December 15, 2002: Peace &
Joy
Pastor Trent Johnson
Has it happened at your house yet?
It happened at ours this past week - our first Christmas card of the
season. It wasn't one of those
mass mailing cards from our insurance company, either.
This was a bona fide expression of Christmas cheer from people we
actually know.
Have you ever noticed how
Christmas cards tend to emphasize themes like "peace" and "joy"?
Keep an eye on the cards you receive this year.
See how many contain the words "peace", "joy" or even both.
And it's not just Christmas cards.
It's Christmas carols. Remember
"Good Christian Men Rejoice"?
"Good Christian men rejoice, with heart
and soul and voice.
Now you hear of endless bliss. Joy! Joy!
Jesus Christ was born for this!
Good Christian men rejoice, with
heart and soul and voice.
Now you need not fear the grave. Peace! Peace!
Jesus Christ was born to save!"
Or how about "O Thou Joyful"?
"O thou joyful, o thou wonderful, peace
revealing Christmastide!
Darkness disappeareth, God's own
light now neareth.
Peace and joy to all betide!"
The language may be a bit archaic, but there's no mistaking the emphasis on peace and joy.
Peace and joy as predominant themes of the Christmas tradition are not accidental. In LUKE 1, Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visited her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Upon greeting Mary, Elizabeth exclaimed in a loud voice, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!…As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy." A bit later, Mary herself proclaimed, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,…" In LUKE 2, the night Jesus was born, an angel appeared to shepherds and announced, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." Later, having seen the child, the shepherds returned to their flocks rejoicing.
This scriptural emphasis on Christmas joy is also true of Christmas peace. Consider the Christmas prophecy of ISAIAH 9:6-7: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,…[a]nd he will be called…Prince of Peace." There's also Zechariah's prophecy in LUKE 1:79 that Jesus would be born "…to guide our feet into the path of peace." Further, we have something else the angels proclaimed to the shepherds in LUKE 2: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests." Peace and joy. That these qualities are repeatedly emphasized in the Bible's Christmas prophecies and narratives tells us something. Peace and joy are at the heart of Jesus' incarnation. Jesus was born to bring peace and joy.
But let's be honest about this. As observe and celebrated by most, can Christmas really be described as a season of peace or joy? Consider yourself and those you know. Is what passes for our celebration of Christmas characterized by an overwhelming sense of peace and joy? I don't want to paint everyone with the same brush. Maybe your experience of the season involves a wonderful sense of God's peace and joy. Maybe you know people who are renewed in peace and joy every Christmas. My observation would be this is the exception, not the rule. I actually hear people talk about dreading the Christmas holiday. I hear people say they can't wait until Christmas is over. People don't dread that which brings deep, abiding peace. They don't anxiously await the end of that which inspires exultant joy. For far too many, the experience of Christmas is not one of peace, but of endless noise, activity, disruption, discord, tension, frustration and unrest. No wonder some approach the season with dread. For far too many, Christmas is not a time of joy, but rather a vague sense of emptiness, unhappiness, disillusionment, perhaps even despair and depression. No wonder some can't wait for Christmas to be over. I apologize for the negative tone, but I believe what I'm saying is descriptive of much of Christmas as experienced by our society, maybe even by us.
NO JESUS, NO PEACE. NO JESUS, NO JOY. This isn't anything new or innovative. I've seen this little phrase floating around for years and so have many of you. But maybe there's more than just clever word play here. Maybe these words are wisdom in miniature. The absence of Jesus makes any consistent, enduring quality of God's peace or joy impossible. People without Jesus may experience fleeting moments of peace or joy, perhaps even seasons of life that are relatively peaceful or joyful. But a deep, abiding quality of God's peace and joy; the sort of peace and joy that remain and sustain despite the worst of circumstances? No, without Jesus, that kind of peace and joy are nowhere to be found. Let's follow this through to a logical conclusion. To the extent we allow Jesus to be marginalized, pushed to the periphery, trivialized, ignored, forgotten or misplaced in our approach to the Christmas season, that's the extent to which we'll lack the peace and joy his incarnation was meant to bring. By the way, that's true all year 'round, not just during Christmas.
So go ahead. Buy a boatload of present for everybody and their uncle. But if presents, not Jesus, are the focal point of your Christmas, don't expect a boatload of God's peace or joy. Go ahead. String lights, decorate the tree, put out your ceramic Santa, even watch "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" with your kids when CBS broadcasts it for the 45th straight year. But if all the silly hoopla that surround the holiday becomes the focus of your Christmas, instead of Jesus, don't be surprised if you find yourself asking, "Isn't there something more?" Go ahead. Bake cookies and hams and turkeys. Make mashed potatoes and gravy. Break out the lefsa and lutefisk. Have the family over and eat and talk and laugh and do your Christmas traditions. But if family and food and holiday tradition are the primary focus of your Christmas, not Jesus, don't be surprised to find yourself straining to feel the peace and joy all these things supposedly bring with them. The fact is if anything other than God's incredible gift of Jesus is takes center stage of your observance of Christmas this year, don't be surprised at how empty and unsatisfying Christmas becomes.
KNOW JESUS, NO PEACE. KNOW JESUS, KNOW JOY. Some of you have been waiting for this and I didn't want to disappoint you. Do you think it's coincidence that in every place the Bible connects peace or joy to the Christmas event, it connects that peace or joy to Jesus? Jesus is the Christmas event! How many of you know what it is to enter the Christmas season with a heart full of anticipation and expectation, only to exit the holiday with a sense of disappointment and lack of fulfillment? When and where that's happened I can almost guarantee Jesus was not at the center of your Christmas experience.
Test me on this. Determine between yourself and God this year your Christmas is going to be about Jesus - whatever that looks like, whatever it takes, however you go about making that happen. Just see if in pursuing intimacy and communion with Jesus; in pursuing a greater knowledge and understanding of Jesus, you don't find a greater measure of the Christmas peace and joy that's eluded you in the past.
In JOHN 14:27, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you." Just a few moments later, in JOHN 15:11, Jesus further stated his intent: "…that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete." Jesus' life began with proclamations of peace and joy and in the hours just before his arrest and eventual crucifixion, proclamations of peace and joy were still on Jesus' lips. Jesus was born into this world, he lived among us, he served us, he suffered and died on our behalf, he rose again and ascended to the Father - all this that you and I might know, among other things, the genuine peace and joy of God. If you haven't figured it out yet, you will. The peace and joy of Christmas will never be found in the foolishness that's grown up around the holiday. The peace and joy of Christmas is found in Jesus Christ alone.
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