These are stressful days. There is too much going on. Too much. Too much work, too much to think about, too many demands, too much.
Why, we have to shop and bake and decorate and plan parties and send cards and on and on. Too much. Stressful.
Too much traveling. I heard an astonishing statistic this week. I heard that 61 million Americans will be in the air, on the rails, or on the highways, traveling for Christmas. Hey, if there are that many going to see others, will the others be there when they arrive? Too much traveling, too much stress.
And then there’s church. The church wants extra choir rehearsals, the church sends out an appeal for debt retirement funds, the church has extra worship services, even church is stress. Too much. Let me out of here. We just can’t handle it all.
Stress and struggle. Yesterday we held a funeral here. And as the funeral procession made its way out to the cemetery, drivers were cutting in on us, drivers were trying to scoot out of side streets to get ahead of us, drivers were racing around us. Stress and struggle, hurry and worry. The funeral director complained about those drivers and their impatience. But then, I want you to know, that on the way back to the church, she got stuck in heavy traffic, and her patience ran out! It’s a stressful time when even the chilled-out mortician loses it!
On top of all of that – on top of the hurry and scurry, too much to do and too little time to do it, too little money to pay for it – on top of all of that, there is something else that stresses us. These special holiday seasons bring back hurts and pains we thought we had left behind. These seasons open up old wounds, and the losses and the defeats of the past crowd into our memories. It’s not easy to feel peace when you remember what you have lost or think about the mistakes you cannot correct.
Just a few days ago a family member of a family member – in other words, someone not related to Margaret or me, but related to Margaret’s sister-in-law – a young man, only sixteen years old, took his own life. No one knows why, but we do know lots of folks hurt because of this, and among them Margaret’s niece and nephew, cousins of this young man. So our son, Bryan, who is also their cousin, but of course on their father’s side, who never even knew the young man in question – our son decided that he would go and invest some time with these two teenagers. And when he told us why he wanted to do that, it came as a revelation to us. Bryan said, “You know, it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve enjoyed Christmas again. Grandpa Rust (that’s Margaret’s father) died at Christmas in 1991, and Grandma Smith (that’s my mother) died at Christmas in 1992, and for several years I just dreaded Christmas.” I say that came as a revelation, because it wasn’t obvious to us that he was feeling that, but he was. It took a while to get past those wounds. It’s not easy to feel peace at this time of the year when you remember what you have lost or those mistakes you cannot correct.
The words of the poet Longfellow ring sadly true for us, don’t they? “And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said, ‘for hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men.’”
And yet deep down in my soul I believe that God is working to give us the gift of peace. God is not idle; God is not asleep; God is not indifferent. God is working to give us the gift of peace. The question is, “How shall we receive it?” The issue is how we shall receive it, this peace, the gift of God’s love.
Do children still use, to start their games, the little formula, “Ready, set, go”? You’re about to run a race, and everybody knows what to do: ready – get rid of everything that’s in your way. Set – get your body positioned to run. And go – go run that race with all your might. Ready, set, go. That’s what we have to do to receive peace. And it is the simplest of all the characters in the Christmas story who show us that – the shepherds who heard the angel’s song. The shepherds who were the first to witness God’s gift and to receive His peace. They will show us what it takes: ready, set, go.
I
First, in order to receive God’s gift of peace, you and I must be ready. We must be open. We must be willing for God to do a new thing in us. We must face and dismiss our fears. It is fear, more than anything else, that keeps us from receiving the gift of peace. In order to receive God’s gift of peace, we must be ready, open, willing, expecting God to do something for us that has never happened before.
In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see--I am bringing you good news.”
Do not be afraid. Let me share with you what fear looks like. Fear looks like cynicism. Fear looks like rigidity. Fear looks like enjoying the very conflict we say we want to be rid of. Fear looks like stirring the pot when nothing is really boiling, because we are afraid to listen to the silence.
Do you ever find yourself just wanting to see what will happen if you push people to fight? Do you ever just drop a little word over here, and then another little word over there, suggesting that he doesn’t like her very much, and that she doesn’t do what she ought to do for him? Pretty soon she and he are into it, accusing each other of all sorts of garbage, while you sit off to the sidelines, enjoying the World Wrestling Federation?! Sometimes we provoke others to fight and disturb the peace!
But that’s really about fear! That’s really about being afraid that if I sit still, I will have to listen to my own heart accusing me. So I stir up trouble among others, to distract me from paying attention to my own heart.
Oh, friends, God wants to give us the gift of peace. He wants to give us good news. To the simple shepherds, terrified at facing the heavenly host, He spoke the ultimate word of assurance, “Do not be afraid; what we have is good news.” It is not condemnation. It is not hell-fire and damnation. It is not the torment of a bad conscience. It is not about being inadequate. It is good news, of great joy to all people. It is the good news that God loves us, God cares for us. Good news!
Become ready for the gift of peace; as the shepherds were open to the good news, dismiss your old haunting fears. Set aside the guilt that will not go away. Take leave of the shame of past mistakes. Just be ready. Be ready! Good news is coming. Good news.
II
All right. But the formula is: ready, set, go. Get set. Get started. Set about doing what the Spirit of God prompts you to do. Ready, set: obey what you know God wants you do. Be where God wants you to be. Follow the prompting of your heart. Set out on that spiritual journey that will lead you to a place of awe and wonder.
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste –
Let us go now and see – so they went with haste. How unlike us! And how much an explanation for why the shepherds got peace and we just go to pieces! The shepherds, prompted by God’s messengers, got up off their blessed assurances and went, with haste, to see what God was doing. If God was doing it, it was more important than anything else. The sheep could take care of themselves. Their families would have to understand if they were a little late getting home from work. The owner of the flock, who might criticize them for leaving their post, would just have to live with his disappointment. They had Kingdom business to do, and that took priority.
There are times when the things of God take priority! There are times when what God is doing ought to override all of our agendas, all of our namby-pamby normalcies. There are times when the work of God is so extraordinary that business as usual just won’t get it! The shepherds got set for the gift of peace because they walked away from business as usual and went to see what God was doing. Get set!
I mentioned yesterday’s funeral. It was for a gentleman very few of you knew. Not a member of our congregation, but a close friend of some. I had the high privilege of working with him through his last several weeks. Here was a man who had been successful in business, had made a great deal of money, described himself as “the field marshall” – that meant that when he said, “jump”, you were supposed only to ask, “How high?” A man who made things happen. But I want to tell you that over these few weeks I saw the good news worked out. I watched the gift of peace being received. This man did serious spiritual work over those few weeks. He moved from, "I’ve lived a good life and have nothing to be sorry for” to recognizing his need of a savior, his need for forgiveness. He was getting ready for the gift of peace. And then I watched him move from knowing God’s forgiveness to reaching out to others to receive their forgiveness. He was getting set for the gift of peace. He was going with haste to where he saw God at work.
The shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing … So they went with haste …”
Too many of us miss the moment. Too many of us procrastinate. Too many of us are so stuck in where we have been that we will not go now, with haste, to the place where God is at work. Friends, if you see God doing something in your life, go there. Get those priorities in order now. And if we do not, we will not receive the gift of peace. Get ready, get set.
III
And then go. Go. I want you to notice where the shepherds went when the night of miracles was all over. I want you to see what their destination was when it was time to leave the stable. Did they go to the palace of the king to report their findings? Did they run up to Jerusalem to ask the theologians in the Temple for an interpretation? Where did they go and what did they do? They went back to their normal pursuits! They went back to tending sheep! They went back to their homes, their families, and their jobs! They want back to the same old same old. But they themselves were different! They were changed! The circumstances didn’t change; but they brought change with them.
When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them …The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
Men and women, if you want peace, get ready, get set, and then go. Go tell somebody what God is doing. Go tell somebody what is happening in your life. Go wherever you have to go, glorifying and praising God, and you will have peace. It will not because where you have to go is different; it will be because you are different. It will not be because your circumstances are better; it will be because, in the spirit of God, with the good news in your heart, you will take hold of the circumstances. Go tell. Ready, set, go.
You see, too many of us are waiting for somebody else to give us a new start. We are waiting for somebody else to come along and help us. We are expecting the world to grind to a halt on its axis and give us what we need. And it isn’t going to happen. As long as we depend on somebody else to make us feel good about ourselves, it isn’t going to happen. As long as we think that changing our circumstances would make us happy, it isn’t going to happen. A minister friend of mine, who had made a mess in the church he had been serving, told me he had been called to another church, and that this new church was a church without any problems! I bit my tongue, tempted as I was to say, “Well, they have at least one problem now.” But you can guess it, can’t you? Within two years he was griping and grumbling about this new church and all its problems. Some of us think that if we go somewhere else our problems will go away, but, no, we will just take the problems with us.
It’s not where you are that is the issue. It is what you do with it. It is not who’s around you that is the issue. It is what you do when you go and tell. Glorify God. Give a witness to God’s redemptive work, and then watch the peace come into your heart. Go and share what God is about, and watch your own issues melt into the distance. Get ready, get set, and go!
And the infant who brought a glow to a dark stable will give you peace.
The child who heard the bleating of oxen will hear your cries.
The babe whose mother pondered all things in her heart will give you a quiet heart.
The one whose tiny, helpless arms reached out will embrace you with the everlasting arms.
Ready, set, go! The peace of God, that passes all human understanding, will be with you now and forevermore.
