Micah 5: 1-4; Isaiah 9: 6-7
I thought it was somewhat ironic when I asked Anne what she wanted to talk about tonight – what week of Advent we were up to, and she said ‘peace’.
I’ve just returned from having spent two months at TSA’s International College for Officers. Each session that convenes there is assigned a name, just as the same as each session of cadets at TSA training colleges for officers around the world are. We were the 211th session, and we were there while Britain commemorated Remembrance Day, the 11th of the 11th, this year in the year 2011. 211th, 11/11/11. So we were named the Peace Making Session.
And one of the highlights of the trip was joining with the Regent hall SA band and soldiers, marching through the busy London streets, beginning in Oxford Street, under police escort, all the way to the war memorial at Whitehall, where just a couple of hours before the Queen and members of the royal family and the prime minister and members of parliament had been present and laid wreaths. And there we sang and prayed and read Scripture and told the message of the Prince of Peace. And then we marched all the way back, as people on the streets clapped and took photos and video. I even saw one guy with his Ipad held up in the air capturing the images and sounds.
Blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called Sons and daughters of God it says in Matthew 5. (Repeat).
Peace makers. In our day and age, here on the Mornington Peninsula, how can we be peace makers? How can you be a peace maker?
Story – I want to take you back to the late 1930s. A young man, early teens, is talking with his older neighbour over the fence. The older neighbour, Mr Sharpe, had been a gunner in World War 1.
“How’s school, young Glenville?”
“Good” Iied young Glenville Kent, who was always getting into trouble.
“Who’s your principal?”
“Mr Mearns”
“Mearns? What, Norman Roscoe Mearns?”
“Yeah”
“Well, I’ll be! Good old “Give-my-bum-a-push Mearns”
“Who?”
“My boy, he was my captain. A little short fella?”
“Yeah. He has to stand on a box to cane the six footers at school.”
“That’d be right. I remember in the trenches, he’d need to see what the Germans were up to, and he’d clamber up on a box and try to peer over the trench. But he was too short and the box would sway around in the mud. So he’d yell to whatever unlucky private was closest, ‘Give my bum a push! Give my bum a push!’ And the private would have to hold him up as long as was needed.”
He proceeded to tell young Grenville Kent about Mr Mearns’ bravery. Now apparently no one at school knew about the principal’s war record. Grenville kept quiet about it.
Until one day, when he and a friend got into trouble, again! His friend was shorter, so Mr Mearns caned him first and sent him on his way. Then he turned to look up at Grenville. “Well, get the box!” he boomed.
Grenville put it near his desk, then stood there.
“Well, what are you looking at, Kent? What are you waiting for?”
Young Grenville had nothing to lose, so he took a punt.
“The box, sir. I was just wondering, should I give your bum a push?”
The principal’s face sagged and he dropped the cane. “Where did you hear that?”
He sat on the desk and yarned to young Grenville Kent for an hour about the war, about fear and courage, about losing comrades, about discipline, obedience, respect. He spoke man to man, forgetting all about the caning.
Young Grenville looked up to little Mr Mearns after that and behaved impeccably at his school – he understood him now, and he didn’t want to let him down.
War and conflict comes from a quest for power. War and conflict is selfish. It says, “I want what you have, and I’m prepared to fight you for it.” It says, “You did this to me, but I want to be more powerful than you, so I will fight back harder.” War and conflict is about trying to prove to be better than someone else, stronger than someone else, more powerful than someone else.
But peace – peace comes through understanding. Peace comes when you take the time to listen to another person, when we make the effort to see where they are coming from, peace comes when you are able to walk in another’s shoes and understand their battles and struggles. Peace comes through humility. Philippians 2: 3 – ‘Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself.’
Can you see why in Isaiah, prophesying of the coming of Jesus – one of the titles assigned was Prince of Peace? Understanding. Empathy. Humility. Listening to the stories of others.
If you want to work for peace, you want to be a peacemaker, start with these principles.
But from my experience, these things are really hard to do if you have no peace in your own heart. We always pray for peace in the world, but many of us have no peace either in our own lives, or in our relationships. Being a peace maker - it starts with you – your relationships, your actions, your heart.
And this is why Jesus is the Prince of Peace – because He can bring peace to your heart, to your life.
Recall Bible story – Luke 8: 26-35
The story of a demented man, a tormented man. Naked, wild, living amongst the caves, his madness separating him from society. Tormented, full of inner demons. His mind in turmoil. He was a prisoner. Chained. Bound. But his wildness was so severe, in fits of rage and desperation, he would lash out so violently that he would break the chains, and flee into the desert.
Can you picture him?
No peace. Not a moments peace. His thoughts a jumble of fear, and anger, and anxiety, and sadness, and loneliness. He couldn’t think straight, gripped by inner demons.
Can you resonate with him?
And he meets Jesus Christ – the Son of the Most High God. And when the people of the local town went to the beach to see what had happened, this man of turmoil is sitting, sitting calmly, peacefully, at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind. At peace. At peace. Inner peace. A peaceful heart restored. All fear – gone. All anxiety – gone. All anger – gone. All desperation – gone. Peace. Peace. Ahh!
He’d met with Jesus, the Prince of Peace. And his own heart and mind were at rest, full of peace.
A nurse on night duty in a Salvation Army hospital spoke to a lady due for surgery the next morning, for whom not much chance was given. The lady knew it, and was frightened, anxious.
“Pray for strength” suggested the nurse.
“God’s not answering any of my prayers” she replied. The nurse encouraged her anyway.
During the night she went into the lady’s darkened room carrying her flashlight to see if the lady was OK. But suddenly she got called away. Next morning, a most extraordinary change had come over this lady, no longer frightened at all. She seemed completely at peace.
“I prayed, and God gave me a sign. I’m going to be alright”
A sign? Asked the nurse.
“I saw a light”, the lady whispered, “and in the centre of the light, a cross, on the wall at the foot of my bed”.
Then she was whisked away to surgery, smiling, peaceful.
The nurse checked the blankets, and found what she was looking for – her flashlight. A week earlier she’d dropped it, and had mended it with a tiny cross of tape. That night she must have put it down on the lady’s bed, and half-buried in the blankets, it must have projected a circle of light.
Did the patient recover? You bet. Her prayers had been answered. The light had come.
Yes, we know, don’t we - the light has come. Jesus Christ – born in Bethlehem. No more we walk in darkness – the light has come!
No more do we need to live lives of fear, lives of anxiety, lives of turmoil, lives of anger and violence, lives of distress and sadness and loneliness and confusion. No more do we need to just put up with the inner demons that suck the joy out of life.
Because the light has come. The prince of peace has come and lived among us, and died for us, and rose again, and sent his Holy Spirit, so that we can be free. So that we can live lives of peace. So that from that peace, we can then become peace makers in the world. This is at the heart of the Christmas story. Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth. Peace on earth. Peace in every heart that sits at the feet of Jesus.
Last Modified on 15/12/2011 12:32