Peace On Earth

We are going to talk about Peace this morning and I wonder what that looks for us? If we asked across this room today I’m sure we would get a variety of answers. For some it may quite simply mean peace and quiet. For others maybe you can’t be at peace with a messy house. Dave Ramsey built a whole identity around having financial peace, so maybe for some of you it’s a certain amount of money. For some it might be approval-seeking, needing to be seen or recognized by parents, peers, or our social media following. Peace could be limited by our need to be in control or an unhealthy obsession with details or perfection. For me unfortunately, I can get wrapped up in an unfinished to-do-list.

Allison and I slipped away a couple days this week for our anniversary, and on Thursday morning we found ourselves at a little spot in Athens eating breakfast. We sat at the bar along the window watching downtown Athens as a traffic enforcement office called for a car to be towed away. As we were watching the story unfold I began to wonder why this car was being towed rather than just being written a ticket, and also thankful that I had slipped $1.50 into the meter where we had parked directly behind this vehicle. Just as the car got hooked onto the truck, someone jumped up from inside the restaurant and said, “oh great my car is getting towed.” But honestly they didn’t seem super surprised. Maybe you all aren’t as nosy as I am but I wanted to know why. Thankfully the characters in the story would willingly provide the details I needed as we exited the restaurant and went back out to our vehicle. It turns out that the person having his car towed had over $400 in unpaid parking tickets from the last 5 years, and his license plates had expired in the summer of 2021. And of course because poor Allison is married to a pastor she had to immediately hear me relate the story to this message. How can someone ignore 5 years of parking tickets and still have any peace? Now that’s just me, and that’s just them. But ultimately the answer is that they must find their peace in something else, or perhaps more correctly they use different things to distract them so they can ignore the lack of peace that they have with others and with God. This could be a hobby, entertainment, amusement, or a substance, but really anything that keeps us from recognizing the peace that is missing from our lives as a result at not being at peace with God and with others. For those of us who call ourselves Christians we push peace around ignoring area in our life, in our past, like the parking tickets we can think about what areas we compartmentalize….preach, then to story

The Shepherds: Peace Restored

When we think of peace embodied in the Christmas story, we can’t help but think of the shepherds. They were the unlikely recipients of God’s message of peace. I bet most of us grew up watching Linus recite it in A Charlie Brown Christmas when he tells Charlie Brown, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” It’s a great moment in TV history, but long before TV was imagined, it was inspired writing by the Apostle Luke: in chapter 2 verses 8-20. Let’s take a look.

TEXT: 8 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.

PRAY

There’s so much in these few paragraphs from Luke. For starters, this is like God’s birth announcement to the world. And what a way to announce a long-awaited event that happened in such an unexpected way. Suddenly in the middle of a dark and ordinary night in the Bethlehem countryside, an angel appears in the sky and is then joined by a sky full of angels. The New Living Translation calls them “the armies of heaven,” and it’s hard to imagine just how magnificent and bright, how terrifying and glorious a sight this must have been.

I think the story that night leads us into a few helpful insights about our own encounters with God’s peace.

1. Peace comes in our darkest hour.

A couple weeks ago a pastor asked me how I was doing, and my reply was that things were going pretty good, to which he replied, yeah we just need to get through Christmas. I thought, get through it? I don’t exactly think about the celebration of the coming savior as something I have to get through, but perhaps if we’re honest that’s how some of us feel. We might choose words like busy, hectic, or frantic to describe our lives this time of year—or maybe all year round. Maybe it’s an overloaded schedule that robs you of peace. Or maybe it’s something more: relational conflict, pressure at work, a lost job, or dealing with cold and flu season. You name it. We have plenty of options to choose from this year!

For many of us, peace sounds like a long way off. If this is where you find yourself today, let me encourage you that Jesus shows up when the darkest hours of our life threaten our peace and hope and joy. He is there with us when love seems lost and the way forward is totally unclear.

Our darkest hour IS where God appears. This is where Christ is born. This is where the angels show up. In the middle of Israel’s dark night of Roman oppression and centuries of suffering and wondering, “Where is God?” In the middle of a world turned upside down for a young Jewish couple who have found themselves at the center of cosmic events—while at the same time trying to navigate the normal life realities of paying their dues by traveling by foot across the country to be counted by the government. And having to experience childbirth for the first time far from home, not in another state, or a less than hospital, but outside, in a barn, and in all of these circumstances, in all of these struggles—this is where God showed up. And this is where God continues to show up for us. In our pain. In our fears. In our confusion. In our grief. In our loss. In our uncertainty.

I don’t know every hardship you are facing today, or every wince of pain you are feeling. But God does. He is there, bringing peace to calm your heart, peace that defies your circumstances. That’s our second thought this morning...

2. Peace defies our circumstances.

With many of our circumstances, other people can’t always relate. I know how unfair it can seem sometimes. But let me encourage you that there is a peace that is deeper, there is a peace that defies your circumstances. In the face of all you are feeling and all you have gone through; God’s peace just might not make sense—but it is real. And it is healing. And it can guard your heart from continuing wounds. And it can protect your mind from the onslaught of anxiety.

The apostle Paul describes the process like this in Philippians chapter 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 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... Let me encourage each of us today, no matter what we are facing, that this process begins with us turning to God, bringing our hurts, our questions our doubts, and our needs to Him.

I don’t pretend to fully understand it, but there is a power in prayer and a transformation that grows from gratitude. It’s not the power of getting what we want or convincing God to see things our way. It is so much more than that. Through the power of prayer we can experience peace as our perspective changes and we are reminded that God is with us, no matter what. He’s got this, He can be trusted, and He is enough. And that’s our third point on peace today… He is enough, Peace is a person.

3. Peace is a person.

God’s grace and God’s judgement work hand and hand. There’s no peace without resolution. When we think of peace perhaps some of us think of war. If we aren’t at peace, then we are at war with God. Struggling with God. Out of sync. Out of rhythm. Then there is no rest, and there is no peace. But God has given a person and that person is Jesus Christ. And the only way we have peace with God is through a relationship with His Son who was born on that first Christmas Day, It all comes back to a person. Peace is Jesus. In the Old Testament book of Micah when the birth of a king was foretold in Bethlehem we are told that He would be great to the ends of the earth, and He himself would be the embodiment of our peace. The prophet Isaiah called Jesus the Prince of Peace, and Paul says in Ephesians 2:14 “He (or Jesus) himself is our peace.”

RESPONSE – COLTON HERE

So what is your current relationship status with God? Are you at odds with Him? Is there any conflict? Are you at peace with God? If not what part of you is at war with Him? Are you at peace with people? We can’t be at odds with others and say we have peace with God.

As we move towards a time of taking communion together, many of you have encouraged me that you are thankful for time given to pray to prepare to take the Lord’s supper. Often we quote verses about taking communion in a worthy manner, but if you heard today’s message today, the prayer for preparation today is simply this, Lord am I at peace with you? Lord am I at peace with others? Scripture teaches us that bringing our gift to the altar when we have an issue with another person is worthless. Your sacrifice doesn’t matter, and neither does your prayer life, but instead go and make peace as much as it depends on you. And then let all sin be confessed before Him, and let repentance be sincere as you seek communion with him. Take this time to pray and worship as we prepare to take this fellowship together. STAND/PRAYER

SONG

COMMUNION

The Art of Remembering

We are distinguished from all other living beings by one fact we seldom consider. We are the only creature who builds tombs. We are defined by one who laughs, or who uses tools, or who makes fire, or who thinks, or who speaks; but we are the only creature who builds graves.

Mankind has always wanted to be remembered. As far back as humans have existed there are markers of graves dumbly seeking to keep alive a faded fact. The remains of tombs are more ancient than the remains of dwelling places. We will do anything to keep from being forgotten!

It is sweet to be remembered, and bitter to be forgotten. If we as mortals are distraught at the thought of being forgotten, how much more the master of mortals must have felt? Jesus knew what was in us. He knew our tendency to forget, especially among the distractions of a material world that we can touch and see. But He also knew that unless He was remembered and taught to others that the hope of Christianity would perish from the earth.

Jesus never built a monument of Himself. We have no record He ever wrote a word, except perhaps when He wrote on the sands. Yet Christ yearned to be remembered. He felt and uttered, as no other has done, the heart’s deep, true protest, against being forgotten. So he left us a marvelous memorial.

As he sat in the upper room with his loved one that darkening Thursday night and made his last request, He took the bread and the wine and said, “Eat…,drink…, this do in remembrance of me.” Don’t build me a tomb that will crumble, but as long as the harvest will bring bread to the land, and water cover the face of the earth, Christ will have a new monument. When bread fails, life goes out. Until bread fails, Christ’s memorial is sure.

You wonder, perhaps, that he did not say, “Trust me, have faith in me, hope for me, love me,” at the last supper. You cannot trust, believe, hope, or love, what memory fails to represent to you. And when you DO remember Him, you cannot fail to trust, believe, hope, and love. Christ calls us to remember Him.

He knew that He was most worthy of remembrance, and those who remember Him most, become most like Him, and therefore best.

BREAD - As long as there is bread or physical sustenance, the memory of Christ and the sacrifice of His body will serve as a reminder that He is Lord. That his work on the cross is sure, and that we can have new life in Him.

CUP - We talked alot about peace today. Isaiah 26 teaches us that God will keep us at perfect peace when we keep our mind fixed on Him. Colossians 1:20 tells us that through Jesus Christ God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Communion can be a source of peace as we allow our mind to be fixed on the gift of God that we receive through the precious blood of Christ.

worship through offering and singing

BAPTISM

As you leave today receive this blessing from 2 thessalonians 3:16

2 Thessalonians 3:16 “Now may the Lord of peace Himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance. The Lord be with you all!”

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