Crying Peace

Text: Isaiah 40:1-11

Focus: Peace

Function: To reinforce the Christmas Spirit.

Form: GOK

Intro: You may think I am odd because I love winter.

I guess it has to do with a body memory.

The house I grew up in had one of those, what I called, “Octopus furnaces.”

Down in the basement, it looked like this big huge old octopus. It was converted to natural gas from Coal.

Maybe you remember. It was a gravity system, the supply ducts were on the inside walls, instead of under the windows and the returns were under windows.

It depended on the natural thermo-conduction of heat.

As hot air rises, cold air falls and recirculates.

The supply vent in the living room was the cherished spot in the house. It sat closest to the furnace, directly over the top of it in the basement.

It was warm and cozy and the first one there got that great feeling of warmth and security.

There is something about being inside, safe and warm when the storm is raging that gives me a sense of peace.

And that is what this passage of scripture is to me.

Comfort my people!

Oh how the world longs to hear that phrase whispered in their ears, shouted from the rooftops, preached from the pulpits, dreamed about by its poets, affirmed by its politicians.

And yet, we live in a culture of fear. We live in a culture where we are manipulated, at times, by the media who wants us to be afraid of something, so that we will keep listening to them, or so that we will be distracted from the real problems that face our culture.

What is peace? (ASK)

Is it a feeling? Is it a state of affairs? Is it comfort?

F.B. Meyer is credited with the quote: “Joy is peace dancing. Peace is joy at rest.”

The world needs peace, instead of fear.

I remember Paul Grout, the 2002 Moderator of the Church of the Brethren did a winter retreat at Camp Woodland altars in 2009.

He spoke to us about how fear is sort of like a drug that for some odd reason, we inject, just like we were shooting up heroin.

He warned us preachers to preach comfort, instead of fear of the other.

I think more than anything, prejudices and so called “righteous indignation” is born out of fear.

He was telling us that in God's family, we are secure.

My eldest son has a birth defect that causes 17 surgeries. I believe that we experienced a miracle. But we lived with a medical prognosis from the time he was 7 until he was 18 that he most certainly would lose his right leg.

My middle son was burned badly and had to fight for his life for 3 weeks in a burn unit when he was 2.

And my youngest son developed a brain tumor when he was a freshman in college.

They are all here and they are all fine in spite of that.

I was tempted to fear, but one of my elder brothers, a godly man said this to me: “what is the worse that can happen?”

I said, they could die.

My brother asked me this: “would God still be on the throne and deeply in love with you?”

I said “of course!”

My brother has the right to say that to me because his first child died and he has found comfort in God.

We are in God's family, and we are safe.

So Paul Grout prefaced his discussion with with this odd question: “according to the news outlets, what are we supposed to be afraid of this week?”

“For this week, what are we supposed to be afraid of?”

It wasn't a trick question.

I am not sure it was a good thing that I knew the answer to the question. But he gave it to us.

It was monkeys! That week, we were supposed to be afraid of monkeys.

I remembered that during that week, one media outlet did a story on the danger of pet Chimpanzees spreading disease. Another source picked it up and for a day or two, it became a hysteria.

Now, most of us listen to that and say to ourselves “Ignore that, this is merely how the media/advertising conglomerates keep people tuning into their channels so that they can sell us their product.”

And most people don't have pet monkeys, so the hysteria was very short lived.

But it isn't always that way.

I have dear people in my life who are beginning to suffer from dementia and they can't separate reality from mass hysteria very well. And for those of us who love and deal with people like that, every time, it becomes an issue that we have to cope with.

Paul Grout was reminding us that the gospel is good news.

We have a completely different message than the news outlets.

We, on the other hand, preach the good news.

This passage is a reminder to tell us that indeed, our news is good news. Our news is given by God.

I remember listening to a TV preacher, with the person who is beginning to suffer dementia.

The man prefaced his sermon with the statistic that much fewer than 10% of Muslims are radicalized.

But then, he went on to preach a sermon about how afraid we should be of radicalized Islam.

My mother, being confused, was afraid and needed to be comforted.

The contrast between messages that the Church, can or should proclaim became obvious to me, that day.

Good news.

Comfort comes to us from God.

And that, to me, is the point of this text.

Look at verse 9 from this morning's reading:

Here it is from The Message:

⁹Climb a high mountain, Zion.
    You’re the preacher of good news.
Raise your voice. Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.
    You’re the preacher of good news.

Jerusalem, Zion, are both metaphors for the Church.

And here is the message the Church proclaims: “You're the preacher of good news.”

I don't know about you, but for me, it is a discipline to remember this simple phrase: “the word Gospel means `Good News.'”

So, for my sake, say it with me: The Word Gospel means Good news!

And here we are in Advent season.

It is indeed a season of hope.

Good news. God sees the plight of humanity. God became a man and dwelt among us.

God came to heal us and give us hope.

God sees our need!

We all remember John 3:16. For God so loved the world that God gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes might have eternal life.

And most of us know verse 17: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

And Isaiah tells us: “Cry it out!”

I wonder what people do who don't get the four seasons. Because to us, Christmas season is also associated with the good memories of Winter.

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas is another one of those songs that brings me back to that body memory of peace.

To me, when the Christmas is white from snow. It just makes it more magical.

It brings me back to that warm register, the safety of living in my families house, the peace of knowing that I am part of a family, I am loved and protected in that family and I am secure.

The Prophet says: The world changes, Grass withers, flowers die, we see around us, all the time changes that we do not want to happen. Those changes can lead to pain or fear.

God's love is eternal, it is absolute

I love the Christmas season.

It happens every year.

And it is a season where we stop, we take a breath, we remind ourselves that God came to comfort us.

So.

(ASK) What is the Christmas Spirit to you?

Amen.

It is okay for us to reconnect with that sense of peace. It comes from God.

Shout it out!

It comes from God. And it is still first heard, in all of the world, right here.