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Text: Isaiah 11:1-9; Luke 2:8-14 ● When we think of Christmas, we think of stories. And, stories matter enormously because it is a story which stands at the heart of our faith. But, sometimes hearing the story ‘again’ causes us to realize how different our version of the story is from the original. It’s almost as if we’re telling someone else’s story, so you sense there’s this freedom to take ‘creative license’. I’m convinced that we should just let God tell his story. ● With the help of shear repetition and familiarity, we have the Christmas story all ‘figured out’ (i.e. we know where each of the nativity figurines belongs). And “figuring things out” is what we like to do when stories become too fantastic; when the story gets ‘out of control’, we tidy it up a bit; sand down the rough edges. ►The story of Jesus seems to warn us not to try and explain away what we can’t explain. The story is never served when we attempt to de-mystify what we’ll never be able to explain. If we’re honest, often our attempts at providing a better explanation is out of sheer embarrassment for being gullible enough to believe this ourselves! Fortunately, the story also suggests that in order to believe, you don’t have to understand! It seems that when it comes to faith, our contribution is this almost ‘feeble’ curiosity (that looks like anything but faith) which lends itself to further investigation; further belief, further understanding (believe first, then understand). “This will be a sign to you: you will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (Luke 2). A sign: signs are not the reality itself, but a simply a directional indicator; something to point us in the right direction. Signs are for those who really want to believe, but are struggling to do so. Jesus always refused to perform for those who demanded proof, but he often offered signs (glimpses; directional arrows) for those whose hearts sincerely longed to believe. “Peace on earth…” Sounds like something an angel would say, doesn’t it?! We can hear the sentiment proceeding from some ‘Anne Geddes-like’ chubby cherub. That line’s always a hit in children’s plays or for use as a catchy sentiment to don the front of this year’s Christmas “form letter”. That kind of talk belongs strictly to the other-worldly; that’s not ‘real life’. But, maybe the angel knows something we don’t?! “…an angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified…” These angels are God’s messengers making dramatic pronouncements of God taking over the ‘day to day’ operations of earth… the king has arrived, along with his kingdom. “The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this” (Isaiah 9:7) Real, ‘on the ground’ peace: God will ensure it happens; it’s what he’s passionate about! ● The announcement of peace would mean ‘reconciliation’/’restoration’. It would mean that whatever was standing in our way of being with God would be removed; and, it would also require a new way of being with each other (“forgiving as we have been forgiven”). Some will welcome it and reorder their lives in order to live ‘peaceably’; many will cheer for the notion of peace, but would not be naďve enough to believe that peace would ever characterize the ‘real world’. ● If we’re not careful, the message of Christmas will be isolated from the ‘real world’: the world of abusive empires, poverty, unjust laws and lawmakers; it will become a place we go, to at least momentarily, escape all that! By then, the message becomes so ‘anemic’ that there’s nothing left to do BUT shop! ● The message of Christmas is that “Jesus is born to be King!” It’s why the angels were singing at his birth. We celebrate the one who has the world’s best interest at heart; who grieves over the disorientation of his people and the distortion of his good creation. ● One to rule rightly; one who knows how life is supposed to work (wisdom); one who is powerful, but refuses to abuse power; one who takes delight in God and longs to see his dreams fulfilled, one who is impartial and fair and won’t be swayed by appearance, but always makes the right call! Put me down for that! ● But, remember that when Jesus was born and celebrated as King, someone else was occupying the throne; someone else was wearing that title and taking great pains to maintain it. You can imagine that such a story would have ‘explosive’ implications. The Jews were living under the reign of the super-power of the known world, Rome, with Herod as the region’s puppet king- complete with the title, “King of the Jews”. ● For those in power, the announcement of peace was threatening (to their status; their self-serving systems); for the powerless, great joy to all the people; they got the ball back (‘whoever has the ball decides’). For those under Rome’s rule, peace was not ‘shalom’ or ‘wholeness’, it was ‘fearful compliance’ (it was giving up your lunch money to keep your teeth). Rome knew how to ‘keep the peace’. According to them, peace meant domination and violence; oppressing people to keep them powerless and squelching the occasional insurrection with violence (Pax Romana: crosses were blatant reminders of Rome’s peace-keeping efforts). ● A revolution (rescue operation) will always result in a direct or indirect confrontation with the present systems and powers; authorities will collide. However covert or explicit they may be, we have developed elaborate systems of life which depict our determination to live as if God did not exist, or at worst, live as if he does not matter (not sure which is worse: defiance or indifference?). If our faith becomes just about our own personal decision for Jesus, then the message of Christmas becomes impotent; it loses its ability to challenge the way things are and the way things were meant to be with God as King! ● Peace on earth is the best message because it’s the most contrasting message; it’s the most appealing message amidst all that’s chaotic and fractured- we’re just not sure it’s possible. I suggested last year that the reason that we ‘crave peace’ is because it’s in our DNA; that somewhere in our history, humanity has experienced peace. “Glory to God…peace on earth”- the two appear inextricably linked; you can’t have peace on earth without recognizing God among and within it. And, God being rightly honored as King will be reflected in lives of ‘shalom’. ● Isaiah offers us a vision (picture of a preferred-future) of the world with God serving as its rightful king. The image set forth is “the world at peace”; posing no threat to one another. ►It’s easy to confuse peace with serenity. It’s easy to assume that the absence of turmoil is synonymous with justice. The point of the story is that peace cannot be had in the context of injustice. ● Serenity, in the midst of injustice, is not peace, but compliance; to ‘be at peace’ does not mean that you are experiencing peace (i.e. Cold War era). It’s not peace if it comes at the expense of someone other than God! ►In order to experience peace, God must grace us (with his presence). Peace… it’s the life of the heavens intersecting with the home of men, made possible by his favor (grace) coming to rest on us. ►Peace on earth… not just a declaration, but an invitation. It’s not just a declaration of something that’s happened, but about a possibility; a new way of life which makes for peace in our lives and in our world. Christmas is about God coming to address all those issues, coming into ‘his’ world and ‘shouldering’ the burden of rightly governing. ►Peace on earth… ever wonder what that would look like? Our call, as people graced by God, is to live as if God is King; to live within opposing systems and structures and among people with conflicting values and interpretations and ‘make peace’; to offer glimpses of things to come; of the way things will one day be! The point is that the Spirit is already at work in us- in the world, making peace in anticipation of peaceful fulfillment. ►What will ‘make for peace’? Micah 6:8 “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God”. Be about setting things right in all of your relationships (use the same stick to measure others that you use on yourself); expect justice, but love mercy- make allowances for all the ways that we fail to be fully human; don’t demand that others earn from you what you expect to receive freely from God (mercy), live (‘walk’ is a metaphor for how we live our lives) with an authenticity; an honest evaluation of who you are and who God is. ►While we wait, “groaning” is encouraged. Groaning is not ‘complaining’, but ‘expectation’. It’s the frustration that a mother experiences at the presence of life within her that is yet to become the life around and with her. Although the baby is no less real, she has yet to experience her child for all that he or she is; she has yet to interact fully with this life. It’s the way we long for peace!
►Peace on earth- the revolutionary movement of
God, happens one broken, chaotic life at a time. |
