“Peace for Our Time”

Luke 2:1-14

Those of you of a certain age or who have a fondness for 20^th Century history may know where I got the title of tonight’s sermon. “There will be peace for our time,” said Neville Chamberlain in September of 1938 following a meeting with Adolph Hitler. Less than a year later the armed forces of Hitler’s Germany invaded Poland. Thus began World War II.

Centuries before that the prophet Jeremiah derided the religious establishment of Judah for their declarations of peace: “Peace, peace, but there is no peace.” In the 1970s John Lennon and Yoko Ono naively sang, “Give peace a chance.”

It seems that the human race is involved in a perpetual quest for peace. Yet wars and rumors of wars are a continual reality of our world. We can sing all we want about giving peace a chance, or believe those false prophets who tell us the peace has arrived, or blindly accept some politician’s assurances of peace. The harsh truth, however, is that Jeremiah was right. There is no peace, at least not a peace that’s readily apparent.

Peace as a human construct is a pipe dream, a fantasy. The only peace we can ever have in this life is that inner peace that passes all understanding described by the Apostle Paul. It is a peace found only in reconciliation with God, a reconciliation made possible by a saving faith in the crucified and risen Christ. It is a peace that transcends the violence, destruction, disruptions, and disappointments of life on earth. There will be universal peace one day, that day when the Kingdom of God reaches its promised fulfillment. But for now our peace begins with Christ as a matter of faith.

This peace we find in Christ had its origins in disruption and unsettling change. The Son left the Father to be one of us. Mary and Joseph left their home in Galilee to travel to Bethlehem. The shepherds left their flocks and hurried to a stable to see a newborn baby.

There were also elements of fear. Mary had to deal with the aftershocks of being told that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God. Joseph had to deal with angels telling him to go here, stay there, do this, and do that, not the least of which was bearing the brunt of social ridicule for marrying a woman who was already pregnant but not by him. The shepherds had to deal with a night time visitation of angels, a visitation that scared them silly.

But all of that fear gave way to awe and then peaceful acceptance. None of the parties involved were unsettled for long by their unsettling circumstances. They heard and accepted the message, “Fear not.” They trusted that they were involved in something that truly was of God.

We live in unsettling times, but then what human being throughout history hasn’t? As my dear Aunt Arlene always says, “That’s just the way it is.” But sometimes knowing that doesn’t bring us much satisfaction. The world is what it is but we long for something different, something better, something akin to the Garden of Eden, something resembling the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation 21. But for now this is it.

I love Christmas Eve services. They calm me. They bring out my softer side. They warm my heart. They bring me peace. But they also bring me sorrow and regret. They remind me that never again, at least in this life, will I celebrate Christmas with some people I love very much. They bring to mind ghosts of Christmas past, painful events that took place around Christmas time. They remind me that I’m away from my mother, my daughter and her husband, my granddaughters, members of Sandy’s family, beloved aunts, uncles, and cousins.

They also remind me that our Savior Jesus Christ left his home in heaven, that Mary and Joseph delivered their first child far, far from home, with no family to assist them, that those shepherds risked their livelihoods in order to be obedient to God’s calling to go to Bethlehem and see what the Lord had done. They remind me that I have a loving, supportive church family. They remind me that I have a loving spouse by my side.

Most importantly they remind me that in Christ I can be at peace, can find joy and contentment wherever I am, whatever my circumstances. Hopefully tonight brings such a reminder to each of you who are in Christ. More than that, if there are those here tonight who have no relationship with Christ or have drifted away from him, this is a reminder that there is a way to discover a God-given peace that passes all understanding.

I will leave you with these familiar words of Scripture: “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men’.” That peace, my friends, isn’t just for our time; it is for all time. Amen.