On Earth, Peace
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"The Blue Marble." Western Hemisphere. NASA photo. |
Luke 2:1-14
Jim Moore, writing about our passage for this
entry, begins by recounting an old Christmas legend. One day, God called the
angels of heaven together for a special choir rehearsal. He told them He had a
special song He wanted them to learn, a song that they would sing at a very
significant event. The angels went to work on it. They rehearsed long and hard,
with great focus and intensity. In fact, some of the angels grumbled a bit, but
God insisted on a very high standard for His choir.
As time passed, the choir improved in tone,
in rhythm, and in quality. Finally God announced that they were ready, but
then, He surprised them by saying they would sing the song only once and only
on one night. There would be just one performance of this great song they had
worked on so diligently. Some of the angels protested saying, “the song is so
extraordinarily beautiful and we have it down pat!” Surely, they could sing it
many, many times. God only smiled and told them that when the time came, they
would understand.
Then one night, God called them all together.
He gathered them above a field just outside of Bethlehem. “It’s time,” God said
to them. And the angels sang their song. Oh, and did they sing it! “Glory to
God in the highest and on earth peace and good will to those on whom God’s
favor rests.” And as the angels sang, they knew there would never be another
night like this night, and there would never be another birth like this birth
in Bethlehem.
When the angels returned to heaven, God
reminded them that they would not formally sing that song again as an angelic
choir, but if they wanted to, they could hum the song occasionally as
individuals. One angel was bold enough to step forward and ask God why. Why
couldn’t they sing that majestic anthem again? They did it so well. It felt so
right. Why couldn’t they sing that great song anymore?
“Because,” God explained, “My Son has been
born and now earth must do the singing!”
Once each year, Christmas comes around again
to remind us of that: God’s Son has come to earth, and now we must do the
singing! And look at how we have tried. Without question, one of the best and
most beloved parts of the celebration of Christmas is the music! The good news
of Christmas is so awe inspiring, so full of wonder, that it’s not enough to
just talk about it. We have to burst forth in song. We have to sing it.
Think of all the powerful anthems of Handel
and Beethoven and Mozart and Rutter and Bach. Think of all the beloved carols
like O Little Town of Bethlehem, Joy to
the World, The First Noel, O Come All Ye Faithful, and Silent Night.
A few days ago, I was in the car listening to
a radio station that plays continuous Christmas music, and along came Natalie
Cole’s rendition of “My Grown-up Christmas List.” I’ve heard the song a zillion
times, but—for whatever reason, for the first time—I tried to sing along with
it and the words really touched me.
In the song, singer Natalie Cole reminisces
about how, when she was young, she sat on Santa’s knee and told him about her
childhood fantasies. And then she sings about how now that she’s all grown up,
she still has dreams, things she would like for Christmas, not just for
herself, but for our very needy world. And then she offers her “Grown-up
Christmas List”:
“Lives that won’t be torn apart
And wars will never start,
And time will heal the heart.
Everyone will have a friend
And right will always win,
And love will never end.
This (she sings) is my lifelong dream, My
Grown-up Christmas List.”
The final line of that song is the longing
for the peace of Christmas, and the place to find that peace is in the miracle
of Bethlehem. When we go back to Bethlehem, we discover that real peace means
being set right in all our relationships. It means being right with God, right with
ourselves, and right with other people.
First of all, if we want to find the peace of
Christmas, we need to be right with God. That’s the starting place because that
is, indeed, what Christmas is all about. Jesus Christ came into this world to
set us right with God. Jesus Christ came into the world to save us and to bring
us back to God.
There was an elderly couple driving down the
street one day. They were listening to the radio as the man maneuvered the car
through the busy Christmas streets. As they listened to the beautiful music of
Christmas, the wife became nostalgic and said, “Herbert, do you remember how,
when we were younger, we used to sit so close together as we drove along? It
was so wonderful back then. What happened?”
“I don’t know about that,” said Herbert, “All
I know is that I haven’t moved.”
Well, Christmas comes each year to remind us
that God is not the one who has moved away from us. No! We are the ones who
move. We are the ones who drift away from Him.
One Saturday morning, a man took his
5-year-old son Christmas shopping. It was just a day or so before Christmas and
the store was packed with shoppers. The man told his son to stay near him, to
not wander off because he might so easily get lost in the crowd. After they had
shopped together for a while, he was buying something for his wife at one of
the department store counters. When he completed the purchase he looked back, and
his little 5-year-old son wasn’t there. He’d drifted off! The man began to
frantically search for his son. He called out to him; he rushed through the
crowd looking for him everywhere, but no luck. He couldn’t find him. He moved
quickly to the candy counter and then to the toy department. He must be there!
But no, he wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Just as the man was about to go into a panic,
he heard an announcement over the department store loudspeaker: “We have a lost
boy here! If you’ve lost your little boy, please come to the service desk.” The
man anxiously and hurriedly made his way there and, sure enough, there was his
lost child! The reunion was one of great celebration with lots of hugs and
words of love. They had been apart, but they had found each other again! They
had been brought back together.
Now, think about this. The one who spoke over
that loudspeaker, in a sense, served as a reconciler between the boy and his
dad. They had gotten lost from each other because the little boy had wandered
off, drifted away, but the one at the service desk got them back together
again.
In the same sense, Christ has come to earth
to get us back together with God who made us and who loves us. That’s what the
word Emmanuel means in our text: God
with us! God comes in the Christ Child to seek and save the lost. That’s what
Christmas is all about. This is the only way we can have the peace of
Christmas. The only way is to let the Christ of Christmas bring us back to the
Father who loves us so we may be set right with the One who made us.
The first step toward the peace of Christmas
is to be set right with God.
Second, we need to be right with ourselves,
if we want to find the peace of Christmas. More and more psychologists are
telling us that we can’t feel good about life and other people until we feel
good about ourselves.
Have you heard the story about the man who wrote
a letter to the Internal Revenue Service? It read: “Dear Sirs: I underpaid my
tax bill for last year. I can’t sleep at night and my conscience is bothering
me. Enclosed please find $600.” He then added a P.S.: “If I still can’t sleep,
I’ll send the rest.”
Some years ago when Rick Pitino was the head
basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, he did a noteworthy thing (at
least noteworthy in this day and age.) He suspended three of his star players
and wouldn’t let them play in one of the most crucial games of the season. The
reason: he had noticed them laughing and snickering as they watched the film of
the previous Saturday’s game.
What was so funny? He studied them and he
noticed that they were always laughing when one of the Kentucky players was
shooting a free throw, a foul shot. Suddenly, he realized what was so funny to
them.
They had tricked the referees and the other
team by slipping someone to the foul line who had not been fouled. In other
words, one player had been fouled, but another player (who was a better foul
shooter) had slipped to the line to take the shots—a clear violation of the
rules of basketball.
Coach Pitino said that the players thought it
was all a big joke, that they had put something over on the officials and their
opponents, but Pitino didn’t think it was a laughing matter so, to make his
point, he suspended three of his best players and made them sit out of a very
important conference game. “They’ll never do that again,” said the coach, “and
they’ll never joke about that again. I want to win games for sure, but I also
want my players to know the meaning of integrity.”
Let me ask you something: do you know the
importance of integrity and honesty and
ethics and virtue and morality? Do you feel good about your life right now? Do
you feel good about who you are? Let me underscore a point right now that is so
full of Christmas: the only way we can be at peace with ourselves is to welcome
the Prince of Peace into our hearts and lives. The only way we can be right
with ourselves is to be made right by Him.
One of the best gifts we can give our loved
ones at Christmas this year is to be at peace within. If we want to find the
peace of Christmas, then we must be right with God and we must be right with
ourselves.
Third, and finally, if we want to find the
peace of Christmas, we must be right with other people.
Perhaps you’ve seen those kooky headbands
that have mistletoe above them on a spring. When you wear them, everywhere you
go, you’re under the mistletoe. Do you know where the custom of kissing under
the mistletoe came from? Actually, it came from the Druids in northern Europe.
They believed mistletoe had curative power and could heal lots of things
including separation between people. So when two enemies happened to meet under
an oak tree with mistletoe hanging above them, they took it as a sign that they
should drop their weapons and reconcile. They would drop their animosities and
embrace one another under the mistletoe.
When missionaries moved into northern Europe
they saw this mistletoe custom as a perfect symbol for what happened to the
world at Christmas. At Christmas a new day dawned, it was a time of peace, a
time of healing, a time of reconciliation, a time for embracing one another.
If you want to have a “peace-full” Christmas,
go in the spirit of love and do all—in your power—to fix those broken
relationships in your life. If you are alienated or estranged or cut off or at
odds with any other person, go in the spirit of Christmas and make peace. You
may be rebuffed but you will, at the very least have made the effort. Don’t put
it off any longer. Drop your pride, drop your resentment, drop your grudges,
and go set it right. Go and God will go with you. That’s what mistletoe is about
and that’s what Christmas is about.
God comes to us in the Christ Child so that
we might be set right with God, set right with ourselves, and set right with
other people.
I pray you may find the peace of Christmas.
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"The Blue Marble." Eastern Hemisphere. NASA photo. |
(Note: this meditation was constructed from
materials I have collected over the years. I have attempted to provide
appropriate attribution, but may not have credited all sources. I apologize for
any errors of omission.)