Peace With God

 “Peace With God”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sun, Dec 1, 2019

Text: Romans 5:1-2,11

Welcome, friends.  My name is Brad and I’m part of the teaching and leadership team here at Jericho Ridge.  I don’t know about you, but we are getting a lot of Christmas Cards in the mail this year. Don’t hear what I’m not saying: This is not a guilt trip for those who haven’t sent one – we haven’t sent you one either – it’s been a bit crazy this December!  But I’ve been tracking one of the common phrases that sometimes gets put onto Christmas Cards and I’m noticing a pattern.  It’s around the phrase “Peace on Earth”, which is a pretty common Christmas card sentiment and is also the theme we are exploring here this December around Jericho Ridge. 

Cards that have the phrase “peace on earth” on them seem to generally have a sense of serenity.  There’s a lot of nature scenes.  There are Lots of doves, the dove being the symbol of peace.  There’s some that take a more humorous approach – like this one.  Where, after his one day of working per calendar year, Santa goes somewhere hot and sunny and puts his feet in the sand and his tush into a hammock.  He needs to get away from all the stress in the workshop so he can experience peace. 

Then there are the family photo Christmas cards that tell me how peaceful other people’s families are.  Look at this one (not of a Jericho-connected family – this is just off the Google)… Look at how peaceful these people look wearing ties and dresses at the beach!!  Their image management is pretty amazing – at that moment they may have been peaceful but if some of us sent out Christmas cards with a photo that described the tone in our homes this season, they might be titled “there is no peace on earth” and look a bit more like this couple. 

So what do we do with the phrase that the angels declared over that first Christmas “peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased?!”  Can you and I experience this peace in the midst of the chaos of December? 

Well, at the start of Dec we noted that while peace on Christmas cards looks effortless and easy, that just simply isn’t congruent with reality.  PEACE is actually something that you work hard at.  It isn’t easy!

Pope Paul VI once said that “if you want peace, work for justice”.  In other words, peace doesn’t just mystically pop into existence in our world.  We have to contend for it, to work hard at it and to guard and maintain it.  This is true in our interpersonal relationships but also societally & globally.

We are called to be peace makers and peace bringers whether online or in person.  This is not an easy task in a world as broken and divided as ours but it is part of our core calling as people who want to follow Jesus.  In one of his sermons, Jesus expressed it this way: ““God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.”  (Matt 5:9). 

God’s children are those who contend for, work at, peace and justice – not only for themselves but for others.  This is why we send as team to Guatemala every spring break – because we believe that building a secure home for those who need it is a valuable and God-honouring exercise in bringing peace to others. If you are doing some year-end giving as we round out 2019, consider if your financial contributions are going toward organizations or people who bring peace to troubled places in our world.  Also consider “in what way do my actions – online and in person – contribute to or erode peace” – Perhaps you need to work a little harder are being a peace maker this season as you finish up Christmas shopping.

Then last week we explored the notion that peace is a GIFT.  Yes, there is a tension there… that peace is both something we don’t earn, we receive while at the same time, peace is something we need to contend for. 

Jesus, as He was getting ready for his departure from his 33 years of life here on earth in first century Palestine gave us as his followers a promise about this gift.  Jesus said this: ““I am leaving you with a gift

peace of mind & heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” - Jesus in John 14:27 (NLT)

Here we see that peace isn’t the absence of hostility, harm or conflict.  Peace is actually a relationship of love & loyalty with God and with others. 

Turn with me in your Bibles or on your devices to Romans 5.  There’s also a Bible inside the Jericho Ridge app if you like and I’ll also have the words up on the screen behind me.  In Romans 5, we ready about the results of PEACE, not just in our world or in our hearts and minds, but a peace that encompasses our SOULS.  A deep abiding kind of peace that cannot be rocked by circumstances or by people letting us down or hurting us. 

Romans 5:1 begins this way (I’m reading from the New Living Translation):

Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God [or let us have peace with God] because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.

This is why the angelic declaration of peace was made that first Christmas morning.  Because on that day, Messiah, the promised One, Jesus, stepped into history and brought with Him the pathway to peace with God.

2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

Have you ever experienced that feeling of standing in a place of undeserved privilege?  I can remember one flight that Meg and I took early in our marriage while we were struggling students financially.  But the airline had upgraded us to business class for one segment of the flight.  And so as they called the flight and opening boarding for elite fliers, we went and got in the lineup.  We had our jeans and backpacks and looked the part of struggling students.  So one gentleman with his expensive suit jacket folded crisply over his arm not-so-gently reminded us “excuse me – this boarding call is for business class passengers only”.  And Meg, in her jean overalls and Taiga jacket smiled very politely back at him and said “I know” and presented her boarding pass.  We had received the gift of an unearned upgrade.  And we could stand there confidently and joyfully because of what was done on our behalf.  When you get something that you didn’t earn that is a gift, and that’s what God’s peace is. 

This is what the author of Romans is saying here: that when you and I choose to put our confidence and our trust in Jesus, and what Jesus accomplished in love during his life, death and resurrection, we are put in a new place.  It’s a place we didn’t earn by getting religious frequent flier miles.  It’s a place you can’t get into on your own efforts…. It’s a place of deep peace in your soul where you know that you are part of God’s family.  You stand as forgiven, as loved by God. 

Listen as Romans 5 continues in verse 11:     

So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God. 

In 1181 in Assisi, Italy a young man named Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone was born.  He was born into a wealthy mercantile family and enjoyed a carefree childhood and a young adult life filled with endless entertainment and pleasure.  This is a picture of the house where we grew up in.  Biography.com notes that “He was informally known as Francesco and… “he was spoiled, indulging himself with fine food, wine, and wild celebrations. By age 14, he had left school and become known as a rebellious teenager who frequently drank, partied and broke the city curfew. He was also known for his charm and vanity.” 

He dreamed of becoming a medieval knight and so in “1202 [when] war broke between Assisi and Perugia, Francesco eagerly took his place with the cavalry. Unskilled and with no combat experience, he was quickly captured by enemy soldiers. Dressed like an aristocrat and wearing expensive new armor, he was considered worthy of a decent ransom, and the soldiers decided to spare his life. He and the other wealthy troops were taken as prisoners, led off to a dank underground cell. Francis would spend nearly a year in such miserable conditions — awaiting his father's [ransom] payment — during which time he contracted a serious disease. Also during this time, he would later report, he began to receive visions from God.”  In his prison cell, he began to wrestle for a sense of peace. 

He returned to Assisi a changed person.  He sold his possessions and moved out into the wilderness and began to preach and give to people who were poor.   “With his incredible charisma, he drew thousands of followers to him. They listened to Francis' sermons and joined in his way of life; his followers became known as Franciscan friars.”  In 1209 he composed a simple rule for his followers, the Regula primitiva or "Primitive Rule", which came from verses in the Bible. The rule was "To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps"

Around 1220, Francis celebrated Christmas by setting up the first known crèche (Nativity scene). He used real animals to create a living scene so that the worshipers could contemplate the birth of the child Jesus in a direct way, making use of the senses. His biographers tell how he used only a straw-filled manger (feeding trough) set between a real ox and donkey acting as the altar for the Christmas Mass.”

“Francis of Assisi died on October 3, 1226, at the age of 44. Today, Francis has a lasting resonance with millions of followers across the globe” and is one of the most venerated religious figures in history.

Part of this comes out of his lived experience.  Francis has come to know and to live in the peace of Christ.  He knew that peace didn’t come because of financial success.  He came to know that peace could, in fact, be found in a medieval prison cell.  Listen as Romans 5:3-5 continues:  “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” 

Friends, today, you can know and experience the love of God.  You can know peace with God.  A peace that we celebrate and long for at Christmas time. And you can not only know it, you can distribute it.   

There is a now-famous prayer which is improperly attributed to St Francis.  We have no record of it from his writings but around 1918, Franciscan Father Étienne Benoît printed the "Prayer for Peace" in French, without attribution, on the back of a mass-produced Christmas card depicting Saint Francis of Assisi. The linkage to Francis began.  The prayer was widely circulated during WWI and by 1927, appeared in the Quaker magazine Friends' Intelligencer, under the misattributed title "A prayer of St. Francis of Assisi.”  Here’s the English version we are now familiar with…

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy;

Ann Marie and Ron and the team are coming and are going to lead us in songs of responding to God in worship.  As they do, I want us to remember that this peace that God promises is not just an interior peace, it is designed to be walked out.  Lived out. Carried out of this place to all of the corners of the globe including Langley and Surrey and Maple Ridge and Abbotsford that do not yet know peace.  But in order to be an instrument of peace to others, you first have to have peace with God.  So as the team sings, take a few moments of quiet reflection.  Ask God “are there any areas of my interior life that are not peaceful?”  Perhaps it’s an area of worry or concern.  Prayer team is available at the back (Wally & Sylvia / Gary & Betty have name tags on – it would be a privilege to pray with you). 

Perhaps you have never taken that step to establish and experience peace with God.  Today is the day where you say “I want to be part of God’s family”.  You do that by prayer: ask God to forgive you.  When you know peace with God, you can be an instrument of peace to others. Think ahead into this Christmas week…. Is there a situation that will require you to be a peace maker / peace bringer?  Maybe a conflicted family situation.  Maybe you will encounter a person who is experiencing homelessness and you can be an agent of compassionate love.  As we sing, spend time asking God “where can be I an instrument an agent of Your peace this week?”  Because we are reminded, especially at Christmas, that the love and the peace of God that Jesus brings are not meant to be kept to ourselves.      

Benediction: From Romans 15

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit… And now may God, who gives us his peace, be with you all. Amen.