Pieces on Earth
Christmas, 2008
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
December 20, 2008
Would you stand please for the reading of God’s Word? We pick up here in Luke, chapter 2 verse 8. Jesus has just been born in the stable and suddenly the scene shifts. I want to read this out of the King James Version because it’s the most popular. Anyone who has ever seen A Charlie Brown Christmas will remember this, because Linus quotes this passage word for word.
Lk 2:8-14 (KJV)
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. 10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Let me ask you something. When you look around this world, do you see much peace? Do you see a lot of peace in your place of work? Teens, do you see a lot of peace at school? Parents, is there peace in your home? People of Wildwind, is there peace in your heart? Are your heart and soul at rest, or are you restless – without peace? Are you anxious? Are you worried about what’s happening in the world? With the economy? With the environment? With your job? With your children? “On earth, peace – good will toward men.” Where’s the peace the angels promised?
It seems like everywhere we look we see not peace but pieces. Our economy is in pieces. Our environment is in pieces. Our ability to make real connections with people is in pieces, as we live in a fragmented society where even those of us who wish to live in community spend the vast majority of our time in these little personalized boxes we call home. Teens, you probably don’t understand that, because your lives are all about school, all about your friends and who you’re hanging out with and what you’re doing this weekend. I don’t say this to scare you, but not long after you celebrate your graduation, your life will change in ways you can’t imagine. Life in high school is delivered to you whole – most of your friends are there, your meals are there, your social events are there, your activities are there – but after graduation suddenly a lot of that isn’t there anymore and now you begin the task of living in the real world, where friendships don’t come as easy, where you have to prioritize connection with people, and where some of the concerns I’m talking about tonight start to become more and more real to you. Life isn’t delivered to you whole anymore – you have to begin picking up a piece here and a piece there, and piecing together a life that will work in the world. And teens, what I want to tell you is that a lot of us adults are still struggling to get it right. There are still pieces we are missing.
Right adults? Do you feel like the more you pick up different pieces and try to fit them into your life, the more you notice how many pieces there are? There’s work/career, family, church, God, personal growth, exercise, nutrition, home and auto concerns, bills, school, and a thousand other pieces that you’re trying to fit together into a whole – into a life – and it seems like we can’t get it quite right – we can’t get the pieces to fit together properly – or we don’t have all the pieces in place yet – or we’re realizing that as hard as we might try to put the pieces together, so many of the pieces aren’t in our control.
Our health isn’t totally in our control. Our job security isn’t totally in our control. Our protection from war and terrorism isn’t in our control. The choices our kids make are more and more out of our control as they get older. Relations between America and other countries are not in our control at all, and that stuff could have a huge impact on our lives. What happens in the environment and with the economy is largely out of our control. People are riddled with doubts, with fears, with insecurities, with guilt, with regrets. They are slaves to addiction, to a constant need for approval, to a nagging feeling of anxiety or to outright terror, to needs for love and belonging that never seem to quite get met. Those who run to God and religion often struggle to make that piece fit right – they run to it for security and instead it creates more guilt, more fear, and maybe even some arrogance. Those who reject God and religion have to figure out ways to deal with the fact (in their minds) that they will live, die, become dirt, and that’s all.
It’s Christmas time. The angels promised peace. But where is the peace we were promised? Has God failed us? What’s going on?
My friends, this is the eternal question. The peace that was promised by the angels seemingly has always been elusive. If there had been newspapers in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, here are some headlines based on actual events at that time that you might have read:
KING ARTAXUS NEAR DEATH
GRAIN SHIPS DOCK, ROME RIOTS END
NINE PIRATE SHIPS SUNK BY SIXTH FLEET
ATHENS STUDENTS CLASH WITH POLICE
OLYMPIC WRESTLER STILL IN COMA
Things don’t change. There has always been bad news. Every age contains brokenness. There have been pieces on earth since the dawn of history. The story of mankind is the story of the struggle to survive – to put together the pieces and live whole lives. Do you know what the name Jerusalem means? If you don’t already know, you will never guess in a million years. Jerusalem means, “City of Peace.” Is there any place on the planet, historically, where there has been less peace?” It would be far more accurate to call Jerusalem the “City of Pieces.” Where is the peace the angels promised?
To get to our question about peace, I want to read the last verse of tonight’s passage, verse 14, out of a more modern translation. First, here it is again in the King James Version.
Luke 2:14 (KJV)
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Scholars today understand that this is actually not the most accurate translation possible. In popular culture this passage is often communicated kind of like a wish – like Miss America wishing peace on earth. And good will to men. In other words, let there be peace on earth, and let everyone know that God is groovy with everybody. Like God singing “People are just alright with me, people are just alright oh yeah…”
But translation is both an art and a science. Let’s look at a translation of that verse that has been done SINCE the 17th century. If we look at nearly all modern translations of this verse, we see something like this:
Luke 2:14 (MSG)
14 Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
Now we’re getting somewhere! Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
That’s nice. But what about the fact that tonight this room is filled with people who are trying to please God and who still do not have peace? What’s up with THAT? How do we explain that?
We must understand that the peace the angels declared on all who please God is not world peace. It is not everything around us being okay. It is not being able to look around and see that all the broken pieces of this world have been put back together. What the angels declared was peace with God. Those who live to please God can have peace with God. Now some of you hear that and you’re already thinking, “Oh, so it’s not REAL peace, it’s just spiritual peace.” If you think this way it is because you do not understand all that peace with God involves. Let’s really look at that now.
Toward the end of his earthly life, Jesus prayed a prayer for his disciples that contained these words:
John 14:27 (NIV)
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
So there’s Jesus, plainly telling us that the kind of peace he offers is not the kind of peace you will find anywhere else in the world. Now if the kind of peace Jesus offered was the kind of peace that immediately removes every possible cause of fear and anxiety in the world, why would Jesus have said, “Don’t let yourself live in a state of fear and anxiety.” The peace Jesus offers is a different kind of peace. The peace Jesus offers is peace that you can have DESPITE what is going on around you.
Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Now this is poetic language, but imagine witnessing that scene? Can you think of anything more terrifying? This Psalm paints the picture of horrible things going on around us, but yet we stand calmly. We are not terrified by things that are terrifying. Now that’s a miracle. If you are not terrified by something that is terrifying, that’s a miracle. How do you explain that? The truth is that you can’t.
Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
God’s peace will exceed anything we can understand. As you root your life in God, as you learn to live in him from day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment – in the awareness of his love for you, his care and protection over you, and his intentions for good in your life – you will come to experience a peace that is so deep that you won’t understand it. You won’t be able to explain it. But it will set you right with the world – with those scary things that are going on around you. They will lose their power to bother you and scare you. You will say with Jeremiah, who wrote these words:
Lamentations 3:19-26 (NIV)
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
“The Lord is my portion.” Do you know what that means? It means, “The Lord is what I have, and He is enough.” He is enough. You’ve heard that sentiment echoed at countless funerals in these words:
Psalm 23:1, 4 (KJV)
1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
In other words, God is leading me and therefore I have all that I need. In the valley of death’s shadow, I will not be afraid why? Because God is with me. When I know God is with me, I have all I need. The Lord is my portion.
Are you getting it? That is what peace with God involves. It involves a deep belief in God’s nearness, God’s love, God’s constant intentions to bring about good in our lives, and an increasing sense that ultimately this is all we need. The Lord is my shepherd – I shall not want – I don’t need anything else. As we cultivate this in our hearts and minds, God brings a peace to us that passes understanding. It will be so deep and so profound that you won’t understand it. It will bring unshakeable confidence that indeed God is mighty to save – that your life is firmly in his hands in every way that matters – that he knows everything there is to know about you – and that absolutely no harm will ever befall you that God will not use for your good and to reveal to you further depths of his mercy and kindness. You will say with the Psalmist:
Psalm 16:8 (KJV)
8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
You will become more and more like Jesus, sleeping in the boat while the winds and waves crash in and the disciples are terrified and fearing certain death. Through all of this Jesus was not only calm – he was sleeping! Now THERE’S peace for you! Jesus lived in the absolute reality of Psalm 46:
Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
This isn’t some abstract spiritual peace. It is peace that literally reaches into your body and changes the way you respond. The disciples feared for their lives. Jesus slept soundly. He lived in the reality of Psalm 3:
Psalm 3:5-6 (NIV)
5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side.
Please understand that this is what Jesus meant when he said, “My peace I give you – I do not give to you as the world gives.” The world tries to give you money and shelter and medical science to give you the illusion that you are safe. But there’s never enough money, and shelter can disappear just like that, and sometimes we are beyond the help of medical science. Yet while those waters roar and foam all around us, we can rest soundly in the care of God. I have set the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand. I will not be moved, through the waters foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
So how do you get to this place? This just seems too good to be true for some of you. You can’t imagine that kind of peace, but it is certain if you learn to live in God. How do you do that? I want to finish by briefly explaining that.
Psalm 91:1 (NIV)
1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
Now, we’re talking about peace today. We see the key to that peace in this text. What we want is peace. We want rest. And we see that resting depends on dwelling. If we want to rest in the shadow of the almighty, we must dwell in the shelter of the most high. How do you do that?
My answer is the same as always. It begins in your mind. You as a person cannot dwell in a different place than where you allow your mind to dwell. So if you dwell on the news (which is always terrible) and hang out with negative people, and focus constantly on your problems, you will find yourself feeling anxious and weak and vulnerable. Because the truth is that this world is in pieces and always has been, and you will not find in this world any substantive relief from your worries. If however you dwell on God’s power and promises and faithfulness, you will find yourself beginning to feel increasingly peaceful. Dwelling in God leads to resting in God. It will never be enough to “convert” to Christianity . You must learn to dwell in God. It will never be enough to go to church or pray or be in a small group. You must learn to dwell in God. It will never be enough to merely desire God’s presence in your life. You must learn to dwell in God. Just like you might focus your attention right now every morning and every evening on CNN, you will have to regularly focus your attention on God. Probably some things you allow yourself to think about will have to go, as you will never learn to dwell in God if you also continue dwelling on fearful things and on your problems instead of on God’s faithfulness and power. But I can stand here tonight and tell you that if you are living to please God (which means learning to dwell and rest in him), peace will be yours. This peace that so many would dismiss as “spiritual” and therefore not “real” will have real effects in your life. And the Psalmist said that will be the case:
Psalm 16:9 (NIV)
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure…
There will be gladness in your heart, freedom from excessive burdens of any kind, praise of God on your lips, and an overall sensation of well-being and rest in your body.
Where is the peace the angels promised? The same place it has always been. In the shadow of the Almighty. Jesus took this idea and personalized it in John 15 and spoke of resting in the shadow of the Almighty as “abiding,” or “remaining.”
John 15:4 (NIV)
4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Call it whatever you want. Remaining. Abiding. Resting. They’re all ways of saying, “Replace the way you currently think with new and God-based ways of thinking. Only then will you know peace that comes through Christ.”
I want to close with some practical things you can do this week to dwell in God so that you can begin to rest. Pick one or more of these, or come up with your own:
1. Read the 23rd Psalm again and again, adding the words “no matter what” to the end of each phrase. Read it until you feel it and believe it.
2. Set aside 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening to simply be quiet before God. Say the words, “Peace, be still” when your mind starts to wander. This is one way to practice being still and take control over the racing thoughts in our heads.
3. Take the sermon summary you’ll receive after church today and memorize some of the scriptures I have used, and repeat them to yourself throughout the day. Start “feeding” on them so they become part of you.
4. Go to God in prayer and name each of your worries out loud in as much detail as you can. Say “God, even if [such and such] happens today, may I rest in your shadow.” Naming your fears removes much of their power.
5. Start seeing fear as something that stands directly between you and God. Do not accept and accommodate it.
6. Ask yourself what thoughts need to be rejected because they create fear or anxiety or steal your peace. Reject them out loud in the name of Christ and pray that fear will be replaced with faith.
7. Exercise and watch your diet. This helps more than you can imagine.
8. Memorize Psalm 91 and repeat it until it moves from your head into your heart
9. Learn to see the disciplines you adopt today as helping you feel better tomorrow. If you think that today’s disciplines will help you today, then you’ll drop them as soon as you get into a better place.
10. If you have tried many of these things and you are still dealing with chronic fear that causes frequent discomfort, realize you might need a little extra help. Chronic fear and worry that resists every attempt we make to deal with it in God can be very deep-rooted and needs a bit more attention. Please call me or email the o ffice and we’ll get you a counseling referral. I assure you, there’s a way to move to a new place.
In the midst of all that is going on around us, you can have peace. It’s not the temporary peace the world offers – it’s better. The angels promised it, Jesus promised it, and it stands available to you now. That is God’s Christmas gift to you.
