Gary Parrett, a professor of ministry at Gordon Conwell, tells a story of teaching in Sri Lanka. He was addressing a group of pastors about implications of the Fall of humanity. He spread his hands outwards and downwards and said as pointedly as he could: "Everything fell apart."
Parrett continues: "My translator - a dear friend and key church leader in Sri Lanka - did his part well, matching me not only in word but also in gesture. As he spread his own hands outward and downward, his right hand struck a glass full of water on the table in front of us. The glass flew onto the concrete floor and shattered, water flowing everything. After a moment's pause, I remarked, "Perfect!" and, following the translation, we all laughed at having witnessed, accidentally, the ideal illustration for my point." (Parrett, Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful, 24)
It is hard for me to imagine my life like this. I am "flawed", "not perfect", "rough around the edges", "a work in progress". I struggle to look at my life like this shattered glass. Because even with my flaws, I like to think that I'm still functional. I'm still good. But unless I were an artist, I can't think of a single functional use for this sort of shattered glass. Indeed, Parrett's story continues. A pastor in the front row quietly swept up the glass and threw it away.
He notes that God might have easily done the same.
How differently the story would be if that were the case. Imagine how small your Bible would be if it only ended at Genesis 3! 99% of your Bible tells the different story - the story of a promise-making God, a redeeming God, who has a plan to make it all right again. A God who did not sweep us up and throw us away.
As we continue in the sermon series, we will see what God did with us instead of throwing us away. After making his promise, he chose for himself a people. Then, he informed them of his plan. Finally, "in the fullness of time" he set the place, and arrived as the person.
The shattered glass is destined to be remade. As C.S. Lewis writes in his Screwtape Letters, "(God) did not create the humans - He did not become one of them and die among them by torture - in order to produce candidates for Limbo; 'failed' humans. He wanted to make Saints; gods; things like Himself." (193) Picture the stained glass window in the sanctuary! This is our destiny.
And this is what it means for the promise of Genesis 3 to be fulfilled, for the offspring of the woman to crush the head of the serpent. (Genesis 3:15) "The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet." (Romans 16:20) "For (Christ) must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet." (1 Corinthians 15:25) "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law..." (Galatians 4:4) "Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death." (Hebrews 2:14-15) "Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8)
The life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ deals with our most formidable adversaries - sin, death, and the devil - which have hounded us from the beginning. We are destined to become like Christ in his resurrection - unable to die again. If we are in Christ, no sin is too great to hinder this promise. There won't be a piece of that shattered glass that God won't use in remaking you in Christ. None of it will be wasted. None of it thrown away. This is the Promise.
Reflection Questions:
1) What are some of the shattered pieces of your life that you hope for Christ to put back together?
2) Paul says that these shattered pieces, these sins, are nailed to the cross of Christ, and have died with him. How would your life look if you trusted that this were true?
3) What pieces of shattered glass from your life have you already seen God make into the beautiful stained glass window of your life in Christ? In other words, what failures on your part has God already used to make you more like him?
No comments:
Post a Comment