Luke 2:13-15; John 14:23-27

Did you ever realize that even when you are trying really hard to do the right thing, that it doesn’t always turn out like you planned? 

There was a lady who was baking her Christmas cookies. She heard a knock at the door. She found a man standing there, who, judging from his clothes was not well off, he was looking for some Christmas odd jobs. He asked her if there was anything he could do. She said, “Can you paint?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’m a rather good painter.”

“Well,” she said, “there are two gallons of green paint there and a brush, and there’s a porch out back that needs to be painted. Please do a good job. I’ll pay you what the job is worth.”

He said, “Fine. I’ll be done quickly.”

She went back to her cookie making and didn’t think much more about it until there was another knock at the door. She went, and the obviousness of his painting was evident: he had green paint on his clothes.

She said, “Did you finish?”

He said, “Yes.”

She said, “Did you do a good job?”

He said, “Yes. But lady, there’s one thing I’d like to point out to you. That’s not a Porsche back there. That’s a Mercedes.”[1]

Well, you know… stuff happens. Life doesn’t always play out as we would expect it …but sometimes that’s a good thing! Sometimes the unexpected turns out to be … wonderful. Exactly what we need. 

One of the most quoted of all the Christmas passages comes from Luke chapter 2. You’ve seen these verses on many Christmas cards over the years, and we’ve sung these words more times than we can count. And I want to think with you today about one phrase from this morning’s reading.

But first let me set this up a bit: An angel has just given the amazing news of the birth of the Messiah to an extremely unlikely group – a bunch of shepherds out in a field at night. 

…The whole story is curious in that way. First, an unmarried peasant girl is chosen to be the means of God’s greatest gift to earth. Unexpected. She eventually gives birth to this promised One, but it happens in a place where no one sees them – they’re out with the animals. But in the realm of the angels, all this is noted. And all of heaven, apparently, is so excited and energized by this News that one of them comes to earth to tell… someone.  Surrounded by the Glory of God, (“the radiance of the Lord’s glory,” as it is put in Luke 2:9) this lone angel makes a surprise appearance – to some shepherds. 

Again, not what you would expect. And can you picture that visit? Well, yeah, we’ve seen the Christmas cards.  But I’m not sure that we can really relive this moment. I can’t, not very well. Have you ever seen an angel?  Maybe unaware, as it is put in Hebrews 13[2], but I mean – openly?  Surrounded by ‘the radiance of the Lord’s glory?’  It’s not something you would ever forget! 

That’s what the shepherds saw. But that wasn’t the end of it. 

“Suddenly” – what a simple word – “Suddenly” it says, that single angel was joined by a vast host of other angels —“the armies of heaven”… Did you ever have someone jump out of a hidden corner in the dark and say “Boo!” to you? How does that make you feel? Can we possibly imagine the change from a quiet winter night of sleepy star gazing and sheep watching, to the armies of heaven, all bearing the radiance of the Lord’s glory, singing for all they’re worth, in all their majestic, angelic harmonies –  suddenly – before us? The ground shaking, dazzling light, waves of… holiness. 

“Guys, but we’ve got some pretty exciting news, and we just have to share it with someone." 

 

When the song is over, they disappear. These poor shepherds – what? – standing there with their jaws flopping loose? Lying on the ground with their hands over their hearts, hyperventilating?  Wide-eyed, waiting for their pulse to slow down, fearing that their hearts would leap from their chests? Finally, one of them finds his voice. And he says in one of the great understatements of all time… “Maybe we should go to Bethlehem?”  Good idea… 

I’d like to look at the symbolism of this encounter with you for a few minutes this morning (and I’m going to continue this tomorrow night at the 8:00 pm and 11:00 services) and focus today on the song of that great angelic chorus. It is the essence of the joy in heaven – it is a song of praise. Gloria in excelsis Deo!  “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.” 

The song looks in two ‘directions’, to heaven and to earth, as each respond to the coming of this child. In heaven – there is glory!  On earth – there is peace. So, first the song is an affirmation. It tells us that what took place in that stable in Bethlehem was glorifying to God. We could spend a lot of time investigating exactly what that means, but just to sum it up … throughout the Scriptures, but particularly in the Gospels, to “glorify God” means to reveal God’s nature, or God’s essence. God is glorified when ‘who he is’ is made known. 

So, for example, in Psalm 19 we read that God is glorified through creation – the complexity and he beauty of creation reveals God’s nature, and God is glorified. But even more so, God is revealed in the coming Jesus Christ, the One who was called Emmanuel (God with us.) One of the main themes of the Gospel of John is Jesus talking about how his life was bringing glory to God. Through his obedience to the Father, and his miracles, and teachings, God was revealed through Jesus, and so God was glorified. 

Then, just before his crucifixion, just after Judas leaves the gathering at the Last Supper, Jesus says, “Now is the Father glorified.[3]” The chain of events leading to the Cross had been set in motion, and Jesus says, “This is my purpose in coming to earth.” Now the Son of Man is glorified, now the Father is glorified… 

That is telling us that God’s essence was most plainly revealed in the sacrifice of Christ. The Cross – more than anything else – shows us what the Scriptures mean when they tell us that ‘God is love.’ 

The angels on the first Christmas night sang a song of praise that we echo today; a song that begins with “Glory to God in the highest heaven.” In Jesus God is revealed to the earth. In Jesus we see God. 

But the coming of the Christ child had other implications as well… so the second part of this angelic song looks to earth. “Glory to God in the highest heaven… and on earth… peace”. Peace on earth is a great theme not only of Christmas, but of the Christian faith as a whole. 

One of familiar exchanges in the church’s liturgy begins with a worship leader saying:

The Peace of the Lord be with you… to which the people respond:

And also to you.  (Let’s try it…) 

A couple of weeks ago, as we began the Advent season, both Pastor HeyYoung and I talked a bit about the Kingdom of God. We saw how in the Scriptures the Kingdom is a concept that ‘evolves.’ It starts with the ‘external rule of God’ over a chosen covenant people (the Old Testament Israel). God leads them through the Law, symbolically written on stone tablets. In the New Testament we see the next ‘phase’ - now the Kingdom is an internal rule of the King. The Law is now written in the hearts of people who chose to receive God’s gift of life and salvation. 

The problem is that we’re still intimately connected with this world. And so, the outworking of this Kingdom is not consistent. Our obedience is spotty. Our understanding is limited. We’re in constant need of grace. Because we’re only  ‘half there’. 

The final ‘stage’ in this movement, this ‘evolution of the Kingdom’ will be the establishment of the rule of Christ in the New Heaven and new earth – something that we now await with hope and anticipation. This Second coming, we saw, is just as much the focus of the season of Advent as the first Coming, (although for some reason, it doesn’t get as much attention!) 

It’s a message of hope.  Advent is a time in which we are invited to look forward as much – or even more – than we look back. 

I’m repeating all that today, because the promise of Peace – the ‘Peace on Earth’ of the angel’s song –  is similar in a way to the coming of the Kingdom, because it is a two-fold promise. Just as the Kingdom of God, generally speaking is an ‘already/ but not yet’ kingdom – i.e., a Kingdom that has come in some ways, but is not by any means complete – so it is with the Peace of God. 

Let’s work this backwards… by starting at the end. If we think of all the various possible manifestations of peace, all the ways that peace might be visualized, if we have any hope in us at all, we will eventually picture, a time with no outward conflicts.  I.e., an age where is no more war, or suffering, or hunger. A time when people won’t be plotting evil against one another. A time when people will respond to the normal everyday human conflicts that we all have in this world with love and laughter and forgiveness, instead of anger, insults, and vengeance. If we can even imagine, we might picture a time when hospitals and funeral homes are closed down forever…because there is no more business for them…there is perfect peace. 

Those, of course, are Biblically based images. And this is the hope of the New Age – the age yet to come. Perfect peace.  That’s how it is described in the poetic language of the Scriptures. I don’t think I have to try to convince any of us that we’re not there, yet! 

We are stuck, for now, in this in-between age. The age of the beginning of God’s Kingdom, God’s rule, but not the time of it’s completion. A main characteristic of this age is that it is an age of hints and promises. Again, to use Biblical language, this is an age of ‘down payments’ or ‘foretastes’… previews (if you will) of what is yet to come. 

In this age, people still hurt, and they suffer, and if the Lord tarries, we all will die. But at the same time, there are miracles – healings, and divine interventions which preview a future time when everything will be good, and suffering will all be over. In this age, people still have conflicts and they sometimes deal with them in destructive ways. (Insults, anger, division, and worse.)

In spite of our general acquaintance with that kind of thing we can still see that there are also – in this world – instances of grace and mercy, compassion and forgiveness which, again - when they are done in God’s name - become the coming attractions of something truly wonderful. Something that we still await. Something that God is doing, but it is a work unfinished. But something we wait for with certainty, knowing that it’s coming is based in a promise rooted in the very character of God himself. 

The ‘Peace on Earth’ of the angel’s song falls into this same category. If we read the newspapers, or watch the news, we know that peace is elusive. Whenever it seems to ‘break out’ it much too soon evaporates like a morning fog burning off in the afternoon light. 

But there is another manifestation of peace that is solid as a rock, and unchanging. It is the inner peace that all true children of God know. It is our sign to us of a coming time of the fullness of Peace. It is God’s down payment – the first installment of blessings yet to come. 

This inner peace is not affected by the circumstances of our lives, because it does not come from the circumstances of our lives. It is not from this world at all.  We see the contrast illustrated in the story of Jesus calming the storm[4]. Remember the disciples, seasoned fishermen that they were, panicking in an intense storm. They were certain that their little boat was going to sink and they were all going to die. 

And where is Jesus? Remember the story? He is asleep. He’s in the bow of the boat, with his head on a pillow. And finally they wake him up and say, “Don’t you care that we’re going to die?” And he chides them for their lack of faith, and looking out over the whitecaps and the wind says, “Quiet…be still.” In Mark 4: 39 it says that immediately there was a great calm – literally, a ‘perfect peacefulness’ all around them. 

The Scriptures promise us that a day is coming when a similar word will be spoken, not in the midst of an ancient storm, but as a permanent decree from the Lord. “Quiet!” Let there be Peace!” And it will be so. 

In the meantime, we are offered a peace that is more similar to Jesus’ sleeping in the bow of the boat… it is peace in the midst of the circumstances. His head on a pillow – peacefully – sleeping, even as the waves break hard, and the winds howl… sleeping with an inner peace that comes with knowing that no matter what happens, we are in the care of our heavenly Father.  Knowing that God is with us, and that he will never leave us or forsake us.  The storms may howl…the waves may be very high…the lightening may be flashing all around us…

but our peace doesn’t come from this world. 

Jesus talked about this peace in John 14. He said, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled and don’t be afraid…” 

The one who received gifts from the Magi, the One who was God’s greatest gift, actually gives us a wonderful gift. The gift of lasting Peace. Michael Card once said, “That is what Christmas means--to find in a place where you would least expect to find anything you want, everything you could ever want.[5] 

In the midst of a world of hurt we unexpectedly find hope. In a world full of turmoil and uncertainty we find at Christmas… peace. Peace that is not from this world. A Peace that grows and expands in us the more we allow it access to every part of who we are. 

Ruth Bell Graham, poet, writer, and wife of evangelist Billy Graham (1920–2007) said that she saw a sign on a strip of highway once that she wanted to have copied on her gravestone. It said, “End of construction. Thank you for your patience.” 

The Peace of the Lord be with you.

[And also to you.]

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