CHRISTMAS PEACE

#1 · December 14, 2009, 2:48 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on December 14, 2009, 2:48 pm
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
CHRISTMAS PEACE

December 13, 2009

Text: Luke 2:8-14

Peace. This simple word creates a universal theme, particularly at Christmas time. "...and on earth peace, goodwill toward men," the holy angels tell the shepherds. The scene is familiar to us all. We can imagine that night laid out before us. Or, if we do not have the gift of a vivid imagination, we can rely on one the many paintings and drawings scenes that depict the scene.

The scene is literally pastoral; the shepherds watching over their flocks in the quiet solitude of the night. No other sounds; or if there are, they are muffled and far away. The setting itself is peaceful. Perhaps atop a rolling hillside, looking down upon the flocks. Farther, in the distance, the lights of Bethlehem, crowded by the travelers who have gathered to be enrolled for the census and tax, can be seen. But they are no bother to these poor shepherds tonight. They are busy doing their job, which they have always done. This is their world, away from the city, at home with the ground, able to see bright stars on a dark night. They are at peace with the earth and with life.

In the blink of an eye, all is changed! Without warning, the darkened sky is split in two by the divine light of an angel of the Lord. Without warning, the shepherds fear for their previously secure lives. Without warning, the quiet, lazy night resounds with the voices of the heavenly host. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." And the shepherds, who moments before had been living their quiet, peaceful, uninterrupted lives like they had hundreds of days before, moved from their known world into the divine unknown - "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

Peace. What is it? Is it like a life that we imagine the shepherds' having? A freedom from the burdens of a hurried world? Free from the noise and responsibility of a city? Freedom from the threats of another person, and free to do what we want as long as it does not bother someone else? If our images of peace create such idyllic scenery, then why did God disturb it? Why did God's angels leap into the peaceful lives of the peaceful shepherds to bring greetings and blessings of peace, which, in turn, disturbed them enough to get up and go to Bethlehem to see what happened? What kind of peace is this?

Peace. In the context of the Greco-Roman world of the shepherds' day, the meaning was much like our own. Peace meant the absence of hostility; an interlude in the everlasting state of war. It came about by the signing of treaties and contracts to end conflicts, to establish boundaries, and to set payments of tributes. It came about because one power completely overwhelmed another; or because one warring group outlasted another; or because the devastating effects of conflict on the economy finally brought about capitulation. Such was peace.

But what seeds of hatred were sown at the same time! What smoldering embers continued to burn within the hearts and souls of men and women who were hauled away into slavery; who struggled to live in the midst of the overwhelming burdens of exorbitant taxation; who maintained their sanity only by clutching closely the bloodlust of revenge. And when the right winds came along to fan these hidden, smoldering embers, look out! Because once again peace was tossed aside in the heat of the moment.

We're still familiar with such peace. We've lived with it all our lives, and it's bred into us deeply. At both personal and national levels, we come to view peace as the absence of conflict. And as long as we can live in this kind of peace, we seem, for a while, satisfied.

But such peace is false. It's a lie, because it is not peace. It's the absence of conflict, and there is a difference. There was an English comedian group that included skits on the World Wars, and other wars involving England. They referred to the non-war years by saying something like, "Then in 1918, peace broke out." Their inference was that conflict was the norm; peace was the unusual event.

They weren't far from the truth. The natural thing for us to do is to be worldly, and the desires of the world lead to war. In Matthew 15:19-20, Jesus said, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'" In James 4:1-3 we read, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

Very discomforting to read such things from God's Word, but every bit true. That's why people and churches and people in churches and communities and nations fight. I have yet to study the origin of any war and not find the presence of these conditions by at least one side. Usually, though, it can be found on both sides. And the "fruits of sin," whether they be from Jesus' list or Paul's list or James' list, were at work in the hearts, minds, and souls of men and women during the time of so-called peace. Such peace is not peace at all, as even Israel found out from Hosea, who spoke the words of the Lord in 10:12-14: "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated..."

But wait! There must be peace. God talks about it and promises it. God blesses His people with it. God spoke it to the shepherds, "...and on earth peace, goodwill to men." Yes, there is peace - there is Christmas peace - but it is different than the peace of the world. It has to be, because Christmas peace - the peace of God - is everlasting.

Christmas peace places God first in our midst. Look at the order of the blessing of verse 14. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Peace of the world fails because it refuses to place God first. Christmas peace succeeds because God is always first. God is glorified; God is praised; God is worshiped. God cannot give us His fruits of the Spirit - "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" - unless we are seeking Him before all else. He cannot bless His people with peace who refuse to ask for the right motives. How can there be Christmas peace among people who "quarrel and fight" and "kill and covet?" Or among people who "plant wickedness" and "reap evil?" There will never be any peace where God is not glorified.

Christmas peace brings reconciliation between God and humanity. God brings salvation. All of humanity, including the lowly, peaceful shepherds on the hillside, are alienated from God. We read in Colossians 1:21, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." Such an attitude is not the breeding ground for peace; instead, it provides fertile ground for seeding hatred and reaping strife. If we cannot be reconciled with God, whom we are to glorify before anyone or anything else, then how can we bring reconciliation to each other and to others who are caught up in warring madness? The answer is simple: we cannnot!

So God came - and comes still - bringing His own Christmas peace which we cannot find. Continuing with verse 22 in Colossians, Paul writes, "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." As the angel told the shepherds, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Those shepherds, simple and plain, knew full well what God's angel meant by Christ, or Messiah. "The Anointed One," the Savior of Israel, had come to them. God was delivering His people once again. Perhaps what the shepherds couldn't comprehend on that exciting night was the shear magnitude of it. God, indeed, did bring peace. But not to a group of shepherds only; nor to a single nation only; but to His whole world whose time had come. A Savior; a Messiah; a means of reconciliation with God; Christmas peace.

Christmas peace means obedient response. It is in this respect that Christmas peace is not necessarily peaceful. A peace that commands response can be extremely disruptive. What happened to the shepherds' lives after this divine visitation? They were not able to keep still about it! They could not find it in themselves to just go back to tending their flocks as if nothing happened. No! Not at all! Christmas peace had just been given to them! What did they do? "...they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger." That wasn't all. Read on. "When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them."

Shepherds didn't go around doing those things. They were completely out of form and character. They were completely disrupted. And no doubt they disrupted the "peace" of some fine, upstanding citizens that night. They were no doubt an annoyance to quite a few who were caught up in the festive family reunions and celebrations brought on by gathering for the census. They were no doubt an annoyance to the Bethlehem citizens who were already tired of all the rabble and commotion. They were no doubt an annoyance to weary travelers who were just getting their weary bones stretched out after a full days' journey. But they were full of Christmas peace, and so their joyful response could not be contained.

Christmas peace disrupts us, too. Our commonplace lives are pushed aside by the messenger angel, who announces to us, "...a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord... Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The very same peace rests with us and disrupts our complacent, worldly peace. It has to, or it's not Christmas peace. We have to respond, or it's not Christmas peace.

We have to respond by placing God first in all things - worship, prayer, work, entertainment, use of resources - everything. This is salvation. We have to respond by treating others as Jesus treated others. We have to see others through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Let mercy and compassion lead us instead of pride and greed. With God first, we have to work at ridding ourselves of the old nature and the fruits of sin. In their place abide the fruits of the Spirit.

Christmas peace is a wonderful possession, but it's also a difficult possession. It's hard work. War is easy. Our fallen worldliness makes it easy to recruit and draft people to fight; it makes it economically attractive to produce weapons for war; it makes it sound so heroic and glamorous to sacrifice sons and daughters for the sake of the fight. We fight for peace and then settle down to plot the next conflict.

Christmas peace is the harder task. It requires our full time guard, nurture, and sacrifice. It comes about not by arming, but by disarming our natural defenses against God and neighbor. It comes about by making ourselves vulnerable to others, even when others do not understand or when they use our peace to their advantage. It comes about by making ourselves friends with God and not friends of the world.

Francis of Assisi, who ministered in the early 1200's, was one of the most peaceful men who have ever walked this earth. In early adulthood, he renounced his family's wealth and status, his father's dream of knighthood for his son, and became, instead, a man of peace. "Leaving home in a ragged cloak and a rope belt taken from a scarecrow, he wandered the countryside with a few followers, begging from the rich, giving to the poor, and preaching the joys of 'apostolic poverty.'" (Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, p. 231)

One of his prayers is still with us and is seen in a lot of places: "Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." Francis of Assisi understood the meaning of Christmas peace. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

[email protected]

www.bhfirstbaptist.com
-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]   

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

CHRISTMAS PEACE

December 13, 2009

Text: Luke 2:8-14

Peace. This simple word creates a universal theme, particularly at Christmas time. "...and on earth peace, goodwill toward men," the holy angels tell the shepherds. The scene is familiar to us all. We can imagine that night laid out before us. Or, if we do not have the gift of a vivid imagination, we can rely on one the many paintings and drawings scenes that depict the scene.

The scene is literally pastoral; the shepherds watching over their flocks in the quiet solitude of the night. No other sounds; or if there are, they are muffled and far away. The setting itself is peaceful. Perhaps atop a rolling hillside, looking down upon the flocks. Farther, in the distance, the lights of Bethlehem, crowded by the travelers who have gathered to be enrolled for the census and tax, can be seen. But they are no bother to these poor shepherds tonight. They are busy doing their job, which they have always done. This is their world, away from the city, at home with the ground, able to see bright stars on a dark night. They are at peace with the earth and with life.

In the blink of an eye, all is changed! Without warning, the darkened sky is split in two by the divine light of an angel of the Lord. Without warning, the shepherds fear for their previously secure lives. Without warning, the quiet, lazy night resounds with the voices of the heavenly host. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." And the shepherds, who moments before had been living their quiet, peaceful, uninterrupted lives like they had hundreds of days before, moved from their known world into the divine unknown - "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

Peace. What is it? Is it like a life that we imagine the shepherds' having? A freedom from the burdens of a hurried world? Free from the noise and responsibility of a city? Freedom from the threats of another person, and free to do what we want as long as it does not bother someone else? If our images of peace create such idyllic scenery, then why did God disturb it? Why did God's angels leap into the peaceful lives of the peaceful shepherds to bring greetings and blessings of peace, which, in turn, disturbed them enough to get up and go to Bethlehem to see what happened? What kind of peace is this?

Peace. In the context of the Greco-Roman world of the shepherds' day, the meaning was much like our own. Peace meant the absence of hostility; an interlude in the everlasting state of war. It came about by the signing of treaties and contracts to end conflicts, to establish boundaries, and to set payments of tributes. It came about because one power completely overwhelmed another; or because one warring group outlasted another; or because the devastating effects of conflict on the economy finally brought about capitulation. Such was peace.

But what seeds of hatred were sown at the same time! What smoldering embers continued to burn within the hearts and souls of men and women who were hauled away into slavery; who struggled to live in the midst of the overwhelming burdens of exorbitant taxation; who maintained their sanity only by clutching closely the bloodlust of revenge. And when the right winds came along to fan these hidden, smoldering embers, look out! Because once again peace was tossed aside in the heat of the moment.

We're still familiar with such peace. We've lived with it all our lives, and it's bred into us deeply. At both personal and national levels, we come to view peace as the absence of conflict. And as long as we can live in this kind of peace, we seem, for a while, satisfied.

But such peace is false. It's a lie, because it is not peace. It's the absence of conflict, and there is a difference. There was an English comedian group that included skits on the World Wars, and other wars involving England. They referred to the non-war years by saying something like, "Then in 1918, peace broke out." Their inference was that conflict was the norm; peace was the unusual event.

They weren't far from the truth. The natural thing for us to do is to be worldly, and the desires of the world lead to war. In Matthew 15:19-20, Jesus said, "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man 'unclean'; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him 'unclean.'" In James 4:1-3 we read, "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."

Very discomforting to read such things from God's Word, but every bit true. That's why people and churches and people in churches and communities and nations fight. I have yet to study the origin of any war and not find the presence of these conditions by at least one side. Usually, though, it can be found on both sides. And the "fruits of sin," whether they be from Jesus' list or Paul's list or James' list, were at work in the hearts, minds, and souls of men and women during the time of so-called peace. Such peace is not peace at all, as even Israel found out from Hosea, who spoke the words of the Lord in 10:12-14: "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors, the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated..."

But wait! There must be peace. God talks about it and promises it. God blesses His people with it. God spoke it to the shepherds, "...and on earth peace, goodwill to men." Yes, there is peace - there is Christmas peace - but it is different than the peace of the world. It has to be, because Christmas peace - the peace of God - is everlasting.

Christmas peace places God first in our midst. Look at the order of the blessing of verse 14. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Peace of the world fails because it refuses to place God first. Christmas peace succeeds because God is always first. God is glorified; God is praised; God is worshiped. God cannot give us His fruits of the Spirit - "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" - unless we are seeking Him before all else. He cannot bless His people with peace who refuse to ask for the right motives. How can there be Christmas peace among people who "quarrel and fight" and "kill and covet?" Or among people who "plant wickedness" and "reap evil?" There will never be any peace where God is not glorified.

Christmas peace brings reconciliation between God and humanity. God brings salvation. All of humanity, including the lowly, peaceful shepherds on the hillside, are alienated from God. We read in Colossians 1:21, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." Such an attitude is not the breeding ground for peace; instead, it provides fertile ground for seeding hatred and reaping strife. If we cannot be reconciled with God, whom we are to glorify before anyone or anything else, then how can we bring reconciliation to each other and to others who are caught up in warring madness? The answer is simple: we cannnot!

So God came - and comes still - bringing His own Christmas peace which we cannot find. Continuing with verse 22 in Colossians, Paul writes, "But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." As the angel told the shepherds, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Those shepherds, simple and plain, knew full well what God's angel meant by Christ, or Messiah. "The Anointed One," the Savior of Israel, had come to them. God was delivering His people once again. Perhaps what the shepherds couldn't comprehend on that exciting night was the shear magnitude of it. God, indeed, did bring peace. But not to a group of shepherds only; nor to a single nation only; but to His whole world whose time had come. A Savior; a Messiah; a means of reconciliation with God; Christmas peace.

Christmas peace means obedient response. It is in this respect that Christmas peace is not necessarily peaceful. A peace that commands response can be extremely disruptive. What happened to the shepherds' lives after this divine visitation? They were not able to keep still about it! They could not find it in themselves to just go back to tending their flocks as if nothing happened. No! Not at all! Christmas peace had just been given to them! What did they do? "...they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger." That wasn't all. Read on. "When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them."

Shepherds didn't go around doing those things. They were completely out of form and character. They were completely disrupted. And no doubt they disrupted the "peace" of some fine, upstanding citizens that night. They were no doubt an annoyance to quite a few who were caught up in the festive family reunions and celebrations brought on by gathering for the census. They were no doubt an annoyance to the Bethlehem citizens who were already tired of all the rabble and commotion. They were no doubt an annoyance to weary travelers who were just getting their weary bones stretched out after a full days' journey. But they were full of Christmas peace, and so their joyful response could not be contained.

Christmas peace disrupts us, too. Our commonplace lives are pushed aside by the messenger angel, who announces to us, "...a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord... Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." The very same peace rests with us and disrupts our complacent, worldly peace. It has to, or it's not Christmas peace. We have to respond, or it's not Christmas peace.

We have to respond by placing God first in all things - worship, prayer, work, entertainment, use of resources - everything. This is salvation. We have to respond by treating others as Jesus treated others. We have to see others through the eyes of Jesus Christ. Let mercy and compassion lead us instead of pride and greed. With God first, we have to work at ridding ourselves of the old nature and the fruits of sin. In their place abide the fruits of the Spirit.

Christmas peace is a wonderful possession, but it's also a difficult possession. It's hard work. War is easy. Our fallen worldliness makes it easy to recruit and draft people to fight; it makes it economically attractive to produce weapons for war; it makes it sound so heroic and glamorous to sacrifice sons and daughters for the sake of the fight. We fight for peace and then settle down to plot the next conflict.

Christmas peace is the harder task. It requires our full time guard, nurture, and sacrifice. It comes about not by arming, but by disarming our natural defenses against God and neighbor. It comes about by making ourselves vulnerable to others, even when others do not understand or when they use our peace to their advantage. It comes about by making ourselves friends with God and not friends of the world.

Francis of Assisi, who ministered in the early 1200's, was one of the most peaceful men who have ever walked this earth. In early adulthood, he renounced his family's wealth and status, his father's dream of knighthood for his son, and became, instead, a man of peace. "Leaving home in a ragged cloak and a rope belt taken from a scarecrow, he wandered the countryside with a few followers, begging from the rich, giving to the poor, and preaching the joys of 'apostolic poverty.'" (Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language, p. 231)

One of his prayers is still with us and is seen in a lot of places: "Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." Francis of Assisi understood the meaning of Christmas peace. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Rev. Charles A. Layne

First Baptist Church

PO Box 515

179 W. Broadway

Bunker Hill, IN 46914

765-689-7987

[email protected]

http://www.bhfirstbaptist.com

-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: [email protected]