Peace! Really?

            Jesus said to His confused and bewildered disciples, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).  Love Him, believe in Him, live for Him, or not, we have to agree with the first part of His statement, "In this world you will have trouble." We've had two thousand years to prove Him wrong, but all history has done is reinforce the reality of a troubled and troubling world, where persons as persons face trouble of a thousand kinds. 

            Also true is the fact that many people and countries and movements and governments and ideologies have chosen not to come to the One who has "overcome the world."  We'll leave their reasons to another day.  Today, however, we live in a world so filled with conflicting troubles that it is virtually impossible to imagine a world where peace is the order of the day.  Add to this the fact that just about every religion and faith-movement in the world describes themselves as people of peace. Yet, there is no peace.

            In Advent we followers of Jesus confess our belief that God has come into the world on a mission of peace.  At the heart of that mission is the self-giving heart of God who is providing for the restoration and redemption of all creation.  This provision comes to us in person of the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the One of whom it was said,       

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6, NASB)

            It is intriguing that God's entrance into human history as one of us rests in the life of a baby, Immanuel.  The location was a manger in a small farming town in the Middle East.  The day of His birth was like the day of the birth of a baby anywhere in the world—joy, celebration, music, laughter, hope. Maybe that's one of the reasons we have to celebrate Jesus' birth.  Sometimes we can't be still.  We've just got to sing and rejoice.  In fact, once in while we just need to worship as we listen to angels sing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased" (Luke 2:14, HASB).   

            But babies don't stay babies.  They grow.  So St. Luke says, "Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:52, NASB).  Jesus' destiny wasn't Bethlehem but the redemption and restoration of a world, all of it.  After all He was the "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).

As the Wonderful Counselor, the supernatural Counselor, none can rank with Him.   At Montrose church some of us do a lot of counseling, but none of us can work wonders, especially wonders comparable to the supernatural Counselor, Jesus.  Sometimes we recommend professional counselors to people but even they can't work the wonders of Jesus.

As the Mighty God Jesus doesn't only counsel us with His eternal and truthful Word, He has the power to pull off what He speaks into our lives and what most needs to be done.  

As the Eternal Father Jesus brings to us the heart of God.  We see the soft side of God, if you would.  We see God embracing us and holding us to His heart and covering us with His grace and drawing us into His very life.   In a rude and crude world where a lot of fathers are absent, the fact that God is a Father may not speak to you.  It may prompt hurtful memories that leave you empty, and maybe angry.  God is not an absentee father.  He doesn't make promises He doesn't keep.  If you ever wonder about what God is really like, take a long, long look at Jesus.  See Him hanging on a cross of His own volition because He loved you so much that He would take a bullet for you

Then it is we see that Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful" (John 14:27, NASB).  The Bible says, "having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1. NASB).  Peace is on God's mind.  Peace is in God's heart.  Peace is in God's plan.  The Wonderful Counselor, who is the Mighty God and the Everlasting Father, comes to us as the Prince of peace. In Jesus we get all that it means for God to be God. 

In my faith journey I have come to believe that of all the things Jesus' cross means, one of them is that He took the evil of man's inhumanity to man upon His own life.  He took the hatred, the anger, the hostility, the blame, the rage, and even the death that these attitudes and actions bring.  As a follower of this crucified Savior I have no ground upon which to stand except the ground sanctified by the death and resurrection of the Prince of Peace. 

All the ground is level at the foot of the cross and every one of us stands on that ground.  Every enemy who would destroy us stands beneath the cross of Jesus.  Every ideology that seeks our demise stands beneath the cross of Jesus.  We stand beneath the cross and as we experience the blood-stained earth beneath our feet, smell the aroma of sweat, blood and tears, feel the atmosphere of rage and anger, and then hear unbelievable words that stun us into silence, "Father, forgive them" we know we stand in the presence of absolute humility.  We stand on holy ground, speechless, bewildered, stunned. Our standing turns to kneeling, our kneeling turns to submission, and our submission turns to mission.

When we hear His voice, we understand our mission.  We are here to share with a world the unbelievable love of an incredible God.  We are here to be His Presence in the world, allowing Him to live through us, so that all He is might infiltrate our troubled world.  We are here to be "Peacemakers," the kind of whom Jesus said, "Blessed are they…" (Matthew. 5:9). 

It is unthinkable that we should be part of the problem.  Ours is not to draw lines and erect barriers.  Ours is to take hold of the hand of Jesus and live out the meaning of a God who "emptied Himself of all but love and bled for Adam's helpless race" (Charles Welsey, "And Can It Be," 1738)

            It is a high and noble calling to be a Peacemaker, but when your Savior is the Prince of peace, it is a calling worth pursuing. 

            God help us.  It is a calling worth pursuing.

I LONG

In 1875 Fanny Crosby published a song she called, "I am Thine, O Lord."   It was a song of surrender and a longing to be drawn more fully into the life of Jesus.  In her song she said,

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,

And it told Thy love to me;

But I long to rise in the arms of faith

And be closer drawn to Thee.

Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord,

To the cross where Thou hast died;

Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer blessed Lord,

To Thy precious, bleeding side.

            Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent me draws him" (John 6:44, NASB).  As followers of Jesus who are caught up in the amazing grace of God, it makes sense that everyday our longing for God would grow deeper and deeper.  He has called us to Jesus, and that calling has shaken the very foundation of our lives. A W. Tozer prayed, "O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more" (The Pursuit of God).

            That seems to be the deal when it comes to knowing God.  The more we know Him the more we thirst to know Him more.  So we pray, "I have heard Thy voice…I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee" (Crosby).  God has lavished His grace on us and has drawn us into His very life, where we discover God's unmerited favor, His unconditional love, and just how far He will go to redeem His creation back to Himself.

           

In chapter eighteen of book one, of his The Imitation Of Christ, Thomas á Kempis writes of those whom he called, "holy Fathers."  He says that they

[S]aw themselves as nothing and the world despised them, but in the sight of God they were priceless and beloved.  They possessed true humility, lived in simple obedience, and walked in charity and patience, and thus they daily progressed in spirit and found great favor with God.  (Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (Vintage Spiritual Classics, translated by Joseph N. Tylenda, S.J. Revised edition, 1998,) Random House, Inc., 22, 23)

There is something in á Kempis' description of these early men of Christ that resonates in my spirit.  There has been a deep hunger in my life from the age of twelve to live for Christ.  On this journey, however, I have soared and plummeted, experienced victories and defeats, lived in success and failure, embraced God with all my heart at times, and questioned God in certain moments about the harsh realities of life.  I am a very human man, seeking to find my way in the journey of faith in Christ.  Without sounding overly dramatic I really do want to live in what á Kempis calls true humility, simple obedience, charity and patience. 

            "Want too," however, hasn't gone too far in my experience.  "Want to" rises and falls.  The truth is, I do desperately need God in my life.  Outside of God's grace and mercy and patience and power, I find myself caught up in a mess of my own making.  I'm way past even blaming the devil for what I am like when I drift.  I could write a book about how to fall short of the glory of God.

            At the same time, I realize that many times I am too hard on myself.  This  has something to do with the way I was raised in the church.  At least, it has something to do with my perception of how I was raised in the church.  I grew up thinking that I would never be enough, that I needed to hate myself and yield everything to God.  That's what good Christians did. Self was evil, God was good.  No matter how hard I tried I could never measure up to the good I saw in God.  The "want to" was there but the "know how" wasn't.           

            Then, one day, I bumped into a prayer from Thomas Merton that rocked my inner world.  It still does.  He prayed,

My Lord God,I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.           (Thoughts In Solitude)       

Merton helps me to see that uncertainty is okay, that it can actually be the condition that drives me into the arms of God.  "Want to" is extremely important and creates a hunger, a desire. Perhaps God is so overwhelmingly gracious that the desire to please Him does in fact please Him. Perhaps the desire of which á Kempis speaks pleases God in and of itself.  Perhaps my hunger to live in true humility, simple obedience, charity and patience in and of themselves pleases God.   

In another place Merton gives even greater clarity to this thought.  He writes,

“In one sense we are always traveling, and traveling as if we did not know where we were going. In another sense we have already arrived. We cannot arrive at the perfect possession of God in this life, and that is why we are traveling and in darkness. But we already possess Him by grace, and therefore, in that sense, we have arrived and are dwelling in the light. But oh! How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived!”

-- The Seven Story Mountain

Isn't that a setting free thought for those of us who claim Jesus as our Lord and Savior?  "We already possess Him by grace, and therefore, in that sense, we have arrived and are dwelling in the light.  But oh!  How far have I to go to find You in Whom I have already arrived."  Fanny Crosby said it this way, "I am Thine, O Lord…but I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to Thee."

"We already possess Him by grace and…we have already arrived but I long to be closer drawn to Thee."

Let us all, regardless of where we are on the journey hear the Words of Jesus that call us home to life in His grace.

“Come to me, all you who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you 
and learn from me,

for I am gentle and humble in heart, 
and you will find rest for your souls. 
For my yoke is easy

and my burden is light.” 

-- Matthew 11:28-30

FERGUSON, MISSOURI

Like so many others today, my thoughts are on Ferguson, Missouri.  How could they not be?  This town has become front and center in the thinking of the nation because of a tragedy that took place there.

            At the heart of Ferguson there are two stories unfolding.  One of the stories is that of a young man, Michael Brown, and a young police officer, Darren Wilson.  The other story is that of how to place Brown and Wilson's story into a greater story of racism, justice, and equality.   

            As to the immediate story, Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson.  Those who support Michael Brown say that Brown was innocent and that Darren Wilson murdered him.  Those who support Darren Wilson say that Michael Brown was the aggressor and that Wilson was simply defending himself against an aggressor that Wilson described as having "the most intense aggressive face ... it looks like a demon, that's how angry he looked."

            When the Grand Jury, having looked at all the evidence, chose not to indict Wilson, violence broke out in Ferguson, and led to a night of looting and burning and destroying.  Time will tell as to where all this will lead.

            Once again our country is caught in the middle.  Who do we believe?  The witnesses that saw things the way we wanted them to be seen or the witnesses who saw things the way we didn't want them to be seen?  Are the members of the Grand jury liars bent on racism or are they twelve honest people who went where the facts took them, regardless of the fallout?  Is the Prosecuting Attorney, Bob McCulloch, a racist with a mindset to hurt the black community and enable the white community?  Is violence an accepted act when a decision goes against what is wanted in a certain town? President Obama and the parents of Michael Brown don't think so, and pleaded with people to remain calm. 

Brown's parents went so far as to ask people to "channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen."  Burning cars and buildings, looted stores and businesses in Ferguson tell us that there are some folks in that community who didn't listen very well, and in their actions disrespected the life and death of Michael Brown.

            Most people in Ferguson, Missouri, by the way, were not out on the streets looting and destroying.  If we can't acknowledge this fact, then we, as a people, might just be beyond help.  There are some people among us who have looting and destroying in their blood.  It is who they are.  Either by training or choice hostility pours from them, and they seem to rise up at opportune times to take their booty and run. 

Ferguson, Missouri is not about those who loot, steal, and destroy.  Ferguson, Missouri is about a race of people in America who have been enslaved, put down, kept back, ignored, held in contempt, treated as less than human, made unequal in their standing, and who have just about had all they can take.

            I know that the African American community in Ferguson, and all throughout the land, joined by many people of other races, will never accept the Grand Jury's decision.  Justice, for them, was not a following of the facts but, rather, reaching a conclusion that made officer Darren Wilson, guilty, and 18 year old, Michael Brown, innocent.  You might as well not try to change anybody's mind on this point.  Minds are made up, wills are set, and hearts are fixed.  In this light, what does it mean for a nation like ours to move forward?  How can there be peace and justice and community, in a world where individuals still act out of the context of their own being?  Is everybody on one side always wrong in their action because they are on that side of the issue?  Is everybody on the other side always wrong in their actions because they are on that side of the issue?    

            I need to be very careful as to how I speak about these matters.  After all I am a white middle class male.  I'm pretty sure that my take on things is different than someone whose roots are buried in the dark side of the American dream.  I'm not sure my color disqualifies me from speaking into the issue, but I am sure that I don't have a corner on truth, insight, wisdom, or knowledge. 

As a follower of Jesus Christ I think I need to be very careful as to how I process Ferguson, Missouri, as well as the greater Race issue in our country.  I am thinking that maybe for today and for a whole lot of tomorrows, a lot of us need to slow down a little bit, pay close attention, listen carefully, and bring our own lives into conformity with the One who laid down His life for all of us and who was raised from the dead to show us the reality of what it means for God to be present in the human situation.

How do we go forward, as a people, in moments like these?  Rodney King was mocked a bit when, in trying to settle the situation down after the police officers were declared not guilty in their trial for beating him said, "Can't we all just get along?"  Apparently not.  Not yet, at least. 

Still, people of good will need to stand together, pray together, seek solutions together, and walk the journey together.  We need to talk to and with each other, not at each other. 

The old Sunday School song, sung in about every church in the America when I was a kid said, "Red, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight."  Really?  Then let's start acting like it.  In the name of God, let's start acting like it.     

ADVENT STORY

           On a very ordinary night long ago a young Jewish woman went down into the mysterious depths of motherhood and came back with a child, a son, the Son of God, she said He was.   She was so convinced of it that she named Him, Jesus, "God saves."  His birth was nothing less than an incarnation.  His life would be lived so as to shake the foundations of the world.  His death offered to the world a new way of being.  His resurrection would shatter the stronghold of death.  His stunned, redeemed, energized, and God-empowered disciples would change the world. 

Interestingly enough, history does not record the date of His birth.  All history tells us is it wasn't until the early-to-mid 4th century that the Western Christian Church placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted in the Eastern Church.  Also, according to the calendar the actual day of Jesus birth was probably six years earlier than history declares.  Apparently, in the mind of the Spirit of God the date isn't as important as is its reality.

The truth is Christmas isn't on the minds of most serious believers in Christ.  They will have fun with the celebrations and gift exchanges but the true heart of the season is Advent – the Advent of God into human history.  Some will be preoccupied with the secular invasion of materialism into the storyline but believers know that even though cultures have hijacked the true meaning of Jesus' birth, they stand clueless and silly-looking when it comes to the Advent of God into human history.

True believers in Christ start their new year each year, not on January 1 but on the fourth Sunday before December 25.  The first Sunday in Advent marks the beginning of the Christian calendar.  Followers of Jesus don't rush into December 25 grabbing for presents under a tree.  Instead, we humble ourselves and worship our way through the staggering story of God that brings Him into history and all the way down into the very human story of us.  This year the first Sunday of Advent is November 30.

To know we are embraced by the self-giving, triune God of the universe, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, shocks the imagination. Advent and the Christmas event draw us to a Middle East manger where we stand, maybe kneel, in awe and wonder, stunned that God would dare do such a thing. The old Gospel song says it well,

That God should love a sinner such as I,

Should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss,

Nor rest till He had planned to bring me nigh,

How wonderful is love like this!

("Such Love," C Bishop, R Harkness © 1926, 1956, Lillenas Publishing Co.)

How Wonderful is love like this!  That God should love a sinner such as I.  As John Newton wrote, it is Amazing Grace. 

Brennan Manning said it this way,

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; he simply stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of these horrors, that the Father’s love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it.(-- Reflections for Ragamuffins by Brennan Manning)

Dr. Seuss said it this way,

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons. It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

 (Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it this way,

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!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

the Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

("Christmas Bells," written on Christmas Day in 1863, after  the death of his son in the Civil War and the death of his wife in a house fire. It was first published in February 1865)

Frederick Buechner said it this way,

“It is impossible to conceive how different things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did … for millions of people who have lived since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it. It is a truth that, for twenty centuries, there have been untold numbers of men and women who, in untold numbers of ways, have been so grasped by the child who was born, so caught up in the message he taught and the life he lived, that they have found themselves profoundly changed by their relationship with him.” 

            Gabriel said it this way,                 

“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” … Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 
                                (Angel Gabriel, Luke 1:28-33) 

            Jesus said it this way,

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:9-10)

How wonderful is love like this! 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. 

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail. 

What if Christmas…doesn't come from a store?  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”  

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right.

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" -- Isaiah 9:6