Sermons for the Month
Peace Begins With Christ In Me
DATE: December 5th, 2004
SERVICE: Second Sunday In Advent
TEXT: Isaiah 11:1-10“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
The theme for our Advent candle lighting today was hope, and the focus of today's sermon is peace. Hope and peace - they go hand in hand. I was 12-years-old the first time I sang, "Let There Be Peace On Earth." You know the song, I'm sure. "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me; let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be…." Our 6th grade choir sang that song at a spring concert, no doubt unaware of just how great the need was for peace in the world at that time.
About two years before that performance Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated. Anti-war demonstrations were occurring throughout the country, and there were still nearly 300,000 American troops in Vietnam. And, when we stood to sing about peace it was near the first anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University in far away Ohio.
I wonder if the parents and grandparents sitting there watching us perform were moved, or - having a longer view of history - they thought it was just a bit futile to sing such a song in the midst of such turmoil.
Decades have passed and we still sing, "Let There Be Peace On Earth", in the midst of turmoil. The newspaper carries reports of conflict and violence throughout the world. There is, of course, the war in Iraq where senseless things happen day in and day out, like the murder of Margaret Hassan, Director of CARE International.
For some reason her death really bothered me. A citizen of both Britain and Iraq, Margaret had worked tirelessly for 30 years reaching out to the Iraqi people; she was married to an Iraqi, spoke that language and had become a Muslim. She was a force for good, yet (or perhaps because of that fact) she was kidnapped and killed. She lost her life along with many people from her adopted country, with service people and civilians from the United States and from places around the world.
So, whether it is the turmoil of war and violence that unsettles us, or our personal wars with suffering and loss, we all may sing, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me," with a question in our voices. Is peace really possible?
I find myself wondering about John F. Kennedy's quote, "…peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people," as well as Dwight D. Eisenhower's reflection that people want peace so much that one day governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
I question these statements because I'm not sure that, if it's up to people, peace will ever come. Instead, the statement that I think is closer to the truth is that peace reigns only where our Lord reigns. Our challenge then, I suppose, is to allow the Lord to reign.
We will soon celebrate his birth, when the angels proclaimed a word of peace to all humanity. We call him the Prince of Peace and in today's reading from Isaiah peace is the theme as beautiful, poetic language is used about the Messiah and his perfect kingdom.
Christians believe that the description in the first five verses on Isaiah 11 fit Jesus. On him, God's spirit rests, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He is able to see into people's hearts, and has no need to judge simply by what we do or say. His words are powerful, transforming us and the world. And, he acts in righteousness and faithfulness.
He has come, but that's not the end of the story. The second half of the prophet's poem is yet to occur. We can hardly imagine a world like the one Isaiah describes. In that setting the wolf and the lamb will live together, as will the calf and the lion. Cows and bears will be seen grazing in a field, side by side. Children will play with poisonous snakes. To sum it up God announces through the prophet, "…they will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain…."
Can you picture that scene? Sometimes it's called the peaceable kingdom. An elderly woman I knew once told me that more than 70 years ago she would peer at a painting on the wall of her grandmother's living room in which animals of all types were cuddled together, and she would wonder, "How can that be?" Indeed, how? Will there ever be a time when natural enmity, as well as that created by human hands, is no more?
The amazing answer is "yes", that day of peace will come when Jesus returns for the second time. But it's not here yet. Still, peace is not completely beyond our grasp IF the Lord reigns in our lives. It seems to me that that's the only way, since creating peace is not a natural human tendency. Peace rests in our hearts only when the Lord rests there too. That's the simple, yet complicated, answer to how peace can begin with me.
When Jill Jackson Miller wrote the song, "Let There Be Peace On Earth" in 1955, it was in response to her belief that God has saved her life when she had attempted suicide. She wrote, "I knew for the first time unconditional love - which God is. I had an eternal moment of truth, in which I knew I was loved, and knew I was here for a purpose."
As I mentioned two weeks ago, Christian writer C.S. Lewis says that purpose is to be "little Christs". Or, to use the images from last week, to be children of the light who through our lives convey the peace of Christ who dwells in us. That peace reveals itself in our responses to all that we encounter. If there is illness…peace…when we face loss… peace…and if our lives are stressful, peace under girds us. When rejection comes, peace comforts us, even in the midst of day-to-day annoyances and boredom … peace.
I think I received a little jab from the Holy Spirit the other day about a less-than-peaceful response of mine. If I'm sitting at a traffic light, and someone honks their horn at me because I did not move fast enough to suit them, I take a good long expressionless look at them in the rear-view mirror and then I move ever-so-slowly through the intersection as if to say, "Do not be in such a hurry."
I imagine this upsets the other driver, which is one reason it's not a particularly wise thing to do. But it's also not a response that builds peace because revenge is at the root of my response, isn't it? This may be a small thing, but the concept can spill over to other aspects of life. My attitude is, "I'll show you." It certainly does not reveal Christ to that person, nor add to my own attempts to be Christ-like. I guess I'll have to think of a better way to respond.
What it comes down to for all of us is this, does the Lord reign in our lives? Are we seeking God's purposes, striving to create God's kingdom on earth? Are we paying attention to the Holy Spirit's guidance? Are we asking God for help, letting go, striving to see a bigger picture beyond our comfort zone? Do we convey peace in all circumstances because the Prince of Peace reigns in our hearts? If so, we will touch those around us, and eventually the wide-world, with peace.
Together we pray, "Let there be peace on earth," but it must begin not with me, but with Jesus Christ within me. Only then can I take each moment and live each moment - in the midst of the world's turmoil - in peace. AMEN