Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

This evening we begin our mid-week Advent preparation for the coming of our Savior into the world. Our theme this year is Preparing for Peace on Earth, the peace that God will be sending as his Christmas gift to all people; his Christmas gift of the Christ child to you. In a few short weeks, we will gather on on Christmas Eve night, and we will visit the cold dark hills outside Bethlehem where the Shepherds first heard the Angel of the Lord announce the birth of the baby Jesus. And with them, we will once again listen to the peals of the heavenly choir as they break out in joyous strains of Gloria in Excelsis - glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among those with whom He is pleased. (Luke 2: 14) God's peace will have arrived on earth in the form of the Christ child in a manger. But now, here in the season of Advent . . . we have some time to prepare . . . to get ready to adore, to treasure, to cling to, and to gain confidence in that coming Peace of God . . . for he intends it to bring a comforting peace for you with yourself, with your neighbor, and lastly, with your God.

What can we expect from God's coming Peace? We are often told that peace is not the same thing as a mere cessation of conflict. Real meaningful peace, we are told, requires dealing successfully with formidable adversaries in a way that produces a good outcome. If we surrender to our enemies we may then have a cessation of hostilities, but do we then have something that can be called peace? Applying this to our understanding and preparation for the peace of God on earth in the Christ child, it has certainly been true that there are not to be any untimely surrenders to the forces of darkness, nor have there been any cessation of conflict with them. That was just as true in the days of the shepherds as it is for us today. We have the challenge of facing the struggles that sin has created in our lives with ourselves, our neighbor, and our God - struggles that can threaten our awareness and our appreciation of the peace that is ours in sending of only begotten Son to this fallen creation. This evening you are invited to survey the struggle to find peace with yourself - a struggle that may well reflect that of the Apostle Paul in our text from Romans 7.

Do you fight with yourself over the gap you find between the person you are . . . and the one you think you ought to be? Do you seek to bring your life - that is, your words and your actions - in harmony with the will of God, but continually find that you don't: . . . not just don't now and then, but you just don't find them in harmony with God's will again and again? The good that you would do, you see that you just don't . . . not very often, anyway! . . . so it seems to you. And you recognize that you are at war with yourself. The Apostle explains in Romans 6 and 7 that this is a war between the you as a new creation in Christ; and the you, who like St. Paul are still, apart from Christ, fleshly old Adam - sold as a slave to sin. For some, it might be easy to conclude that these battles and strife are signs that God's peace in the coming Christ is either ineffectual or they have been excluded.

This however is not the case at all. As we mentioned before, real meaningful peace is not simply the cessation of hostilities. Indeed, in the case of our life in Christ and living with ourselves, God's peace to us in Christ, can only be confidently claimed as long as the struggle with yourself continues to go on. The gift of the Christ child is intended by the Father to give you a peace that passes all that you are understanding about the struggle you continually are having about the great gap between the person you are and the one you know you ought to be. This is a peace that does not make your struggle go away or diminish it in any way. Indeed, it may even seem to increase the struggle over time! It did for the Apostle Paul! Rather, this Advent season you are invited to make peace about the struggle you have with yourself, not bring it to an end. St. Paul lamented about his struggle: Who will deliver me from this body of death? And the answer He gives falls squarely on the coming Christ - the Peace that God the Father is sending into the world. For in Christ Jesus, for all that you should be, but aren't . . . for all that you should do and say, but don't . . . there is in Him, no condemnation. You and your struggle with your sinful self are covered with the righteousness of Christ.

What you understand more and more is the struggle and the great size of the gap . . . but that gap is exactly what the Peace of God surpasses, but does not replace. You can have peace in the struggle with yourself, indeed a peace with yourself in Christ Jesus, but not a peace from the struggle. Not yet, anyway. There will be no cessation of hostilities until the better day of the Second Coming of the Christ. Then, but only then . . . will the Peace of God on the new earth replace all hostilities - because the powers of darkness on earth, including the sinful self you are apart from Christ . . . they and it, will be no more.

So come, Oh come Immanuel . . . God's Peace on earth. I will continue to struggle with myself and so will you; but I will have the Peace of God as well that surpasses it, and so will you. For embracing the Peace of God, gives me peace with myself which no amount of hostilities can take away. Not now . . .not ever. And as for you . . . Peace!

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. A-men.