Library
Sunday, December 21, 2008
The peace of Christ
Fourth Sunday in Advent
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
8 In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 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, "Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11 to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
We looked last week at some passages from the Prophet Isaiah that pertain to the expectations of the messiah. We ended with the passage that talks about a peaceable kingdom where the wolf and lamb will be together without any harm. That passage includes the image about a little child leading us into peace. We see that portrayal in this painting we saw last week by Edward Hicks of the Peaceable Kingdom and the role of a child.
I asked us to think about how a child can lead us, about what a child has to teach us. I looked at a couple of sources for some answers. The first source was the book Children’s Letters To God in which many children have lessons to teach us.
Nan’s letter is a great example of how to be completely honest with God. Nan writes, “Dear God. I bet it is hard for you to love all of everybody in the world. There are only 4 people in our family and I can never do it!”
Larry’s letter has some of that honest feeling. Larry writes: “Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.”
I like the letter from Nora very much and it ties into the message of Christmas that Jesus is Emmanuel—God with us. Nora wrote, “Dear God, I don’t ever feel alone since I found out about you!”
I consulted another resource also—my colleagues on our program staff team in our weekly meeting. I asked us to think together about what we might learn from children, about how a little child might lead us and teach us—especially this time of year. My teammates were typically wise and insightful and very eager to respond.
They said that young children at their best are quick to forgive, they have less agenda, they live in the present moment, they are accepting of differences, they are open minded, they are refreshingly honest, they have energy and excitement about life, they can help us see that life is not just all about us, they approach life with awe and wonder (those are the heart of any religious perspective), they can see miracles when others of us are too jaded, they can be unexpectedly kind and generous.
I saw two examples of that last characteristic of kindness and compassion in two other places last week. One is a story in a book written by Jim Pollard who is Santa Claus every year in Nashville Tennessee’s Bellville shopping center with his authentic beard and belly. He tells about two children who did talk with Santa about their own wish list but then touchingly added before they left that they hoped Santa would bring their friend Evan some toys because he did not have much at all.
The best examples to me of the kindness and generosity of children, children leading us and teaching us, comes from some children in our own congregation. We have several families from St. Andrew church who have talked with their 8 and 9 year olds and older about when their birthday comes, the children don’t have to have a party where other kids bring them presents. They can have the party but ask the others who come to bring something not for the birthday child but a donation to a group or agency that is doing good for others. We have several families who have adopted this practice and the last one I heard of was when a seven year old invited his friends to his party and asked they bring something to give the Boys and Girl’s club. My heart was really touched by this and I see this as a prime example of how a small child can teach us generosity and kindness and compassion and unselfishness. Isaiah says that a little child shall lead them.
It is appropriate that we begin today by looking at the painting of a peaceable kingdom as we heard that theme of peace referred to in the Christmas story in Bethlehem. When the angels appeared to the shepherds in the field, the angels promised peace on earth and good will among people.
There are few words in the Bible that appear so frequently as the word peace! Look at the very short list that is on the front of your bulletin!!
Jesus promises in the beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount that those who work for peace will be blessed and happy. Jesus encourages his disciples then and now in Mark’s gospel: “Be at peace with one another.” It is a commandment. Jesus promises in those famous words from John’s gospel that we often hear at funerals: “Peace is what I leave with you. My peace is what I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. So do not let your hearts be troubled neither let them be afraid.” St Paul tells us about peace in several passages, one of which is his list of the fruits or results of living close to God: “The fruits of life in the spirit are love, joy, PEACE, patience kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, and self control. And Paul promises in his letter to the Philippian congregation: “The peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Those are just a few of the times that the words in Greek and Hebrew for Peace appear in our Book! By the way, the Greek word in the New Testament is the root word for the name Irene, so if your name is Irene or your friend’s name is Irene, they have that word as the root of their name.
The Hebrew word for peace is much more rich and layered and it means more than just an absence of conflict, it means well being, harmony with God, self, and others, at oneness. The Hebrew word is Shalom and it is the root word for the city of Jerusalem. Shalom is still the greeting used in Jerusalem both as a hello and a goodbye, and when Judy and I write to our friends in Jerusalem who have been our guides for our four St. Andrew pilgrimages and now our fifth to the Holy Land coming next October, we always begin and end our emails with that ancient word “Shalom”.
Peace is complicated in the Bible. Peace does not mean an absence of turmoil or disagreement or even conflict. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace but he also says on one occasion that he did not come to bring peace but to bring a sword! He even promises some turmoil, some unsettling times because if we take him seriously and take his teaching seriously, we will find ourselves being changed by him. Following Jesus will disturb the status quo and cause us to do some things differently.
Tom Friedman, one of my favorite writers and social commentators wrote last week about the current economic crisis and questionable bailouts. At the end he said in speaking about the tragic fifty billion dollar Ponzi scheme perpetrated by Bernard Madoff, “What we need is not just a financial bailout, we need an ethical bailout!”
In other words, we need a revolution in ethics and a resetting of our moral compasses so that we are not just concerned about what we can get for ourselves even by selling our souls, we are concerned about doing what is right. One Harvard professor said in a Thursday morning news show that we are likely to see more economic tragedies revealed where dishonest people have duped many others.
Jesus promises to bring that reconstituted moral compass to us, and when we internalize that, it will not be a time of peace but a time of turmoil—ending with a time of peace.
Peace is not just an absence of turmoil or conflict. Patrick Lenccione says that in his book “Five Temptations of a CEO” when he talks about the failure of people in leadership to tolerate other opinions besides their own. He says in a healthy group or organization all reasonable points of view should be heard before deciding on a direction, and CEO’s sometimes fail because they do not tolerate different viewpoints before making decisions—the sort of “team of rivals” approach that Doris Kearns Goodwin characterizes in the Lincoln presidency. The peace of artificial agreement is a false peace and not real peace.
Let me offer you another unsettling perspective on peace, one that you may want to question and talk about together. New Testament scholars Marcus Borg and Dom Crossan tell us in their book on the first Christmas that real peace is not achieved through victory, it is only achieved through justice. This is connected to Jesus’ sentence in the Beatitudes blessing those who work for peace.
What do you think? Is permanent peace achieved through military victory? I can think perhaps of a few instances—but I can think of more instances when permanent peace is achieved by righting the wrongs and working for fairness and justice instead of trying to impose a military victory that maintains an unjust situation.
Let me give you some examples. I do not think we will have peace between Palestinians and Israelis until we implement the two state solution that will give Palestinians their own country alongside Israel and until we guarantee Israel’s safety from terrorists. And until we do that, we will have more terrorists who use the grievances of oppressed Palestinians as their excuse to destroy and kill innocents. Let me tell you two leaders who believe that.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Rev. Jim Wallis several years ago that when we solve the Palestinian/Israeli crisis, that half the violence in the world will end. When the US takes a stand that seems fair for both Palestinians and Jews, instead of giving other folks in the world reason to believe that we can only see the Israeli perspective and nothing else, then we will take away the appearance of one sidedness and the chance of giving terrorists a righteous cause for their tactics of terrorism. If you want to pursue that idea, look at the books on our bookshelves by Palestinian Christian leader Elias Chacour that we recommend our Israel pilgrims read before we travel to the Holy Land. He will help you understand some of the perspective and story of the Palestinians since the formation of Israel in 1948.
Let me offer you one other respected expert on war and peace about whether peace is created permanently by victory or by justice. One leader said a few months ago about the American effort in Iraq and Afghanistan: “we will not win the war on terrorism by killing more terrorists.” It shows a similar perspective as Marcus Borg. Just conditions and just relationships are the way to achieve peace, not by killing more people. I believe General Petraeus has said that the way to peace is not through a military solution but through a political solution. The Roman government was the example of attempting peace through violence and victory for Borg in Jesus time, and Jesus’ teaching was the example of working for peace through justice. This is a controversial idea. What do you think?
Let’s move from talking about peace between people and between groups to an inner calm and inner confidence and inner peace. Who do you think of who is an example of that inner peace and calm in a time of trouble and turmoil? Let me offer three ideas. First it is appropriate in December to keep both the beginning and the end of Jesus’ earthly life before us so we don’t get too sentimental. Even at the beginning after the angels and the magi had left, there was an attempt by Herod to achieve peace through violence. What happened when the bloodthirsty King Herod learned about the birth of a possible rival? He sent his soldiers to Bethlehem to murder any child under the age of two.
Did he achieve peace that way? No because Jesus’ family fled to Egypt to be safe until Herod was dead. Did he stop the spread of the new life offered by a “suffering servant messiah”? Of course not—that is why we are able to be here as part of the Jesus movement today!!
At the end of Jesus’ earthly life, he was arrested and taken to Pilate who was the Roman governor then and who had the power to sentence him to the cruelest death possible. What was Jesus’ attitude when he was taken to Pilate? John’s gospel reports that he was calm and at peace with God and himself-and even more, his spirit of confidence and peace seemed to rattle Pilate and cause him to be afraid.
Let me give another example from the Bible—this time from the most effective spokesperson for the early Jesus movement, the person who walked hundreds of miles town to town across Greece, Turkey and Israel to invite people to follow Christ and to find abundant life. We had 26 people follow in those footsteps two months ago to see some of the places St. Paul went, places he was beaten and stoned and put in jail.
This place is in Philippi where he founded his favorite congregation. After he invited people to join the movement, he was jailed on false charges. He was in danger. But even in a jail cell, he was at peace. Here is a picture of the remains of the 2000 year old cell. In fact during the night, he was singing hymns and psalms!! He had confidence and inner peace because of his relationship with God!!
Let me tell you one more story about inner peace in a very difficult time. Lou Gehrig played shortstop for the NY Yankees in the 1930’s and has been called one of the most phenomenal baseball players of all time. In late 1939 he was diagnosed with a degenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis which is now called Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He made a moving farewell speech in Yankee stadium calling himself—get this—the luckiest man alive. “I may have had a tough break but I have a lot to live for”, he said. Shortly before his death in 1941 in a conversation with friend and sportscaster Bob Considine, he told Considine of a new drug that had been developed and seemed to be making a difference on nine of the ten persons in the drug trial. As they continued to talk together Considine discovered that Lou Gehrig was the one out of ten for whom the drug was not working. Gehrig said, It didn’t work on me, but how about that for an average—nine out of ten! Isn’t that great!”
How does one confront a debilitating degenerative disease and then know that a drug works for nine others but not for oneself unless one has a deep inner peace and inner confidence and calm??
Glory to God in the highest and on earth Peace to and good will to people. We are given that peace in the birth of Christ and now we can be ambassadors of that deep peace, that Christmas peace for others. We will close with a prayer about that—a familiar prayer that is written in the spirit of St. Francis. You will recognize it. We will pray the prayer together.
“THE PRAYER OF SAINT FRANCIS”
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, for it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.