The Promise is Peace
“For the Promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls…” Acts 2:39
Ephesians 2:11-16
11 So then, remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth,* called ‘the uncircumcision’ by those who are called ‘the circumcision’—a physical circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— 12remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16and might reconcile both groups to God in one body* through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.
Advent—a time of expectation for us as Christians. For some it is expectation of the celebration of Christmas. Gathering together with family and friends… the giving and receiving of gifts. For others it is time of expectation and preparation… and no not the house for the dinners or parties and family… but a time of preparation of our hearts… our minds… the way we live… not just this time of year but each day of the year. That’s the preparation part. The expectation is for the reason why we prepare—the coming of Jesus.
We do that two ways… the celebration we know as Christmas or the Christ “Mass” to commemorate, to celebrate and give thanks to God for His incarnation and birth as God the Son in the person of Jesus... but also we prepare in anticipation of Jesus’ return in glory to judge the world. To complete what was begun with His incarnation and birth.
That’s God’s promise to us. Jesus is God’s promise to us… Jesus as God the Son is the giver of the Promise… as the incarnate son is the Promise… and as the Son of Man coming in final glory and victory is the fulfillment of the Promise. Jesus is the Promise.
During these past weeks of Advent we’ve been looking at some of the different expressions of God’s promises to us and how they have been fulfilled in Jesus. We’ve seen that the Promise is Hope… that the Promise is Love… and this week we will explore how the Promise is peace.
Peace is sometimes defined as the state prevailing in the absence of war or the absence of hostility. Dictionaries define it as: 1 : a state of tranquility or quiet: as a : freedom from civil disturbance b : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom <a breach of the peace> 2 : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions 3 : harmony in personal relations 4 a : a state or period of mutual concord between governments b : a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity
Over the past 8 years or so peace has been a reoccurring issue for us as Americans… this is especially true for many that have family members serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The definitions that we heard have particular meaning in that case. But when they stop to consider the number of wars that have occurred in human history… some folks stop and think, “Are God’s promises of peace valid? Are they true? (ex. Psalms 72, 85, 147; Isaiah 9:6-7; 32:1-10; 54)
The basic problem we face here is trying to understand God’s promises from a human or worldly point of view. Here’s how I understand this… It means that we as a sinful and fallen people are ruled by the attitude, logic, mindset, pattern of thinking of the world that defines victory in terms of overcoming our adversaries by force (most often expressed in violence) and that victory ensures peace.
Now force does not need to be physical… there can be economic force, political force, psychological force… all of those might be considered non-violent in physical terms but have the effect of violence if they are understood as not being entered into freely; in other words coercion or threat.
Now consequences to our choices should not be understood as threat or coercion. In any human relationship there should be an element of cooperation and or incentive for certain behavior. For instance; I’m trying to help our kids understand that there are consequences for their behavior… that the choice they make in cleaning their room or the way they treat each other can have blessings… or not.
In a perfect world our relationships would always be mutually beneficial and motivated purely by selfless desire to make sure that everyone’s needs are met including our own. But we don’t live in the perfect world. One of the interesting things that I noticed when I read those definitions was that all of them talk about peace as a state of existence that is dependent upon how well we as people can get along. That’s always the rub isn’t it? That we need to agree on some common core values and purposes—hey we have a hard enough time doing that in the church and sometimes in our own families.
Look back over the course of human history. Our nature, our cultures and societies are not only marked by constant reoccurring warfare of one kind or another, but they have been shaped by it as well. Our character as human beings is competitive in nature and that has been understood and explained as a self-defense mechanism… in Darwin’s terms, it is survival of the fittest. The stronger and more adaptable an organism was thought to be the better its chances of surviving and multiplying. Now whether we believe in evolution or not we all understand the principle and can see it lived out on a daily basis.
Hearing all of that can be depressing. It can make it sound like there is no hope at all for us as human beings in general and as a country… even as a people. This is especially true when so many Christians around the world are being killed because they are Christians. And I say that knowing that our own past as Christians has its own share of violence and conversion by the sword.
So are we without hope? That depends upon where you draw your hope from.
You see I believe in that maxim that victory ensures peace… The questions are; what kind of victory and what kind of peace?
Listen again to the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Ephesus… (my paraphrase)
Remember at one time you were far away from God… in the way you thought and in the way you acted… your character and nature was miles apart from God’s… because you did not know or have Christ… you had no hope… But now you have been brought near to God and have received his character traits because of Jesus’ victory on the cross… because off the gift of his blood and his life… he has conquered violence and death and hostility… Jesus is our Peace… the Promise that God gave to us.
That’s why we have hope… that’s why we can look at all the violence and bloodshed and oppression and greed and coercion and threats from within our country and from without and still have hope.
We know that it doesn’t have to be this way because God has spoken his Word and fulfilled his Promise to overcome it. It’s just that the world doesn’t realize it. It refuses to listen or to pay attention to it because the world thinks that it has won. It hasn’t won… It just hasn’t realized that the victory that has ensured the final outcome has already been won and that everlasting peace is inevitable. What that means is, yes we will continue to have wars… because we will continue to have people, organizations, and governments that continue to seek and maintain power for the benefit of a very few… especially those in control of that power… and let’s be clear here that this is not a Republican or Democrat issue… it’s not about one administration or another or one country or another… it goes much deeper than that. It is a human issue… a condition of our spiritual health…
Jesus himself warns us of how deeply rooted it is in our human nature when he answered a question about the coming of the Son of Man… Jesus’ own return in final victory and glory… it’s from the Gospel of Mark
Mark 13:5ff Jesus said to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
As a human endeavor peace is a state that will ebb and flow…
But it doesn’t need to be that way for us as followers of Jesus. And we shouldn’t throw in the towel and not try to make a difference in the world… we are called to be peace makers.
The thing is; we need to stop looking at peace from viewpoint of the world… we have to begin to understand how God defines it and claim it for ourselves… for our family of faith… for our communities and for the world.
If God’s Peace is Jesus… and he is… then God defines victory as self-giving; and we won’t truly understand this until we come to the cross… until we come to Jesus.
You see, peace is a state… not a state of mind but a state of being… a way of living… living in relation with ourselves… with others… but it all flows from the state of our relationship with Jesus.
If we are looking for peace in our lives then we need to start with the peace that God not only promised us but the peace that God has provided—a personal relationship with Jesus.
When we, with God’s help, place our faith in Jesus, God begins to change our broken human character and nature into Jesus’. If we choose we will begin to see things as Jesus sees them… to think and reason as he does… we will begin to care more about others and trying to encourage and serve them rather than worrying about being served.
What would happen if people started to really think and act this way? So much of what we struggle with in our communities, our countries and around the world simple disappear…
Hunger? Gone. Prejudice? No more. Violence, oppression, War? Things of the past. It would be like… it would be like… heaven.
Will we ever see it in our life time? Don’t know. But I pray for it and as a church along with millions of others WE pray for it at least every Sunday just like we will in few minutes:
“Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”
We pray for Jesus’ return. For the victory that has been won in his incarnation, death and resurrection to be consummated… for every person to bow and confess that Jesus is Lord of all.
For Jesus is our Peace… it is through him that all who are far away from God will be brought near… I’ve been kind of dancing with this throughout this message… there is another way to understand or define peace… a biblical way. In Scripture peace has the primary understanding of being made or restored to wholeness.
Why do we have war and all of those negative expressions of what it means to be human? We have them because of our separation from God. We are broken and fragmented as human beings because of it. In my mind then it follows that we will not know peace, wholeness; completeness; until we know Jesus. Because Jesus is the Promise of God… and the Promise is Peace… for those near and for those who are far away.
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