It’s a bit audacious to talk about peace, even on Christmas day, here in the year 2005, or any year, for that matter. Internationally, we have 160,000 of our troops stationed in Iraq, in harm’s way and far away from home, for Christmas this year. And the protests by the Sunnis against the recent Parliamentary elections there make it clear that there is still going to be no easy exit for us. Although I think we still have a good chance of leaving a stable government there some day.
The World Trade Organization had another meeting last week, attacked by demonstrators for what they see as economic disasters brought to their home towns by world trade. The global economy has given us Wal-marts and K-Marts full of very cheap imports, but while we enjoy the bonanza of bargains, we need to remember the working conditions of the desperately poor people who produce those products.
Here in the United States, transit workers in New York were on strike just last week, causing terrible disruption of our largest city, but also reflecting deep tensions in most every sector of our economy, tensions that stress many, many people and not just New Yorkers. Employers everywhere are pinched. Workers are stressed out and fearful about their futures.
The tranquilizer Prozac brought in 2.6 billion dollars in the last year before cheaper generics versions came out. That says that there are a lot of individuals out there whose hearts are anxious and overstressed for all sorts of reasons.
Probably most of us could add stories of the stresses of the past few weeks trying to juggle all the expectations of the Christmas season on top of the normal routines and family challenges of modern life. I’m sure that even making it to church on Christmas day was a battle for some of us. And I appreciate that you are here.
But here we are, gathered together to express our faith in Jesus Christ, who was called “Prince of Peace” centuries ago. And we are here, not to moan about the problems of the world, but to celebrate his birth. We have tasted for ourselves what happens when he comes into our lives. Jesus Christ gives us peace with God. He teaches us to live in peace with one another. He empowers us and pushes us to work to bring peace among others throughout the world. He is the Prince of Peace. Nobody else can do what he does.
Headline News ran a report this week about a woman who had an inflatable Grinch in her front yard and came home to find that someone had deflated it and was about to steal it. She chased him. He threw it at her and drove off.
And then she said to the reporter, ‘Whatever happened to the true spirit of Christmas?’
The Grinch is a fun story about a cold-hearted creature who gets his heart warmed and softened. And the story gives us a warm feeling inside that might even last through the first two commercials that come on after its showing. But the world needs someone stronger than that. The world needs Jesus Christ. We find the true spirit of Christmas in Jesus Christ. There is no substitute.
The new movie, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” starts out with the imaginary land of Narnia caught in perpetual gloom, where it is always winter, but never Christmas. An evil witch has taken over and is terrorizing all the creatures of Narnia. But there are still those who remember the rightful lord of Narnia, Aslan, the great lion, who hadn’t been seen in years. But then Aslan returns to Narnia. The springtime breaks out. The river thaws. Hope rises among the creatures. The witch is defeated and peace returns to Narnia. C.S. Lewis wrote the story in an attempt to imagine what would happen if Jesus had come into a world very different from ours. Jesus brings peace.
I hope we have all experienced that thawing in our hearts, the birth of hope, the ordering of our lives that comes when we walk with Jesus. In the midst of all the chaos, Jesus brings peace.
Our scripture this morning comes from the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, words describing his hope that God would bring a savior for his people, words that were quickly recognized by the early church as being fulfilled in Jesus. Please stand for the reading of God’s word, Isaiah
6 For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Jesus Christ is our Wonderful Counselor, our Mighty God, our Everlasting Father and our Prince of Peace. And we need him to be our Prince of Peace now as much as ever.
And to help us see how he works to bring the peace on earth which was announced by the angels on the hillside outside Bethlehem, I want us to look at verse 7 of our text. I’m going to start reading it and ask you to follow along, because when I get to two key words I’m going to ask you to say them out loud. They tell us how Jesus brings peace. Verse 7 of our text reads: “His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.”
Justice and righteousness are two of the richest words in the Bible, and they are foundation stones for building peace. There will be no peace without them.
Where we read here in our English Bibles, ‘justice,’ the original Hebrew word behind it is ‘mishpat.’ The word ‘mishpat’ would commonly for what a judge is supposed to provide in court, justice under the law. Gather the facts, look up what the law says about these circumstances and announce the verdict that the law requires. But mishpat has a broader meaning than just what a court of justice does. It comes from a time when we didn’t divide government up into fragmented branches, judicial, legislative and executive.
Mishpat is wider than reading and applying the laws. It speaks of a basic fairness in society, that everybody gets a fair chance in life.
You see God’s concern for mishpat in the birth of Jesus. Shepherds had to work on the Sabbath, so they were left out of much of the religious life of Israel. But God made a point of answering that gap by announcing the birth of His Son to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. He wanted to be sure they had a fair chance to hear, too. He worked through the star to draw the wise men from a far away land. The good news of what God had done is for all nations. They all need to hear. Those who follow Jesus must always be watching that everyone gets a fair chance.
You see it in the ministry of Jesus. He always seemed to have time for those whom everyone else pushed out to the margins of life, lepers, children, those who collaborated with the Romans as tax collectors, those who were ill or had physical handicaps. Jesus was very concerned that everyone had a fair chance.
Those concerns are with us still today. As just one example, Thursday night Kathy and I went up to the Southwest Chicago PADS to be with our team that feeds the homeless there each month. I didn’t interrogate anyone to learn their story. But I’m sure many have major handicaps. I’m sure many had traumatic childhoods. I’m sure many are enslaved to drugs or alcohol.
There is a kind of justice often followed by the world that says they are screw-ups, they are just getting what they deserve. Forget about them. It’s all too easy for those who have had good health and a good education and good economic opportunity to say things like that. But the concept of mishpat would say, regardless of the past, let’s be sure there is a door open and a hand out to help them into a better future. They deserve a chance.
The PADS staff estimates that there are at least 35 people sleeping outside in Marquette Park this December. What’s the chance that they will sleep in the park, or try to sleep, and then walk into a job interview the next morning and get hired? About zero. The City of Chicago has blocked the Southwest Chicago PADS from letting the homeless sleep in their building for now. But PADS is working to keep them fed, provide showers, laundry and job counseling. We can’t fix every human problem. But Jesus calls us to give everyone a chance.
One of the PADS staff told us that the City of Chicago has a ten year plan to solve the problem of homelessness. But, now with the program in its third year there hasn’t been much changed because there isn’t enough money available to get the job done. So there are at least 35 people sleeping outside in Marquette Park this cold December. And even though there isn’t enough money to provide emergency shelter for them, the next morning after our visit to the shelter the Tribune’s front page announced that the mayor is calling for a second major sports stadium in Chicago for up to a billion dollars so that we have a chance of attracting a second football team and the Olympics, which you might get once in a century. And of course the city wouldn’t be putting up the full billion dollars. But you know that there is big money that will be coming to city hall, with hat in hand, looking for tax breaks and incentives. Such projects don’t come cheap for cities.
The stadium project might just get done with perfect legitimacy by one standard of justice, every permit and land deal could be legal.
But by God’s standard of mishpat justice, who gets attention first? Wealthy business people, sitting in warm and comfortable homes, able to provide their children with every advantage and wanting to increase their fortunes? Or homeless people, shivering in the park and families with children having to sleep in cold cars or abandoned buildings?
And we always hear the argument that if we stimulate business this year, then the city will make more money next year, and if we just wait that prosperity will trickle down and help the poor also. But how many times have we heard that before? And how long can a homeless family, sleeping outside in the winter, wait? In God’s eyes, giving a chance to the homeless, who are so vulnerable, comes before a second sports stadium to make money for the rich. That’s mishpat. Be sure everybody has a chance.
And the homeless in Chicago really don’t disrupt much. They are an embarrassment and an inconvenience for us. But if you look at any trouble spot in the world, you will always find injustice at the root of the conflict. There will not be peace on earth until the mess caused by decades of injustice in Iraq and other Arab countries are untangled and true justice and opportunity are established, until people in all countries have the chance to participate meaningfully in the economy so that they can feed their families. As the bumper sticker says, ‘If you want peace, work for justice.’ Jesus calls us to watch out for those who don’t have a chance.
Jesus came to bring justice and righteousness. Both of those wonderful words cover a lot of territory. But when we move on to righteousness, Jesus, as no one else could, brings peace through righteousness.
Our sin is the biggest disruptor of our peace. It is a barrier between us and God. Columnist John Kass talked about taking his children to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and watched the kid’s reaction at the point where Edmund, who had been a very bad boy, is taken aside by Aslan, the king. And they are talking and we don’t get to hear what Aslan says. “What is Aslan going to do about the bad things Edmund did?” We all have that question inside of us, ‘Can God accept me? Can God forgive me?’
Where our sin makes a huge barrier between us and God, Jesus died on the cross for our justification, to remove that barrier of our guilt, to free us to stand as righteous before God. He makes us righteous. Nobody else could do that.
When we often get confused about what is the right thing to do, he lived a perfect life and it is recorded for us to study and follow. No life can compare with Jesus. Will you take advantage of that?
His Spirit is here to take up residence in our hearts and change us from the inside. Will we listen? Will we welcome him? Will we obey?
Jesus came into this world of stress and chaos to bring peace. And his peace is established by justice and righteousness. AMEN
