THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD #2/5

#1 · December 9, 2004, 3:59 pm

Quote from Forum Archives on December 9, 2004, 3:59 pm
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD #2/5
SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF
December 5, 2004

Text: Luke 2:8-20

One of the main attributes of Christmas is peace. There are plenty of
stories found where combatants would discontinue action on Christmas day.
Christmas carols could even be heard on both sides of the lines. The lull
in the terrible noise of war certainly brought thoughts of the angels
announcement to the shepherds on that idyllic hillside, "Glory to God in
the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Yet, by the next day,
those same men who gave each other a little short-lived peace would be
locked once more in their life and death struggle. Their peace just does
not last long.

Christians must look closely at this concept of peace announced by the
angels. We need to recognize what God was getting across to His world
and, particularly, to His people. As we learned last week, Jesus birth
was not accompanied by what we consider to be peaceful events. The world
of Mary and Joseph was in an upheaval because they had to travel from
Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census. Mary was late in her pregnancy; we
can imagine what the trip must have been like for her. They arrived in a
town so full of pilgrims that all of the motel no vacancy signs were
on. Jesus, the King of heaven and earth, was born in an animal stall.
After finding out about some of this from the visiting Magi, wicked King
Herod sent orders for the male children in the area up to age two to be
put to death. Unusual times for angels to be announcing peace on earth.

Well, this old world hasnt changed much throughout the
two-thousand-something years since then. Try as we may, there still
exists plenty of violence, evil, and even war to disrupt our Christmas
peace. Not all of this is going on in far away places. Close to home, we
find plenty of meth labs, domestic violence, and unemployment to disrupt
our thoughts of peace. So what were the angels thinking?

The mystery being proclaimed here is that in order to experience Gods
peace, we have to sweat the small stuff. At first, this sounds like it
runs counter to Jesus teaching in Matthew 6:25-34 where tells us not to
worry. In fact, he tells us that very thing in verse 31 and following,
So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink?
or What shall we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them. It seems like Jesus is telling
us not to sweat the small stuff.

No, Im not telling you to worry over these things. But remember last
week that one of the things Christians should do in response to the
accusations being leveled at Christians is to strengthen the local
church. Do not neglect the small pieces that fall into place which have a
large and lasting impact on the bigger picture. As Im using it this
morning, sweating the small stuff means paying attention to the little
things - they even sometimes appear inconsequential - in our lives that
can add up to whether we have Gods peace or not. Perhaps some
illustrations will help.

James Q. Wilson of the Harvard Government Department has developed what
is called the Broken Window theory of crime prevention. Little things
matter, the Wilson theory goes, especially when it comes to infractions
of public order. If a broken pane of glass in a building goes unrepaired,
other panes will be shattered, and then doors will be jimmied up and down
the street. If graffiti on a train goes unremoved, more graffiti will
follow, and so will robberies in the cars and stations. No tolerance for
petty lawbreaking leads to fewer incidents of major lawbreaking. (Conn
Nugent, Think small. Think big, Citizens Union of the City of New York
Web Site, Citizensunion.org. Retrieved May 10, 2004.)

This Broken Window Theory has inspired police departments in New York
and other urban areas to crack down on the small stuff in order to keep
out the big stuff. In his book Leadership, former New York City mayor
Rudy Giuliani tells of how he applied the Broken Window Theory to
crime, and in the process reduced murders from 2000 a year to under 600.
He started with Squeegee guys the annoying guys who used to run up to
cars when they were sitting at a traffic light, wash the windshield with
filthy water and rags, and then demand payment. Giuliani had them
arrested for jaywalking and surprise, surprise a huge percentage of
them were found to be felons. It turns out that murderers and muggers
tend to break a lot of little laws, too. So when the NYPD cracked down on
the little infractions when they fixed the broken windows, so to
speak they ended up catching criminals that otherwise would have gotten
away. Critics of Giuliani said that arresting subway turnstile jumpers
was a waste of police effort when they should be chasing drug pushers.
Well, guess what? They discovered that drug pushers were part of the
turnstile-jumping crowd. Attacking small and petty problems is rarely a
waste of time, according to Broken Window Theory. Instead, it helps us
manage the major issues and prevent the condition of our building our
city ourselves from spiraling out of control. (The Broken Window
Theory, Homiletics, November-December 2004, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 16-17)

How does this apply to angels and shepherds and peace and Jesus and
Christmas and us? Glad you asked. I doubt if anyone here this morning
believes that he or she can do much to impact the worldwide war against
terrorism and bring about world peace this Christmas season. I doubt if
anyone here believes that he or she can do much to slow down the spread
of meth houses, domestic violence, or other crimes on a big scale. In
fact, some of us may be wondering how to get just a little peace in our
own households.

The answer lies in sweating the small stuff we find in Scripture. I
referred to Matthew 6 earlier. Continuing with verse 33, Jesus tells us,
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well. Turns out that the angels proclamation
about peace begins pretty much the same way: Glory to God in the
highest. Where does our peace start? It starts with praise and worship
to God. It starts by seeking His kingdom first. Throughout Scripture we
are told ways to live and attitudes to have in order to please God and
experience peace. When we are sweating this kind of small stuff and
paying attention to the Broken Window Theory in our personal lives, we
discover that the peace of God becomes real in our lives because we are
allowing Him to live in and through us. When we fail to pay attention to
the small stuff that impedes our worship of, our praise of, and our
relationship with Him, then we toss peace out the window. In bumper
sticker form, it goes like this: No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know
peace.

See, the only way that any of us can have any peaceful impact on this
world is to have peaceful impacts upon those closest to us. I watched a
new show last Wednesday night called Nanny 911. I do not agree with all
of their child-rearing recommendations, but in this first episode the
nanny sent to a household to bring order out of their chaos is making it
clear that the father is a major source of the lack of peace. He yells
loudly and frequently; he jerks his problem children around roughly; he
fails to follow through with appropriate discipline; he denies that his
most problematic child, still a young elementary school student, is
already becoming a juvenile delinquent. This father is not sweating the
right small stuff. He wants peace in his family; he makes that clear. He
yells harshly, and he roughly jerks and pushes his children around so
that he can get peace. But hes not fixing his broken window or sweating
the small stuff that can lead to peace in his life and then out into his
familys life. The sad part of the show, I am guessing, is that some
success will be achieved and the nanny will be praised as the miracle
worker when it is God who needs to be praised as the miracle worker in
order for us to achieve peace.

We need to realize that our failure to let God achieve peace in our lives
will have a huge impact on those who follow us.

When John Lennon, the ex-Beatle, was shot in New York City in 1980, he
left behind millions of fans who mourned his death. But closer to home,
what did he really leave behind? His son Julian said in an interview, My
dad was a hypocrite. He could talk about peace and love out loud to the
world, but he could never show it to those who supposedly meant the most
to him, his wife and son. Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, and son
Julian when the child was five. The only thing he taught me, Julian
told Time magazine, was how not to be a father. (Phil Callaway,
reprinted in the Maconaquah High School December Newsletter, 2004 - 2005
School Year) Quite a sad testimony about such a popular personality who
spoke and sang many times about world peace. But he failed to sweat the
small stuff.

After the angels disturbed the shepherds peace with their announcement
of Gods peace, the shepherds made a decision. When the angels had left
them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go
to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has
told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the
baby, who was lying in the manger. Pretty important piece here. What if
they had refused to go find Jesus? Think they would have experienced
peace? I doubt it. They would have been agitated and upset and worried
about what they missed. They would have had regrets for the rest of their
lives. But they didnt choose this path. They chose to follow God and
see this thing that has happened. And because of it, The shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard
and seen, which were just as they had been told.

So what about you? Are you sweating the small things this season? No, not
the things that bring you fret and worry, or the things over which you
have no control, or the things that you cannot do. None of us can bring
peace into this old world, nor can we bring salvation. But God can, and
He has. Have you accepted His salvation? His gift of love? Remember, no
Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace. Accept Gods call to salvation
today so that you can begin sweating the small stuff - the right kind of
small stuff that allows God to change us and to bring peace to us and
through us.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD #2/5
SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF
December 5, 2004

Text: Luke 2:8-20

One of the main attributes of Christmas is peace. There are plenty of
stories found where combatants would discontinue action on Christmas day.
Christmas carols could even be heard on both sides of the lines. The lull
in the terrible noise of war certainly brought thoughts of the angels
announcement to the shepherds on that idyllic hillside, "Glory to God in
the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Yet, by the next day,
those same men who gave each other a little short-lived peace would be
locked once more in their life and death struggle. Their peace just does
not last long.

Christians must look closely at this concept of peace announced by the
angels. We need to recognize what God was getting across to His world
and, particularly, to His people. As we learned last week, Jesus birth
was not accompanied by what we consider to be peaceful events. The world
of Mary and Joseph was in an upheaval because they had to travel from
Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census. Mary was late in her pregnancy; we
can imagine what the trip must have been like for her. They arrived in a
town so full of pilgrims that all of the motel no vacancy signs were
on. Jesus, the King of heaven and earth, was born in an animal stall.
After finding out about some of this from the visiting Magi, wicked King
Herod sent orders for the male children in the area up to age two to be
put to death. Unusual times for angels to be announcing peace on earth.

Well, this old world hasnt changed much throughout the
two-thousand-something years since then. Try as we may, there still
exists plenty of violence, evil, and even war to disrupt our Christmas
peace. Not all of this is going on in far away places. Close to home, we
find plenty of meth labs, domestic violence, and unemployment to disrupt
our thoughts of peace. So what were the angels thinking?

The mystery being proclaimed here is that in order to experience Gods
peace, we have to sweat the small stuff. At first, this sounds like it
runs counter to Jesus teaching in Matthew 6:25-34 where tells us not to
worry. In fact, he tells us that very thing in verse 31 and following,
So do not worry, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink?
or What shall we wear? For the pagans run after these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them. It seems like Jesus is telling
us not to sweat the small stuff.

No, Im not telling you to worry over these things. But remember last
week that one of the things Christians should do in response to the
accusations being leveled at Christians is to strengthen the local
church. Do not neglect the small pieces that fall into place which have a
large and lasting impact on the bigger picture. As Im using it this
morning, sweating the small stuff means paying attention to the little
things - they even sometimes appear inconsequential - in our lives that
can add up to whether we have Gods peace or not. Perhaps some
illustrations will help.

James Q. Wilson of the Harvard Government Department has developed what
is called the Broken Window theory of crime prevention. Little things
matter, the Wilson theory goes, especially when it comes to infractions
of public order. If a broken pane of glass in a building goes unrepaired,
other panes will be shattered, and then doors will be jimmied up and down
the street. If graffiti on a train goes unremoved, more graffiti will
follow, and so will robberies in the cars and stations. No tolerance for
petty lawbreaking leads to fewer incidents of major lawbreaking. (Conn
Nugent, Think small. Think big, Citizens Union of the City of New York
Web Site, Citizensunion.org. Retrieved May 10, 2004.)

This Broken Window Theory has inspired police departments in New York
and other urban areas to crack down on the small stuff in order to keep
out the big stuff. In his book Leadership, former New York City mayor
Rudy Giuliani tells of how he applied the Broken Window Theory to
crime, and in the process reduced murders from 2000 a year to under 600.
He started with Squeegee guys the annoying guys who used to run up to
cars when they were sitting at a traffic light, wash the windshield with
filthy water and rags, and then demand payment. Giuliani had them
arrested for jaywalking and surprise, surprise a huge percentage of
them were found to be felons. It turns out that murderers and muggers
tend to break a lot of little laws, too. So when the NYPD cracked down on
the little infractions when they fixed the broken windows, so to
speak they ended up catching criminals that otherwise would have gotten
away. Critics of Giuliani said that arresting subway turnstile jumpers
was a waste of police effort when they should be chasing drug pushers.
Well, guess what? They discovered that drug pushers were part of the
turnstile-jumping crowd. Attacking small and petty problems is rarely a
waste of time, according to Broken Window Theory. Instead, it helps us
manage the major issues and prevent the condition of our building our
city ourselves from spiraling out of control. (The Broken Window
Theory, Homiletics, November-December 2004, Vol. 16 No. 6, pp. 16-17)

How does this apply to angels and shepherds and peace and Jesus and
Christmas and us? Glad you asked. I doubt if anyone here this morning
believes that he or she can do much to impact the worldwide war against
terrorism and bring about world peace this Christmas season. I doubt if
anyone here believes that he or she can do much to slow down the spread
of meth houses, domestic violence, or other crimes on a big scale. In
fact, some of us may be wondering how to get just a little peace in our
own households.

The answer lies in sweating the small stuff we find in Scripture. I
referred to Matthew 6 earlier. Continuing with verse 33, Jesus tells us,
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
will be given to you as well. Turns out that the angels proclamation
about peace begins pretty much the same way: Glory to God in the
highest. Where does our peace start? It starts with praise and worship
to God. It starts by seeking His kingdom first. Throughout Scripture we
are told ways to live and attitudes to have in order to please God and
experience peace. When we are sweating this kind of small stuff and
paying attention to the Broken Window Theory in our personal lives, we
discover that the peace of God becomes real in our lives because we are
allowing Him to live in and through us. When we fail to pay attention to
the small stuff that impedes our worship of, our praise of, and our
relationship with Him, then we toss peace out the window. In bumper
sticker form, it goes like this: No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know
peace.

See, the only way that any of us can have any peaceful impact on this
world is to have peaceful impacts upon those closest to us. I watched a
new show last Wednesday night called Nanny 911. I do not agree with all
of their child-rearing recommendations, but in this first episode the
nanny sent to a household to bring order out of their chaos is making it
clear that the father is a major source of the lack of peace. He yells
loudly and frequently; he jerks his problem children around roughly; he
fails to follow through with appropriate discipline; he denies that his
most problematic child, still a young elementary school student, is
already becoming a juvenile delinquent. This father is not sweating the
right small stuff. He wants peace in his family; he makes that clear. He
yells harshly, and he roughly jerks and pushes his children around so
that he can get peace. But hes not fixing his broken window or sweating
the small stuff that can lead to peace in his life and then out into his
familys life. The sad part of the show, I am guessing, is that some
success will be achieved and the nanny will be praised as the miracle
worker when it is God who needs to be praised as the miracle worker in
order for us to achieve peace.

We need to realize that our failure to let God achieve peace in our lives
will have a huge impact on those who follow us.

When John Lennon, the ex-Beatle, was shot in New York City in 1980, he
left behind millions of fans who mourned his death. But closer to home,
what did he really leave behind? His son Julian said in an interview, My
dad was a hypocrite. He could talk about peace and love out loud to the
world, but he could never show it to those who supposedly meant the most
to him, his wife and son. Lennon left his first wife, Cynthia, and son
Julian when the child was five. The only thing he taught me, Julian
told Time magazine, was how not to be a father. (Phil Callaway,
reprinted in the Maconaquah High School December Newsletter, 2004 - 2005
School Year) Quite a sad testimony about such a popular personality who
spoke and sang many times about world peace. But he failed to sweat the
small stuff.

After the angels disturbed the shepherds peace with their announcement
of Gods peace, the shepherds made a decision. When the angels had left
them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let's go
to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has
told us about. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the
baby, who was lying in the manger. Pretty important piece here. What if
they had refused to go find Jesus? Think they would have experienced
peace? I doubt it. They would have been agitated and upset and worried
about what they missed. They would have had regrets for the rest of their
lives. But they didnt choose this path. They chose to follow God and
see this thing that has happened. And because of it, The shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard
and seen, which were just as they had been told.

So what about you? Are you sweating the small things this season? No, not
the things that bring you fret and worry, or the things over which you
have no control, or the things that you cannot do. None of us can bring
peace into this old world, nor can we bring salvation. But God can, and
He has. Have you accepted His salvation? His gift of love? Remember, no
Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace. Accept Gods call to salvation
today so that you can begin sweating the small stuff - the right kind of
small stuff that allows God to change us and to bring peace to us and
through us.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN