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Luke 2.8-20 ‘Peace on Earth?’


This sermon was first preached at the 18:30 service on Sunday 21 December 2014.

The Message of Christmas

Has anyone here been to see (or rather, hear) Handel’s Messiah? Some of you have probably even sung in it before... Parts of it are so beautiful, especially when there is a large choir – all those people, singing together, it’s really something special.

Perhaps you don’t go in for that sort of thing, but you have been to a football match, or a rugby match. I had the privilege of going to Twickenham with my Dad a couple of years ago, to watch the England rugby team beat Scotland during the annual Six Nations tournament. Listening to 50,000 people singing Swing low, sweet chariot, the sound echoing round the stadium, sent shivers down my spine.

Now try to imagine what it was like for the shepherds, who were minding their own business, keeping watch over their flocks at night (8). Suddenly, not one or two, but a great company of angels appeared to them, praising God (13). It must have been almost overwhelming for them, incredible and awe-inspiring.

And what were they singing about? The good news of great joy that the first angel told the shepherds (10), about the birth of a Saviour, the Messiah, the Lord (11). This was the moment the prophets had foretold, the moment generations of Jews had been looking forward to, over the centuries.

And so the angels sang:

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.’

Luke 2.14 (NIV)

Those angelic words are a rather good summary of the message of Christmas: Glory to God and on earth peace.

And if I were forced to distil it even further, I would say the message of Christmas is this: peace on earth. Three, simple words – peace on earth.

Peace on Earth?

And who wouldn’t agree with a message like that? Who doesn’t want world peace? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone, if there were no need for weapons, soldiers, wars and rebellions?

One of my favourite artists, Michael W. Smith, wrote a song called All is well, inspired by the words of the angels.

All is well, all is well
Angels and men rejoice
For tonight darkness fell
Into the dawn of love’s light
Sing A-le, sing Alleluia

All is well, all is well
Let there be peace on Earth
Christ has come go and tell
That He is in the manger
Sing A-le, sing Alleluia

All is well, all is well
Lift up your voice and sing
Born is now Emmanuel
Born is our Lord and Saviour
Sing Alleluia, sing Alleluia, all is well

Michael W. Smith & Wayne Kirkpatrick
‘All is well’, 1989

The words are beautiful, the haunting tune written for a solo voice, with a choir and strings providing the backing.

But here’s the problem: all is not well. There is not peace on earth. If that’s why Jesus came – if he came to bring world peace – then after two thousand years, he has failed.

Only last week we heard the shocking news of 132 children and 9 adults massacred in a school in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Islamic State militants killed over 5,000 people in November.

Ebola has brought Western Africa to its knees.

12.2 million – yes million – people now need basic humanitarian aid in Syria. 200,000 people have been killed in that conflict over the past three years, and a further million injured. The numbers are unimaginable.

Douglas Alexander MP wrote this for The Telegraph yesterday:

In Nigeria... Boko Haram is abducting Christian women and condemning them to a life of sexual slavery... According to the International Society for Human Rights, Christians are the victims of 80 per cent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today.[*]

Douglas Alexander
Writing in The Telegraph, 20 December 2014

Peace on earth? I don’t think so. And we haven’t even looked closer to home. In the UK an incident of domestic violence is reported to the police every single minute – and only a third of incidents are ever reported.[†]

If Jesus came to bring world peace, so we could sing, ‘All is well,’ then he has failed, big time.

Looking in the wrong place

So were the angels lying? Or did they get it wrong? If the sweet little baby Jesus actually did bring peace: where on earth is it? [Look up, pause, look around, and then back down again.]

Those of you who wear glasses, have you ever turned your house upside-down looking for them, only to discover they were on your head the whole time? I’ve done that with my sunglasses, on more than one occasion!

I recently lost my church keys. I looked everywhere at home for them, including pulling everything out of my car! I couldn’t find them anywhere, because they had fallen out of my pocket here in church, so all that time I was looking in the wrong place.

If we think the angels are talking about world peace, that’s like looking for a pair of glasses already on your head, or for a set of keys that are a mile and a half down the road. We are looking in the wrong place, so we’ll never find what we’re looking for.

And actually, Jesus himself said he wasn’t bringing world peace. Before he died, Jesus prophesied to his disciples, saying these famous words:

‘When you hear of wars, and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen... Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.’

Mark 13.7-8 (NIV)

That prophecy has spent 2,000 years coming true time and again; Jesus was not born in Bethlehem to bring world peace.

So, if not world peace, then what peace did Jesus bring?

‘He himself is our peace’

To get to the answer, we need to ask ourselves a tricky question.

You see the problem we all have, is that little dirty word called ‘sin’. The problem, is the human heart.

Now I could list all sorts of sins and ask you to think about which you struggle with. But on this occasion, I won’t. Instead, I will ask you one, simple question: are you perfect?

Are you perfect? Do you always say the right thing? Do you always do the right thing? Do you always think kind thoughts, about even the people who annoy you the most?

Are you perfect? Because I most certainly am not. And I really hate that, because it pushes me away from God. Like someone who can’t sing has no place in a choir, because they spoil the beautiful sound, so someone who isn’t perfect has no place being near God. He is holy and perfect, and to be near him we need to be the same.

Except we aren’t.

And that means, we are far away from God. And it means, we are far away from each other. How often do you get something wrong, or are misunderstood? And there’s nothing we can do about it, because all our efforts, however noble, however much we struggle and strive, even getting it right sometimes – all our efforts are spoiled by that dirty little word: ‘sin’.

That’s the bad news.

What we need, is someone to help us, someone to stoop down, and pick us up out of the pit we’ve dug for ourselves. What we need, is a Saviour, someone to save us from ourselves, from our sin, someone to bring us peace, with each other, and with God.

Let me read you some words written by St Paul:

14 For he himself is our peace... 15 His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity... thus making peace... 16 and in one body to reconcile... them to God through the cross... 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

Ephesians 2.14-17 (NIV)

Who is ‘he‘, who is ‘our peace‘? Jesus. Jesus came, to reconcile us to each other, and to God as one new humanity. Jesus died on the cross, so that we might have life. As the angel told the shepherds, Jesus is the Saviour we need (11). He has come to bring us peace, with each other, and with God.

And that, my friends, is the good news, the great news, the best news you could or will ever hear.

When the angels sang ‘Peace on earth,’ that is what they were talking about. It doesn’t matter whether you are far away, or near. It doesn’t matter what you have or haven’t done, said or thought: Jesus came to bring you peace. And me. And all of us here today, and in all places, at all times. That is why the angel called it good news of great joy (10): because it is for everyone.

‘God and sinners, reconciled’

Earlier we sang my favourite carol, Hark! The herald angels sing. And what do they sing?

Hark! The herald angels sing,
‘Glory to the new-born king!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild:
God and sinners, reconciled.’

Charles Wesley (1707-1788)
‘Hark! The herald angels sing’, 1739

Peace on earth, that is the message of Christmas in a nutshell: not world peace, but ‘God and sinners, reconciled.’

That means it doesn’t matter what you have or haven’t done. That dirty little word ‘sin’? Gone, forgotten, wiped away, the punishment served and paid for by the judge himself: Jesus.

You don’t have to be perfect to be near God, because Jesus has done that bit for you. His gift to you this Christmas, is himself, and the peace he brings to all who believe in him.

Friends, a crying baby in a manger may not sound glorious, until you realise who that baby is, and what he came to do.

For that baby was God’s own and only Son, Jesus: God himself veiled in flesh, come to live and die and rise again, to bring us – to bring you – peace.

How will you respond to God’s gift of his Son this Christmas? I’m no angel choir, but as they said to the shepherds, so I say to you: come and see, come and see the Son of God, Jesus our Saviour, born to bring peace on earth.

How will you respond to God’s gift of his Son this Christmas?

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so much that you sent Jesus to reconcile us to one another, and to you. May we know your peace this Christmas, and respond to your precious gift of Jesus with all our hearts. Amen.

[*] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11306028/Douglas-Alexander-The-Government-is-stepping-back-from-the-issue-of-religious-freedom.html, accessed on Sunday 21 December 2014.

[†] http://www.refuge.org.uk/get-help-now/what-is-domestic-violence/domestic-violence-the-facts/, accessed on Sunday 21 December 2014.