Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:1-14
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all whom God favors.” Great quote! But what is this peace of which the angels sing? Do we really know? There are different kinds of peace. And when Jesus is born, it is exactly that question we are faced with – which peace do we seek?
There is “false peace.” This is the peace we think we find when we just shut out and ignore the difficult realities all around us. We isolate ourselves by ignoring the wars and abuse, the poverty and chaos, pretending they don’t exist because they don’t seem to affect us. It’s a peace of luxury and privilege. Most people in the world can’t find this peace even if they wanted to. But those who are living in relative comfort can choose to ignore the chaos and violence. They may feel peace – but it is a false peace. Jesus exposed the lie of this peace because in his ministry he made visible the invisible people and those who had been ignoring them had to confront the realities of their day.
There’s also “forced peace.” When Jesus was born, there was a forced peace. Octavian was the ruler who brought Peace to Rome, earning him the distinction, Augustus. He brought the famous Pax Romana: Under Octavian, civil war ended and the devastation of 100 years of bloodshed began slowly to be repaired. Rome was weary of death, weary of bloodshed, weary of destruction. And Octavian changed the course of history. That certainly earns him pretty high marks as a head of state – if he had been so inclined, and he was not so inclined, he probably would have won reelection in a land slide.
But those in authority are seldom what they seem. Octavian ushered in the Pax Romana, but the cost of his “peace” was the surrender of human liberties. As one historian puts it, “what appeared on the outside to be so satisfying – so pacifying – was vacuous. The soul of the empire was tyranny – the autocratic dominance of the many by the few.”
For some, Octavian – Augustus – was a messiah, bringing peace on earth after so much war and bloodshed. It didn’t matter that he did so using violence and oppression as the means to that peaceful end. But for the early Christians, Jesus’ very birth was a response to this forced peace. They were not bathed in the peace of Pax Romana – they were the ones who suffered for the cause. “In those days, a decree went out from Emperor Augustus…” That is how Luke sets up Jesus birth. It is a contrast to all things Augustus; a response to the forced peace of Pax Romana.
Finally, there’s God’s peace. God-as-human dives into the world of hurt and brokenness. God-as-human enters into the muck of life and feels deeply with us. God does not stay distant, indifferent to the world and its pain. God’s peace is not false peace. In the same way, Jesus, the Messiah, comes not to overthrow Roman authorities, not to work with them, and not to punish the enemies of the Jews. In short, not to use force to gain peace for the oppressed. Jesus comes to proclaim none are outside the Realm of God: Not the lowly, not the outcast, and not the enemy.
The prophet Isaiah gives us further insight into the peace Jesus brought. It is Isaiah that Jesus and the disciples and early Christians drew on for their ministry. And Isaiah brings great clarity to the difference between forced peace and God’s peace. Peace for Isaiah is a time with no wars and no bloodshed. “The boots and the bloodied garments of the soldiers are burned for good.” But this time would not come because the Israelites defeat their enemy in a violent war.
Instead, Isaiah mentions the “Day of Midian”. This reference is significant. It sends us back to when God called Gideon as the first judge. Israel was being oppressed by the Midianites, so God told Gideon to get an army together. When Gideon did as God asked, God informed him that the army was too big. God kept making Gideon scale back the army until he had only 300 soldiers. Then, instead of arming them with weapons of war, he was to give them clay pitchers, trumpets and torches.
The so called “army” surrounded the camp of the enemy and on Gideon’s signal the “soldiers” smashed their clay pitchers, lifted their lit torches and blew their trumpets. This was enough to defeat their enemy – sending them running away. God delivered Israel from a vast, murderous horde with only 300 “soldiers” and absolutely no violence.
Where is that kind of peace today? Where is peace waged instead of war? Where is the peace that comes when people choose compassion and nonviolence over the bloody defeat of their enemies? I think it’s here. Here in each of us and what we do together.
I have been thinking a lot about our church and peace lately. And I truly believe we are waging peace, and doing it in the face of a culture that says it’s not worth it and it’s not effective. Over and over I have been struck by how the leaders of this church work together. There is no doubt that we have a diversity of theological and political views in our congregation. This obviously leads to differences of opinion about the vision, future and ministry of our church. I wish you all could be in the session meetings. The elders believe the most important thing is seeking God’s will for us, and so that under girds all discussions, all disagreements, all decisions. People assume the good intentions of each other. This creates peaceful leadership that, let’s be honest, is not found in all churches.
The many ways we do ministry in Grinnell and the larger world bring God’s peace to people beset by the violence of war and poverty. We do not seek the false peace of ignorance and avoidance. We seek peace by making the often invisible visible, and then acting in compassion to change the realities that disturb and threaten God’s peace for them.
And you should be so lucky as to watch our deacons in action. The tender care they have for people in our congregation and the marginalized in our community is peace in action. They sit with, pray with, pray for and love those who are ill and lonely, those who are in crisis or have chronic needs.
I could go on. I really could; except my colleagues in ministry tell me Christmas Eve sermons should be short. But suffice it to say, we bring not the false peace or forced peace of the dominant culture. We bring God’s peace in so many ways. You may think these things are small. You may laugh at mentioning them in the same breath as war and global poverty. You would be wrong. They are not small. Certainly none smaller than the baby born in the middle of a strong Empire keeping peace through force.
Messiahs like Augustus exist today, and they tell us that in order to protect what we have, the greatest, most moral democracy on earth and the peace and security we enjoy, we are willing to do anything – including keeping this “peace” by force. Maybe President Obama was right in his speech in Oslo a couple of weeks ago. In accepting the Nobel Peace prize, he said that as a head of state, he couldn’t live by the example of people like King and Ghandi alone. No head of state, he argued, can reject the use of violence completely, because they are sworn to protect and defend their country. He might be right. That’s why the Messiah didn’t come as a head of state. The Messiah was born a child of poor peasants who had been denied humane shelter and who were being counted by the authorities in order to tax the heck out of them.
The Octavians of our day are making decrees as well. We’re told what is necessary to gain and maintain the peace, but is it the peace of God? As Christians, we have to choose. Do we really believe Jesus is the Messiah – the one who will lead us to God’s peace? Or do we look to the state for our security, prosperity, peace, salvation?
Jesus did not fall prey to the ideology that God’s Realm could only come if the enemy was destroyed. Instead peace, true peace, was born right in the middle of enemy territory offering a different way; the way of peace on earth – true peace for all. I can tell you the same thing is happening here, right in the middle of two wars and staggering global poverty. We here, as individuals and the church, are offering a different way.
Tonight we remember that when God’s peace is placed in the middle of the false and forced peace of the world, it is the beginning of salvation, of possibilities, of peace on earth for all who God favors. And we know the secret – God favors everyone. May that peace be born anew tonight – in our hearts and in our world. Amen.
