1-9-2016

Good Morning All!!   

        Lamentations 4:14; “They wandered, blind, through the streets; they were so defiled with blood that no one was able to touch their garments.”

     In 1863Edward Everett Hale wrote a short story entitled “The Man without a Country.”  In the story a man named Philip Nolan renounces his citizenship to the United States and states “I wish I may never hear of the United States again.”  The judge grants his request.  He spends the rest of his life as a prisoner on different ships.  While on these ships, the sailors are forbidden to talk to him about the United States and everything he reads is censored to remove anything about the United States.  He is left to wander the rest of his life without a country.  He soon regrets his actions and yearns for his country back.  This story was written during the worst of the Civil War as far as the Union was concerned.  It was written to encourage patriotism and loyalty to the union.  

    In some ways, sin causes us to be wanderers.  Sin causes our passions to wander.  Sin causes us to focus on our own selfish wants and desires.  The problem with that is that our selfish wants and desires are never satisfied so we wander from want to want.  We see this in our endless pursuit of money.  The person who makes $50,000 just wants to make $100,000 so he can be comfortable.  Yet $250,000 would be better but $500,000 would be even better and we could do whatever we want for $1,000,000 and if we had $10,000,000 we could do a whole lot of good.  People go from job to job because the one they have “just doesn’t do it for me.” They often say the same about their spouse.  So we wander, never at rest, never at peace.  We thirst for refreshing water and hunger for food that fills and nourishes; yet in our wanderings we never find it.  We wander as if we are blind.  We wander without comfort or any sense of completion.

    Jesus came to calm our wanderings.  He came to put his Spirit in us in order to calm our passions and to direct our paths.  He came to re-order our passion to be ones that serve him.  He came to restore us to his kingdom.  He came to open our eyes to his truth and to light the way with his love.  He opens us to see that we do not need to wander but we can wait in his gracious love.  He gives us all we need and leads us to a life that is content with all that he gives us.

    So we do not have to wander; we do not need to look for peace, hope, comfort or rest; Jesus provides these for us.  We can have rest; that holy Sabbath rest that comes from peace with God and a sense of comfort and hope.  The wanderings, which waste our time, steal our comfort and destroy our hope, have been replaced by God’s loving kindness.

Father of all mercy, open our eyes and lift them up to focus on you.  Guide us by your Spirit that we may know your peace.  Give us your holy rest and keep us in your loving arms that we may always know your love.  Be with those who are wandering at this time.  Bring them into your kingdom.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret