Restoration
Last week we went to Brodsworth Hall. Well we mainly went to see the Gardens, but thought we’d have a look at the Hall whilst we were there. The unusual thing about Brodsworth Hall is that it has been preserved as it was found in the 1980’s, so it is a strange mix of what you would expect to find in a wealthy Victorian home, with 20th century fittings like electric fires and sinks in the bedrooms. It has not been restored to Victorian grandeur, but left as it was found.
Fortunately that is not how God treats us. He does not leave us as he finds us, but restores us to the people we can be in him.
This is one of the most beautiful accounts in the bible. I hardly want to say anything for fear of taking away from that beauty. It is such an intimate account of Jesus meeting and restoration with Peter.
By this time we know that Peter has got it all wrong. From moments of profound insight into who and what Jesus was, he had gone to denial of ever having known him. Peter must have been feeling pretty rubbish about himself. But like Thomas last week, Jesus didn’t want to leave it like that. He didn’t want Peter to be locked in what-ifs or self-loathing – so he comes to him.
Peter has gone back to fishing. What else was he to do now, but go back to his old way of life. Jesus comes to him there, saves his night’s work, feeds him, and then gives him the chance to get it right this time. “Do you love me,” Jesus asks him. This is what matters, now is the time to sort it out. It’s not about what Peter has done, but about what he’s going to do from here on in. Peter’s reply “Yes Lord, you know I love you.” Peter can put right what he got wrong on the night of Jesus’ arrest. Jesus wants to give him that opportunity, and he takes it. And now Peter is given a task and purpose, “Take care of my sheep. Feed my lambs”. Jesus comes, he calls, he restores, and he gives a purpose to life. To pass onto others the care that God gives to us. To feed them with the knowledge that God forgives and makes new.
And then there is Saul. I remember this story so well from the Scripture Exams we used to do in Sheffield when I was a girl! This is a man who has done his worst for God, persecuting the new followers of Jesus. God stops him in his tracks, and asks, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” Why Saul, what are you doing? But God doesn’t just stop him in his tracks, this is the beginning of Saul’s life being turned around. He becomes Paul, he follows God – and the rest, as they say, is history.
No matter how far from God we have been, no matter what awful things we have done, God is still there watching and waiting. He calls to us, challenges us about the way we are going, stops us in our tracks, and takes us in a whole new direction. If we will meet Jesus on the road, hear his voice and respond to his challenge, he turns our lives around, and uses them for him rather than against him.
Restoration, making new, leading us on – it’s what God does. We are restored, not to be a museum piece, but to the glory he intended for us, and to live that others may see that glory, and turn to him too.
Pam's Perambulation 