A Different Peace

Luke 1:26-49

“A Different Peace”

18 December 2016 St. Andrew’s Military Chapel Singapore

            If I were to tell certain seminary classmates of mine that I was preaching on peace to military men and women of many different nations at a military chapel in Singapore, some of them would make a number of assumptions about us and the message I would preach.

            Some would expect a sermon in which I would look at the congregation and tell us we are all in the wrong profession, that violence is never the right answer and that the only Christian answer to war and the military is absolute non-violence. There’s probably a few thoughts rattling around in some of your minds about that approach and you are probably forming some strong opinions on the whole idea of pacifism and it’s place in the church and the world. I’m not a pacifist, so you don’t have to worry about that sermon today. But, pacifism has a place in the church and it is a viewpoint to which those of us in military should carefully listen. For we can learn a great deal about ourselves and our reasons for serving in the military by wrestling with those ideas.

            Others of my seminary world might just chuckle and say, “Good luck with that” thinking how do you even broach the topic of peace with a group that has been in active conflict, some even in active combat, for the last 15 years. There are many on active duty, as well as veterans, that know of nothing but combat and continuous deployments in harm’s way. I would even venture that every person here today can name at least someone who didn’t come home from the front line.

            But, I think preaching peace from a military perspective to a military audience is easier than discussing war and peace to a congregation of people who haven’t served (and their partners). Issues of war and peace, especially the drastic and stark cost of war, are things to which the members of a military congregation are all too familiar. It is something we all think about at some time or another.

            Perhaps we have pondered whether a routine underway will suddenly become an extended sail halfway across the world because someone decided to light the proverbial fuse that blew the diplomatic powder keg to smithereens. Or, we have been called in the middle of the night and told to pack our bags for an undisclosed location, leaving the family wondering what is going on and nervously watching television and waiting by the phone for any news regarding our loved one.

            Regardless of how the situation drives us to think about peace, we have all pondered what peace would mean to us directly. Personally, I am a staunch advocate of the military working itself out of a job. I’m not someone who goes around quoting Clausewitz on a regular basis, but if we are truly diplomacy through another means, then there is a way forward where diplomacy is not needed. A place where people of different beliefs, races, cultures, economic status, etc. all can be together without the thought of competition and conflict. When we reach that place, we are out of a job (as are all politicians and others involved in statecraft). I want that world, I long for that world. And, I believe that is the world for which creation groans.

            As followers of Christ, the Prince of Peace, we know not only that such a vision of a world is possible, it will happen. The victory is won and peace will reign over the word at some point. So, this Advent as we wait on Christ we are also anticipating not just his birth in the Christian story, but also on the Kingdom to come.

            However, true peace is much more than a matter of removal of conflict and war.

Today a teenage girl has just received some shocking news. For the parents among us, what would you say, how would you react if your 13 year old daughter walked in and said, “I’m pregnant?” Would her saying an angel told her the child would be the Messiah change your reaction? Would you send her off to get a psychological evaluation?

While your face and demeanor might project an air of calm, I highly doubt the true reaction to such news would be one of peace. Perhaps some anger directed in multiple directions for a variety of reasons. Extreme worry on how to care for the child, how that news would affect schooling. I would guess there would be a great deal of worry as the most prominent reaction/emotion from that news. And that is just a small snapshot of emotions and reactions from someone with a western perspective in the 21^st century.

In the first century, we’d have to add in the whole idea that Mary could be cast aside by her fiancé, her faith community, even her parents. If that were to happen, it would most likely ensure the death of her child, and perhaps even herself. I can’t imagine the cloud of thoughts swirling around in Mary’s head upon hearing the news. I can only see the chaos of her life to come as an unwed mother in the first century. And that is where I go wrong.

Mary is a pillar of peace in the midst of this chaotic storm. Mary calmly asks, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” Then, after Gabriel explains what is going on she replies, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” My response would be nothing close to those calm responses to Gabriel telling me anything much less that an unexpected child, who would just happen to be the Messiah, was on the way. Don’t we all wish for such presence and calm in the midst of chaos?

I guess it’s only fitting that the mother of the Prince of Peace was so calm during this whole process. We never read of Mary having a struggle with the whole idea of raising the Messiah. Perhaps in the back of her mind she wasn’t all that convinced he was the Messiah. Maybe she was just preoccupied with raising a normal child. While she had the typical dreams any parent has of a healthy and successful child, the main goal is to focus on raising them right.

Maybe Mary was chosen because of her ability to maintain peace in the midst of a storm. Because, even though he was God, Jesus learned from her. And we can see her peaceful influence on Christ’s life and, by extension, the life we are called to lead. Just like Mary, in his most desperate moment of chaos as he literally walked to his death and hung on the cross, the peaceful demeanor of Christ is striking. The way he calmly dealt with Pilate, the way Jesus told the disciples to not strike out against those who were coming to take him away, the loving way he dealt with Judas, all of it shows peace. Not only the peace we are called to live out, but the peace for which we all long.

On Saturday, we’ll gather here and celebrate with songs and a retelling of the chaos of the birth of Christ. The angels on high, the Magi making a dangerous journey and having to go home by another way, cows mooing, sheep bleating, a baby crying and dependent on his mother for everything. And we may forget the peace that flows through the story.

Over the years that baby paid close attention to the peaceful calm of his mother. Did God need to learn peace? Of course not, but we need to see a human demonstrate a calm, steady, peaceful presence in the midst of the chaos of life. And what a chaotic life Mary was living with the circumstances surrounding the birth of her child. It’s easy for us to dismiss Christ’s call for us to be peacemakers because Christ is God and we are not. We can never meet his standard. But, we can be peacemakers like Mary.

If we seek to find the peaceful way to make it through the everyday chaos of life, then we will naturally find the way to peace on a more global scale. Let Mary guide us and be our example for true peace. A peace that is grounded in a faith that God is with us, Emmanuel. Once we learn how to maintain peace in our own lives, then we will be the example of peace to others. Through that type of peace we will finally achieve the peace Christ is bringing where “the wolf shall live with the lamb, the nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth with be full of the knowledge of the Lord.”

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God.