Isaiah 9:6-7; Luke 1:67-79; Luke 12:51-53; John 14:25-27
December 23, 2007
“Peace: The Greatest Gift”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Isaiah 9:6-7
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Over the years I have wondered why Jesus would only be the Prince of Peace. He’s the King of kings – shouldn’t he be the King of Peace? But that was me thinking in my own little box. Those 4 names of God give us the full picture of the Trinitarian God we know from the pages of Scripture. Wonderful Counselor (Holy Spirit), Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Jesus). Seven hundred years before Jesus was born, Isaiah is giving us a full picture of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. His authority will grow continually and there shall be endless peace with Him.
And then, just three months before Jesus was born, after the birth of John (the Baptist) to Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, Zechariah prophesies about the peace Jesus will bring.
Luke 1:67-79
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us . . . And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
That sounds good doesn’t it? A mighty savior who will save us from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us – to give knowledge of salvation and forgiveness of our sins. Light from darkness, a way of peace. That sounds good . . . peaceful.
And then, approximately 31 years later, we hear Jesus himself ask this question:
Luke 12:51-53
Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided:
father against son
and son against father,
mother against daughter
and daughter against mother,
mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
The word for ‘peace’ here means ‘of one mind,’ or ‘harmony.’ I appreciate the way Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message: “Do you think I came to smooth things over and make everything nice? Not so. I’ve come to disrupt and confront!”
Now, one more Scripture before we dig into this a little. More words from Jesus:
John 14:27-29
“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 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.”
That sounds more like what we want to hear when we think about peace, doesn’t it?
Let us pray:
Father, teach us about your peace. Open our eyes to see your truth that will increase the peace in our lives. This we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
We’re living in a time of war. Not peace. War. It is rare to find a string of years when war was not part of life somewhere on this earth. Peace seems to be the exception, not the rule.
Every day people are arguing with other people about something. Every day people are being killed because peace has found no home in angry hearts.
Stress seems to be at an all-time high – affecting every area of our lives, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Jesus said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for today has enough trouble of its own.” Yeah, right. We worry about today and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next month, and year, and decade. For many of us, if we can’t control it, we can’t get peace about it.
My son Douglas got home from Penn State on Wednesday. Late Wednesday night he asked if he could go to New York with some friends to go to the Pitt vs. Duke basketball game at Madison Square Gardens the next day. Guess what I said: “People shoot people in New York, Doug. People shoot people there for no reason at all in the train, on the streets, everywhere.” His answer, “Mom, you’re going to have to let that go.” But that’s often what we do, especially when things are already going wrong, isn’t it: we automatically think of the worst thing that might happen and we run with it.
It’s not just war that steals our peace - it’s our own thoughts, and our own desire to keep everything within our short reach so that we don’t have to trust anything or anyone but ourselves. But one problem is that our desired definition of peace has to do with external calmness, doesn’t it? We even sing about it, “Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright.” Sounds peaceful.
But ‘calmness’ was not breaking into the world when Jesus came. Calmness in the circumstances around us doesn’t have anything to do with the kind of peace Jesus came to give.
Jesus divides. He demands that we take sides. You are either with Him or you are against Him. One side brings true peace within yourself; the other side begets turmoil.
Do you remember the time that Joshua was getting ready to lead the army of Israel against Jericho? As he was going out to look at the city, he was confronted with the Captain of the Lord’s army. Not one to run from a confrontation, Joshua goes up to meet Him and asks, "Are you for us or are you against us?" The Captain of the Lord’s army says something like this, "You have the question wrong. I’m with the LORD. Are you?” (Joshua 5)
When I became a committed Christian, it caused division in my family. My commitment to follow Jesus’ path rather than the path planned for me by my family in my late high school years caused a lot of heartache. I understand this Scripture about division at a very personal level.
On December 9, Matthew Murray shot and killed Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 24, at a ‘Youth With a Mission’ (YWAM) training center in Arvada, a Denver suburb. I read in Christianity Today that after another student performed CPR on Tiffany, she regained consciousness and asked Holly, "Is it bad?" Holly said, "Yes it's bad." Tiffany looked at Holly and her boyfriend, Dan, who was also shot, and said, "We do this for Jesus, right guys? We do this for Jesus."
About 900 people attended the funeral for Tiffany several weeks ago. The director of YWAM was asked how the families of those who had been killed were doing: “I was so amazed and proud of the families and how they responded to Matthew's family. They didn't feel Matthew's parents were responsible or should be carrying that weight. They said to Matthew's family, "We don't need to forgive you because you did not do anything wrong. But even if Matthew were alive, we would still forgive him.” It was a powerful time. It was really a testimony of how to respond even in the greatest injustice. God is the only one who has the right to judge. Our place is to forgive. We have no right to hate others. Jesus said if you only love those who love you, big deal, but when you love enemies, than that is the gospel in action.”
Many people, including many Christians, can’t get from here to there. Many of us can’t let go of our own need to punish and control, thinking that if we can just get our way with that person, if we can make them pay, then we’ll have peace. That’s not what those families in Colorado believe, is it? And I don’t believe for a second that some family members and friends don’t agree with forgiving the one who killed their loved ones. Surely there is some division because of those who are choosing real peace based on forgiveness and biblical truth over bitterness and self-justified revenge.
I just heard on Friday that the Virginia Tech classroom wing where a student gunman killed 30 people and himself and wounded two dozen others last spring will be turned into a place to study peace. Having vowed never again to use Norris Hall for general classes, school officials said the rooms will house the new Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.
Studying peace is not going to change violence in this world today. We sang in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing that God and sinners can now be reconciled! Reconciled means ‘brought together.’ Jesus came to bring us together with God through the shedding of his blood. But being together with God doesn’t mean we’re in harmony with each other all the time because if you or if I truly have an uncompromising commitment to living according to the teachings of Jesus, others will question our commitment to the people, things, and accepted ways of this world. We are such a compromising culture. We don’t do very well at sticking to what we know is right.
Unrighteous division (self-made/imposed strife) comes when we haven’t searched the Scriptures and haven’t searched the motives of our hearts, but we choose to unload on someone anyway because we think it will make us feel more at peace.
Unrighteous division comes when we have searched the Scriptures, searched the motives of our hearts, know what the Lord wants us to do or say, and we don’t do or say it because we want to ‘keep the peace.’
Righteous division (God-imposed) will ultimately come on Judgment Day, and it’s our calling to be faithful to Jesus’ teachings, live at peace with him, and pray that our witness will eventually affect the eternal destination of the people around us (even though it doesn’t feel very calm of peaceful right now).
My dear mom didn’t understand way back when, after I had finished my first year of college, that I had to follow God’s leading in my life, not her leading. She wanted me to remain at her alma mater for one type of degree; I knew God was not leading me to stay there. It was a hard time in our lives; she was a strong, stubborn woman, and it was impossible to convince her that God’s ways were better than her ways. It was hard to convince her that it was God’s voice I was hearing, not my own. My sisters were disgusted with me. But had I just ‘given in’ to keep the peace, had I given in to mom’s control and not God’s control, I would not have been able to have the presence of real peace in my own life so that over the years as she grew older, I could continually minister to her the love and grace of God that all of us so desperately need. Had I not ‘held the line’ about where I was going to spend at least part of my Christmas Eve night every year (which was in worship, giving thanks to God for Jesus’ birth), I don’t think that on my mom’s last Christmas Eve on earth last year, that the two of us would have been in church together. (We went to a service at 4:30 last year with all of John’s family, our children & grandchildren, and my mom to Falling Spring Presbyterian Church. It was the first year since I was 10 years old that I remember being with my mom in church on Christmas Eve.) That is a blessed memory for me. It was the greatest Christmas gift I received last year.
The devil wants to use the division Jesus brings for his purposes – to tear families apart and keep us all from God’s purposes. But let’s remember that God uses all things for good for those who love him and who are called according to His purposes. If you follow him, he will use the divisions that come up in your life because of him, for your good and His glory.
If you don’t have peace, take a look at your life. Are you just going along to get along? If we want real peace that doesn’t change with the circumstances around us, we must choose to worship the Lord with all of our lives, following the leading of the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.
“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.”
“By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to those
whom God has favored.”
Amen.
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