Peace
Dr. Larry Thorson
Luke 1:67-79
Luke 1: 67-79
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of
because he has come to his people and
redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to
prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us
from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."
Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
The four Sundays leading up to Christmas
are called “Advent” which in its simplest form means “looking forward to”. Every Advent season we celebrate on Sunday by
lighting an additional Advent Wreath candle.
Each candle represents a word or a thought to help us prepare for the
birthday of our Savior.
Last week we lit the candle of
hope. We talked about how hope is the
opposite of despair. Discouragement
after discouragement leads one to forget they even have any hope
remaining. But Jesus came to bring hope
in a world filled with despair. You may
be discouraged today but remember you haven’t experienced the end of the story
yet. God isn’t finished yet.
Today our candle word is “Peace”. This is an interesting word in light of our
president announcing his plan to send in an additional 30,000 troops to
Last week a parent I met last summer
came over to our church and told us her landlord was evicting her if she
couldn’t come up with an additional $100.
It was clear that she and her teenage daughter were not at peace. All I could offer her was a prayer.
One
night last week I had just gotten to sleep for about an hour when I was
awakened by the people living in a rental house behind ours. They were in a brutal fight with one another
and had no regard for those of us attempting to sleep. There was no peace in that house…and little
in mine after being awakened.
Last Sunday Joe Smayda, our pianist fell
and broke his hip which required surgery.
His body was not at peace. He had
a successful surgery and is recovering at the Village Health Care Center. At the same time Joyce Emery’s cold had
turned into pneumonia and she was admitted to ICU. Her body was not at peace. She is much better now.
Maybe you’re at war with someone
today. Maybe you’re thinking “I just
don’t like that person and I wish they’d get out of my life.” Your mind is not at peace. The opposite of peace is unrest.
Our Scripture today was spoken by a
prophet priest named Zechariah under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Now the name Zechariah probably doesn’t mean
a lot to you unless I tell you that he would become the father of John the
Baptist who happened to be Jesus’ cousin, six months his senior.
Here’s the context for that inspiration:
his wife just gave birth to a baby. No
big deal, that happens everyday. But you
have to understand that Zechariah was a priest.
Again, no big deal, lots of priests became fathers in those days. Zechariah was a good, honest, sincere
priest. But he had a problem, a big
one. His good, honest wife couldn’t get
pregnant. The years were getting away
from them and despite years and years of pleading with God for a child, they
got nothing. Well I shouldn’t say
nothing, I’m sure God answered some of their prayers but they definitely didn’t
get a child.
So, lots of people can’t have
children…but they usually weren’t
priests. Childlessness in those days was
like a sign that something was wrong in your relationship with God. Zechariah and Elizabeth, I can imagine, had a
hard time being at peace with God when they were childless. This was one of those “not at peace”
situations.
Maybe you have a “not at peace” situation
in your life right now. Maybe you’ve
prayed and prayed about it but nothing happens.
It’s as if God isn’t listening.
That in itself is upsetting. I
can stand up here and tell you until I’m blue in the face that God will answer
in good time but that doesn’t bring peace to your situation.
But finally Zechariah and Elizabeth had
a baby. The last words of Zechariah’s prophesy about his infant son’s future
says that he will “…guide our feet into the path of peace.” Those are the words I want us to meditate on
this week. I want you to think of peace
like a highway.
In
But the path of peace is a through highway
that you step onto and you follow where it leads. You may veer off a block or two from time to
time and that may lead you to some anxiety as to where you’re going. But there is a highway to get back to that is
a pathway of peace.
It was that path that Zechariah’s baby
son John the Baptist grew up to prepare.
Living in the desert, with long hair, wearing only camel hair, eating locusts
and wild honey he would preach a message of repentance to the Jewish
people. That message was to repent which
means to stop and turn around and go back to the highway of peace.
That highway of peace is Jesus
Christ. What Jesus has done is made the
ultimate peace for us with our Creator in heaven. Now you may not be at peace with everyone on
this planet. There may be people who
just can’t stand you and what you stand for.
No matter what you do they’re always at war with you. But when you’re on the highway of peace
walking with Christ, you are at least at peace with the One for whom being at
peace with is most important. When
you’re at peace with God everything else in life will eventually come together.
But when you’re at war with God nothing works for long.
I have resigned myself that not everyone
will always be at peace with me. But my
being at peace doesn’t depend on someone else.
It also doesn’t depend on my circumstances. I read a little story recently about a man
who long ago “sought the perfect
picture of peace. Not finding one that satisfied, he announced a contest to
produce this masterpiece. The challenge stirred the imagination of artists everywhere,
and paintings arrived from far and wide. Finally the great day of revelation
arrived. The judges uncovered one peaceful scene after another, while the
viewers clapped and cheered. The tensions grew. Only two pictures remained
veiled.
As a judge pulled the cover from one, a
hush fell over the crowd. A mirror-smooth lake reflected lacy, green birches
under the soft blush of the evening sky. Along the grassy shore, a flock of
sheep grazed undisturbed. Surely this was the winner.
The man with the vision uncovered the
second painting himself, and the crowd gasped in surprise. Could this be peace?
A tumultuous
waterfall cascaded down a rocky precipice (cliff); the crowd could almost feel its
cold, penetrating spray. Stormy-gray clouds threatened to explode with
lightning, wind and rain. In the midst of the thundering noises and bitter
chill, a spindly tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls. One of its
branches reached out in front of the torrential waters as if foolishly seeking
to experience its full power.
A little bird had built a nest in the
elbow of that branch. Content and undisturbed in her stormy surroundings, she
rested on her eggs. With her eyes closed and her wings ready to cover her
little ones, she manifested peace that transcends all earthly turmoil.[1]
This
week the storms of turmoil may be circling all around you but meditate on these
words “to guide our feet into the path of peace.” That’s where you want to be, in the path of
peace. That’s the path of a daily
relationship with Jesus Christ. When
you’re not connected with Jesus daily then no matter how peaceful your setting
you’ll always be in turmoil. But when
you’re daily connected with Jesus, no matter how much turmoil you have
surrounding you, you can have the peace that transcends all earthly
turmoil.
Open your heart to Jesus today and then
everyday invite him in to your schedule.
That’s why the Savior came, to bring peace with our Creator, God.