"WHERE IS YOUR PEACE?"
a message by Rev. Dr. Bruce Havens
Coral Isles Church, U.C.C.
December 8, 2024
Isaiah 9: 2-7 NRSV
2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them light has shined. 3 You have multiplied exultation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. 4 For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For all the boots of the tramping warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders, and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Great will be his authority, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Where do you find Christmas? Where do you find peace? I love all the sentimental songs and images of Christmas. Although I don’t wish for a white Christmas, unless it is white sandy beaches, I suspect we all have a soft spot for the nostalgia that Christmas brings. Memories of perfect Christmas dinners, of childhood presents that made us shout with joy, and the promises of “I’ll be home for Christmas,” are great, right? Our memories may not be totally accurate, but time glosses over a lot, doesn’t it? And while we want “peace on earth,” we’d really love a bit of personal peace and quiet, right? But, peace seems as elusive as ever.
Somewhere inside we all know our desire for a Peace on Earth, mercy mild, Silent Night, Bing Crosby White Christmas kind of thing isn’t really the peace that the first Christmas was all about. Nostalgia wasn’t what Christ came to bring. Much as I like nostalgia, prefer it even, the real story here is that Christ came to be a disruptor, a liberator. And the writers of the Gospel stories of his birth told those stories to disrupt and liberate human reality, then, and now.
I’m just as wistful for Christmas nostalgia as anyone. But as a preacher, I am obligated to tell you that is not where you and I will find our peace. Those are false comforts. It’s like being told everything is alright when in fact we have stage 4 cancer. Preaching “peace, peace,” when there is no peace for the majority of people would be a disservice to you, and to people everywhere, and to God. It would be tantamount to pastoral malpractice on my part. Let me try to explain what I mean. I have to take you through some wilderness places and perhaps troubling thoughts, but I promise it is worth the trip to get to where the real peace of God is.
Start with the details of nativity story. Here’s what I mean about disrupting reality. Those wonderful angel announcements were initially terrifying and troubling. Mary and Joseph were not married, something we seem to gloss over, right? But in that time, and even now in some cultures, and even not too long ago in ours, such out-of-wedlock births were at least shameful and at worst, reasons for death! Yet, of course, babies born out of wedlock happened all the time and still do. Remember King Herod’s threats of murder and reports of murder of children? He was called “King of the Jews,” but he bought and paid for his royalty by being a puppet for Caesar. In fear of losing his own privileges, he would allow no threat to his power.
Speaking of angels, a whole host of them reportedly came to shepherds. They were invited to be the first witnesses. This act of inclusion of some of the most outcast, unwelcome, impoverished outsiders of the first Century culture of Israel disrupted the expectation that only the powerful and privileged would be worthy to come to see the “newborn King.” The story of 3 kings, or wise men, or magi – whatever you want to call them – telegraphs to us that people of every nation and every culture were welcomed by God, not just those of a certain race or even religion. The two stories together tell us God’s peace is intended for the lowest and the highest on the social ladder, not just the privileged few. Almost every detail shared in the two Gospels about the birth of Jesus are disruptive of our expectations and cultural and religious norms. Today they are still signs of God’s liberation for us from those accepted “norms.” They were signs of the way to find God’s peace, rather than settle for the false peace of Rome, or of nostalgia, or of our own prejudices chosen to protect our special personal privileges.
Last week the theme of Advent was hope. Today the theme is peace. As we turn to peace, I want to mention how hope is what leads us toward real peace. One writer put it this way: [Cameron Trimble, Piloting Faith, dec 2 2024]: “Advent hope calls us to hold two truths at once: the world is not as it should be, and yet God is with us in the midst of it, drawing us toward what could be. This hope is not passive; it’s active. It calls us to participate in the work of transformation—to care for the hurting, to challenge injustice, to be vessels of love in a fractured world. Hope is not a retreat from reality; it’s an anchor in it, a commitment to work for a better future even when the present feels overwhelming.” In short, Christmas is a sign to us to choose hope for a better future and work for it in the name of the Christ who comes to us today.
Another writer sums up what I am trying to invite you to hear, [ Martha Spong, Dailydevotional.org, Dec 2, 2024 ]. She say, “Our hope lies not in … a cozy rewatch of It’s a Wonderful Life, but in the disruptive possibilities of a new life to come.”
But let’s be honest, very few of us wants to face “disruptive possibilities” even to get “new life.” Perhaps the most terrible temptation we all must face is that we always want to go back instead of forward. We want the past – as we imagined it was, not as it actually was – rather than an uncertain future. We seem to know intuitively that the future almost always has “disruptive possibilities.” God always knows the better way, and yet, in our perverse rejection of change, we rarely accept the invitation God extends to us to find real peace in a different way of living. History often lurches forward, and then backward, before lurching forward again. Our hope must be anchored in God’s promise that Christ is with us, and so real peace is not only possible, but is God’s intention. New life is what God intends for us all.
Let me share this: real peace requires new life, and that is God’s favorite Christmas gift. In fact, it is so God’s favorite gift that new life is not limited to Christmas. We might say the sign of a baby – given as a gift from God – is the symbol of that new life. A baby, as my mentor loved to say at every baptism, “is God’s way of saying the world should go on.” A baby is all about new life. The cynic might ask, if a baby is born into the same old reality we have always lived in, what’s new? The cynic might say, God’s peace is impractical, just a dream. It takes guns, tanks, armies, drones to enforce peace. But this is the limited vision of the cynic. It only limits the hope we have for God’s peace. And the new life God gives isn’t just limited to babies. You and I can have that new life, that new beginning too. You and I can find where the peace is we truly long for.
Here’s why we celebrate Christmas: it signals to us that God works through flesh and bone and spirit to bring new life. God brings the reality God intends through people just like you and me. Christ came as a human being, not a Virtual Reality creation. We celebrate Christmas because it brings us hope for the peace of God to be embodied, enfleshed, really real, not virtually real. I think we keep celebrating because even after more than 2000 years we know we have a long way to go, and we need something to renew our hope. We keep celebrating because we need the reminder to keep working for peace beyond once-a-year celebrations of the Prince of Peace.
The prophet Isaiah proclaimed the coming of the Prince of Peace thousands of years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. “To us a child is given, a son is born!” Our hope must be long-term. A hope just for this year, or next year or four years from now, or perhaps even a hundred-year hope is not a hope strong enough for the fulfillment of God’s peace. But it all begins with new life now. A baby is born, hope is given, shepherds heard, angels still sing and new life is still possible. Are you ready to be disrupted? Are you ready for real liberation? Christ came not just to comfort us but to offer us a way to change, to find new life, to be liberated from a life built on false values and lesser purposes. That is Christ’s hope for each of us today because that is the only way to move toward peace – to move toward the life Christ embodied.
Tonight go out and look up at the night sky. Listen for angels warming up to sing. They are singing for you and for me, and for all humanity. They are singing for new life. They sing for peace to come - here, and everywhere - for all time. Their song is the song of peace, of hope, of new life. Listen! AMEN.
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