Someone read: (Romans 8:26-28)
“The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Read the Script - 'Bits and Pieces' Recently I spent several days at home with my feet up being waited on for all my needs. This was following a minor operation after which I felt well enough, but was immobile for a while. A number of friends came to visit and we usually sat in our sunny conservatory admiring the view and exchanging news. When we added this conservatory to our house some years ago, Paul, my husband, laid the tiled floor himself. We went to the tile showrooms and besides the array of tiles to choose from, there was one section that had a selection of unique mosaics laid out on netting ready to place as a focus between the main tile selections. We asked about these and were told one of the employees created them from the pieces of tiles that got broken in the warehouse - each one was unique and quite beautiful. We chose one and it was placed as the centrepiece of our new floor – you can see it pictured on your sheet. Two of my guests made special mention of this tile mosaic. One said that it reminded her how God can use the broken pieces of our life to make something beautiful, that we shouldn’t give up just because we seem to have messed up or become ‘broken’ in some way. She then quoted the line from Romans that you read at the start “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” Another friend had just been to an evening about the travels of St Paul. She pointed out that, in the time of St Paul, Antioch was famous for its tiles. We have all seen pictures of and marvelled at the wonderful mosaics that were common in the Roman Empire. I wonder if St Paul was inspired by these mosaics for some of his creative images about parts and the whole and about brokenness? Break What, in real life, is brokenness? It can be the consequences of bad decisions we have made, either intentionally (that is, sins) or unintentionally, through circumstances. It can be the consequences of things others have done to us. And it can be the result of all sorts of other random things that have happened to us: sickness, bereavement, accidents, friends leaving, job loss, natural disasters. If we are totally honest, it can just be the realisation that we are not perfect and we need God with us to do anything worthwhile. How can we accept our brokenness and let God transform us? St Paul himself is a good example for us. His Damascus experience left him feeling he had totally failed God. But he didn’t stay in that dejected place – he prayed, fasted and accepted the advice of those who came to help him. Thus God was able to use him to do great things. Even when he knew he was following God’s will, he could still have easily felt a failure – stoned and thrown out of town; arrested and deliberately misquoted. Many of you will either know or have heard of evangelisers and preachers who talk of their difficult or broken past and how God has transformed their life, creating something beautiful. Such as the flyer for a talk that I picked up this week from our church: “God transformed Colin’s life – from fear, rejection, brokenness, anger, gang involvement, violence and prison to a life of helping others … Colin now leads a busy life and has a joyous ministry.” Not long ago, I met a wonderful young mother who graciously shared with me how as a teenager she had spent some years of binge drinking and all that goes with such a lifestyle. God recreated her, through the intervention of others, and now she and her husband are a real gift to their church community. Such a past experienced by these individuals has the added blessing of keeping us rooted in the knowledge of our dependence on God. This can be one interpretation of the words of Jesus: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit”. John 12:24 An important point to remember about brokenness is to acknowledge the situation so as to be able to move on – to allow the Lord to recreate us. To do this we need to talk it over in prayer with the Lord or in the sacrament of reconciliation. There may be something we need to do – this can be to repent of and make restitution for our wrongdoing. Or it can be to forgive another’s wrongdoing so that our hurt can be healed. Or it can be that we need to keep hoping and trusting in God when it appears that there is nothing humanly possible to be done for the situation. I am sure many of you will know of people who have stayed in their brokenness – for whatever reason – and the rest of their life becomes blighted. How we can help people to move on, not get stuck forever in their brokenness? Especially our own children or grandchildren, as bad experiences in formative years are so much more intensified? We must avoid saying damaging things like “I don’t know why you bother” or “you never listen to advice, I’m not surprised this has happened”. Particularly, we must not suggest ways of ‘getting your own back’ on those who have hurt them. We need instead to teach how to forgive without condoning the wrongdoing. This is best done by the example of how we forgive others, such as how we react when they have done wrong at home, even in small things. We need also to be encouraging! When things go wrong, in whatever way, we can suggest positive ways forward – as appropriate to the situation. Adults also may need help to see their way forward after bad experiences, and at times it may be appropriate to seek professional help. I’d like to finish with the image of the rainbow. Not only does it require both sunshine and rain to make a rainbow, it is a symbol of God’s faithfulness to his people - it takes every colour of the spectrum to create it and when all these colours combine, they can create the brilliance of white. Sometimes we can see our life as one small piece going towards the whole mosaic of creation, at others, our life as a whole being made up of many misshapen pieces put together by the master artist, but the result is still the same – a beautiful, multi-coloured piece of art. |
