Television can provide such a window onto the soul of a nation. Whenever I’m travelling in unfamiliar countries, I like having a TV to watch. The content. The style. The advertisements. The agenda. The people. The popular. It goes on and on… It is a window that fascinates me.
Over the past seven years, when we’ve come home on visits to NZ, there hasn’t been much TV on offer where we’ve been based. But these past six weeks have been different. I’ve enjoyed watching and for Barby and I, Friday night has been the highlight, with two shows I’ve never watched before.
One is The Repair Shop.
Now, you need to realise that I am not a do-it-yourself, fix-it kind of person. If you collected a random sample of 100 New Zealanders and ranked them according to abilities in this area I would be in the 1st percentile. Hopeless. As I watch, there is not a solitary instinct, anywhere inside me, saying, ‘I could do that’. I am not watching the show for its aspirational possibilities, but rather with an ignorant, unskilled awe – and I love what I see.
Why? At one level, watching things being repaired makes for such compelling viewing. But there is another level at which I am engaged. Here, watch this 76 second introduction, or trailer, to the show. Listen to the words that are spoken. See if you can pick it…
I watch The Repair Shop and I can’t help myself. Each episode becomes a window on what God is doing with creation. Could you not hear it in the words used in that trailer? I watch, and each week I find myself becoming a little bit ‘lost in wonder, love and praise’, as the hymn-writer expressed it, in what God is doing in our world. He is the one who rescues, the one who restores, and the one who repairs.
God is operating his repair shop in this world.
It is a good thing to remember in these covidian times of ours.
So I gave myself a little assignment, with Barby commandeered as my consultant. Can I identify a First Eleven of reasons for how this TV show points me to God?
OK? Here goes…
Team. One of the first things to impact the viewer is the community at work. The leadership is plural, equal, shared, interdependent: a bit like (the trinitarian) God, with creation.
Skill. Broken treasures are brought in and, invariably, I am thinking, ‘How on earth are they going to fix that?’ The ability, the imagination is extraordinary: a bit like God, with creation.
Variety. The range of items deposited on the desk at the start is so diverse. ‘What on earth will be coming next?’ Anything and everything can be repaired: a bit like God, with creation.
Hope. I love this one. No failures. You know that the end of the show will have a grand uncovering, revealing the full restoration. It is certain: a bit like God, with creation.
Template. If things are broken today, they are thrown out and we buy a new item. Not here. The repairing that takes place works on the original design: a bit like God, with creation.
Story. The story is heard, a story that appears to be finished. The brokenness is too severe. But no! The story is able to be retained, continued, even magnified: a bit like God, with creation.
Love. It fills the room. Among the workers. For the task. As the subtitle of the book on the show expresses it, it is all about ‘caring for the things you love’: a bit like God, with creation.
Pace. If the 60min we watch moves at a sedate pace, imagine how slow, painstakingly slow, the careful work of the repair-ers must be beyond our watching: a bit like God, with creation.
Purpose. The items look so sad. They have also ceased to function. The repair makes them look good, but also enables them to fulfill their purpose again: a bit like God, with creation.
Emotion. The show can start and end in tears. A grief, often fused with regret and pain, transforms into gratitude, always fused with joy and peace: a bit like God, with creation.
Eternity. The repair job is always stunning. ‘How on earth did they do that?’ Barby has sometimes exclaimed beside me that, ‘it could last forever’: a bit like God, with creation.
It’s true, the BBC’s The Repair Shop does not fill me with aspiration. I’ll never be a DIY, fix-it handyman. But you know what is so amazing about God’s Repair Shop? Not only can I bring my own brokenness to him to be repaired, like those items placed on that desk at the start of the show. As he is repairing me, you know what he does? He says to me, “Hey Paul, come around to this side of the desk and become a partner with me in repairing the world!”
This is what makes life worth living. This is the life to feed our aspirations.
Have you discovered this purpose with your life?
If you haven’t, then my advice to you is to keep watching TV. Because the way to get started is suggested by watching the very next show on Friday night (well, it was the ‘next show’ until last Friday!). It is another show that I’ve never watched before…
Call the Midwife. I delighted in the juxtaposition of these two shows for our first six weeks back home. Yes, this is a show about births, but also with the capacity to point us towards new births. The starting point for my own repair and the starting point for joining God in his repair of the world is the same, exactly the same. A new birth, what Jesus refers to as being ‘born again’ (John 3).
This new birth leads to a new life. This new life leads to a new purpose. This new purpose is working under God’s direction in his Repair Shop to bring a new hope to this world.
nice chatting
Paul
About Me
the art of unpacking
After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.
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Awesome!
And, as someone who loves making things (although I haven't done so much restoration) I do love the idea that I am joining God in that act of creation 🙂
I can hear another great sermon coming on Paul!
Yes, indeed, Heather – and you can be reminded of that 'joining together' yet again in exactly 5 hours from now :).
Interesting you should say that, Ken. When I started writing, I didn't have a sermon in mind – but by the time I finished I did think to myself that with a little tweak here and there, I could turn this into an inductive/gospel sermon! Maybe you can do the sermon for me and send me the link! Another episode coming up, later today…
Lovely blog, thanks for taking the time to share this