Advent: Peace

Introduction

Good Morning, One Church,

My name is Ben Geib, and I am one of the leaders here at One Church. Last week we kicked off our Advent sermon series as we enter this Christmas season of celebrating Jesus’ birth. We continue the Advent series this week by looking at the concept of peace—what is is and is not—and how Jesus invites us to experience peace even as we’re surrounded by chaos, hardship, sin, sickness, and death.

Let’s open up our Bible to the oh-so-familiar Christmas story in the beginning of the gospel of Luke, starting in 1:67. The Christmas story in Luke’s gospel is distinct from the other three gospels because Luke’s Christmas story actually starts with the birth of someone else, John the Baptist. Luke’s gospel opens by introducing us to a priest named Zechariah. Zechariah had been chosen to go in to the temple to offer one of the routine sacrifices of incense to God. However, when he went into the temple, Luke writes that the angel Gabriel was standing in the temple where Zechariah was and told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth, despite likely being beyond the normal age range for childbirth were going to have a son whom they would name John and that John would prepare the way for the promised Savior of God’s people by preparing their hearts to receive him, almost like an opening act at a show. And Zechariah, though most likely shocked by the unexpected sight of an angel in the temple, responded like we would probably would, not with total faith, no-questions-asked acceptance, but “How? We’re old.” And because he didn’t receive what Gabriel told him with faith, Luke writes that Gabriel made him silent and unable to speak until John would be born. Luke continues his story without Zechariah for a few verses to tell us about Gabriel’s visit to Mary, then the friendship between John’s mother, Elizabeth, and Jesus’ mother, Mary, who were family relatives. But as Luke records John’s birth, he brings back into the story Zechariah, who is now finally able to talk and breaks out in a prophecy. And at the end of the prophecy, he declares this:

Luke 1:78–79 CSB

78 Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the dawn from on high will visit us 79 to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Zechariah declares that Jesus’ coming would be like a dawning sunlight breaking into the darkness to illuminate the path for God’s people into the way of peace. Jesus was ushering in a new era of peace for his people.

Luke continues on in chapter 2 telling about the birth of Jesus:

Luke 2:1–14 (CSB)

1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. 2 This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. 3 So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town.

4 Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, 5 to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. 6 While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 Then she gave birth to her firstborn son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

8 In the same region, shepherds were staying out in the fields and keeping watch at night over their flock. 9 Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid, for look, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people: 11 Today in the city of David a Savior was born for you, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be the sign for you: You will find a baby wrapped tightly in cloth and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying:

14 Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and peace on earth to people he favors!

Again there is the promise that the arrival of peace was the arrival of the peace that the Hebrew people, who had been passed back and forth from empire to empire, victimized with violence, and oppressed with extortion—Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to people he favors, hallelujah! This is a fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah had written centuries earlier:

Isaiah 9:6 (CSB)

6 For a child will be born for us,

a son will be given to us,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

He will be named

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Charles Spurgeon, a prolific pastor and author of the 19th century wrote:

300 Quotations and Prayers for Christmas (The Appearance of the Newborn King Brought Peace)

When the newborn King made His appearance, the swaddling band with which He was wrapped up was the white flag of peace. That manger was the place where the treaty was signed, whereby warfare should be stopped between man’s conscience and himself, and between man’s conscience and his God.

And yet if we read Matthew account of the Christmas story there is a part of the Christmas story that is tragically overlooked that I want to read for us this morning to provide context to this peace that Jesus promises. Matthew tells us that Wise Men came from a great distance to honor Jesus. And during their journey into Bethlehem, they are called to the palace of the Hebrew King Herod who deceptively interrogates them about this king they are going to worship and asks them to report back to him where this new king so that hey can worship too. But the wise men, knowing that Herod had malicious intentions, skipped town after seeing Jesus.

Matthew 2:16–18 CSB

16 Then Herod, when he realized that he had been outwitted by the wise men, flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, in keeping with the time he had learned from the wise men. 17 Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.

Hook

For the past few Christmases’ that I have been a father I have wrestled with this passage over and over again. That God uplifts us with the promise of peace for his people at the coming of king Jesus while simultaneously allowing the unjust murder of countless boys at the hand of a merciless, ruthless wicked king. On behalf of all the mothers and fathers who lost children that night, the families in parts of the world enduring one of the 110 different armed conflicts going on right now who have lost family members and friends, the victims of gang and drug-related violence, domestic abuse and assault, people with bodies plagued by cancer and chronic illness, people who have endured infertility or the unexpected loss of pregnancy, people who have lost jobs, people enduring different mental and emotional health crises, people who are lonely, tired, weary, burdened, and scared I ask us this question this morning: Where is the peace in the midst of such an unrelenting, violent, and cruel world, and how do we get there?

Body

I. What is (and is not) peace?

We first need to rebuild our understanding of biblical peace from the ground up--what peace is and what it is not--so that we have realistic expectations of God and a clear path into a life of peace.

We often think of of peace in the negative sense, such as in the absence of something. For instance, peace is often linked to warfare to indicate that peace is achieved when a war is over. Peace is defined by what it’s relative to, not on its own. For instance,

we talk about having “peace of mind: as being the cessation of all anxiety and worry

“Peace and quiet” to refer to the quiet when noise and chaos ceases,

“Keeping the peace”, indicating that someone isn’t stirring up trouble or causing conflict.

“Holding your peace”, as in a ceremony that means to stay quiet.

Those things can all be part of peace, but the biblical understanding of peace is much more robust. In the Bible, peace defined in the negative as it is in the positive. In other words, peace refers more to wholeness, completion, harmony, and soundness.

Biblical peace: shalom and eirene

The Old Testament writers used the Hebrew word shalom to refer to peace that comes from wholeness, wellfare, prosperity, goodness, and harmony. Shalom was present in the Garden of Eden. In this fledgling, newborn version of the world, before humans used their agency to dishonor God with their choices, the world was whole. There was security and soundness. Humans were relationally harmonious with God and each other. But that harmony was disrupted as our relationship with God fractured. What was once whole was now broken down and needed to be rebuilt again, like a wall. The Old Testament way of saying, “How are you?” or “Are you okay?” is essentially, “Are you in shalom?” or “Do you have shalom?” It’s as if the Old Testament asked “How close are you to the ideal?” whereas we might ask “How far away from suffering are you?”, or in other words, biblical peace describes your proximity to being whole and safe and prosperous—what you’re working towards--while our modern idea of peace describes how far removed we are from chaos, suffering, and struggle—what you’re running from.

New Testament: eirene