Got Peace? Advent Sermon 2

Luke 1:26-38

In one Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown and his little sister Sally are talking. Sally proclaims that she has inner peace, but is really restless. She starts ranting and raving about someone she doesn’t like. “I thought you had inner peace,” says Charlie Brown. “I do,” says Sally, “but I still have outer obnoxiousness.”

What do you think of when you hear the word “Peace”? What comes to mind? Maybe you would say only, “What peace?”

Our world is a world without peace, isn’t it? The news is full of stories of war and conflict, of the horrible and evil things one human being can do to another. Conflicts rage in Sudan, Afghanistan, and Columbia. It’s no better here on the homefront. You probably heard about the Los Angeles woman who pepper sprayed another shopper at Wal-Mart to get to a Black Friday deal. There is no outer peace.

There’s a reason we are so bad at outer peace. It’s because we aren’t very good at inner peace. Our outer unrest is a symptom of a deeper problem. The monk Thomas Merton once said, “We are not at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we are not at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God.”

Today we’re read the beginning of the nativity story. The story of Jesus’ birth. It is an incredible story. A young woman—a girl, really—named Mary is engaged to be married. In Jesus’ time women were engaged when they were very young. Some scholars speculate that Mary was only 13 or 14 years old.

She gets a visit from an angel. The Bible’s word for angel is the same as its word for messenger—angels were beings who brought news. This angel is no different—he shows up and gives Mary amazing news. The Lord is with her. She has found favor with God. She will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Jesus. His kingdom will never end.

It’s an incredible story, and what I want to focus on today is Mary’s response to the angel. It is a response of great peace. Mary doesn’t fight. She doesn’t hem and haw. She says simply, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said come true.”’

We don’t know much about Mary at this point. All we know about her is found in her responses to the angel here. From these responses, we learn that Mary is a person of great peace. Young as she is, she knows that peace comes only through God.

There are three lessons for us to take from Mary about God’s peace. The first is that peace does not depend on circumstances.

It doesn’t. It has nothing at all to do with what is going on in your life at this moment. It has everything to do with inviting God into what is going on in your life.

Christian Author J. Oswald Sanders once said, “Peace is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.”

One pastor tells the story of meeting with a grieving woman at her home. Her name was Anne, and she had lost a child to death. Anne was lying on the floor, wracked with sobs. The pastor knew that Anne was a woman of great faith, so he sat down next to her and asked her one question,

“Anne, what do you know is true?”

“I know that my Redeemer lives,” she said, “and because of this I know I will see my baby again.” Peace is found in the presence of God, despite the troubles we face. God’s peace is offered to us each moment and in each circumstance.

Mary knows this. She is about to enter an incredibly difficult season of life. She will be pregnant and unmarried—a fate that could actually get women killed in 1^st century Israel. She will have to tell her fiancé, Joseph, and hope that he believes her. She will face great shame. She knows all of this only too well. Yet she says yes to God. She knows that God will be with her, and for that reason, she can step forth in peace.

Is there something going on in your life that keeps you from opening yourself to God’s peace? Are you waiting for something to change before peace can arrive? You need not wait! Invite God in.

The great evangelist and preacher D. L. Moody once said “Spread out your petition before God, and then say, ‘Thy will be done.’ The sweetest lesson I have learned in God's school is to let the Lord choose for me.” We do not steer the ship. We ask for what we need and what we want, and then we accept what the Lord has for us knowing that he is at work in our lives.

So, peace does not depend on our circumstances. Secondly, peace is active, NOT passive. Often when we see peaceful photos or art, it’s of people with a thousand-yard stare. This is not peace. This is mind-numbing, lifeless, nothingness.

Peace doesn’t mean being a doormat. Peace isn’t just saying “yes” to everything that comes your way. Peace isn’t having no will of our own. Mary responds very honestly to this angel. Luke tells us that at first she is “confused and disturbed.” This is not a woman without a brain in her head. Something strange is happening, and she wants to know what’s up.

Can you think of a time when you were “confused and disturbed?” It’s common in the life of faith. Think of the life of Jesus—at his conception, his mother was confused and disturbed. At his birth, shepherds were confused and disturbed. Throughout his life the religious leaders, young people, men, and women, were confused and disturbed by his words and his actions. Then he died—talk about confusing and disturbing! Then he rose again—talk about even MORE confusing and disturbing!

Often God unsettles us because we are not prepared for the supernatural to enter our world. We are unprepared for radical change. Yet this is what God brings—as we are taken into his story, we will face situations that confuse and disturb us. God’s way is not the normal way. To get ahead, you must sacrifice. To find freedom, you must become God’s servant. It’s crazy talk! But this is God’s way—and as we seek his peace, we must follow him.

So having peace doesn’t mean we are passive and unthinking. It doesn’t mean we don’t have doubts or questions. It means we tell God honestly how we are feeling. We ask him our questions. And then we follow. Peace is not passive.

This is an important distinction between Christianity and some eastern religions. In their quest for peace, some eastern philosophies teach that we should empty ourselves of everything—every want, every desire, every passion. Christianity teaches the opposite—that peace in God is about being filled up, engaged, exhilarated. God’s peace is an active peace.

This is why Scripture calls us to be peacemakers. Peace takes work and attention and action. It doesn’t just happen by default.

So peace does not depend on circumstances, peace is active and finally, all peace is God’s peace. There’s a beautiful passage later in the Gospels, in John chapter 14, where Jesus talks about peace. “I am leaving you with a gift,” he says, “peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”

The world cannot give us peace. It promises peace, but cannot deliver. Only God can give us peace. All peace is God’s peace. All peace comes through Jesus Christ.

So tell him of your fears and troubles. Let him know of the turmoil in your soul. And invite him in—to lead you, to love you, and to grant you his peace.

Amen.