Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

This evening we conclude our mid-week advent meditations to prepare us for the Peace on Earth that God the Father is poised to bring us for Christmas. Our preparation these past couple of weeks have highlighted the importance of preparation to receive that peace in the sending of the Christ Child by identifying the challenges to being able to receive that peace from the struggles we have because of our frail sinful condition. We have noted that our struggle for peace with ourselves is grounded in the gap between the persons we are and the persons we ought to be. Nevertheless, that struggle 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 while we are still here living as sinners in this fallen world. Embracing the Peace on Earth that the Father will bring at Christmas, gives you peace with yourself which no amount of hostilities can take away.

We then noted last week that our struggle for peace with our neighbor requires a different formula for dealing with the conflicts and evil we suffer at the hands of others. Whereas battling the sinful self within is the formula to draw on comfort from the Peace of God in Christ Jesus which covers our sins, no such battles are to be engaged with our neighbors when they have sinned against you. Here the Peace of God is to have a different application. Here grace is to abound not simply to you, but through you. When you forgive your neighbor, God’s peace to you extends also between you and your neighbor. . . and it benefits you in two ways. You have peace with God, and you have healing for your hurts and anger which you have generated in response to those who have sinned against you. The peace to you, is the peace through you.

This evening we conclude our preparation for God’s Peace on Earth at Christmas, by reflecting on the main struggle we have - the struggle to have peace with God. We need to clarify what this struggle is, and what it is not. First of all . . . we need to note that God is not involved in any struggle to be at peace with us. God is not the problem. We celebrate Christmas this year understanding that God has already made His peace with us on the basis of the finished work of His Son. On the basis of his universal atonement for the sins of the whole world on the cross, God is already, in Christ, reconciled to the whole world of sinners, not counting their trespasses against them as Paul declares in II Thess. 5:19. So, God is already reconciled to you. The issue is with you: can you be reconciled to God? Can you let the bleeding charity of His Son be the only basis by which you would be both willing and confident to accept his reconciliation and in turn, be reconciled to Him?

The problem of sin and sinners in this fallen world destroyed the peace that God created us to have with Him, with our neighbors, and with ourselves. Sin disrupted and in some cases destroyed this peace and has created alienation and estrangement in all our relationships. And have you not felt the effects of this as you live with your self, with others including your loved ones, and with your God? In each of our last two meditations we have noted that whatever peace we may have with ourselves and with our neighbor, it is dependent on living with the grace and peace of the crucified Christ, bestowed upon us through faith by the power of the Spirit. The same is also true with the peace we have with our Creator God. As Paul stated in our text: since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By faith God has reconciled us to Him by creating in our hearts a desire and a trust in His peace and reconciliation with us for the sake of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the Gospel that we have received God’s peace which comes to earth in His incarnate Son, and comes personally to each of us in the Gospel. It is a peace that, as we have noted, has not removed sin, either from each of us or our neighbor. Rather it is a peace that has covered our sins in the righteousness and forgiveness of Christ. The birth of Jesus signals this peace coming to earth, being worked out . . . and being promised and extended to you.

Sooo, if you have peace with God . . . you can have peace with yourself and your neighbor with the only remedy that can truly overcome the harmful alienation that sin brings to all our relationships. Sooo, get ready to receive this peace. It is coming to earth for Christmas. It is becoming incarnate in the baby Jesus, and in this baby you will be all ready to celebrate God’s peace . . .forever.

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