Micah 5:1-5; John 14:27 December 6, 2009
The Second Sunday of Advent
“Everyone Can Be At Peace”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Micah 5:1-5 (The New Living Translation)
1Mobilize! Marshal your troops! The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. With a rod they will strike the leader of Israel in the face. 2But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. 3The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth to her son. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. 4And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’S strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. 5And he will be the source of our peace.
John 14:27 (NRSV)
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
(The New Living Translation)
27“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Drama: The Soldier’s Letter Ben Walters
Let us pray: Ever-present God, thank you that you are with us right here, that you are with people we love up and down the valleys, over the mountains, and across the sea. We cannot flee from your Spirit. We pray, right now, for all the soldiers on active duty, far from home, wondering what today will bring. May you bless them with a clear sense of your presence, assuring them of your love, filling them with your peace. We come now with hearts ready to hear from you. Speak now, O God, for we need your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Last week, we learned about the prophet Isaiah, who wrote about a child who would be born, the son who would one day be given to his people – the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah wrote to a people who had been exiled from their home – the northern kingdom of Israel; people who had been overtaken by the Assyrians; people who had chosen against living as God desired they live, who had chosen to adopt the ways of the surrounding pagan, godless nations, serving idols, and even making burnt offerings of their own children. When God gave them over to the consequences of their own sinful actions, much of the northern kingdom lay in ruins.
The southern kingdom, Judah, was doing a little better, for a while – and then the Assyrians struck again. This time, king Sennacherib attacked all Judah’s fortified cities and surrounding villages – leaving only Jerusalem in answer to king Hezekiah’s prayer. The southern kingdom was greatly compromised, but still intact until Hezekiah’s pride got in the way, allowing Babylon to come in and finish the job Assyria started.
The people of the southern and northern kingdoms were living in foreign lands, in ruins, in chaos and violence, and in great confusion. We considered the obvious question on the tips of their tongues last week: O God, are you still with us?
Many of the prophets, including the prophet Micah, wrote words of judgment to God’s people, but they also wrote about a time to come when all God’s people would be free from oppression. Those words of promise were like a healing balm on their wounds. Like Isaiah, Micah wrote about Jesus nearly 750 years before he was born in that crude shelter for animals.
Think how these words would sound to you if you were part of the nation of Israel – a nation torn apart by war:
Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. 3The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth to her son. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. 4And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’S strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. 5And he will be the source of our peace.
“O please God, whatever this means, bring it on!” “We want to live again in our land. We want to be undisturbed. We want peace.” Last week we read Isaiah’s words that tell us this child to be born will bring endless peace. Jesus told his disciples that he would give them a peace unlike any they had known before. It seems to me that God is trying to tell us something.
Some of you probably know that the most frequent command in the Bible is this one: Do not be afraid. Do not fear. Nearly 300 times this command is given. Way back in Genesis 15, God said to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield.” In Genesis 26, God said to Isaac, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you.” In Joshua 1, God told Joshua, “I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God spoke these beautiful words to the nation of Israel through Isaiah (41), “But you, Israel my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off, do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God.” Throughout the Psalms, the writer declares that he will not fear. I read the following verse from Psalm 27 to Wanda Harry as she prepared to go into open heart surgery on Wednesday morning: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” And when we get to the New Testament – to the story of Jesus’ birth – what do we hear over and over? When Zechariah saw the angel in the sanctuary, the angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” (Luke 1:13); When the angel appeared to Mary, he said, “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Luke 1:30); when the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, he said, “Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” (Matt. 1:20); When the angel came to the shepherds to tell them about the child being born, he said, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” What did Jesus say to his beloved disciples in the boat on the storm-tossed sea? “Do not be afraid.” When the women went to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial and they saw an angel, what did the angel say? “Do not be afraid.” When the apostle Paul was on one of his last voyages, having gone without food for a long time, he stood up and addressed those on the ship saying, “Last night there stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, “Do not be afraid, Paul; God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.” (Acts 27:24) And in Revelation, when John began his vision, he was told, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one.”
Isaiah prophesied, “His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.” He was called the Prince of Peace. Micah prophesied, “Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. 5And he will be the source of our peace.”
When is the last time you walked around undisturbed about anything?
It is pretty tough in this world to be undisturbed. There is a lot that causes anxiety – which is simply a symptom of fear. But it is no different now than it was in the days of the prophets. Since the day it all went bad in the Garden of Eden, human beings are prone to fear instead of peace. In Genesis 3, when God went looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden, God called out, “Where are you?” and Adam said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Isn’t this the basis of all fear - the reason for the absence of peace? We realize how vulnerable. We fear pain, hurt, suffering, death.
And God says, “Do not be afraid. I am with you. I am your shield. I am your provider. I am your great reward. I will light your path. I will bring you home.”
If we could just trust him, we could live our lives undisturbed by all the things that cause so many of us to hide from all the great stuff God wants to do with us. If we could just believe what he said in here is really for us, maybe we could be at peace within ourselves, and live at peace in the world.
This is what faith is: It is not believing a set of statements. It is not believing a bunch of rules. Faith in God is not believing that… Faith in God that truly brings peace to our souls is believing on. (Take a chair, and sit ON it without propping yourself on it with your feet. Put your whole weight ON it.)
The soldier that Ben portrayed was getting this for the first time in his life – and it took him going to war to finally understand. Sometimes it takes something really out of the ordinary, sometimes something very difficult to get us to see what’s missing. Undisturbed faith is faith that puts your whole weight onto Jesus Christ, who took the weight of our sin and suffering upon himself.
I don’t know what holds you back from receiving the fullness of God’s peace in your life. I don’t know what stories you’re telling yourself about why most of the thoughts you have are fearful thoughts, but I do know that God has come to Abraham, Joshua, Isaiah, David, Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, and all who have followed Jesus through all the years – God has come to you and to me – and he says with both hands on either side of our face, “Do not be afraid.”
This past week, one of my morning devotionals was based on a favorite verse in Psalm 16: The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places…you will fill me with joy in your presence. Psalm 16:6 & 11.
Dr. Gwenfair Adams wrote: How would you define a pleasant place? Would it be a cozy cottage by a burbling brook? A ski lodge on the side of a winter mountain? [I add, a tree stand?] What if, instead, a pleasant place is not so much about a geographical location as about the heart’s location? Anne Bradstreet, the American Puritan poet, wrote, "Oft have I thought, were it hell itself, and [I] could there find the love of God toward me, it would be a heaven. And could I have been in heaven without the love of God, it would have been a hell to me; for, in truth, it is the absence and presence of God that makes heaven or hell.” Perhaps a bit extreme, it captures an important biblical idea: what matters to the joy [and I add, peace] of our soul is not where we are, but where we are in relation to God. In this season, we celebrate the coming of the one who left the ultimate Pleasant Place, to come and be with us. Emmanuel. Wherever we are, if he is with us, there our lines are truly drawn in pleasant places. (Even in Iraq & Afghanistan, even at the bedside of the dying, or the tombstone of the dead, or in the unemployment line, or the cafeteria at school, or in the lawyer’s office, or taking the hardest exam ever.) Everyone can be at peace.
Would you go with me to the Lord in prayer? Heavenly Father, thank you that you hear us when we pray. Thank you for sending Jesus to be the source of our peace. I pray right now for any here this morning, who is trying to live at peace with you out of their own strength and disciplines. I pray for those trying to live at peace without being plugged in to the source of peace himself. [And if that is you, I invite you in the quietness of this moment to simply tell God that you believe that he loves you, that he gave Jesus for you, that you want to finally stop trying to figure it all out on your own and control what cannot be controlled, and you want to put your life in his hands – to sit on the lap of the Father (so to speak) and look at life from his perspective of strength, confidence, and perfect peace.]
Forgive us, merciful God, for the ways we tie ourselves up in knots out of fear for what is, what isn’t, what is going to happen, what isn’t going to happen. Forgive us for our lack of trust, for making our faith into something we do, or somewhere we go instead of who you have created us to be in Christ Jesus the Lord. Thank you that you understand. Thank you for your constant reminder throughout the Bible to not be afraid. Thank you for the incredible blessing that it is to know you, love you, receive you, follow you, trust you, and share you with others. Fill us anew this day with your peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.
The Second Sunday of Advent
“Everyone Can Be At Peace”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Micah 5:1-5 (The New Living Translation)
1Mobilize! Marshal your troops! The enemy is laying siege to Jerusalem. With a rod they will strike the leader of Israel in the face. 2But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. 3The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth to her son. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. 4And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’S strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. 5And he will be the source of our peace.
John 14:27 (NRSV)
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
(The New Living Translation)
27“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn’t like the peace the world gives. So don’t be troubled or afraid.
Drama: The Soldier’s Letter Ben Walters
Let us pray: Ever-present God, thank you that you are with us right here, that you are with people we love up and down the valleys, over the mountains, and across the sea. We cannot flee from your Spirit. We pray, right now, for all the soldiers on active duty, far from home, wondering what today will bring. May you bless them with a clear sense of your presence, assuring them of your love, filling them with your peace. We come now with hearts ready to hear from you. Speak now, O God, for we need your peace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Last week, we learned about the prophet Isaiah, who wrote about a child who would be born, the son who would one day be given to his people – the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah wrote to a people who had been exiled from their home – the northern kingdom of Israel; people who had been overtaken by the Assyrians; people who had chosen against living as God desired they live, who had chosen to adopt the ways of the surrounding pagan, godless nations, serving idols, and even making burnt offerings of their own children. When God gave them over to the consequences of their own sinful actions, much of the northern kingdom lay in ruins.
The southern kingdom, Judah, was doing a little better, for a while – and then the Assyrians struck again. This time, king Sennacherib attacked all Judah’s fortified cities and surrounding villages – leaving only Jerusalem in answer to king Hezekiah’s prayer. The southern kingdom was greatly compromised, but still intact until Hezekiah’s pride got in the way, allowing Babylon to come in and finish the job Assyria started.
The people of the southern and northern kingdoms were living in foreign lands, in ruins, in chaos and violence, and in great confusion. We considered the obvious question on the tips of their tongues last week: O God, are you still with us?
Many of the prophets, including the prophet Micah, wrote words of judgment to God’s people, but they also wrote about a time to come when all God’s people would be free from oppression. Those words of promise were like a healing balm on their wounds. Like Isaiah, Micah wrote about Jesus nearly 750 years before he was born in that crude shelter for animals.
Think how these words would sound to you if you were part of the nation of Israel – a nation torn apart by war:
Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. 3The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth to her son. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. 4And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’S strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. 5And he will be the source of our peace.
“O please God, whatever this means, bring it on!” “We want to live again in our land. We want to be undisturbed. We want peace.” Last week we read Isaiah’s words that tell us this child to be born will bring endless peace. Jesus told his disciples that he would give them a peace unlike any they had known before. It seems to me that God is trying to tell us something.
Some of you probably know that the most frequent command in the Bible is this one: Do not be afraid. Do not fear. Nearly 300 times this command is given. Way back in Genesis 15, God said to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield.” In Genesis 26, God said to Isaac, “Do not be afraid, for I am with you and will bless you.” In Joshua 1, God told Joshua, “I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” God spoke these beautiful words to the nation of Israel through Isaiah (41), “But you, Israel my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off, do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God.” Throughout the Psalms, the writer declares that he will not fear. I read the following verse from Psalm 27 to Wanda Harry as she prepared to go into open heart surgery on Wednesday morning: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” And when we get to the New Testament – to the story of Jesus’ birth – what do we hear over and over? When Zechariah saw the angel in the sanctuary, the angel said, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.” (Luke 1:13); When the angel appeared to Mary, he said, “Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (Luke 1:30); when the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, he said, “Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” (Matt. 1:20); When the angel came to the shepherds to tell them about the child being born, he said, “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.” What did Jesus say to his beloved disciples in the boat on the storm-tossed sea? “Do not be afraid.” When the women went to the tomb to prepare Jesus’ body for burial and they saw an angel, what did the angel say? “Do not be afraid.” When the apostle Paul was on one of his last voyages, having gone without food for a long time, he stood up and addressed those on the ship saying, “Last night there stood by me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, “Do not be afraid, Paul; God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.” (Acts 27:24) And in Revelation, when John began his vision, he was told, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one.”
Isaiah prophesied, “His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom.” He was called the Prince of Peace. Micah prophesied, “Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. 5And he will be the source of our peace.”
When is the last time you walked around undisturbed about anything?
It is pretty tough in this world to be undisturbed. There is a lot that causes anxiety – which is simply a symptom of fear. But it is no different now than it was in the days of the prophets. Since the day it all went bad in the Garden of Eden, human beings are prone to fear instead of peace. In Genesis 3, when God went looking for Adam and Eve in the Garden, God called out, “Where are you?” and Adam said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
Isn’t this the basis of all fear - the reason for the absence of peace? We realize how vulnerable. We fear pain, hurt, suffering, death.
And God says, “Do not be afraid. I am with you. I am your shield. I am your provider. I am your great reward. I will light your path. I will bring you home.”
If we could just trust him, we could live our lives undisturbed by all the things that cause so many of us to hide from all the great stuff God wants to do with us. If we could just believe what he said in here is really for us, maybe we could be at peace within ourselves, and live at peace in the world.
This is what faith is: It is not believing a set of statements. It is not believing a bunch of rules. Faith in God is not believing that… Faith in God that truly brings peace to our souls is believing on. (Take a chair, and sit ON it without propping yourself on it with your feet. Put your whole weight ON it.)
The soldier that Ben portrayed was getting this for the first time in his life – and it took him going to war to finally understand. Sometimes it takes something really out of the ordinary, sometimes something very difficult to get us to see what’s missing. Undisturbed faith is faith that puts your whole weight onto Jesus Christ, who took the weight of our sin and suffering upon himself.
I don’t know what holds you back from receiving the fullness of God’s peace in your life. I don’t know what stories you’re telling yourself about why most of the thoughts you have are fearful thoughts, but I do know that God has come to Abraham, Joshua, Isaiah, David, Zechariah, Joseph, Mary, the shepherds, and all who have followed Jesus through all the years – God has come to you and to me – and he says with both hands on either side of our face, “Do not be afraid.”
This past week, one of my morning devotionals was based on a favorite verse in Psalm 16: The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places…you will fill me with joy in your presence. Psalm 16:6 & 11.
Dr. Gwenfair Adams wrote: How would you define a pleasant place? Would it be a cozy cottage by a burbling brook? A ski lodge on the side of a winter mountain? [I add, a tree stand?] What if, instead, a pleasant place is not so much about a geographical location as about the heart’s location? Anne Bradstreet, the American Puritan poet, wrote, "Oft have I thought, were it hell itself, and [I] could there find the love of God toward me, it would be a heaven. And could I have been in heaven without the love of God, it would have been a hell to me; for, in truth, it is the absence and presence of God that makes heaven or hell.” Perhaps a bit extreme, it captures an important biblical idea: what matters to the joy [and I add, peace] of our soul is not where we are, but where we are in relation to God. In this season, we celebrate the coming of the one who left the ultimate Pleasant Place, to come and be with us. Emmanuel. Wherever we are, if he is with us, there our lines are truly drawn in pleasant places. (Even in Iraq & Afghanistan, even at the bedside of the dying, or the tombstone of the dead, or in the unemployment line, or the cafeteria at school, or in the lawyer’s office, or taking the hardest exam ever.) Everyone can be at peace.
Would you go with me to the Lord in prayer? Heavenly Father, thank you that you hear us when we pray. Thank you for sending Jesus to be the source of our peace. I pray right now for any here this morning, who is trying to live at peace with you out of their own strength and disciplines. I pray for those trying to live at peace without being plugged in to the source of peace himself. [And if that is you, I invite you in the quietness of this moment to simply tell God that you believe that he loves you, that he gave Jesus for you, that you want to finally stop trying to figure it all out on your own and control what cannot be controlled, and you want to put your life in his hands – to sit on the lap of the Father (so to speak) and look at life from his perspective of strength, confidence, and perfect peace.]
Forgive us, merciful God, for the ways we tie ourselves up in knots out of fear for what is, what isn’t, what is going to happen, what isn’t going to happen. Forgive us for our lack of trust, for making our faith into something we do, or somewhere we go instead of who you have created us to be in Christ Jesus the Lord. Thank you that you understand. Thank you for your constant reminder throughout the Bible to not be afraid. Thank you for the incredible blessing that it is to know you, love you, receive you, follow you, trust you, and share you with others. Fill us anew this day with your peace. In Jesus’ name, amen.
