Peace

Text: Micah 5:2-5a

Focus: Peace

Function: To understand our commitment to peace making.

Form: GOK

Intro: Thanks to our Advent readings, we were able to focus on the great and gentle Shepherd last week.

One of my favorites from Handel's Messiah is his rendition of Isaiah 40:11 “He Shall feed his flock like a shepherd...”

The melody of that song expresses today's focus, peace.

Last week we remembered that inter-personal peace is the peace we feel emotionally. I should add that it is a result of our trust in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit continually renews that sense and calling inside of us.

When people have that inner peace, they become preachers of outer-peace.

Intra-personal peace is the peace that is experienced between nations, cities, families, friends and with Christ Jesus' help, even our enemies.

He came to break down the wall of division between everyone.

Listen to what 2 Corinthians 2:17-21 from The Message says:

^17b-20...anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

²¹How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

This leads to an obvious question: Why are so many wars fought in the name of religion, even Christianity?

Does this mean that the only walls broken down are the walls broken down specifically because both sides of the wall have embraced Jesus?

I don't think so. I mean, if that were true, then Islam would not have grown out of Christianity.

One very simple, and hopefully not racist history could be that because of the Jewish Heritage inherent in the New Testament, Arab Christians, led my Muhammad, evolved Christianity into the new religion, Islam.

One could say that it had its roots in the same racism that has existed for Millennium in the Mid East.

But nothing is that simple and I realize that the idea that Islam was born out of Christianity as a rejection of Christianities Jewish roots paints a picture of Muslims as merely racist.

And a fair appraisal will take into account that Boko Haram is a conservative Islamic group that has attacked most of their Islamic brothers and sisters because they were willing to work with us Christians.

That same fair appraisal will not judge their religion based on the actions of a few, but instead will judge the religion based on what I actually have known and seen.

And I have seen Brethren Leaders, Jewish Leaders and Islamic Leaders in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Lansing Michigan and Dayton Ohio working, serving and praying together.

So, do the only walls broken down have to do with those broken down specifically by and through the Church?

It does not say that. I love the prophet Jeremiah's command to the Israelites when they were being sent into captivity in Babylon, the city of the enemy.

God told them to seek the peace and prosperity of the places that God has sent them because when all prosper, from the rich to the poor, then everyone prospers.

When God comes to a village, the peace of Christ comes in.

And when believers come into a town, a city, a nation, or a home, Christ's peace comes as well.

Let is pray for peace:

I will lead prayer and when you hear me say, “Lord God,” please respond with:

“For your peace, we pray.”

For our elderly and weakening loved ones whose bodies make them weary, Lord God...

For our young and hopeful, reconcile them to their own growing bodies and spirits as they go through awkward times, Lord God...

For our strong and active parents whose lives are filled with provision, schedules, moments upon moments and lives quickly filling with stuff, Lord God...

For our students whose lives are filled with wonder, challenge, friends and just enough conflict to help them develop, Lord God...

For our politicians who have learned that politics are about setting one side over the other to the point where little is accomplished, help them to remember why they decided to serve, Lord God...

For those charged with protecting us, doctors, aides, caregivers, peace officers, medics, nurses, fire and military personal, protect them Lord God...

For those who pray, serve, give, aid, help, bless, encourage, shepherd, nurture, teachers, clergy, counselors, advisors and others called to serve, help them see you in every client, Lord God...

For the weak, the dispossessed, the hurting, the marginalized, the victims, the oppressed, groups that are not the dominant culture who struggle to survive, Lord God...

Even for our enemies, Lord God...

And finally, for all your Children everywhere, Lord God...

Joy

Text: Zephaniah 3:14-20

Focus: Joy

Function: To help people take the time to rejoice.

Form: Story telling

Intro: Over the next several years, at times, I may refer to two of my High School Friends, Dave and Steve. One is a self-proclaimed agnostic or atheist and the other is Roman Catholic, or sort of, I think. 
 

At least, he was agnostic until he heard a little bit about the Church of the Brethren and its implicit emphasis that we are called to love God by loving others and we take to heart the promises in the beatitudes, especially the one “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons and daughters of God.”

I think that is where he is at. I think. They know what I believe and for what I stand. So, I am assuming that if I asked him, it would feel like my friendship with him is based on my desire to convert him instead of genuine love and concern for him. And, I really love these two friends and would never violate their own sincere journey with my opinions.

I love these guys and I mention them to start this sermon about joy to state that both ethically and morally, they are really good people.

As a matter of fact, the one that describes himself as an atheist is one of the best and moral people that I know.

Now, I need to qualify his statement “atheist.”

He would probably feel better if I said Agnostic.

An agnostic is a person who says that they just don't know, there are to many competing ideas and thoughts out there for them to be absolutely convinced.

I can tell that he wants to believe in the kind of of New Testament Christianity that the Church of the Brethren represents. He is just not ready to commit and he doesn't worry to much about it since he was baptized as a Lutheran.

I think a lot about him at Christmas time because the tradition I was in was decidedly not an “High Church” with liturgy, robes, vestments, banners and etc. Consequently, I never practiced Advent, or Lent until well into my pastoral ministry in the Church of the Brethren and people started asking me, at least 4 years into my pastorate when we were going to celebrate these things and I, honestly, was not aware of the lectionary, a global commitment by the Church, to be faithful to all of the scriptures instead of the ones that make up our particular denominational feel.

So, I think of my High Church friend a lot during Christmas because on several occasions, I attended an 11:00 PM Christmas Eve Worship at his Lutheran Church.

Now, there was no incense, no one in a robe speaking Latin, or some of the other High Church things, but in spite of that part being missing, I found the worship service to be beautiful, full of joy, full of hope, full of love, and very peaceful. The music was incredible and the way that people gathered into that beautiful building and collectively, mainly inspired by the congregation and not the pastor, worshipped God.

It was an whole different world to me. The fact was, Christians exist in different forms than the one in which I was raised.

While talking with my friend on our vacation in October at Portland, Oregon, I got the feeling in some way, that he hoped, for my sake, that it was all true.

We did talk a lot about faith that week. He realized that I too, have the same doubts and questions that he has and yet, the one thing that I cannot overcome, is this deep abiding sense of mystery inside of me.

I believe that this sense of mystery is actually the presence of the Holy Spirit in my heart.

There is this longing for peace inside of us.

And, I see a direct link in this longing to two of our candles, or emphasis, during Advent. They are the two we are looking at this week and next.

Today: Joy. Next week: Peace

Joy is an emotion. Peace is an emotion as well as a state of being. That state of being can be interpersonal -between ourselves and our relatives, our neighbors, our city, our state and between nation states. However, it is also intrapersonal. Intrapersonal peace is peace we feel within ourselves. And unlike interpersonal peace, intrapersonal peace is also an emotion.

It can best be described in the sentence: “I am at peace with myself.”

But, I am getting into next weeks sermon.

So, let us look at the relationship between joy and peace. I believe that joy in many ways is the expression of interpersonal, or inner, peace.

Someone may be able to point out the fallacy of this statement, but no one has yet, and it seems to make sense to me: Joy is peace dancing and peace is joy at rest.

Next week, we will focus on intra-personal peace, the peace that Christ brings between enemies and people of different sorts. The peace that I experience with my agnostic/atheistic friend.

Joy.

Joy is the emotion and acting out of the hope realized when Jesus came.

Let me re read this morning scripture. Zephaniah 3:14-20

This is a prophecy, a declaration of God that was designed by God to encourage God's people during a time of hardship.

And I love the command in there, right at the beginning: Rejoice.

I think the joy of Christmas is the best emotion I feel.

I know, Christmas eve, after we share communion and while we are lighting the candles and we are singing “Silent Night,” we will indeed experience the emotion, the interpersonal component of peace.

It is like we obey God by being joyful and in that process, God brings us to peace.

And, the converse is true, when we let the peace of Christ rule our hearts, at times, joy just sort of bubbles out.

But there is a command to rejoice.

I think at times it is the mental decision to obey God by rejoicing that is a spiritual catalyst for peace.

I eschew the materialism of Christmas and how our economy is based on this religions holiday and the success of sales.

Greed has always entered religious faiths and that is sad.

But the real joy, the real peace, the real purpose of Christmas is not lost on us.

I think for me, seeing the Christmas lights is one of the better expressions of joy that we have.

At night, I look across the field at the parsonage, or while driving and it is as if the whole world stops during the month of December to rejoice at the love that God brought down to earth during that first Christmas.

For Kathy, those same Christmas lights bring about a sense of peace, because her fondest family bonding memories of her childhood are when they would get in the car and go looking for Christmas light displays.

Let joy fill your heart.

Because God became a man in Christ Jesus, God sees our pain and to our weaknesses, God is no stranger.

That, to me is a cause for joy.

Love

Text: Luke 1: 68-79

Focus: Love

Function: Advent

Form: Story-telling

Intro:

It IS advent and I am choosing to refuse to let hope die even though this has been another horrific week.

I have often subscribed to the notion that our entire nation with its new/politics/religious voices and cycles has been manipulated by crisis after crisis.

I remember brother Paul Grout, at a men's retreat in Southern Ohio ask the question this way: “what are we supposed to be afraid of this week?”

I want there to be a Hope Church of the Brethren throughout the 21^st Century, so, my apologies to those who are not engaged in the new Internet age of communication.

Many times, I envy the simplicity. I wonder how much more peace I could get if I just turned off the Internet.

But, the fact is, we get more and more community out of Social media than we used to.

Kathy and the kids are constantly sending videos and pictures back and forth in a way we never imagined when we were young.

My mom's best friend, a few doors from her in the Nursing home gets to see her daughter, who is working on the front lines in the Congo to stop human sex trafficking via the wonder of the Internet.

But, as small as it has made, it has also become a tool of great division. I have seen terribly doctored videos claiming all kinds of crazy stories. Through it, young Dylon Wolf was radicalized as a Christian Terrorist and murdered 9 people at Mother Emmanuel Church. The week before, another man was radicalized into terrorism because of videos he vies by a group claiming to represent Christ released highly edited and misleading videos about what goes on at Planned Parenthood. Last week, a young man was radicalized into terrorism by ISIS and began the first ISIS inspired act of terror.

Most of those extremes would not have come and would not have been created so quickly if it wasn't for the way the Internet has changed our culture, for better or worse.

And it has created new groups of friends, and new sets of enemies.

A distant friend of a friend of mine on Facebook, a person I can't figure out how I even know them from posted a rather disturbing comment about the perpetrators in California with a challenge to unfriend her if I didn't like it. Which, for those who are not FB users, means that I would no longer see the cute pictures and comments she makes about her life.

So, I typed in OK and waited a half a day and clicked the unfriend button.

And, a casual acquaintance like that is part of social media.

But there are a few people who truly don't like my position on gun violence, war, civil rights for every marginalized group because it is commanded by God for us to love everyone, even our enemy and other classic Christian values that have defined what is, or should have been the Church from the beginning.

I read a quote by Herman Goring during the Nuremberg trials: “All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works in every country.”

I want to remind Christians that just because we are crying out Love Your Enemies, it doesn't mean that we are not patriots.

And some family members take exception to it.

It goes back to what can be talked about at Thanksgiving dinner.

There are people who have strong disagreements with my theology and Christian World view who I am not willing to defriend in my life or in my family or in my church.

I think it was Scot who said “Sin could be defined as breaking community.”

I have two atheist friends who get quite upset with things posted by my twin brother.

Now, for years, his Facebook Profile Picture, for those who don't use it, it is the snapshot that one uses to define themselves, was him standing at the rock where the other Political Party was started.

He is a true believer and as sincere as I am in every regard.

And my other friends are constantly asking me if Jesus actually said, or implied some of this stuff.

It is a very difficult relationship to maintain.

Yesterday I was with the District Ministry Commission. Our District Executive was there. And I know that many people here know, love and respect him.

And yet, there is no one like him. He is caught in the middle between extremes in our denomination and we were talking about some future work within the district and he was reminding folks that they have to love and care for both sides of the church.

Nate can do it because he is family to both sides.

And I am not talking about his genetic connection between so many people. Nate is a brother to all of us.

We could disagree with him, but we can't let him go. Somehow we will be an incomplete body without him.

A bird needs both its right and left wings to fly.

Otherwise, if it can fly at all, it is simply going to go around in circles and not get anywhere.

I mentioned that it seems as if our government is only working in crisis mode and the media is really happy with it because it gives them a reason to sell us news and keep us in fear over the future.

Last week and the week before that indeed had terrible, awful news, and it is so bad that the news is being common. I can't imagine.

But we. BUT WE. BUT WE live in faith, not fear. And we are not willing to let go of love and its power to reconcile.

Fear is one of the biggest sources of prejudice and evil. It is the opposite of faith and the harbinger of violence.

There are people at that dinner table that we have to be there with and because of the bond of love that goes beyond our ideologies, we will extend to them the bond of love regardless of how they treat us.

And we are not going to do this because we are better people. Fear is common, we just won't give in to it.

We aren't going to do this, this facing of our fears and knocking down hatred with love, because we somehow are smarter, richer, more influenced, more evolved, more enlightened or better at anything.

We will do this because God's Holy Spirit is in us and we will prove that love conquers a multitude of sins. AMEN?