On a recent Sunday night, my wife and I went to a nearby church for their “Bethlehem Walk.” Each year, they re-create the town of Bethlehem with shops, sheep, Roman soldiers, a prophet crying out in the street who looked, strangely enough, like the pastor of the church, and a young couple with a new baby out in an animal shed.
We arrived early so we would not have to wait in line long. That probably does not make sense, since we were in line long, but not a long line being at the front of it. As we stood there waiting, after having hurried, we suddenly saw a bright shooting star streaking across the sky. It was a striking reminder of another Bethlehem and another star and other people who hurried about on a night, long ago.
When we left, that line was unbelievably long, with people rushing to get in.
Thinking about this later, I wondered how different that Bethlehem was from one so long ago. I thought about people anxiously lining up to get into Bethlehem, hoping to find some sense of peace.
That we live in a time of great anxiety is not even debatable. It is ironic that all the things we have done, invented, and produced, have not reduced anxiety at all. In fact, there is every reason to believe that our great technological advances have increased anxiety, rather than reducing it.
There was a report in the news about a bank that had some uncertainty about their computer system as the year 2000 approached. They decided to test it, and prepared overdraft statements with dates on them well beyond the year 2000. They were relieved to find their systems worked perfectly. There was no problem. Well, there was one problem. Some person in the bank mailed them out to its customers.
There was another report in the news that a recent study indicated that people who spend a lot of time chatting on the internet are experiencing increased stress and anxiety because of decreased human contact.
Here we are on Christmas Eve. We come here looking for something that belongs to a simpler time, something less complicated, something that is real and true and good. We want to recapture something we are sometimes afraid we have lost.
We come seeking faith and goodness and God. We turn back to a manger, a baby, and good news of great joy, and peace on earth and in our lives.
Throughout this Advent season, we have been thinking together about this theme: The light of Bethlehem still shines on. Tonight, we turn to this: In the darkness of anxiety, there is the light of peace.
This is the night. “The hopes and fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight.”1
This is Bethlehem for us. We are here tonight in Bethlehem, and there is a light that shines in this darkness that surrounds us. It is the light of Christ, the light of peace. In the darkness of anxiety, the light of peace still shines on us.
Saint Luke tells us there were shepherds out in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks.
When the angel of the Lord appeared to them, they were told a Savior had been born in Bethlehem. The angel said to the shepherds, “This will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And then they heard a group of angels singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.” When the angels went away, the shepherds said, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” Then the shepherds went to Bethlehem with haste.
We come to Christmas with a good deal of haste. We hurry along toward it. Before we know it, it has come and gone and we have missed it.
There is always the danger that in all this we miss the thing we are searching for most, the peace of God which comes to us only from the Prince of Peace.
From this wonderful Christmas story, we have heard tonight, let me make some suggestions for all of us who need to find the light of peace in the darkness of anxiety.
First, think about this:
I
Look for signs of God’s peace.
In a world like ours, you have to look.
The angel of the Lord said to the shepherds, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
The birth of that child was a sign of God’s love, mercy, and grace; a sign of God’s peace.
In today’s world, we do not always look at the birth of a child in this way, for much of our world is cold and uncaring.
In a college sociology class, the professor said, “Somewhere in this world, there is a woman having a baby every three seconds. What can we do about it?” One student spoke up and said, “We’ve got to find that woman and stop her!”
What we must do is find that baby boy born in a manger and wrapped in bands of cloth.
In a world like ours, you have to look for signs of God’s peace, but you do not have to look far. Signs of God’s peace are all around.
God’s graceful Son was born in Bethlehem, and when he entered the world, he brought God’s grace with him. He was the embodiment of God’s peace. They called him, “The Prince of Peace.”
If we look, we will find him.
The angel of the Lord said, “You will find a babe.”
Take that as a personal statement to you. You will find him.
Where will we find him? We will find him in the common, everyday things of life.
A family waited anxiously in the hospital while a loved one hovered between life and death. The family’s pastor was there with them. One man in that family, who was always suspicious of religion, said to him, “Okay, preacher, tell me now. Where is your God at a time like this?” A nurse, who had been helping their family member, walked by. The pastor pointed to her and said, “There goes God. God is here in the touch of that nurse.”
You need to look for signs of God’s peace in the kindness of others, in the generosity of friends, in the lives of fellow Christians, and in the mission of the church.
Then, second, move on to this:
II
Accept the promise of God’s peace.
In a world like ours, we need to accept it.
The shepherds heard this wonderful anthem sung by a multitude of heavenly host, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among men with whom he is pleased.”
The anthem they sang was a promise from God, a promise of peace. Glory to God, because he is sending his Son to bring peace, to embody peace, to proclaim peace, and to offer peace.
In this Christmas season, would you accept the promise of peace for yourself?
Our entire world needs it greatly. The world cries out for peace and justice. Suffering people all over the world need and deserve peace.
All of us who gather here tonight need peace.
God has pronounced to us in the coming of his Son his peace, and God gives it to us through Jesus.
Sometimes we can miss it during Christmas.
One Christmas, our church choir went caroling. After going to several homes, they came by to see us. We stood in the doorway as they sang. Then, a lady in the choir led us all in prayer. Right in the middle of her prayer, I heard our cat come running through the house. It was a bitter, cold night, and we had decided to keep him inside, but here he came, headed for the open front door. I yelled out in the middle of her prayer, “Grab the cat, quick!” That lady never did forgive me for that.
We get all caught up in Christmas, and if we are not careful, we miss the point of it. You can decide for yourself tonight that you will accept the promise of God’s peace.
A young lady was on her way to China where she would serve as a missionary, teaching in a Christian school. She had to travel by boat, and she found the voyage to be long and difficult. She had many concerns about this and wondered how she would be able to survive there. One night, she had a dream in which she was standing on a plank out in the ocean. In her dream, God told her to start walking toward China. She said she could not do it. She could not walk on water. But the voice insisted, so she stepped out to the end of the plank and another plank appeared. Each time she reached the end of one plank, another was there. When she woke up, she accepted this dream as a promise from God. She was able to carry on because of that promise.2
That promise has been made to you. Accept the promise of God’s peace.
Then, third, finally turn to this:
III
Put yourself in the place of God’s peace.
In a world like ours, we have no other choice.
When the angels went away, the shepherds said to each other, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
The shepherds knew they had to do something. This babe had come to them, but they had to go right then to the place where he was.
It comes down to this: Are you willing to go to the place where this child is, the place where you find God’s peace?
We have put ourselves in all kinds of other places, sometimes at great expense, and we did not find it there. Having tried everything else in an attempt to alleviate our anxiety, I wonder now, would we try God?
Some do this in a glib sort of way. They have been into tennis, and into jogging, and into therapy, and into various forms of drugs. They think, “I’ll try God now,” in the way they might try on a pair of shoes. That is not what I mean.
I mean, would you put yourself in the place of God’s peace, by putting your life in God’s hands?
We had a replica town of Bethlehem at a church I once served. One Christmas Eve, we were going to leave our service in the sanctuary and go out to the manger where the holy family and some unholy looking shepherds waited on us. The notice in our bulletin was supposed to say, “Recessional To The Manger.” What it actually said was, “Recessional To The Manager.” I thought that was a wonderful mistake, and one that told the way it should be.
You need to let God be the one who manages your life. That is the only way any of us will find any peace at all.
You can put yourself in God’s hands by taking this newborn babe in your hands.
Our son and his wife have two children. When their son was two, their nephew came over to watch the children, so the parents could go out. The nephew had the phone number of his grandmother so he could call her if he needed to do so. Things went fine, but after a while he called his grandma and said, “I have done everything on the list, everything I am supposed to do. I changed him, put pajamas on him, gave him his milk, and he’s just standing in the middle of the floor, looking up at me.” His grandmother said, “Tad, pick him up.”
Do not just look at baby Jesus in the manger and think how nice it all is. Pick him up. Embrace him. Make him your own.
Can you imagine those shepherds gathering around the holy family, some kneeling, some peeping over at that little boy? Can you imagine Mary saying to them, “Go ahead. Pick him up. Embrace him!”
You do that and the light of peace will shine on you, and you will have the peace of God which passes all understanding.
1.Phillips Brooks, “O Little Town Of Bethlehem,” The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), p. 230.
2.Robert C. Morgan, Lift High The Cross (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p. 5.