PEACE…STRENGTH TO HOLD ON
Isaiah 11: 1-10
Matthew 3: 1-12

           Our message from God this morning centers us on the idea of peace. It is safe to say that we live in a time when there is enormous “peace deficit” in the world. What I mean is that in the world today, there is a tremendous lack of peace. With this in mind, I have a question for you. It is a question I had the opportunity to ask many people this week, as I was preparing this message. The question is this: what does peace look like to you? If “peace” showed up at your front door, what would it look like? The answers I got from this question were quite varied in their specifics, but most, if not all, the answers had a common thread. The general answer was that “peace”, for those who answered my question, took the form of inner calmness or serenity. While this is certainly a widely-held image and view of peace, peace goes further than being a feeling we have. Peace is more like a state of being; it is a way of living/acting in the world. While our feelings are part of that state of being, those things we do can also be peaceful in nature.

           The biblical concept of peace embraces peace in a holistic way. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom”. Perhaps some of you have heard or even used this word. In my opinion, the closest word we have in English to matching the definition of shalom is “harmony”. Shalom was about being in harmony with God, with others, and with self. Getting right down to it, I think that is the desire of so many people in the world. They want to be in harmony with those around them, they want to be in harmony with themselves, and they want to be in harmony with God. With this harmony comes the realization of our ideas of peace.

           From the stories of Scripture, we know that shalom is a reality in the Kingdom of God. Looking at our text from Isaiah, we see images of a peaceful realm where everything is in harmony with everything else. In the text, we hear of predator and prey living together without fear or the desire to consume the other (literally and figuratively). In this realm, we see the poor are treated with dignity and justice. In this realm, we see the deep desires of humanity come to fruition. As glorious as the text sounds, and as comforting as it may be, it seems like a far-off realization. It seems that these things will happen in some distant time. While it is certainly something for us to anticipate and eagerly await, there is a silent elephant in the room; an elephant that asks, “what about today? Where is the peace for the here and now?”

           I believe that God’s desire for us is to experience shalom in this life and not just in the eternal realm of God. At times, shalom seems like such a “pie-in-the-sky” dream. All it takes is turning on the TV, opening the newspaper, or surfing the Internet to hear stories and see images of conflict in this world. Lately, the news from the Koreas reminds us of worldly conflict, political news that comes out of Washington or Springfield reminds us of conflict; maybe there is even conflict in our own lives that rears its head and reminds us of the peace deficit in the world. I find it fascinating to hear of how people deal with conflict. Some escalate conflict into violence, some work to resolve it diplomatically, others simply run away from it, hoping it will go away on its own. To be sure, there are multitudes of other ways in which we deal with conflict. One common thread these coping mechanisms share is that they all eventually fail. Human beings lack, by themselves, the ability to permanently resolve conflict and be in harmony with others, with God, or with themselves. However, God, in grace, has give to us Jesus, the Son of God, as the enduring source of peace—the One who will make it possible for humans to realize God’s desire of shalom in this life.

           While God has given us this gift, this ability to find shalom, we must decided that we desire this shalom to be a part of our life. You might be thinking, “who doesn’t want a sense of peace in their life or in their world?” That’s a good question! The reality, though, is that it is much easier to stay in conflict—with others, with God, with self—than it is to seek peace. It’s easier to stay angry, to bicker and quarrel, or to be self-seeking than it is to quest after that which brings peace. The season of Advent is all about preparing ourselves to receive the source of our peace; it’s all about making our life and the life of the world around us ready to welcome and receive the One who will make peace a reality.

           As I was reading through different translations of the Bible in preparation this week, I read a passage from Matthew 3 from The Message, a modern paraphrase of the Bible. I love how the editor paraphrased Mat. 3: 11-12; I want to share that with you now.

          I'm baptizing you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life.
          The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared
          to him I'm a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire
          within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.
          He's going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He'll place
          everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he'll put out
          with the trash to be burned.

           Two things immediately jumped out at me in reading this paraphrase. The first was the word “stagehand”. In the theatre, stagehands are the ones who get things ready for the performance. The sole responsibility to the production is to make sure that everything is ready. The second was the phrase “main character in this drama” (I love that!!). The main character in a play has everything center on them and what they do, think, feel, etc. We can take this analogy into the spiritual and practical realm. We are the stagehands for Jesus. Our responsibility is to make sure everything is ready for Jesus to do his work. Jesus is the main character that does all the work. He is the One who, as John proclaims, “sweeps our lives”. He sweeps away the conflict, the bitterness, the uneasiness, the fear, and anything else that threatens peace in our souls and peace in our behavior. If given the invitation, Jesus will establish his kingdom of peace in each of us. This is done, though, only if we allow it and if we allow Jesus to be and remain the “main character” in the production of our life.

           Through Christ, the gift of God, we are provided our hope for a brighter tomorrow and our peace, the only enduring source of harmony we could ever find and, when the world seems to be caving in all around us, our strength to hold on. So may it be, AMEN.



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