Today's sermon

Scripture reading:  Malachi 3:1-4 and Luke 1:68-79

Today is Peace Sunday, the second Sunday of the Advent season.  Peace is such an important topic, given the world we live in today and the lack of peace in it.  It’s that lack of peace in our world that led to the circumstances that caused the death of one of our
community leaders recently.  In the span of a week’s time, our own police force, whose job it is to keep the peace have been forced to fire upon and kill two individuals.    We yearn for peace in our world, in our community, in our own lives, and all too often it’s a hard thing to find in our own lives, our own families, and in our own homes sometimes.

A short time ago, Mary stood before us and delivered an inspired message about God’s peace.  If memory serves me, the title of her message was No God, no peace; Know (K_N_O_W) God, know peace.  I’m mindful that I’m not going to top the inspiring message she gave, but hopefully we can learn some new things together about finding God’s peace in the midst of the chaos of life.

The Lectionary verses for Peace Sunday were a bit confusing to me at first.  Not the words of Scripture, but the topic of most of the Scripture verses it recommends for this Sunday.  In my thinking, it’s Christmas and a message about Peace should be pointing to the birth of Jesus, not John the Baptist.  In my mind, I kept trying to understand, what’s John the Baptist got to do with Christmas, let alone peace?

To me, the word peace brings to mind all kinds of ideas of what peace is.  When I think of peace, I think of a dove carrying an olive branch in its’ beak.  I think too of the lyric of the hymn It is well with my soul, “when peace like a river, attendeth my way”.  The word peace causes me to think of tranquil things, and yet, the Lectionary points to John the Baptist, who was a very controversial figure in his day.  He called out Herod for his immoral marriage. He called out the religious scholars of the day. He called sinners to repentance because the Kingdom of God was at hand.  

These actions aren’t exactly what you’d call actions that were keeping the peace, or the status-quo for that matter.    John’s role in the Gospel story wasn’t to bring the peace;. John’s job was to prepare the way and point the us toward the path of peace, which is expressed the the Gospel of Luke which we just read.  It dawned on me that was the point as I re-read the verses from Luke 1.

One of the titles given to Jesus the Christ is “Prince of Peace”.   John was the voice crying in the wilderness for the people to repent, for the kingdom was near!  His job was to point the people of his day toward Jesus, who is our pathway to God’s peace in our lives.  He was baptising and preaching repentance because the Kingdom was closer than anyone at the time knew. One day, while John was baptizing people,  the Kingdom showed up in the form of a man wanting to be baptised. Matthew 3:13-17 records the encounter this way:

3 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Jesus is baptized by John in a river and then the Holy Spirit descends on Him like a dove; both symbols of peace that I spoke about earlier.     John’s life was brief, but in that brief time, John’s mission was accomplished; he made the ways straight. He cleared the path for Jesus’ as was foretold by the prophets and documented in the Gospels.  Luke tells us that John pointed the people of his day toward the path of peace. And as a fulfillment of a promise of a prophecy foretold by Malachi, God sent John before Jesus.

So let us say that our first step on the pathway to God’s peace is that we need to have a personal relationship with our Savior that only comes through believing that He is the Son of God, the sacrifice for our sins, and accepting that He died for those sins.  That relationship starts when we recognize our need for a Savior. The first step toward experiencing God’s peace is to accept that free gift of Salvation that Jesus offers all.

The first step is the biggest step, but it’s not the only step on the pathway to peace.  As I was contemplating the message for today, I came across this devotional written by Chuck Swindoll.  

Many of you know of Chuck Swindoll, and in the devotional, he talked about peace; God’s peace to be specific, and how we have our own part in the process of obtaining it.   Pastor Swindoll pointed to Philippians 4:4-7:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God,which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Pastor Swindoll wrote that all too often, Christians want to claim the promise without first putting in the work to attain the promise.  Paul indicates that there are things we need to do to obtain this promise and he lists them for us; rejoicing and giving thanks and not being anxious; and finally,  prayer. Sometimes those things aren’t easy or the first things that come to mind when things get tough, but it’s the pathway to God’s peace.

It was a blessing to come across these verses to share with you today.  God promises us His peace and yet we have a part in the process of walking down the pathway to it.  

It’s hard to rejoice when the phone call comes and you find out someone close to you has passed.  It’s tough to rejoice when you know how badly your kid wants XYZ for Christmas and there isn’t enough money for x, let alone XYZ.  It’s tough to give thanks to God in those circumstances. It’s easy to say “be anxious for nothing” but much harder to do when you don’t know what to do and your whole world is falling apart; yet it’s not an option for Christians.  It’s a command from Jesus Himself who tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.

And whatever our feelings about the matters at hand in our lives are, the steps on that pathway to peace are those things Paul outlines for believers to take to be blessed with God’s peace in our lives.

Paul knew what he was talking about too.  He didn’t just make this stuff up. He gave his life as a living example of how to do these things.  He was beaten, jailed, shipwrecked, stoned, and bitten by a venomous snake that by all rights should have killed him.  And yet, not only did he survive these things, he pressed on with his ministry of spreading the Good News of Christ to a world desperately in need of a Savior.

The enemy doesn’t want you to experience God’s peace. It serves his purposes to keep you anxious, worried, looking at the circumstances of life instead of focusing on Jesus.  Spiritual warfare is a real thing; it’s one of the many things the enemy does to keep God’s people down. And remember this: God provides His peace for his children because He understands we’re going to need it in this life.

I want to share with you my own experience, if I might, about needing God’s peace this week:

A few weeks ago, I shared with y’all that I was going to be a grandpa.  II was in the middle of wiring this last section on Wednesday when the phone rang.  It was my son and his wife. They lost the twins she was carrying. I’m heartbroken.  But I’m also at peace.

I know God is good, even when things aren’t.  I know He’s on the throne and that His reasons for this are good.  I can rejoice knowing who God is even when I can’t understand why this happened.  I gave my thanks to God in this difficult circumstance. I will continue to pray for my kids, that God will bless them with the family they desire to have, and that he will quickly heal their hearts.  I’m not without hope that I’ll never see these children or the one my own wife and I lost when I was my son’s age to miscarriage because of a fantastic story I heard a young man tell of an experience he had about visiting heaven.  The need for the pathway to God’s peace was laid bare before me with that phone call, Iit was there for me to follow and I did.

Things didn’t go well for my little family’s hope of its first grandchild. My son’s mother has grandkids from her other children.  Steven’s was to be my first, and twins! That would have been wonderful. Wonderful is going to have to wait, though And I know I’m not alone, so many of us have been through so much.  Nobody ever promised or guaranteed that things were going to end well for believers. They didn’t for Paul. And they didn’t for John the Baptist. Toward the end of his own life, he sent word to Jesus to ask if He was truly the Messiah.  Scripture records that encounter this way n the Gospel of Matthew 11:1-15

11 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.[a]

2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see:5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy[b] are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces.9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,

   who will prepare your way before you.’[c]

11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12 From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence,[d] and violent people have been raiding it. 13 For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15 Whoever has ears, let them hear.

I’m convinced that the word brought back to John from Jesus brought him peace.  John shortly thereafter would become the first of a long and rapidly growing list of martyrs for the faith, but knowing that Jesus was who He claimed to be would make it worth it.

God’s peace is a gift to the believer.  Apart from God, we can’t know it in our lives.  And sometimes we forget it’s there for us. I got through a difficult phone call and was able to finish this message because it descended on me like a dove as I contemplated who God is in the grand scheme of things that I cannot see.

I want to finish today’s message on an up note, though.  God knew we’d need HIs peace in our lives and He used Paul to help us understand that it’s there for us and how to obtain it.  And in his epistle to the Philippians, Paul gives us an example of prayer and thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving and Prayer

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

Paul’s words of thanksgiving and words of prayer echo my sentiments and prayers for us.  It’s my prayer for us today, that we’re mindful that Jesus is our pathway to peace and through him, with rejoicing, thanksgiving in all circumstances, and prayer, that we become people who seek and experience God’s peace throughout our lives.