Sermon for Sunday, December 24, 2023 || Christmas Eve || Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 2:1-20

I’ve been taking a lot of deep breaths lately. Leah showed me this special way to breathe that she learned in her nursing classes. You breathe in through your nose, pause, and then keep breathing in. Hold for a moment, then exhale slower than you inhaled. Let’s try it together. In, then in again, hold, exhale slowly. You might notice that the pause on the inhale enables you to fill your lungs more fully, to expand your chest, to feel extra spacious inside. I’ve been practicing this type of breathing in my more anxious moments lately and it has helped me embrace the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

That’s what I’d like to talk about tonight – God’s peace, which we hear about from the Prophet Isaiah and the angels singing to the terrified shepherds. In our world, which is constantly torn apart by war and oppression and environmental cataclysm, our embrace of God’s peace stands as a radical act of witness against all the death-dealing ways of the world.

Let’s start with the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is speaking to the people of Israel in the midst of their war with the Assyrians. Due to poor leadership and a broken society in which people are not taking care of one another, Israel loses the war, and many of the people are taken into exile. Still, in the midst of that horror, Isaiah speaks of God’s people walking in the light, of God breaking the rod of their oppressor, of God fulfilling God’s promises in a new way:

For a child has been born for us, [Isaiah proclaims]
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.
He will establish and uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time onward and forevermore.

That last title, Prince of Peace, is an odd and astounding title. For the princes of the earth became princes, most often, through horrible violence and maintained their authority through oppressive means. But God grants Isaiah a different vision of a prince. This Prince of Peace will establish peace through justice and righteousness, not war and oppression. This vision lay in stark contrast to how Israel was operating in Isaiah’s time. In his time, the kings of Israel were corrupt and self-serving. The poor, the widow, the orphan, these most vulnerable in society, were not being cared for. The moral foundation of the country had crumbled and the bonds that held people together disintegrated, making conquest by Assyria a foregone conclusion. 

Isaiah’s vision stands in beautiful opposition to this reality. Peace built on justice and righteousness does not paper over the inequities in society, but addresses them head on so that all might thrive. With all people reconciled one to another and all to God, peace derived from the rightness of relationships becomes the default position. This is the world Isaiah invites us to step into, to claim for ourselves, as we embrace the life of the Prince of Peace.

In the Gospel, the angels proclaim this same peace when they sing to the shepherds about the birth of the Messiah. “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom [God] favors!” But the wild thing about the angels’ message is the location and the circumstances of this call to peace. Where are the shepherds to find the evidence of God’s glory and peace on earth? Not in Herod’s palace. Not in the halls of power. Not in the Pax Romana, the so-called “Peace of Rome,” which was not true peace, but violently enforced submission. No, the shepherds will find the Messiah swaddled in a feeding trough  in the room with the livestock because his parents couldn’t find a place to take them in.

That the Prince of Peace is born into such humble circumstances reinforces Isaiah’s prophetic words about Israel’s misplaced priorities. A truly strong society takes care of the vulnerable and changes societal structures to make people less vulnerable. From the moment of his birth, Jesus identifies with the most vulnerable people in his world because he was born as one of them – a helpless infant born to desperate homeless parents soon to flee as refugees from state-sponsored violence. 

The peace Jesus’ birth proclaims survives all assaults of violence and domination, even violence done over history in Jesus’ name. The peace of God cannot be killed as long as even one person holds peace in their heart. For peace is like a candle burning. It glows in the midst of darkness and darkness cannot overcome it. But have you ever seen a ball of darkness in the midst of a light-filled room? When you open a light-filled room onto a darkened hallway, what happens? Does the darkness spill into the room? No. The light spills out! The same happens with the peace of God held like candles burning in our hearts.

In a few minutes, we will do the most radical act of our worship together. We do it every service, so it might not seem that radical, but it is. We will practice offering peace to one another. We will turn to one another, look each other in the eye, perhaps shake hands or hug, and say, “The peace of the Lord be always with you.” We practice this peace in our services so that we more readily have peace on our lips and in our hearts when we leave this place. In our passing of the Peace of God, we participate in the life of the Prince of Peace. We sing along with the angels’ their song of peace to the shepherds.

Along with the passing of the peace at church, I try to begin every day in a posture of peace. When I wake up, I pray my intention for the day. And it always begins, “to be at peace with all creatures, including myself.” Then I take some deep breaths to feel how peace expands me, opens me up to the all the possibilities of God’s justice and righteousness which are making the whole world new. As we celebrate the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ tonight, breathe in this peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Breathe in the peace of the Prince of Peace. And then, with God’s help, breathe out that peace into the world.

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Photo by Julian Hanslmaier on Unsplash.