Peace (2nd Sunday of Advent 2025)

Luke 2:4–7 ESV

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

[SHOW MAP WHILE I READ THIS SCRIPTURE]

Luke 2:4–6 ESV

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee (north), from the town of Nazareth, to Judea (south), to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

The details associated in these highlighted words are incredibly important to get a sense of what is happening…and I want us to try and put ourselves into the context a little bit this morning…

You and your ancestors tell the stories of how God gave you the land you live in. And yet, NOW, an EMPIRE called Rome rules, creates laws, demands taxes, and forces you to do things…things you don’t want to do, things that don’t always benefit you, things that seem oppressive, and often times unnecessary…we know this feeling don’t we…a government that taxes the same dollar you have earned…

Distance of 80-100 miles depending on the route taken. A pregnant fiancé. Talk about the judgmental glances. There was no holiday inn express. The journey wasn’t a quick day trip. No this required money, time, inconvenience, and days of travel. By foot.

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We miss some of the important cultural distinctions…we think Jews were all the same. But Jews from Galilee were way different that Jews from Judea.

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Racially the area of the former Northern Kingdom of Israel had, ever since the Assyrian conquest in the eighth century B.C., a more mixed population, within which more conservative Jewish areas (like Nazareth and Capernaum) stood in close proximity to largely pagan cities, of which in the first century the new Hellenistic centers of Tiberias and Sepphoris were the chief examples. (North was more diverse than the South)

Politically Galilee had been under separate administration from Judea during almost all its history since the tenth century B.C. (apart from a period of “reunification” under the Maccabees), and in the time of Jesus it was under a (supposedly) native Herodian prince, while Judea and Samaria had since A.D. 6 been under the direct rule of a Roman prefect. (People from (North)Galilee weren’t used to Roman governance as much as people from (South) Judea)

Economically Galilee offered better agricultural and fishing resources than the more mountainous (which is why the text says goes UP from Galilee) territory of Judea, making the wealth of some Galileans the envy of their southern neighbors.

Culturally Judeans despised their northern neighbors as country cousins, their lack of Jewish sophistication being compounded by their greater openness to Hellenistic influence.

Linguistically Galileans spoke a distinctive form of Aramaic whose slovenly consonants (they dropped their aitches!) were the butt of Judean humor.

They are as different as a Texan is from a New Yorker.

Or an Irishman living in London.

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Illustration: Joe from Camas, WA to Sandersville, GA

I jokingly tell this story, exaggerating some details, for humors sake.

The point is I didn’t know what it was going to be like. The church board here didn’t know what it was going to be like. And yet, when called…we trusted Him!

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Transition: Not only did Mary and Joseph face the difficult physical journey, they also faced the difficult relational journey of going to the place where people were going to face face social and relational difficulties.

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Application:

——You may have never traveled to a faraway place and been treated like you don’t belong…God has welcomed you into his family because He loves you! Jesus died for your sins, when you werent’ living right. God has always welcomed foreigners, sojourners, lost, and different people and saving them, redeeming them, restoring them, and welcoming them into His family. For you and me that means live like a person who is THANKFUL that God has welcomed YOU! By WELCOMING OTHERS! (PAUSE FOR SALVATION)

——-Sometimes being the outsider is just as difficult as physical obstacles because when you are made to feel like an outsider because there is NOTHING you can do about it. You can’t demand to be WELCOMED. You cannot force people to welcome you because the results would be INAUTHENTIC and FAKED. You cannot in a moment get people to stop thinking things they have thought for years or possibly generations because that takes time. If you have ever been the outsider or been treated like one, know that God WELCOMES YOU! He loves you. He will restore you, forgive you, lead you to repentance, and transform your life into a life of holiness, if you will let Him!

——-Some people treat people like outsiders on purpose…(Stop it) But I think most people fall in another category…(I don’t do it on purpose…)(you don’t do it on purpose…) but just because we don’t do it on purpose, doesn’t mean that we ignore the reality——

-Jesus taught on this very thing…in Luke 10:25-37

A man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho when he is attacked by robbers who strip him, beat him, and leave him for dead. A priest comes by, sees the man, and crosses to the other side of the road to avoid him. A Temple assistant (Levite) also sees the man but passes by. Finally, a Samaritan, a member of a group historically disliked by Jews, comes upon the man.

The Samaritan has compassion, goes to the man, pours oil and wine on his wounds, bandages them, and puts him on his own donkey. He takes the man to an inn and takes care of him overnight. The next day, the Samaritan gives the innkeeper two silver coins and says to take care of the man, promising to repay any additional expenses when he returns.

POINTED and DIRECT:

The Lawyer's Question: The parable is told in response to a lawyer's question, "who is my neighbor?" to try and limit the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" to only those he considered his own people. WHICH IS WHY REMAINING in IGNORANCE is not ok. As soon as we hear this parable if we only care for our “own” people conviction should take root. IF you are constantly looking for ways to decide who is in or out…who you “have” to love and who you don’t. Then these words are for you.

The Samaritan as the Hero: By making the outcast Samaritan the hero of the story, Jesus challenges the conventional views of who is a "neighbor". Jesus tells them parable in order to teach us that all of us (even the hated) are capable of love.

The True Meaning of "Neighbor": The parable teaches that everyone is your neighbor, and compassion should be extended to all, regardless of their background, including those who seem different or are considered enemies. And all of us are deserving of God’s love. (Even the one who hates us) And to remind us that we were once the foreigner, lost, person without a family, person on the outside.  

The Call to Action: The story ends with Jesus telling the lawyer to "Go, and do likewise". This is a call to action to put love into practice through acts of mercy and kindness.

Luke 2:7 ESV

7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Greek term for manger refers to a feeding trough for domesticated animals. These regularly are located in two possible locations. In the stable off the home of a poor family, the stable was generally a room adjacent to and slightly lower than the living quarters. Or a cave that is carved out near the home of a family. Whether it is adjascent to a house or in a cave is irrelevant. What is relevant is that there was no room for Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in normal and acceptable accomodations. So they humbly stayed where the animals stayed.

The king of kings stayed where the animals stayed. The king of kings was not placed in a sanitary hospital room. He was placed in cloth and placed in a trough where animals had drooled, eaten, and so on.

God humbled himself. He wasn’t humbled. He chose the path of humility. From birth to death. When He was challenged by the Romans, he could have defended himself, but he didn’t. When he was accused, he didn’t fight for his rights. When he was beaten, he didn’t fight back. When he was abused, he never tried to get out of it. He took it. He humbled himself.

I believe every Christian man has a choice between being humble and being humbled. Thought-Reading Extraordinary, Volume 30, Sermon #1801 - Psalm 10:17

Charles Spurgeon

It is no great thing to be humble when you are brought low; but to be humble when you are praised is a great and rare achievement.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

You and I have a choice in life. Are going to be humble or be humbled?

To walk the way of Jesus means to humble yourself. Deny yourself. Die to self. Pick up your cross. Love your neighbor. Care for others.

Mary and Joseph humbled themselves.

ObeyEd Rome in spite of the difficulties physical and social.

Which is what brings me to this final point. It is not always easy to humble yourself, especially when you know things aren’t going to be easy or right.

The point is this…this Sunday of ADVENT…as we anticipate Jesus’ birth in the Christian calendar…

There is PEACE in the providence of God.

Providence refers to the protective care Or involvement of God over His creatures.

Your view on God’s providence changes everything.

There are, in general two camps of people when it comes to God’s providence.

CAMP 1: Since the enlightenment of the 18th-century centered on reason, individualism, and skeptiscism, many thinkers argued that God created the world to run by basic laws and was not concerned with individual details. Basically, the more we understood what was happening the less we believed God was involved, this was just the way it was happening naturally with science. This is what many scholars called general providence. God created everything with a system and then let it happen without intervention. His involvement was at the beginning but no longer is intimately involved in the lives of us. Camp one is that God isn’t very involved in the individual lives of His people.

CAMP 2: God created the world and set things in motion with laws of nature and so forth, but that God is still actively caring for those He created. That God is involved in both the grand moments of creation, but also the minute. God can specifically intervene care for and be involved in someones life NOW.

People and friends of CAMP 1. It leads their prayers to be more generic. They pray things like, God help us to accept what you have set in motion. God help us to do your will. They believe the evil in the world is going to happen as a result of the things set in motion long time ago and there is little to nothing God will do about it because God doesn’t intervene. If you believe this about God’s there seems to be NO PEACE for ME. Things are going to happen and there isn’t much you can do about it because even God who created all is not going to intervene.

I fall in CAMP 2. I have had way too many examples in my life where God heard and answered my prayer. From big things to small things. Wesley rejected this Deist perspective. He argued forcefully that God governs all things, from the smallest to the greatest, including “kingdoms and cities, fleets and armies, and all the individuals” without forcing human will.

CONCLUSION: Today we are reminded that our God is a God of peace, so we are called to be a people of peace who are not shaped by the busyness and chaos of the world but by the peace of God that brings life and healing. During the season of Advent, we are invited to set aside time to live in the hope and peace of God. May our hope in the peace of God that is the restoration of creation lead us to be a people of peace who actively work for peace in our lives, in our communities, and in our world.

Like Mary and Joseph, you may be being forced to go through things that aren’t easy. (Physical, Relational, Financial, Career, DVR of the mind). When you are going through these types of things it is hard to have peace. I want to remind you of the PROVIDENCE OF GOD. God cares for his people. God cares for me. God cares for YOU. God has a plan. God guides and directs. He will direct your paths. If you remember how he has been faithful in the past it can help you in the present to humble yourself during these difficult times and trust in the God who has been there for you before.

Who needs to humble themselves to the providence of God to help them get through the things they are facing?