God In The Manger: PEACE Luke 2:1-20 The angels message of peace is a message for us tonight. A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. William O. (Bud) Reeves First United Methodist Church Fort Smith, Arkansas December 24, 2016
There was an unusual baby born in Palestine a few winters ago. This baby was a Palestinian Arab by birth. She was found abandoned in a roadside heap of trash hear the West Bank town of Ramallah, one of the scenes of violence in the conflict between Jews and Arabs. She was taken to a Palestinian hospital and stabilized by a group of Muslim doctors. She was named Salaam, which is Arabic for peace. Salaam found a permanent home a few days after her birth in an orphanage run by Christian nuns in Bethlehem. But her health worsened. She was turning blue and losing weight. The Palestinian doctors determined that Salaam had a hole in her heart, and her lungs were not receiving enough circulation. Lacking the facilities to do surgery, the baby was taken to a hospital in Jerusalem. An Israeli surgeon operated on Salaam for free. The nuns in Bethlehem raised nearly $11,000 to pay for hospital costs. Following the operation, Salaam made a full recovery. 1 That winter, Muslims, Christians, and Jews crossed the boundaries of their hatred and conflict to unite in caring for a little child, whose name was peace. If that s not a Christmas story, I don t know what is. We gather tonight to celebrate our hope for peace the Prince of Peace. The angel said, Don t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David s city. He is Christ the Lord. Then a bunch of them sang, Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. 2 The irony of this announcement should not be lost on us. The world was anything but peaceful when Jesus came. The land of Israel was occupied by an oppressive foreign military power who ruled by force and violence. The aftermath of this birth, if you read in Matthew 2, was bloody and tragic and horrible. In fact, the angels began each step in the narrative with the admonition, Do not be afraid. To Zechariah, announcing the birth
of John. To Mary, announcing her pregnancy. To Joseph, telling him it was OK to take Mary as his wife. To the shepherds in the fields. Do not be afraid. It was a scary time. Even the idea that God was coming to earth was a little frightening. We still live in scary times. So I think we understand this longing hope for peace. At Christmas time, and especially on this holy night, we have high hopes for peace. We hope for political peace. Like the world that Jesus was born into, our world is torn by violence and conflict, division and hatred. Terror is a daily occurrence. We pray for the victims of violence, for our soldiers, for the police, and for their families. We pray for peace. At Christmas, we hope for peace in our relationships. The illusion of holiday cheer and the images of warm, fuzzy family get-togethers make this a particularly difficult time for many people. Domestic violence and suicide escalate during the holidays. Family conflict that simmers the rest of the year seems to boil over at Christmas. Folks who because of bitterness and resentment over past problems don t get together with their loved ones are lost in a heart-breaking loneliness. We just wish there could be peace among us. But most of all, deep down, we have hope this Christmas for spiritual peace. If we could just have an internal peace in our hearts, then maybe we could deal with the external conflicts. If we just had some assurance that everything will turn out all right, then we could handle our problems. If we just knew who was really in charge, we could hang in there. Strangely enough, we have a reason to be at peace tonight! It s what the angels said: Your savior is born today in David s city. He is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors! What is it that gives us that peace tonight? What enables us to hear the song of the angels in this scary world? We can have peace tonight because there is a God. That may seem to be stating the obvious, but it is not so obvious to many people. Honestly, most of us live most of the time as if God doesn t exist. The
truth is, we have a heavenly Father who created us, who loves us, who redeems us from our sin and alienation. The birth in Bethlehem is proof that God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 3 If there is a God, there is also a Savior. God loved the world so much, he did not send a committee. God did not save us in general terms; he saved us in particular. He became a tiny baby who grew into a man who lived and taught and healed and died to save us from our sins. His name, Jesus, means God saves. His name, Emmanuel, means God is with us. His mission is to reconcile you and me to God, to restore our relationship, to renew and refresh the power of God that lies deep within us. Because we have Jesus, we are never without hope. Therefore we can have peace. We can have peace because there is a plan. God is God; He sent his Son, and he has given us a way to enter into a relationship with him. To enter into a relationship with God for the first time, or to renew a relationship that has been idle, we have to 1) Repent of our sins. Acknowledge before God that we are not what we should be and that we are sorry for not being what we should be. 2) Trust in Christ for our salvation. We accept Jesus as our Lord. Our relationship with God is based on his grace in offering it to us and our faith in believing the promise God makes. 3) Receive forgiveness. The slate is clean; the past is gone. The mistakes and messes that have kept us away from God are blotted out by God s grace and mercy. We don t have to pay the penalty for our evil because Jesus paid it all for us on the cross. Even as he was lying in the manger in Bethlehem, this was God s plan for his life, and he followed it perfectly to the end. 4) This is how we find spiritual peace. We know Christ, and we are assured of abundant life now and eternal life in heaven. The problems and pains of the world cannot take this away. Peace is the gift of Christ. It s the gift of Christmas.
How do we know this? We know it because there is a sign. The angel said to the shepherds, This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger. 4 The sign is a baby in a barn not exactly the kind of spectacular sign you would expect from the God of the universe. But God delights in making the common uncommon, the ordinary extraordinary. That s the significance of the sign. When Mary kissed her baby, her lips touched the face of God. When the shepherds looked into the manger and saw the infant struggling against the cloths that kept him warm, they knew somehow the struggle against sin had been won. God had come in the night to save the day. If you need a sign tonight, look around you. Hundreds of people will gather here tonight to celebrate this Gift. Millions of people across this country, hundreds of millions around the world will sing Silent Night together in all different languages. After 2000 years, the story is still told and believed. It must be a sign. Or eat this bread and drink this cup. Here is a sign of the continuing presence of the One who was born in Bethlehem. This is a sign of the new covenant, the blood poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you eat this bread or drink this cup, Jesus said, do it in remembrance of me. There is a God. There is a Savior. There is a plan. There is a sign. This is our story. We can know the peace of God when we participate in the story. The shepherds heard the announcement of salvation, and they ran as fast as they could into Bethlehem and searched until they found the baby in the stable. They told Mary and Joseph what had happened, and then they let loose, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen. 5 They didn t just observe the story from afar; they became a part of it. I heard a story some time ago about a single mom and her kids who became part of the story one Christmas. The woman s name was Jenny Isaacs. Divorced with two kids, she had a full-time job and two part-time jobs just to make ends meet. Jenny s son Jack was a
teenager, and her daughter Peggy was nine years old. When Christmas Eve rolled around, Jenny was too tired to cook anything, and money was so tight there were very few presents under the tree. Holiday depression was hovering over all three of them, threatening to ruin their holiday. Suddenly Peggy got a bright idea. She called the Children s Hospital and asked if there were any children who were going to have to spend Christmas alone. Sure enough, there was a little three-yearold boy named Floyd. He was terminal, but his parents lived too far away and were strapped for funds and had other children to see after. So he was all alone. Peggy grabbed a couple of her stuffed animals and off they went. Floyd had been told that Jenny, Jack, and Peggy were coming, and he was waiting eagerly. He was too weak to walk, but he wasn t too weak to be carried. So the three Isaacs took turns carrying Floyd up and down the halls of Children s Hospital. The nurses made no comments about tiring Floyd out; he was having too big of a time. So were Jenny and Jack and Peggy. Around midnight, the Isaacs left Floyd in his hospital bed, sound asleep, hugging his new, if somewhat used, stuffed toys. On the way home, the car was silent. All three Isaacs were lost in their thoughts. But it was not a sad silence. It was more like peace. The next day, they all agreed it had been their best Christmas Eve ever. About a week after Christmas Jenny got a call from the floor nurse at Children s. Floyd had died. But the nurse told Jenny that from Christmas Eve until the moment he passed away, Floyd kept his stuffed animals right by his side. For the Isaacs family, with all the Christmases that have come and gone since, no matter how abundant the gifts and celebration, none of them has ever quite measured up to that one. That is the essence of the Christmas celebration. When the manger becomes your manger, when the baby becomes your baby, when you
find your own ways of participating in the story by singing the carols or feeding the hungry or reaching out to someone or by just listening, really listening to the story in a fresh way then you will find the true meaning and the true glory of Christmas. Let me give you something you can hold on to tonight: Your savior is born today in David s city. He is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. God loves you enough to become human for you. That love is as comforting as a stuffed animal on a dark and lonely night. In Jesus Christ, God became as tangible as a teddy bear. God s love is real, as real as a bite of bread and the tart taste of grape juice. We have good news this Christmas. There is a God. There is a Savior. There is a plan. Be at peace. 1 Peace Baby Touches Mideast Enemies, Associated Press, February 25, 2002. 2 Luke 2:10-11, 14. 3 John 3:16. 4 Luke 2:12. 5 Luke 2:20.