God-Shaped Hole

John 1:29-42

John the Baptist points his disciples to Jesus as the Lamb of God, and they respond by leaving everything to follow him. When Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” the sermon frames this as a profound spiritual question. The disciples were not seeking worldly rewards like power or comfort, but something deeper—what could satisfy the longing of their souls and draw them into the kingdom of heaven.

Drawing on St. Augustine’s insight that our hearts are restless until they rest in God, the sermon reflects on the “God-shaped hole” within every human soul. When we lose touch with our true home in God, we try to fill that emptiness with substitutes—possessions, entertainment, ideology, or status—but none of these can satisfy. Only the one true God, as revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, can meet the deepest yearnings of the human heart.

The sermon contrasts the God revealed by Jesus—self-giving love, forgiveness, and mercy—with distorted images of God shaped by worldly values like power and violence. What we seek, the preacher argues, shapes who we become and even how we imagine God. Through honest, prayerful self-examination, we come to know our deepest desires, to know God more truly, and to live as bearers of Christ’s light in a troubled world that longs, often unknowingly, for that light.

Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.