12-21-2016

Good Morning All,

               Psalm 29:11; “May the Lord give strength to his people!  May the Lord bless his people with peace!”

     It feels like something is missing.  Do you ever experience this feeling?  Not sure what but something is missing in your life.  So we wrestle with the mystery.  We feel restless and nothing really seems to fit the bill.  We search, we try new things, we wander, we seek but, at the end of the day, something is missing, but what?

    When God created man, he created man in his image.  With this image man was perfect, complete in everywhere.  Man was in perfect harmony with God and creation.  When sin entered the world, man lost that perfect image of God.  Man lost a part of himself.  He became imperfect almost like a circle with a slice missing.  The problem then became that with this loss of God’s image, man was unable to find this image back.  He no longer knew God so he sought out the missing element everywhere else and man assumed that the missing piece was about him.  Man thought it was about his own pleasure, his own selfish desire.

    So as man went through life, in order to fill this void; he took from his neighbor, enslaved his neighbor, and killed his neighbor looking to fill the void.  The amount of money he had was never enough.  Eventually everything that man did failed to fill the void; sin left man empty and lost.  This is what Solomon was telling the young princes when he told them “All things are vanity” in the book of Ecclesiastes.  Everything man pursues leaves him empty because nothing will ever fill the void.

    So when Jesus came to this world, God is bringing man back.  God is bringing man back in order to fill the void.  God is filling the void with what man lost; God’s perfect love.  This is why we speak of God’s peace.  In the Hebrew it is shalom which means to make whole or complete.  Thus shalom means that we are complete in God and perfect.  This is the promise of Jesus.  We will have peace, wholeness with God.  This process begins in our Baptism and will be made complete when Jesus returns.  During the time between these events, we live in God’s abiding grace.

    We experience a taste of this peace in this life as we trust God’s mercy to provide for us.  We experience this by faith.   Sin continues to creep in and make us empty but God’s love continues to pour into us, forgiving and redeeming us.  It is his loving, giving gift of life, true life; that is poured into us.  In this glimpse of hope we see our life as it was designed.  We are to love God and to love one another.  This is what fills us and nothing else can.

Father, fill us with your love.  Fill us with your love and true.  You are the only source of our true joy and true happiness. Keep us in your loving arms and protect us from the arrows of the devil.  Be with those who are especially lost at this time. As they seek fulfilment, lead them to your Gospel call.  In the precious name of Jesus we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret