokenness and is able to restore our broken, shattered pieces into a picture that is breath-taking in its beauty. In the fine detail of a mosaic, it may be hard to see the overall picture, but we have to rest in the fact that God sees the overall picture and is working on our lives, even when we cannot see His hand or feel His presence.

Because of holidays, we had a lot of birthdays to catch up on yesterday!

Aaron Shust has captured in his song ‘You Redeem’ so many of the points made in tonight’s service.

‘Poverty loses its grip.
Race can no longer divide.
Wherever Your Spirit is,
Every darkness dies.
Freedom is here with us.
Burdens will fall like chains.
Beauty will rise from the dust
All that’s lost will be regained.

You redeem, You redeem
You restore what’s been stolen from me.
You reclaim, You releasem
You rebuild with the words that You breathe.
You redeem.

Mercy will pour down like rain.
Justice will come for the weak.
Lies that were meant to defame
Will be crushed by the the truth that You speak.

Miracles will happen.
Healing will come.
The plans of our enemy ruined undone.
Miracles will happen.
Healing will come.
Here in your presence, lost in Your Love.
Miracles will happen.
Healing will come.
The plans of our enemy ruined undone.
Miracles will happen.
Healing will come.
Wrecked by Your presencem I’m lost in Your Love.

You redeem, You redeem.
You restore what’s been stolen from me.
You reclaim, You release
You rebuild with the words that You breathe
You redeem, You redeem.
Let Your revival awaken me.
You reclaim, You release.
You rebuild what’s been broken in me.
You redeem.
You redeem.’

God is all about restoring us to relationship with Him and giving us new life, strength, spirit, hope and joy. He is our Redeemer, the One who has bought us back and given us the freedom to walk according to the law of the Spirit instead of the law of sin and death. (Rom 8:1-4) He wants us to reclaim all that He has made freely available, to be released from the negative impact of sin, to walk in newness of life and be rebuilt according to the image of His precious Son, Jesus Christ.

Redemption

God is a God of redemption, a God who redeems. To redeem means to regain possession of something, something that you originally had and lost possession of. There’s usually a payment involved in that redemption, so redeeming also has the idea of ‘buying back.’ Redemption is one of the great Christian words, featuring in the Old Testament (see Ex 6:6, Lev 25:29, Ruth 3-4, Job 19:25, Ps 19:14, Is 41:14, Ps 103:4, Ps 130:8) and the New Testament (Col 1:14, Eph 1:7), showing us that Jesus is our Redeemer. Because of sin, our relationship with God has been fractured and so through Christ’s sacrifice, we have been bought back (Gal 3:13, 1 Pet 1:18-19) and that relationship has been restored.

Reclaim

All the privileges of being sons and daughters of the living God which were lost when Adam sinned can be regained; as Aaron Shust puts it, ‘All that’s lost can be regained.’ (‘You Redeem’) Redemption and restoration enable us to receive forgiveness and wholeness. Instead of being banished from the Garden of Eden, cast out from God’s presence, we can know intimacy and fellowship with God.

David’s recapture of all that was stolen from him at Ziklag (1 Sam 30) gives us a picture of what Jesus has done for us. David was able to recover everything the Amalekites had taken. He was able to reclaim all that had been stolen from him. Nothing was missing; David brought everything back. Despite the heartache, despite the distress they had all known, David was able to recover everything. This is a picture of what Jesus has done for us. The enemy is a thief and a liar. (Jn 8:44, Jn 10:10) He seeks only to destroy, to steal from us all that God has made freely available to us in Jesus Christ. As God’s children, we now have access to all the riches and inheritance that God has given to His beloved Son. (Eph 1:18, Heb 9:15, Gal 5:1)

Release

As we let go of everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us, we can enter into the freedom of blessing and the wholeness which a relationship with Jesus can bring. God promises peace which passes all understanding to guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:7) He promises provision for all our needs: ‘my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.’ (Phil 4:19) He promises us unquenchable joy – joy that is complete and which cannot be taken away from us. (John 15:11, John 16:22) In order for us to access these promises, however, we have to release all that is not of God and cast our cares on Him (1 Pet 5:7). We also have to accept the divine exchange God offers us. (Is 61:1-3)

Rebuild

Rebuilding can be a long process (as we discovered when we moved into Market Street), but the Bible is full of building projects: Moses supervising the building of the Tabernacle; Solomon supervising the building of the temple; Nehemiah supervising the rebuilding of the city walls following exile; Haggai prophesying about the rebuilding of the temple after that time. Jesus spoke about the wise and foolish builders (Matt 7:24-27) and Paul reminded the Corinthians of the need to build on good foundations (1 Cor 3:10-15). God ultimately rebuilds our lives through the words that He speaks (see Heb 1:3, Deut 32:47, John 6:63, 68).

Renew

The work of renewing is ongoing and is for everyone. It’s for the newest Christian; it’s for the oldest; it’s for everyone in between. Isaiah tells us that those who wait on the Lord, who hope in the Lord, will renew their strength. (Is 40:31) The book of Ruth promises us, ‘He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age.’ (Ruth 4:5) David prayed for God to renew a steadfast spirit within him. (Ps 51:10) Paul urged us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. (Rom 12:2) and told us to put on the new self which is daily being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Col 3:10) Holy Spirit renewal is available to each one of us (Titus 3:5), even when we feel as though we are weak and fading: ‘Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.’ (2 Cor 4:16)

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the flourish by which God announces to us that all things can be made new and that He is doing a new thing which will reverse all the curses of the Fall.

In our series ‘The A-Z of Christian Faith’, looking at essential ingredients in a life of faith, we have reached the letter R. The 3Rs of the Bible – reality, relationships and rules – were considered, but the theme of tonight’s sermon was ‘R is for Restore’.

Restoration projects make for good TV shows, whether it’s the restoration of houses or makeovers of people! There are signs of restoration in progress all around us, and we need to understand that this urge within us to restore is actually a reflection of God’s heart. God loves to restore. He is the ultimate Creator, and He never wastes anything He has created, but works on it time and time again to restore it to its original beauty and goodness, re-shaping our lives as the potter re-works the clay (Jer 18:2-3). God wanted Jeremiah, and Israel, to realise not only that He is the Sovereign God who can shape and form our lives as He wants, but that He is a God who is able to re-create, re-form and restore. Aaron Shust says,

‘You restore our lives even though we don’t deserve it

And you’ve given us a love that’s not our own

You assemble all our broken, shattered pieces:

More beautiful than I had ever known.’ (‘Long Live The King’, Aaron Shust)

God is able to restore all that is broken in our lives, making a beautiful mosaic or tapestry from our mistakes and sin. Joseph’s words to his brothers (Gen 50:20) remind us that God is able to work all things together for good (Rom 8:28). He is able to repay us for the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25-26) – nothing needs to be wasted in God’s economy!

At the end of Toy Story 3, there is an emotional scene where Andy gives away his box of toys to a little girl.

It’s a heart-tugging scene as we contemplate growing up and leaving our childish ways behind, moving on and letting go. Clearly, maturity is an important and crucial part of our Christian journey (Eph 4:11-13) and 1 Cor 13:11 makes it plain that we are to grow up. The problem comes, however, when we equate growing up with independence and assume that leaving behind our childish ways includes becoming independent of God.

Christian maturity is not the same as independence. Whilst as parents we prepare our children for independence, we are never meant to live life independent of God. Heb 1:3 reminds us that the whole universe is sustained by God’s powerful word and Ps 104 and Ps 2 both remind us of God’s sovereignty and command of all His creation. John 15:1-8 makes it plain that we are to abide or remain in God. The word in Greek means to stay, to settle down, to come in and make ourselves at home. Our dependence on God is such that we can only thrive and be fruitful as we abide in Christ.

Luke 15 tells us parables about the lost sheep, the independent sheep who went his own way from the flock and needed to be rescued, and about the lost son, who wanted to be independent and take his own destiny into his own hands. Both these parables show us we not only need to remain in God, we need other people too. 1 Cor 12 reminds us that we are a body; we need each other. No matter how strong we are, we need other people, even those we might look down on and dismiss as being unimportant. The truth is we are dependent on each other and as we grow, develop and mature, we actually need to become more dependent. After all, this is not Toy Story, but we are part of His Story. And in His Story, our need for God and for each other doesn’t diminish with age or maturity.