6º of Christmas

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“6º of Christmas: Home Alone & Christ Alone”


Brimfield Faith UMC / December 24, 2010

Luke 2:1-20



FAMILY CHRISTMAS

For better or worse, Christmas is about family. Children come home from college or the cities in which they live and work. Aunts and uncles travel from afar to reunite. And grandparents gather everyone together. Christmas is one of the few times a year that we break the normal routines of our lives, stop work, and at times travel far distances to be with our families. Most of the time, this is a joyous experience, but there are times, if we’re honest, that things are so jolly. If you’re worried about family drama this year, perhaps you can relate to this… [HA CLIP #1- Disappear]

Of course, this clip is from the 1990 classic Christmas movie, Home Alone. Kevin McCallister is an eight year-old boy played by Macaulay Culkin who is unintentionally left by his family on their family vacation to Paris. Kevin awakes in the morning to discover that he has “made his family disappear.” Upon this revelation, his is filled with rejoicing. For a short time, he thinks his newfound freedom in the world is great.

Anybody ever feel like Kevin? I know I have once or twice. Kevin’s story in many ways is part of our story. We find our lives full of conflict and drama and we simply want to escape it all. We want to run and hide. If we don’t think we’re screw ups, we think the rest of the world is. Christmas time can often be a time of year when we just want to run away. It serves as a reminder of things lost, things never realized, and things yet hoped for. Christmas is supposed to be joyous but sometimes it isn’t.



GOD’S DRAMA

Did you know that God understands all of this? As we read the Scriptures, we learn that God’s human family hasn’t been without drama. Consider God’s first children, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed and got kicked out of the house. Or their first kids, Cain and Abel, talk about family conflict? Consider the first Christmas. We sometimes forget the kind of drama that surrounded the first Christmas. Mary is engaged but not living together with Joseph and winds up pregnant. The virgin impregnated by the Holy Spirit story undoubtedly didn’t go over well. In fact, Joseph was ready to put her aside quietly. I can only imagine what her own father and mother thought. They graciously agreed to send her away to her cousin Elizabeth’s house for the bulk of the pregnancy. Consider the drama when Joseph told Mary that she needed to travel the 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem at 8 months pregnant? It’s a miracle she didn’t have Jesus along the road. Imagine the conflict there was when they couldn’t find a place to stay and Mary started having contractions.

I don’t know about you, but this is comforting for me. I know that God will still be present even when the drama unfolds, whether it be Christmas or some other time of the year. God doesn’t abandon us at the first sign of drama. Instead, God knows drama and knows how to speak his love and power into it.



 

EPIPHANY MOMENTS

In the movie Home Alone, Kevin enjoys his freedom for a short period of time. He eats junk food, raids his brother’s room and generally lets loose. (As much as an eight year-old lets loose.) The temporary joy wears off when he realizes that two burglars are planning to rob his parent’s home. All of a sudden he begins to miss his parents and his family. While he enjoyed a few moments of freedom, he realizes they aren’t as bad as he thought. He realizes that he is meant to be a part of them.

I think we all have these kinds of moments in our lives, especially when it comes to faith. We wander away from our families and from God for a few moments of letting loose. Eventually we realize that we need God and the family of God. We realize that we are lost without our faith. We find ourselves in a tough spot, facing opposition and we know we need to turn back.

When we find ourselves having run away and ready to turn back, God is ready for us. Thankfully, God is always working behind the scenes to resolve the drama, to welcome us back and to usher heavenly joy, peace, and love into our lives. About halfway through Home Alone we seek Kevin’s Mom, Kate, pleading with a woman to get a ticket home to be with her son and we see Kevin realize how much he misses his family. Let’s watch that now. [HA Clip #2 Epiphany] There are two important aspects in this clip that I want to touch on.



#1.Kevin’s mom is desperate to get to her child.

The first is the how hard Kevin’s mom works to get on the flight back to Kevin. She gives us much of her possessions to persuade the woman to give her the tickets. The line that moves me is when she says, “I’m desperate… from a mother to a mother.” She is a desperate woman and will do anything. Kate’s actions reflect the heart of God for us as his children.

In Luke 15, we read three stories about God’s desire to find and rescue his children. First, a woman searches for a lost coin. Then, a shepherd looks from the lost sheep among the 100. Finally, a loving father rushes out to greet his wayward son. God is not a distant and impersonal God. God is a God who wants to living in relationship with his children. He will go to great lengths to bring us back into relationship with him.

The ultimate picture of God’s heart is seen on the first Christmas day, when Jesus enters into the world. In Matthew 1:23 it says, ““The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Through Jesus, God enters earth in the humble form of an infant. That child will grow to be the Savior of the world and the key to redeeming humanity, you and me. Jesus is the gift of God’s presence in the world. It is the desperate measures that God goes to in order to bring us back to him. God gives everything up when he sent his son to earth, thus setting the stage for a reunion of eternal significance.



#2. Kevin realizes the error in his ways and wants his family back.

The second important aspect of the clip is Kevin’s epiphany. As his mom is working desperately to get back to him, we watch Kevin, a wild eight year-old, realize that he needed his family. Kevin comes to realizes he needs his mom and dad. He realized that he had messed up and been a jerk. He was ready to change all of that. He was ready to be a part of the family once again. If Kevin’s heart didn’t change, Kate’s efforts would have been for naught. They would have been a waste. Although Kevin doesn’t realize it, we need to realize the extent to which God moved on our behalf. He wants nothing more than to reunite us to our heaven family and heavenly father.



THE REUNION

This brings us to the end of Home Alone. Early in the movie, Kevin asked Santa for his family to come home this year for Christmas. On Christmas morning, Kevin wakes up expectantly, hoping to see his family. When he doesn’t find them, disappointment settles in. What he doesn’t realize is that his mom has successfully hitchhiked all the way home with John Candy and his polka band. So the scene is set and the movie wouldn’t be the same without the final reunion. [HA CLIP #3 – Reunion]

Have you experienced your reunion with God and his heavenly family? When we decide to return to God’s family, there is rejoicing in heaven. God wraps us in his loving arms, just like Mary wrapped baby Jesus in swaddling cloth that night in the stable. The first Christmas and every Christmas is about family. It’s about our human families but it’s also about our heavenly family.

My hope is that you can have a drama-free love filled reunion with your family this year. Even if that isn’t possible, God really has set the stage for each of us to be reunited with our heavenly family. God has done all of the work. Jesus was born to guide us back to God. God started his new family in Mary, Joseph and Jesus and he invites us to join it. All you have to do is run into the Father’s open arms. This is the gift that God offers us this Christmas season. I hope you will open it and receive the blessings of heaven. May hope, peace and love fill you will joy this Christmas Eve and all year round.

Let us conclude this evening’s worship with the dimming of the lights, lighting of the candles and the singing of Silent Night.

Before we do that, let’s pray.

“6º of Love: Messiah Complex & Jesus, the Messiah”

Christmas is almost here! I hope you are finishing up your shopping and have plans to attend worship on Christmas Eve. Christmas, after all, isn't Christmas without the worship of the Christ Child. May you be filled with peace, hope, joy and love this week and all year long.

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“6º of Love: Messiah Complex & Jesus, the Messiah”
Brimfield Faith UMC / December 19, 2010
Matthew 1:18-25

GOD’S LOVE
Christmas is almost here. How many of you are done with your Christmas shopping? How many haven’t started? We are done with our Christmas shopping. Christmas shopping isn’t one of my strong suites. I pretty much have one person I am responsible for and that is Michelle. She does everyone else. The honest truth is that I’m not a good gift giver. When Michelle and I were just dating, I gave her a stuffed animal that I bought at a garage sale. I think it qualifies as one of the worst gifts ever. I’ve worked hard over the years to be better at it but it isn’t my strong suite. Giving gifts is just one way that we can show our love and appreciation to other people. I am good at showing love through words of affirmation and spending quality time.
Sometimes I wish we didn’t have to do the whole gift giving thing as a way to show our love for others. Anybody share that sentiment? Nonetheless, gift giving is an important way that we express our love to one another. We have been preparing over the past four weeks to receive the ultimate gift of God’s son, Jesus Christ. When done with the right heart, the practice of giving and receiving gifts help to reconnect us to God and his love.
This series, “6º of Advent,” has been all about reconnecting to God in the midst of a chaotic Christmas season. Each week we have started with one thing and in six degrees moved to something new. This morning, we are looking at the 6º of love: messiah complex and Jesus, the messiah. We are going to seek to reconnect with love and we seek to reconnect Christmas and Christ.

DEGREES 1 – 3
1º Messiah Complex is the belief that a person is destined to be a savior. Although it is not an official psychological diagnosis, it is a common label given to people who think they can save the world or a sports organization (no names). Many of our superhero films, such as Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, have helped to perpetrate the messiah complex myth. Messiah CompleX was also a character in the X-Men Comic Book Series.

2 º The X-Men are a superhero team in the Marvel Comics Universe. It is a series about humans that have mutated and possess superhuman powers. The series was made popular in the form of several movies. The epic struggle is against two sets of mutants: Professor Xavier and his school of young mutants vs. Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants. Magneto has the ability to control metal and in early issues of the story is accused of megalomania.

3º Megalomania is a delusional mental disorder that is defined by an obsession with extravagant things or actions. It is also marked with delusional fantasies of wealth, power, grandeur and feelings of personal omnipotence.

BARRIERS OF LOVE
As we beginning the journey through love, we should begin to realize there are barriers along the way. It probably is not news that there are even more barriers to love during the Christmas season than we might imagine. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, peace, hope and love and many times is it just the opposite. We went shopping on Monday. It wasn’t a crowded day due to the storm. The lines were short and yet there was still a man vocally complaining about the lines. He was clearly missing the point. I want to identify several barriers to love, barriers that prevent us from both giving and receiving love. While there are many barriers to love, I want to suggest three this morning that I believe are pertinent during the holiday season.

One barrier to love is unresolved anger.
When we live in relations with other people, they will occasionally do things that annoy us, bother us, and even wrong us. These feelings of injustice can produce anger within our hearts. Jesus teaches us that anger in itself is not wrong, but warns us not to sin in our anger. Anger becomes a problem when we hold onto it and fail to forgive. Forgiveness can be defined as the letting go of anger towards another person or his actions. Unresolved anger and unforgiveness can produce feelings of hatred. These feelings us hatred cause us to withdraw from others and prevent us from experiencing the love of other and God. Hatred can become all-consuming and becomes a major barrier to love.
The Holiday Season is a perfect time for unresolved anger to surface. Christmas, after all, is a time when we reconnect with family members and “loved ones.” Often, we haven’t seen these people in months. The initially reunion is blissful and then you remember why you haven’t seen Aunt Suzie. Unresolved anger and unforgiveness quickly make their holiday appearance halfway through the dinner conversation. If we are going to experience love in its fullness, we must work through our anger and frustration with other people.
In Leviticus 19:17-18 it says, “You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” The opposite of hatred is love. We move towards loving others and being loved by others by letting go of our anger and forgiving others.

Another barrier to love is pride.
Letting go of our anger and learn to forgive can be a difficult act. We often feel entitled to the anger we feel or think our unforgiveness is protecting us. The reality is these emotions are hurting us more than anyone else. If we are going to move past them, we must embrace humility. That is why the second barrier to love is pride.
At its root, pride is an over exaggerated sense of self worth. Pride is loving one’s own excellence above anything else. It is the belief that we don’t need God nor anyone’s help. A prideful spirit will alienate from the ability to give or receive love. Pride believes no one else is worthy of your love and that you do not need anyone else’s love and affirmation.
At Christmastime, an arrogant spirit will prevent you from graciously and joyfully receiving gifts. The arrogant people think that they deserve the best from everyone. When the gifts don’t come or aren’t as good as expected, they become anger and resentful. This creates a cycle in which a prideful person cannot receive love.
The first degree of the six degrees of love is a form a form. The messiah complex is delusional pride. The messiah complex isn’t just a desire to help the world but the belief that you are the only person that can save the world, help a person in crisis or fix a given problem. A messiah complex creates a lone ranger mentality that alienates a person from meaningful, loving relationships.
These are just two of many barriers to experience love. If you feel a lack of love, you probably have something blocking it. Therefore, it is important that you recognize the barriers in your own life to love. As we move to the final three degrees of love, we will be looking towards how we can receive the gift of love.

DEGREES 4 – 6
4º Omnipotence is to have unlimited authority and power to make things happen. Omnipotence is one of three ‘omni’ attributes of God. The other two are omnipresence, which means God can be in all places at all times, and omniscience, which means God has infinite knowledge and understanding of all things.

5 º Attributes of God are qualities that we associate with the God of the Bible. While there are numerous different attributes of God, in the New Testament, the primary moral attribute of God is love. In 1 John 4:8, it affirms that “God is love.” Since God is love, he gave humanity free will so that they would have the ability to choose love.

6 º Free will gives us the ability to reject God’s love and to be disobedient. This free will allowed sin to enter into the world. Without a remedy, our sinfulness promises to eternally separates us from relationship with God. Thankfully, God made a way to restore us through his only Son. When we accept Jesus, the Messiah into our hearts, we receive God’s ultimate expression of love.

RECEIVING LOVE - EMMANUEL
The final three degrees of love move away from self-centered, hatred and towards selfless, God love. As we seek to break down the barriers of love, we need to remember that God is the source of all love. To find lasting, true love one must look towards God. While we remove the barriers, it becomes important to understand the ways in which love is shared.
Gary Chapman wrote a book called, The Five Love Languages. In it he speaks about five main ways that people experience love. He lists them as: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. While I believe that God expresses his love for his children through all of these means, but I believe one is especially important to God. That is quality time.
In Matthew 1, we heard the story of Mary’s pregnancy. Listen to the words again. “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit… Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” One of the names of Jesus was Emmanuel which means “God is with us.”
God loves us so much that he wants to spent time with us. He could have just sent down blessings in the form of an abundant harvest. Or he could have just sent his Word to us in the form of the Bible. He could have looked to serve us by giving us good jobs. While he expresses his love in these ways, he comes down as Jesus and lived among us. He continues to give us the gift of his presence. There is no greater way to experience the love of God than through spending quality time in his presence. That is why we talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship. Sure we want to hear God’s affirmation and receive his gifts, but before anything else, we want to spend time in his presence. God’s desire is to dwell among his people and to fill us with his presence. This is the gift of love in Jesus Christ. This is the point of the story, to restore relationship with us, his children.

SHARING LOVE
Are you ready to enter into God’s presence and dwell in his love there? As we conclude this morning, the last Sunday before Christmas, let us be reminded there are many people in the world that don’t know Christ’s loving presence. It is not enough to simply receive God’s love, but we need to share God’s love with the world. Invite someone this week to Christmas Eve worship and to experience God’s love in greater fullness this year. The gift is for everyone and we are called to be barrier wreckers. We can knock down others barriers to God’s love through a simple invitation.
Will you invite someone to experience God’s love this Christmas? Will you help them to pull down barriers and reconnect with God?

6º of Joy: Peter, Paul, and Mary & Mary, the Mother of Jesus

What exactly is the difference between happiness and joy? How do we sustain joy in our lives? This past week, we looked to reconnect to the eternal joy of God this Christmas season.

click for the audio:
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“6º of Joy: Peter, Paul, and Mary & Mary, the Mother of Jesus”
Brimfield Faith UMC / December 12, 2010
Luke 1:47-55

INTRO
Review the series… 6º of Advent is about finding our way back to God. We get lost in the chaos of the season. We allow the world to dictate our views of Christmas, instead of determining our focus for the season. Does it drive anyone crazy that it’s Happy Holidays or Season Greetings instead of Merry Christmas? I was watching a sitcom this week and they were talking about rediscovering the meaning of Christmas. I thought it would be interesting, but the reality was they missed the point almost entirely. They allowed each character to define their own meaning for Christmas. The reality is the meaning of Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ into a dark and broken world. There isn’t much negotiating in that but the world tries. I would propose this, let’s focus on getting back to the basic in our own lives and guide the way for others to get there. Say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Kwanza, say whatever you want, but remember this season is about finding our way back to God.
This week we are reconnecting to joy and we are moving from the musical group, “Peter, Paul, and Mary” to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. We are going to break them up into two sections today. So let’s look at the first three degrees of joy now.

DEGREES ONE – THREE

1º Peter, Paul and Mary are a musical trio known for their popular folk tunes in the 1960’s. Comprised of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers there music had a strong sociopolitical commentary in politically charged era. There songs ranged in content with many successful on the charts. Some of their most famous songs include, “Puff, the Magic Dragon,” “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” and “If I had a Hammer.” [Show clip]

2º “If I had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays in 1949 in support of the Civil Rights Movement. The lyrics sing, “If I had a hammer / I'd hammer in the morning / I'd hammer in the evening / All over this land / I'd hammer out danger / I'd hammer out a warning / I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters / All over this land.” The Civil Rights Movement paved the way for African American music to gain popularity. One of those artists was rapper MC Hammer.

3º MC Hammer was born Stanley Kirk Burrell in Oakland, California. Hammer was a popular rapper in the late 1980’s to the mid-1990’s known for hits like, “U Can’t Touch This” and “Too Legit to Quit.” While he enjoyed great popularity for a short time, he filed for bankruptcy in 1996. Playing off of his sharp decline, he starred in a Super Bowl commercial for Nationwide Insurance in 2005. [Show clip]

WORLDLY HAPPINESS
The gift of God this week is Joy. While we could talk about how we move from a place of misery to joy, I want to talk about the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is a fleeting feeling. Joy is a sustaining inner state of being. Joy is divine, eternal and a fruit of the Spirit. The world has tried to teach us that we can replace eternal joy with lasting happiness. The world has tried to teach us that we can have lasting happiness if we continual pursue the fleeting feelings. When we do this, we end up in a cycle of elation and depression. We find a moment of ecstasy that is followed with moments of disappointment. Sustaining happiness doesn’t exist in the form we have been taught. Sustaining happiness is found rooted in eternal joy. Therefore, we need to stop expecting the world to sustain our happiness.
MC Hammer had a conversion experience of sorts after he went bankrupt. He is now an ordained minister who faithful follows Christ. He learned that no matter how many millions of happiness you have it is still fleeting. He realized that the moments of happiness would continue to be fleeting unless they were rooted in Christ. As we talk about moving from worldly happiness to eternal joy, it is important to recognize how we have been chasing fleeting feelings. Instead of trying new things, bigger experiences, try looking for eternal joy that will sustain and satisfy the soul. To do this, let’s take a look at the next three degrees of Joy.

DEGREES FOUR – SIX
4º Nationwide Insurance provides insurance and financial services based out of Columbus, Ohio. Insurance is a means of risk management to help account for the potential risk of loss. It has been around since the origins of human society. A legal insurance term that describes events outside of human control, such as a flood or tornado, is called an Act of God.

5º An Act of God is also a term used to attribute an event to divine intervention. The Scriptures are full of stories of when God broken into the world and acted on behalf of his people. God primary agent by which God acts in the world is through the Holy Spirit.

6º The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead and the primary agent for God’s actions in the world. In the Gospel of Luke, an angel appeared to a young Hebrew woman and told her that she would bear a son and name him Jesus. The angel explained that, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” The woman was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and she was filled with joy at the news.

ETERNAL JOY
Many people turn to things like insurance in attempts to preserve this fleeting life. It is important and even required by law that we have certain types of insurance. It helps us to reduce the risk of losing everything but the reality is that insurance cannot remove the risk of loss and the temporal nature of the world. Having life insurance doesn’t mean you will live forever. It simply ensures that those you leave behind will have means to be provided for upon your death. Having car insurance doesn’t mean you won’t get into an accident. We cannot rely on insurance or any other earthly means to sustain happiness. When our source of joy and happiness is worldly, it will be fleeting. How, then, do we find eternal, lasting joy?

Eternal joy begins in the Hope of God.
To find eternal joy, we need to build on the last two weeks of sermons. The Hope of God is the starting place to living a life full of lasting joy. The hope of God is found by clinging to your relationship with God, especially in difficult situations. One of the most important lessons I learned in my life was when I was 18 years-old. I was struggling in college classes, had sustained a swimming injury that threatened my season, and was experiencing problems with my friends. In that situation, I realized the only thing in life that couldn’t be taken away from me was my relationship with God. And so I hung onto God and he sustained me through that season of my life.
When we cling to the presence of God, we will find sustaining joy. Psalm 16:11 says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” If we can learn to draw into the Lord, we will begin to discover that eternal joy is rooted in the hope of God. Joy is deeper than an emotion. It is a state of being that begins by knowing God deeply. That state of being leads us to a place of feeling joyful and happy. If you are feeling depressed, sad or lack joy, you need to begin to remedy the situation by digging deep into God.
In James 1:2 James says, “Whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy…” Joy is not produced by the favor of one’s circumstance but by the depth of one’s relationship with God. We can indeed find eternal joy and happiness when we cling to the Hope of God through all circumstances. Sustaining joy goes beyond clinging to the hope of God.

Eternal joy is sustained in the Peace of God.
Last week, we talked about the peace of God. If we desire to be sustained in joy, we need to live in the peace of God. In order to live into the peace of God, we need to work towards well-being and wholeness through engaging in life-giving practices. One practice that I want to highlight this morning is to actively love and serve others. Often times, we lose our joy because we become to internally focused. We dwell on our own problems and struggles. Instead of simply focusing on ourselves, there are times when we need to get outside of ourselves and reach out to others.
We can do this by sharing in meaningful relationships with others. When we get depressed, we have a tendency to withdraw. To live in the peace of God and be sustained in joy, we need to stay connected to other people. At the heart of joy is loving relationships. Worldly abundance will not sustain joy but loving relationship while not without challenges have the potential to discover the fullness of joy.
Another great way to sustain joy in the peace of God is to serve others. Whether it be here at the church, downstairs with the Food Cupboard or just your spouse, it is important to serve others. Jesus said, it is better to give than to receive. I think giving to people in service is a great way to find joy. Serving produces joy because it is life giving and connects us to God and to other people.

Eternal joy fulfilled by expressing it.
As we begin to discover joy through the hope and peace of God, it is important to express it. In Luke 1, we see Mary’s response to the news of her pregnancy. She sings a song to her cousin Elizabeth. Listen to the beginning of it. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savoir, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” It is significant that Mary expresses her joy outwardly.
The Bible is replete with examples of rejoicing through singing, dancing, leaping, and other exuberant acts. David dances with joy in the streets. In Deuteronomy the Lord calls the people to rejoice. The Hebrew people are known for the dancing and rejoicing. In Nehemiah, Nehemiah calls the people to rejoice. He says, “Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Acts of rejoicing will lead to greater joy. Studies have shown that if you smile, it will make you feel happy. You don’t have to feel happy before you smile. Your body doesn’t know the difference and it will respond to the smiling. While I’m not encouraging a fake happiness, there are time when we need to call ourselves into a place of joy. We do this by rejoicing and being joyful over that which God has given us. John Wesley use to tell his preachers to “Preach until you have faith.” A contemporized translation of that would be, “Fake it until you make it.” The act of joy can indeed produce more joy in your life.

CONCLUSION
It is time to learn to live a life full of joy. There are certainly going to be difficult times, challenging times, and trying times. You might even be in that place this morning. Instead of chasing temporary happiness, I would call you to find a place of deeply rooted joy in the Lord. Out of the place of hope, live into peace and be filled with joy. Express that joy and let it be contagious. Tis’ the season to be filled with joy. Christ has saved you. Christ has given you new life. Christ brings you hope and peace. Christ will sustain you into eternity.

Let’s rejoice in that together.

6º of Peace: Bagdad & Bethlehem

This week we looked at God's idea of peace. We often living life with the feeling of incompleteness and emptiness. Often what we are missing is the peace of God. The peace of God is about wholeness and completeness and not just an absence of conflict. Listen to learn more about how to discover the lasting peace of God for your life.

Follow the link for audio. http://www.mediafire.com/file/qw9ysius02fvkzt/6%BA%20of%20Peace.mp3

6º of Peace: Bagdad & Bethlehem
Brimfield Faith UMC / December 5, 2010


1º Baghdad was built in the 8th Century by Muslims and today is the capital city of Iraq. It is the second largest city in the Arab world at around 7 million people On April 9, 2003 Baghdad fell to U.S. Forces as a part of the Iraq War. Almost eight years later, it is still being rebuilt and it continues to be a place of unrest.

2 º Iraq is located in the Middle East. While the Middle East is a largely hot and dry, there are two major rivers that run through Iraq. The land between and around the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers has, historically, been called the Mesopotamia from the Greek meaning, “land between rivers.” This land is rich and fertile, especially compared to the surrounding region.

3 º Mesopotamia is where the Garden of Eden is believed to have been. While it is impossible to verify an actual location, the Bible mentions by name the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in relation to the Garden. Additional support lies in the name Baghdad, which means “the Fair Garden.”

4 º The Garden of Eden is described in the Book of Genesis as a place of Paradise. The Garden was where God walked and was in perfect relationship with human beings. The first man and woman were named Adam and Eve. Life in the Garden was good for Adam and Eve until one tragic day.

5 º Adam and Eve committed disobedience by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They succumbed to the temptations of the serpent and allowed evil into the world. Their punishment was to be sent out of the Garden. Human beings have been trying to reconnect with God ever since. In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul refers to Jesus Christ as the last Adam because he was God’s redemption plan for the world.

6º Jesus Christ grew up in Nazareth but the Gospel of Matthew tells us his parents traveled to Bethlehem because a census had been ordered by the Emperor Augustus. Joseph, who was of the house of David, was required to return to the city of David called Bethlehem. Bethlehem is where Jesus, the Prince of Peace, was born.

THE MISSING PEACE
So we see it is possible to move from Baghdad a place of war and unrest to a Bethlehem a place where the Prince of Peace. Moving from our own place of unrest can be a struggle. More than any other means of attack I believe Satan attempts to steal our peace. For most of us, it doesn’t take much to steal our peace. Waking up late, bad traffic, a sick child, all can easily steal our peace. There are countless numbers of things that try to sneak in and steal our peace at any given time. I think many of the problems of society are caused by people seeking to find peace in their lives. We know something is missing and we will try to find anything to replace it. As we seek to move out of unrest and into peace, I think it is important that you name that which tries to steal your peace. What casts doubt into your mind? What strikes fear into your heart? What causes you to worry and fret?
SHALOM
Once we have identified what steals our peace, the next question is how do we recover and sustain peace in our lives? I believe that finding peace begins by having a vision for peace. We must have a clear picture in our mind of where we are going if we are going to get there. The directions are only helpful if you have an address or know what you are looking for. When I say we should have a vision of peace, it is important that we have a biblical vision of peace.
The Hebrew word for peace may be one that you have heard of, shalom. Shalom isn’t the absence of war or conflict, but rather wholeness and well-being. Think of it in terms of modern day Baghdad. Seven years ago, Baghdad was invaded by U.S. Forces. Bombs were being set off, guns were being fired, buildings were being destroyed and people were being killed. There was no debate. There was no peace in Baghdad. But consider this, is there peace in Baghdad today? The majority of the violence has stopped. Buildings aren’t being destroyed. People aren’t being killed, but is there really peace. If we define peace as shalom, the answer is, no, there isn’t peace in Baghdad. The city has not been restored to a place of wholeness and beauty again. There is much that needs to be restored before the city will be a city of peace of again.
God’s heart for his children is the same way. Our vision of peace might simply be there isn’t complete chaos in our lives. We picture no one yelling when we get home from work. We envision the end of the month with a few dollars left over. God’s picture is much different than ours. God sees our families filled with love, support and joy. God envisions us living out of his abundant provision. God defines peace as wholeness and well-being where we see lack of conflict and survival.
Consider God’s picture of peace for Israel, in Isaiah 11. We see a beautiful picture of what peace was supposed to look like for Israel. Listen to some of the images. The wolf with the lamb, the calf and the lion, the cow and the bear. The child will reach into the snakes den. In verse 9 it says, “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for all the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” The understanding is that God will bring peace and harmony to those things which are traditionally in conflict with one another. At the beginning of the passage, the person with peace has the Spirit of the Lord resting upon him. There is a spirit of wisdom and understanding. There is counsel and might. There is knowledge and honor of the Lord. That is a compelling vision of peace that goes beyond a lack of conflict and survival. It is marked by fullness, wholeness, and well-being.

FINDING PEACE
Peace is something that is offered conditional in our lives. While we are given freely the gift of salvation, the Lord calls us to a place of obedience if we are going to discover the peace of shalom in our lives. In Luke 11:24-26, Jesus gives an example of a person seeking peace in his life.
“When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation.”
The unclean spirits in this person would have caused great turmoil and strive in his life. There would have certainly been a lack of peace until the spirit was cast out. That peace would only have been sustained for as long as the spirits were gone. From this passage, I want to draw two ideas to help us discover the shalom of God in our lives.

#1. Peace requires cleaning house.
We have to clean out our house. Disruptions of peace come from internal actions and from external forces. Internal actions that cause turmoil and unrest are typically born out of a disobedience to the ways of God. The first order of house cleaning is internal. If there are places of disobedience to the way of God, then we need to bring them into conformity. This cannot be a legalistic pursuit, but the reality is that there are things in our lives that aren’t good for us. We know what many of these things are and we know they aren’t good for us, and yet many of we continue to do them. If we want the shalom of God, we have to stop. You cannot be a serial gossip and expect to have loving, trusting relationships. You cannot smoke and expect to have healthy lungs.
Disruptions in peace are not only internal but there are also external forces as well. People, circumstances, and events can easily cause unrest. To the extent that we can control the situations that disrupt peace, I would encourage you to eliminate them. We will never be able to eliminate outside stressors, which is why it is important to reduce internal stressors as much as possible. Nonetheless, work towards resolving conflicts and stressful situations as quickly as possible. As you work towards peace, it is important to reflect on the situations and actions that are robbing you of peace. What robs your peace that you need to stop doing?

#2. Peace requires redecorating.
As we work on cleaning our houses, it is important to redecorate. In the illustration of the unclean spirits, the spirit returns and brings along his friends because the person hasn’t filled his soul with anything else. In the same way, once the house is cleaned out, it is important to bring in new furnishings. When you stop doing something harmful in your life or eliminate a stressor, it is important that you replace is with something else. As we all know, life is full of constant stressors and we must be diligent in maintain peace in our lives. When you stop a harmful action, it creates a void that needs to be filled. Redecorating is about creating a lifestyle that pursues God.
It is important not to become legalistic about this. Creating a list of things not to do won’t create peace. God really isn’t about rules. God does have a certain way that he wants us to live. While there are some don’t do’s, God’s emphasis is on finding fullness of life. God really is about loving relationships and restoring fullness into people’s lives. God wants you to be filled with joy not keep you from having fun. This is why he sets forth a model for engaging in life.
Therefore, if we want lasting heavenly peace in our lives, we need to proactively pursue it. We need to build practices and habits into our lives that will be life-giving. We need to develop defaults that will bring us closer to God and provide the centeredness that promotes peace in our lives. Jesus teaches us to seek first the kingdom of God and all else will be added unto us. Personally, I have a list of things that I know bring me back to a place of peace. Things like reading, exercising, swimming, walking, regular prayer and devotional time all are life-giving for me. They bring me to a place of centeredness and peace in God. After all, peace is about wholeness and fullness so we need to decorate and fill our lives with things that foster that peace of God. I would encourage you to reflect then. What do you need to start doing that will bring you closer to God? What will bring goodness and wholeness into your life?

GOD’S GIFT
Finally, if you truly long for peace in your life, we must look to the Lord. In our own strength, we can only find so much peace. In fact, in our own strength we cannot discover the shalom of God. In John 14, Jesus teaches us an important lesson about peace. He says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus is known as the Prince of Peace for a reason. It is part of his heart for us to live out of his peace. God wants to give us more than worldly peace, he wants to give us shalom. He wants us to have wholeness and well-being so that we won’t be afraid or troubled. If we will clean house and redecorate, if we will live obediently and pursue God, we will be given the peace of God. Many of us talk about wanting peace, but we fail to pursue it. As we conclude this morning, I would ask a simple question. Are you ready to receive the peace of God this Christmas season? There is no better gift that God would want to offer us.

Let’s pray for peace in our lives.