Advent 2022: Peace
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As I said earlier, today we’re asking the question: how do we understand peace in the middle of a world that is filled with so much turmoil?
It’s an important question, and one that touches every corner of our world today.
Did you know that of the almost 200 countries in our world today, more than half of them right now are currently involved in some sort of conflict or war?
Studies show every year that we are becoming more and more combative across the planet?
We can identify with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, can’t we?
It’s tempting to just bow our heads in despair and proclaim, “There is no peace on earth.”
And let’s be honest—we can say that about our planet, but for many of us, it also describes our own experience on it.
Nation may rise up against nation, or sometimes even against itself…but there are other ways, closer to home, that we see how hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, goodwill to men.
We see it in broken family relationships.
In stressful work environments.
Heck, I saw it yesterday at ASDA, where it seemed for a moment like a riot might break out..
As a race…we humans are really good at treating each other horribly.
So what do we make of Christmas in a world like this?
How do we understand “peace” when it seems so elusive in our lives and our communities?
If you believe the Christmas story as it’s told in the Bible, the angels made it pretty clear that the birth of the baby Jesus would usher in a season of peace on earth, and goodwill to all humankind.
Is that just a fantasy? Wishful thinking?
Or is there something real there we can wrap our heads and our lives around?
Earlier we heard some important words from the Apostle Paul that I think we need to wrap our heads around if we’re going to understand what the peace of Christmas is all about…what the peace mentioned so often in the Bible is all about.
Because Paul’s words here help us understand what peace really is, in a Biblical sense.
Peace, as the Bible describes it, is somewhat different from the way we tend to think about it.
We think of peace as the absence of conflict, the absence of turmoil.
We picture countries laying down arms and signing treaties.
We talk about “making peace” with someone who we’ve wronged or who’s wronged us.
We talk about the peacefulness of a sleeping baby.
And then we think of that baby a few years later, running around the house, screaming at its siblings and causing chaos in every room, and mum or dad standing in the midst of it all saying: “Can I just have one moment…of peace???”
That’s what we think of as “peace.”
But when the Bible talks about peace, especially when Jesus talks about peace, he describes something radically different.
(SLIDE)
Jesus says in the gospel of John, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
In Philippians the apostle Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Think about that phrase for a moment: peace that transcends all understanding.
Peace as a result of conflict disappearing…that’s easy to grasp.
Peace that comes as chaos fades and tranquility sets in…we can understand that.
But what we see in the Bible is an encouragement to seek a different kind of peace, a peace that isn’t in any way dependent on our circumstances.
A peace that’s rooted in something far more trustworthy than a temporary truce or a lull in the storm.
If we think that peace will only come when all is right with the world, if we assume that we can only know peace when we know everything is in its place and our lives are orderly and make perfect sense…
…we’re going to be sadly disappointed.
And I think the Christian church has done a lot to promote this false understanding of peace…to our shame.
We ourselves have often framed the Christian message as being the key to finally getting your life in order.
Just follow Jesus…and everything will start falling into place.
And we got very good at portraying ourselves as the ones who have it all together. Even when reality was far from that.
But you know what message is sent when we link faith to this false understanding of peace?
We send the message that if your life is chaotic, if it doesn’t always make sense, if there’s conflict and disorder and occasional bouts of mayhem…
…your faith is somehow faulty.
And if you’d just buckle down and get better at your walk with God, your life would be a lot more peaceful.
Not only does that message fly in the face of reality, it doesn’t line up with how the Bible talks about peace.
We’ve turned peace into something we can understand, and missed the transcendent, supernatural peace that Jesus and Paul and others in the Bible talk about.
It’s the kind of peace we heard about in Isaiah, a peace that is so radical that even wolves and lambs, leopards and goats, calves and lions…even those who are by their very nature enemies will somehow be at peace with one another.
That’s an important message for the people of Israel, who spent most of their existence at war and struggling with their enemies, eventually coming to a place where their entire world is completely blown apart.
Their nation splits in two, and half of it is then utterly destroyed.
Their temple…the place they saw as the dwelling place of God himself, is torn down and ransacked.
And the country of Babylon, an evil, pagan empire invades and takes the people into exile.
Nothing of their former life remains.
Nothing…except the promises of God, who reminds them that although they are experiencing this season of chaos and destruction, as a result of their own bad choices and rebellion against God…
…even in the midst of it all…God’s love remains.
And his covenant of peace still stands.
And through prophets like Isaiah, he points the people toward a day when they will be completely reconciled to him.
That’s what Paul is talking about in Romans 5.
Reconciliation.
Paul says that even though I sin, even though I rebel against God...through Jesus I am reconciled to him.
And that word “reconciled,” I think, is the key to understanding the kind of peace that transcends all understanding.
Paul says at the very beginning of chapter 5:
(SLIDE)
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”
Paul says we have peace with God.
When the angels appear to the shepherds in Bethlehem and proclaim “Peace on Earth!”
…I believe this is what they’re referring to first and foremost.
The peace that comes as Jesus, God’s own Son, comes to earth to bring us back into relationship with God.
“We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul says.
That peace is not dependent on our circumstances.
It’s the peace of knowing that even though the mountains shake, and the hills are leveled…God’s faithful love is steadfast and firm.
His covenant of peace remains.
And once we know that peace, it has an effect on every aspect of our lives.
It’s a center…it’s the foundation for a life that is radically different.
Supernaturally transformed.
Notice what Paul says right after he talks about this peace: he says we stand in grace, and we hope in the glory of God.
When we put our faith in Jesus, our lives, our priorities, our relationships, and even our response to our circumstances…
…it all changes.
Because now we have an eternal perspective.
We can see the chaos and the craziness for what they really are.
Apart from God, all the mess in our lives, all the confusion and anger and pain and pandemonium…
…apart from God we see all these things has hindrances to peace.
But when we find peace in our relationship with God, not only do these things stop being a hindrance…the actually can become a blessing.
Paul says in verse 3, that we not only hope in the glory of God, but
(SLIDE)
“we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
In the hands of a loving God, even the chaos can become an instrument for good, a tool for growth.
Through it we become strong, we become rooted, and we become hopeful.
And then…and here’s the outworking of it all…then we are sent out into the world to demonstrate what peace and hope look like.
And so we who have been reconciled, become agents of reconciliation.
We who have received peace, become instruments of peace.
See…I don’t want you thinking for a moment that I’m somehow arguing that the only important peace is inner peace.
That’s not what I’m saying.
I’m not saying we’ve got it wrong, as much as I’m saying we’ve got it backwards.
We’ve thought for so long that we need to get the chaos under control so that we can find peace within.
Create peace, so that we can find peace.
But what I find in the story of Jesus and the teachings of the New Testament…
…is that it’s really the other way around.
We find peace…so that we can create peace.
It starts here (MOTION).
And then it works its way out…here (MOTION). And there…and everywhere.
Even at the holiday season…maybe especially at the holiday season.
You want to know a good, simple way to be an instrument of peace this time of year?
Let me offer a suggestion to you.
[BLESS SERVICE FOLKS]
It’s amazing the effect a non-anxious presence can have on a person and an environment.
Give it a try.
But even beyond that…I want to acknowledge that God may be calling you to an even more significant work of peace-making in your life.
A tense relationship, a broken relationship…I think the principle remains the same.
It has to start within…it has to start from here (MOTION).
The ability to make peace has to be rooted in our relationship with the one who has made peace with us.
In the book of Ephesians, Paul says that in human relationships, Christ himself is our peace.
He makes two into one…and tears down the barrier, the divisions of hostility and hatred.
He does it.
And just like the peace we have with God…
…the peace we seek with each other starts at the cross.
I have a friend whose fond of saying, “The ground is level at the foot of the cross.”
We’re all on equal standing there, because we’re all in equal need of God’s grace and mercy.
The cross is God’s proclamation to us, even in the chaos and the confusion, that his love is greater than our sin, greater than our circumstances, even greater than our differences and our hatred.
That’s why Longfellow could write as the final stanza of his poem:
“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”
That’s the message of Christmas
that’s the message of the cross
that’s the message of peace.
(TRANSITION TO PRAYER)