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Adopted into Love, God’s Chosen Family

December 9, 2007

Friday, the nation remembered “Pearl Harbor Day”, the day that “will live in infamy” as President Roosevelt described it. December 7, 1941, the Japanese, without warning, attacked the American navy at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  Naval ships had been concentrated in that harbor and the attack severely crippled American naval power and our ability to project military force in the Pacific Ocean.

It was the trigger, the immediate cause for the United States to enter World War 2, the war that nearly destroyed England, Europe, Russia, Japan, and strained American resources nearly to the breaking point.  One count shows 56,125,262 casualties world-wide. (Copyright © 1996-1999 - Hitler Historical Museum - All Rights Reserved )

Since that time, American troops have been involved in Korea. According to the “centurychina.com” web site, casualties for all nations involved in the Korean Conflict totaled about 1,563,625. Of those, 984,400 were South Korean and 169,365 were American.

We went to war in Viet Nam. There we experienced 211, 471 casualties with 47, 369 Americans killed in action. According to Wikepedia, “Documents declassified by the Vietnamese government in 1995 revealed that 5.1 million people died during the Hanoi's conflict with the United States.”

In Iraq, 3,886 Americans have been killed. Opinion Research Business (ORB) poll conducted August 12-19, 2007 estimated 1,220,580 violent deaths due to the Iraq War.

I am not a pacifist. I believe that war is sometimes necessary. But if there was ever evidence of the power of sin in this world consider the destructive power of war. If you ever doubted the reality of Evil in this war, consider World War 2 and Korea and Viet Nam and Iraq and all of the wars that we have not mentioned. When the children of God  are killing one another, you can bet your bottom line that sin is involved and the power of Evil is manifest. Of course, we always point to the other side as being at fault, that is a given in human nature.

And what does all of this have to do with the birth of Jesus? What does it have to do with Christmas?  Everything!  Let me take you back to the shepherds in the field on the night that Jesus was born.  The angels appeared and the spokes-angel announced the birth, “for unto you is born, in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord….”  And then the angels sang, “Glory to God in the highest, an on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.” Luke 2:14 (RSV)

It nearly slides by without notice. Mary and Joseph and the baby are in the Bethlehem stable. The shepherds are in the field and the angels are singing. What a spectacular sight! And the solitary word “peace” is nearly silent in the midst of all of that excitement.

The problem is obvious. Last week, we were downstairs in Fellowship Hall when a baby appeared. You would have thought that every woman in the room was iron and the baby was a magnet. Zap! There they were, clustered around that baby like hungry men going to the dining table.  They were there!  And there is Jesus in the stable and people are gathering around and who is going to stop and listen to a bunch of angels sing, “Peace on earth among men with whom God is pleased?”

And yet that is a summary of the Christmas message; glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among men with whom God is pleased. Is not glory to God central to the message and mission of Jesus?  Was his entire life not dedicated to the glory of God?

“And peace on earth among men….” If the angels are saying that Jesus is all about the glory of God then they are also saying that Jesus is all about peace. What does Jesus have to do with the harsh realities of war?  Jesus is all about peace! That is what the angels sang; peace on earth among men with whom God is pleased.”

We tend to read this with an American theological bias which means that too often we tend to miss its meaning. We think of religion solely in terms of the individual. More to the point, we think of salvation solely in terms of the individual. To say it crudely, we think that salvation is solely a private matter between God and me and it is my ticket to heaven.

Now, to be clear, salvation is a matter between God and me and it is the way to heaven. But it is more than that. My salvation has to do with the way that I live in this world. It has to do with the kind of community and the kind of world that I help to create. And if God’s Spirit of peace is alive and well in my life, then I will be a person who helps to create communities of peace and a world of peace.

The angels did not sing only of “inner peace.” They sang of “peace among men.” They sang of a new kind of relationship between women and men, a new way of being in this world, the way of peace.

Do you remember our call to worship?  We adapted it from Isaiah 11: 1-6.  From the very beginning, Christians have seen this passage as being predictive of the character of the Messiah. And how does it describe the Messiah?  In summary, the Messiah will be a person of wisdom, righteousness, justice and peace.

Listen to Isaiah 11: 6 (NIV)

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,

the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling^a together;

and a little child will lead them.                                   

It’s an image of peace, shalom. It is the residents of the world living together in harmony! It is the message and the mission of Christ.

There is a Christmas verse that we all know but don’t associate with Christmas. It goes like this: John 3:16-17 (NIV)

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,^f that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ^[1]

God gave his son, not only on the cross but first in birth and life. Why? Because God so loved the world!  The whole world, God loves. Does God love  you and me and First Baptist? Absolutely! But not only us. God gave his son for the love of the whole world, every person and every part of it.

Is it personal? Absolutely, “whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” It is very personal. But is that all?

Listen to John 3: 17: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” God sent his son to save the world through Jesus. And a part of that salvation is the making of PEACE.

Jesus himself said in the beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.” (Matthew 5:11)

Look at the cast of Christmas characters and you can see the beginnings of God’s yearning for peace. Look and see who is there.

• Zacharia and Elizabeth; and old couple, too old to have children, who become the parents of John the Baptist
• Mary and Joseph, a couple of peasants who were forced  by government to walk about a hundred miles at the end of Mary’s pregnancy
• Shepherds in the field
• Magi from a foreign country
• Angels singing in the heavens about peace on earth
• God, the main actor who invites everybody to the place where Jesus is born

And now a confession: I had to give up on saving the world a few years ago. (You may smile. It was a big disappointment.) So now I am left with only what I can do. And this is my Christmas invitation to you.

Come with me as:

We pray for peace.

We seek to live peaceably with all of our neighbors.

We treat one another with respect and kindness.

We seek justice in a world tyranny and oppression.

We follow Jesus seriously.

Mostly, we love one another as he has loved us.

Centuries ago in a time of Christian oppression, a Christian leader named Tertullian wrote about the church of his time. I think that what he wrote is the beginning of God’s peace and I pray that it will be true for us. He wrote:

It is our care for the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. “Only look,” they say, “look how they love one another. . .Look how they are prepared to die for one another.”

Therein is the beginning of God’s peace. May it be so with us.

Amen