"Peace In The Heart Of Christmas” Series

In Jesus Holy Name December 4, 2022

Advent II Text: Luke 2:8-14 Redeemer

“Peace in the Heart of Christmas”

Christmas can be a crazy time. All we want is peace. The world wants peace in Ukraine but can it be found? I’m sure there are some families who dread the holidays. They are worried that there will be no peace at their Christmas family dinner. It would be a wonderful celebration if, within our own homes there was a cease-fire on anger & arguments. Could peace be experienced if there was a moratorium on disrespect. How people’s lives would be different, without stress, if a truce could be called on all family conflicts. Peace in our homes, peace on the streets of our cities is the desire of many.

Can the words of the angels to the shepherds become reality? “Peace On Earth and Goodwill to Mankind?” Yes, it is a great dream. But human beings can not and are not able to create peace on earth. Millions of Chinese are standing in the streets of their cities, quietly holding a blank piece of paper in silent peaceful protest. Unfortunately the human desire for power and control will rule the halls of our U.S. capital, the streets of Chicago, Beijing and Shanghai.

In the middle of World War I, the only moment of peace came on Christmas Eve, 1914. A British soldier wrote these words: “ miles and miles from home. Cold, wet and covered with mud there didn’t seem the slightest chance of leaving …except in and ambulance. About 10 p.m. I heard German soldiers singing the songs of Christmas. Someone from the German trenches shouted:

…”come on over”…someone responded… “I’ll come half way if you come half way.” Before long thousands of soldiers climbed out of the muddy trenches, traded cigarettes, and shared words of kindness.” That moment of peace, recorded in history, was the result of peace, created by God as men sang about the Savior. In that moment the words of the angels to the shepherds was experienced when the guns of war fell silent. “Peace on earth and Goodwill to Mankind.” Became a momentary reality.

The message of “peace” to the shepherds is a reality the world still desires.

The Apostle John in his gospel does not tell about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, but his written words tell us how the Creator of the Universe brings peace to the human heart. In our midweek Advent devotion for this coming week my devotion will focus on what Leonard Sweet calls “one of the most explosive passages in the bible.”

(read John 1:1-14) (replace the Word = ????? with “Intelligent Designer”)

In the Greek mind ????? is a way to explain the ordering of the universe, giving it form, gravity and meaning by a Creator, whose name they did not know. The best explanation they had was simply the word: “????? “ Leonard Sweet in his Advent devotional explains that word “logos” is another way of saying that the “DNA” of the Creator is in the person of Jesus, whose birth we celebrate. It is Jesus who brings peace to the human heart.

“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son….” We know His name was Jesus, thus, John can write: “Not that we loved God first but God loved us first and sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10)

Let me read verse 10 this way. The “intelligent designer” was in the world that He had created. He came to his own human race, which He created. But they did not receive Him.” The ?????, The Intelligent Designer of the universe became flesh and dwelt among us. He pitched His tent with us for 33 years that He might pay in His own blood the debt we owe God because of our broken ethics and broken commandments. “We have experienced His glory.”

Why would the Creator of the Universe do such a thing? Hebrews 2:14 (read)

This is why He came. This is the peace of Advent and Christmas. He came to bring peace between human beings and Himself through faith in Jesus.

The announcement of Jesus’s birth was delivered to shepherds who lived on the fringe of society, in the fields, watching their sheep by night. If a king were born to the world, you would expect these shepherds to be the last ones to know about it.

Yet, the angels told them that peace was coming to the earth for those on whom God’s favor rested. Shepherds in first century Israel were individuals who existed on the fringe of society. They were considered stinky, dirty, and untrustworthy. They lived on their own for months as they traveled with their flocks.

It would have been shocking to the first readers of the book of Luke that these were the people God chose to entrust with such an important message.