Half awake, slightly more asleep, I lie still in bed thinking about how I need to get up on a dark cold morning. I look at the clock and it says 6:55 or so. I will need to get up soon. In my half awake state I think about how since my eyes are closed and I lie still, warm under the covers that I don’t really know what time it is, because I have looked at the clock in my dream like state in my mind.
Sure, I have been realistic, I did not make the clock say 5:30am and tell my self you have an hour and a half left, go back to sleep. But maybe I will need to break down, and sit up, put on my glasses and see what the clock says in the real world, the one that everyone else in the world is more or less going by. The digital clock says 7:05 AM, and even more, now my dog is scratching at the door, scratching at the door in the real world, so I get up.
Dreams and wishful thinking can only get us so far in life and they could get you late to work or school, or even late to church. That is how it is with our dreams for peace and deliverance from sin and death, wishful thinking is not going to save us. Instead, we rely on God’s Word. Like that clock in the real world that helps you be honest with yourself about what time it really is, God’s Word has the truth about where our peace and salvation is found.
Had we lived seven hundred years before the birth of Christ, rather than two thousand years after, we could already have known where he would come, the place of his birth. We heard the beautiful prophecy from our Old Testament Reading: “But you O Bethlehem Epthrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. The little town of Bethlehem would one day become the center of the whole world.
Even more important than knowing the place of the Savior’s birth is that we know the reason for his coming. Micah tells us that too: “And he shall be their peace.”
We all want peace. Nobody just goes looking for strife, unless that person is really confused about what is important in life. But where does peace in our lives come from? Can we will it into being, like a dream? Does it come from a place we can go to, like a say a gym or a spa?
Bethlehem seems like an unlikely source of peace for us. How can peace come from a place that is so insignificant? Our reading from Micah specifies that Bethlehem was so small it was not even listed as one of the clans of Judah. It was off the map. If you were using GPS you would have to zoom in to one of the closest views possible just to see it.
Rome in contrast was the center of power in the 1st century. The Romans boasted of how they brought peace to the world because they were so powerful and wealthy no major nation could even try to challenge them.
Throughout the Old Testament God does not use the most powerful of kingdoms to deliver his saving message. It was not to the kingdoms of Egypt or Assyria or Babylon that God appeared, but to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, a nomadic family.
The promise made to Adam and Eve is that a Savior would be born who would crush Satan. The seed of a woman was prophesied as having the power to reverse the curse of our rebellion into sin. How could a young woman named Mary, a virgin of the tribe of Judah who was young and without any wealth or power, how could she deliver peace?
What abilities or resources could she have that others in the world do not? How could a woman in the little town of Bethlehem bring forward the Savior promised from ancient of days? How can someone so low and humble bring peace to the world?
How about in today’s world? Can we find peace in today’s modern world? Have we come far enough as a society to learn from the mistakes of the past? Sometimes you can find articles that describe how much advances in medicine and science help with our health and lifespan. Some advertisers talk about how social media and connections on the internet bring people together from around the world, a new community where people can experience support and love. Are we now living in a golden age of peace and prosperity?
Advances in medicine may be present, but at least in America most people have a worse diet, so we are if anything probably less healthy than in the past. And as you have probably noticed, when it comes to the internet sinful fallen people in new ways actually just multiplies sin and misery.
Some people also think today’s world is more humane and less violent than the past. Indeed during Herod’s time and Ceasar’s time there was plenty of bloodshed and violence. When news of the birth of Jesus spread to king Herod, he even went so far as to order that every male child two years and younger should be killed.
Herod did this of course in the tragic pride of thinking he could remain king if he were to eliminate the Savior who was born to the world. This is called the slaughter of the Holy Innocents. Of course there is no peace and there is no salvation in killing. And to wake up from our wishful thinking dream state, we should take note of the real world fact that millions in our nation celebrate the right to abortion. Like King Herod, self interest is used as a reason for killing. Real world statistics record that 62 million babies have been slain in their mother’s womb. And often the dreamlike rationale for these killings is that there is a salvation to be found for a mother or both parents through exercising a right to choose death for an innocent baby. There is no peace in the world with this slaughter of the innocent.
Our society also preaches a false gospel that we can find peace from within ourselves. People in a dreamlike state of wishful thinking believe that Jesus is a cheerleader for them to achieve inner peace and prosperity in life. People overlook what Jesus teaches as recorded in Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”
Our society today seeks to blame others for the evil within. But there is no peace in blaming others for what is not right in our own lives. We wont find peace coming from our own hearts.
We can find peace from nowhere other than Bethlehem. Just like the prophecy from Micah foretold, God sent his Son to be born in the little town of Bethlehem, to be born into our fallen world with all of its violence. Jesus was born so that he could die a violent death at the hands of war loving people, so that we might be saved.
Because of the birth of this baby, peace between God and man is restored. After all of the years in which our sin put a wedge between us and God, after all of the years living as enemies of God, the baby born in Bethlehem shall be our peace. He shall bridge the gap between God and man so that once again we can know Him as our loving Father and we his dear children. He was born so we can receive both the blessings of this world and eternal blessings.
From Bethlehem he brings us peace by creating in us a new heart. The human heart, which is the source of all evils and sins, is reborn in God’s gift of a Savior. With a new heart we know a peace that the world cannot give.
With the gift of the Holy Spirit we are led to Bethlehem to find the gift of Jesus. And as we look upon Jesus we see peace personified. Jesus the Son of David, the Son of Mary carried the peace of God. He brings the unity with the Father that had been lost since Adam and Eve first rebelled against God.
And we have been joined to the peace Jesus has in a very intimate way through the waters of Holy Baptism. We have been united in a death like his so that we can be united in a resurrection like his. We have peace with God no matter what we face in life. Romans chapter 8 reminds us: “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
And we also participate in the peace of Jesus through the Lord’s Supper, where we are granted pardon and peace with his body and his blood given for you.
The true and lasting peace that we seek cannot come from the powers of this world, nor from the advances of our modern world. And this peace certainly is not found in our own hearts and good intentions. Instead, peace comes as God humbles himself for us, a baby born to a young maiden in a small town. In Bethlehem God’s peace comes to us. This peace comes to us as a free gift simply by receiving the babe of Bethlehem, our Lord Jesus.
As we are on the brink of Christmas, what a wonderful time it is to ponder the real life peace and wholeness Jesus brings to our lives. “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.” That was Mary’s response of learning about the peace God was bringing to the world in the birth of Jesus. This week I urge you to read those spontaneous words of joy that Mary spoke, the what we call the Magnificat. Read those words in faith pondering in your heart how they are your words of praise and wonder as well, because the joy and the peace is yours as well in Christ Jesus.
The unborn John the Baptist, leaped for joy in the womb at coming in contact with Jesus, when Mary and Elizabeth visited on that day recorded in our gospel lesson. Already at that time the peace which Jesus brings created a living faith for John, already in the womb. May we also leap for joy at the faith Jesus builds in us today and has been building since our first contact with him in Holy Baptism. Ponder the real world deliverance Jesus has in store for you, and be glad in this great season of hope.