This past Monday morning, news broke that there was a bomb threat on the Harvard campus. This happened after I was already out of the house and settled into my office for the day. But I just happened to call my Mom about something else right after the news broke. After I had finished talking to her about whatever it was I had called about, she asked, “So, have you heard the news?” My response something along the lines of, “I don’t know, what is it?” She went on to share the news of the bomb threat; classes were being called off, finals were cancelled, and four buildings had been evacuated. Once my Mom had relayed the news, she reflected, “This is getting out of control.”
Getting out of control? I do believe we are already there. Two days prior to that Harvard bomb threat, we marked the first anniversary of the slaughter of 20 innocent children and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The day before that, a crazed student entered Arapahoe County High School near Denver, Colorado, and shot a peer in the head at point-blank range in his search for a teacher who had dared to discipline him. It just so happens that Arapahoe County High School is only eight miles from Columbine High School, and seventeen miles from the infamous movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Do you follow me? We’ve watched a lot of horrible things happen in the last several years, not to mention just the last week. And quite frankly, it’s out of control.
These are just some of the “lone-gunman” shooting rampages in the United States; there are many others. And I’ve said nothing of the senseless executions in North Korea, or the nuclear tension in Iran, or the stifled protests in the Ukraine, or the civil war in Syria, or the “War on Terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan. When we consider all the strife and unrest around our world, it makes it seem as if “peace” is nothing more than a “pipe dream.” And for good reason, I think. Violence is out of control! How can we ever consider that peace might prevail when there is so much fighting?
Yet God has dreamed up a world of justice, a world of peace, which is why we today mark the fourth unbreakable gift of Christmas as “peace.” And here’s why peace is an unbreakable gift; because the path to God’s peace is “the child lying in the manger”—the baby who would grow up to proclaim God’s special blessing upon the merciful and the peacemakers. I suppose it seems somewhat odd that peace doesn’t come through the violent suppression of violence; seeing as that’s how we usually seek peace in our world today. And yet, I think it’s precisely because of God’s approach to peace that this is a Christmas gift that won’t break.
When John the Baptist was born just a few months before Jesus, his father, Zechariah, able to speak for the first time in nine months, broke out into a prophecy about his son. You heard part of that prophecy this morning. Zechariah says that John will be a prophet of the Most High God, preparing a way for him, and telling people how God, in his immense compassion, will save the people from their sins. Zechariah shares this vision of God bringing light to those sitting in the shadow of darkness and death, and guiding people on the path of peace. As you all are well aware, people expected the “Most High God,” the Messiah, to be a conquering hero; someone who would sweep into the world and quickly vanquish Israel’s enemies. The Jews fully expected that their enemies would suffer the same violent fate they had been suffering for generations. But when Zechariah begins to prophesy (the first prophecy among the Israelites in over 400 years), he tells a different story. His son, John has come to show us the path to Jesus, and Jesus is coming to show us the path to peace. Sure enough, a few months later, another baby was born—weak and vulnerable, peaceful even—and though he was not a conquering hero, he was the Messiah.
Violence perpetuates violence. And seeking peace through violence only adds to that cycle. But when you make yourself vulnerable in the face of violence, that brings peace in a completely different way. When violence is countered with non-violence, with true peace, it exposes the sheer brutality and evil of fighting and killing. Unlike modern video games and cultural norms; humility, sacrifice, and peace make violence unattractive. God intended from the very beginning that this world, his creation, would be a peaceful place; a place where, as Isaiah says, “the wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat…” And just as Isaiah foretold a little later in that same passage, God sent his very own son—a baby, a child, to show us how to make that peaceful kingdom a reality, which is exactly what Jesus did.
I’m not just talking about Jesus looking cute all swaddled in a manger with animals squeezed in around him in endearing admiration. Sure, that was probably a lovely, peaceful scene—as is always the case with resting newborns. But Jesus went on to live a life of peace, and even to teach us the way of peace. Just consider it for a minute: he never fought with the Pharisees—sure, he engaged them in debate, but he never snapped back at them the way they lashed out at him. In the Upper Room, as Jesus prepared his disciples for his departure, he said to them, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid.” And later that night, when Peter pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of a soldier in an effort to keep Jesus, an innocent man, from being arrested; Jesus didn’t thank Peter for coming to his defense, he rebuked Peter! He told Peter to put the sword away. And then, when the people began to mock Jesus and the soldiers beat him and hung him on a cross, he did not fight back. He suffered in agony so that we could be freed of our sins. He suffered so that we could live in peace.
Yet here’s the thing: as with so much of the Christian life, peace is not something that exists simply because Christ was born. Peace is a way of life—that’s why Jesus had to live it, that’s why Jesus had to teach us about peace. Zechariah prophesied that Jesus would “guide us on the path of peace.” If we expect peace to be a reality, we have to follow the path that Jesus has laid out for us. Jesus inaugurated God’s kingdom on earth, and even as we look for that day when Christ will return and establish the reign of peace once and for all, we can begin living into God’s kingdom even now. We can know the peace of God’s kingdom even now, but we have to make it happen! That means we have to let go of the anger, the judgment, the hatred, the resentment, the fears; all those things that keep us from experiencing peace.
Several years ago, just five days before Christmas, then ten-year-old Chris Carrier was approached by a man claiming to be a friend of his father. He told Chris he wanted to buy his dad a gift and he needed help picking something out. Eager to do something good for his dad, Chris climbed aboard the motor home parked up the street. The driver took Chris to a remote field, claiming to be lost. Then, as Chris studied a map, he was stabbed in the back with an ice pick. The man drove the wounded boy down a dirt road, shot him in the left temple, and left him for dead.
Blinded in his left eye, Chris miraculously survived the injuries and was discovered six days later. Chris was not able to identify his attacker and so no arrest was ever made. He lived his life in constant fear, deeply troubled, and highly suspicious. But then, three years after the attack, Chris dedicated his life to Christ, and for the first time in three years, he felt comfort and peace rather than suspicion and fear. Eventually, Chris made the decision to pursue full-time ministry so that he could help others find the peace he had discovered in Christ.
Over 20 years later, in 1996, a detective called Chris to tell him that a man had confessed to the crime that had cost him his left eye. David McAllister had been hired by Chris’s father to work as a nurse for his ailing uncle. Chris’s dad had caught McAllister drinking on the job and had fired him. The senseless attack on Chris had been motivated by revenge. Now, at 77 years old, David McAllister was in feeble condition, living in a nursing home, and Chris made plans to visit him. When McAllister learned who Chris was on that first visit, he apologized. Chris said, “I told him, ‘What you meant for evil, God has turned into a wonderful blessing.’” And Chris went on to tell his attacker how God had allowed his wounds to become open doors to share the good news of Christ with others.
That visit became the first of many, and Chris would often bring his family with him to the nursing home. During one Sunday afternoon visit, Chris asked the most important question he had yet of McAllister: “Do you want to know the Lord?” McAllister said yes. Both men basked in forgiveness as McAllister gave his heart to Christ. A few days later, McAllister died peacefully in his sleep. Chris says it is not a story of regret, but of redemption. “I saw the Lord give that man back his life, and so much more,” Chris said. “He was able to experience peace, just like I was. I can’t wait to see him again someday—in heaven.”
It’s become almost cliché at Christmas-time to wish for “world peace.” We hear it a lot, don’t we? “My only wish for Christmas is world peace.” We sing songs about it and all kinds of stuff. But how many of us are actually doing something to make peace a reality in our lives? Sure, we may not be the ones walking the streets at night looking for a fight, or running into crowded school buildings with an arsenal of loaded weapons. But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t holding a grudge against someone right this minute. That doesn’t mean that we don’t get angry and honk our horns and make obscene gestures when we get cut off in traffic. We all contribute to the lack of peace in our world in one way or another, and if we all truly follow the example of Christ, we can also lead the way to true peace, even now. And here’s what’s really wonderful, what really makes peace a gift that won’t break; when we are seeking the way of peace as Christ showed us and taught us, and when we are seeking to share peace with others, we will find peace ourselves. We will find our fears and troubles wiped away as we are drawn into God’s loving, peaceful presence.
It’s a peace that passes all understanding, and Christ came so that we can experience that peace in our lives.
Thanks be to God.
