The Price of Peace - Sermon for the Second Sunday of Advent (December 8, 2024)

Scripture Readings: Malachi 3:1–4 | Luke 1:68–79 | Philippians 1:3–11 | ​Luke 3:1–6

“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” 
(Luke 1:78-79)

Peace is a precious thing… and it always comes with a price.

In the ancient world, the price of peace for one people or tribe was usually the use of violence against another rival group. This kind of ‘peace’ was won by the sword, and would only last as long as your tribe managed to stay on top… kind of like that old game called “king of the hill”, where kids try to push their way to the top of snowbanks, and then fend off all challengers to win. 

The Roman Empire was famous for this approach to peace. The Pax Romana, the “Peace of Rome” was praised as a great gift to the nations they conquered… there was stability within the boundaries… protection for those who went along with the Empire’s interests… that is until the occasional rebellion started, or a neighbour invaded, or a civil war broke out… then the legions were summoned to crush and to crucify anyone who stood in the way.

Looking around today, in many ways our world still seems stuck in that same mindset: only envisioning peace to be possible once all who get in our way are gone… brought low underneath the feet of our side in the conflicts we face. This week saw yet another wave of violence, as Syrian rebels rapidly advance towards the capital city of Damascus, hoping to overthrow the oppressive government they have been fighting against for more than a decade. We witnessed the attempt to institute martial law… military rule in South Korea, as a means of resolving the political conflicts among those in power. 

Over and over, and all over the world, we humans keep using force and the threat of violence try and establish stability and security… thinking that the sword or the gun… or the bomb… is the only way to bring about the peace we all really need. 

But the season of Advent invites us to reflect on… and to practice another kind of peace. A peace that’s not won through violent force, but which also comes with a price. 

In our Gospel reading today, for the second week of Advent, we hear about the ministry of St. John the Baptist… the son of Zechariah the priest, and Elizabeth, and the cousin of Jesus our Lord.

John’s whole life was set apart for a particular mission: to prepare the way for God’s coming Messiah… serving as a kind of prophetic herald, calling God’s people to get ready for their King. 

At his naming ceremony, St. Luke tells us that John’s father Zechariah prophesied over his child, and the role he would play in God’s great rescue mission: Luke 1:76-79,

“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; 
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 
to give knowledge of salvation to his people 
by the forgiveness of their sins. 
By the tender mercy of our God, 
the dawn from on high will break upon us, 
to give light to those who sit in darkness 
and in the shadow of death, 
to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

But this high calling also came with a high price. Like most of the prophets before him, John was not your typical religious leader. He was an outsider. Literally. He lived outside… in the desert on Israel’s border region… far from the cities and centres of power… dressed as one at home in the wilds… and seen as a bit radical and extreme. 

And John’s message was not exactly a comfortable one either. He was sent to call his people to get ready for God’s Chosen One! Calling them to repent… to turn around and leave behind the ways of life that had taken them down the road of sin… and calling them to start again as God’s people. To remember God’s faithfulness and gracious deliverance in the past… and to walk in His ways again… humbling themselves, admitting their brokenness, and seeking God’s forgiveness… not in the Temple in Jerusalem… but at the Jordan River, where Israel first stepped foot in the Promised Land… symbolically starting again from the very beginning, to get ready for God’s coming Messiah.

Of course, John’s message and ministry was not well received by many of those among the leadership of Israel at that time… the priests and scribes based at the Temple, and the strict Pharisees, who saw themselves and their practices as the best way to be faithful to God. And he was not popular with those who had aligned themselves with the Roman Empires’ way of doing things either… with people like Herod Antipas, and his followers, who profited greatly from close ties with Rome.

But far from playing it safe, and trying to appease those in power, John’s ministry completely rocked the boat… he was upsetting the status quo… shaking up a complacent and compromised community by calling them to change… to do something different… to repent, restart, and get ready for real.

And many flocked to his message, upsetting and radical as it was. Why? Because they believed… they believed that John was right, and they knew that they needed peace.

Real peace, not simply the absence of discomfort, or conflict… but peace in the deepest biblical sense:    Peace that comes from completeness… from wholeness… from holiness… from having their lives realigned and in sync with the good will of the One who had created them, and loved them, and longs for them to experience the fullness of life… a peace that the world around us promises us constantly… but which it can never deliver.

John’s listeners knew that their lives were off base, broken, and incomplete. They knew that their communities were needing to be realigned and set right again. They knew there were many proud mountains that needed to be brought low… as well as many lowly valleys that needed raising. And so, they responded to John’s call to repent by being baptized… submerged in the Jordan River, seeking the forgiveness and faithful love of the Lord, and trusting in His divine mercy to bring about His peace among them. 

And as John would remind them, this peace would not be painless, or easy. But it would be well worth it! Turning our lives around and walking in God’s holy ways takes work, and will involve real struggles, and ask us to say no to ourselves again and again. But the peace we need is only possible through God’s cleansing hand at work in our lives.
 AS we heard in our first reading today from the prophet Micah (3:2-4),

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in former years.”

John was calling his people to get ready for God’s coming King by seeking God’s peace… God’s own gracious cleansing, purifying, sanctifying power, to set their lives back on track so they could fully participate in His coming Kingdom.   

And this invitation is not just meant for those who stood by the Jordan River in John’s day… but for us as well… for those of us who know we need God’s peace at work in our lives.

How might John’s call to repentance apply to us as a Church community? Here at St. Luke’s? As a Diocese? As the Anglican Church, and as a part of the whole body of Christ? Are there ways we as believers have gotten off track, and are in need of cleansing and new beginnings?

Perhaps John’s message is connecting with us in a more personal way this morning. For those of us who may still be exploring the Christian story… John’s calling might offer us an opportunity to respond to the invitation to be baptized… to offer our lives in faith to Christ Jesus, God’s Son, and to receive the gift of forgiveness and new life in His name.

And for those of us who have already been baptized, but who may have walked away from God for a time, and are now sensing the deep need for our lives to be set right again, John’s calling might offer us an opportunity to formally renew our baptismal vows… to reaffirm our faith in Jesus, and our need for Christ’s peace to rule in our lives.

If you’d like to explore either of these invitations to baptism, or to reaffirm your baptism, please let me know, and I would be happy to meet with you, to pray with you, and to walk with you through this process.

But even if that’s not where you are this morning, John’s message is truly for all of us. Wherever we are in our walk with God, we are to get ready for the Messiah… remembering that God’s true and lasting peace also came with a high price. 

This peace was not won through force or violence… or through unjust compromises, or by avoiding conflicts, or through anything else that our world has to offer… but through the work of Someone even more radical and world changing than John himself was prepared for… through Jesus Christ, God’s Chosen King… the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Throughout His ministry, Jesus disrupted the status quo… not only bringing low the proud mountains… challenging those who thought they were on the right track, but had in truth abandoned God’s good ways… He also lifted up the lowly valleys… reaching out to the hurting, and the desperate… and preaching God’s peace to sinners… to people whose choices and compromises had set them apart from their neighbours, marking them as outsiders in their communities… but not beyond the bounds of God’s love. 

And Jesus practiced peace among deeply divided communities… pulling together people of all walks of life, and making them one, united to one another by their devotion and connection to Him.

Jesus Christ practiced God’s peace… even when it would require the highest cost. He refused to play the world’s game… to rally armed forces to Himself, to bring about His Kingdom by force. No, in self-giving love Christ Jesus surrendered Himself to those who would crush, curse, and crucify Him… pleading for their forgiveness, even as they called for His death… and paying for the sins of the whole world through His blood shed at the cross.

But far from ending in utter defeat, we know that the cross became the sign of God’s great victory… breaking the power of guilt and shame by cleansing us of sin… disarming the threat of death, which all tyrants depend on… and assuring us that we no longer need to be estranged from the Living God, or from our neighbours created in His image. In rising again from the grave, Jesus has shown the world that His death for our sake has paid the price once and for all for our peace… and through His Spirit at work in us, we can now put this peace into practice. 

As Christians, our peace must be a Christ-shaped peace… a peace that is willing to stand out, and shake up the status quo… not by using force to get our own way, or by compromising with injustice and evil, but by trusting that no matter what others might do, they cannot shake or take away the new life that Jesus Christ has share with us, and longs for us to share with one another as we await His return to set our whole world right again.

Christ Jesus has paid the high price for God’s true peace to break into our broken world even now, and as His people today we are to practice His peace… to live God’s way here and now, no matter what it might cost us… which we can do with hopefulness and joy because we know that it will be well worth it!

In time, St. John too would experience the high price of seeking God’s peace. His ministry would set him at odds powerful people in the world, who would eventually call for his head.

We don’t know what it might cost us to devote our lives to the way of God’s peace today. We might risk losing friendships and relationships. We might experience great disappointments or pain. We might even end up losing our lives, as many of our sisters and brothers still do around the world.

But whatever the price may be, in Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, we know that the reward is well worth it all. Our Lord has already paid the ultimate price for our peace, not just for a short season of life… but to share the blessed life and love of the Living God with us forever.

So may the peace of Christ rule in our hearts this Advent season, and beyond. May we not simply seek to stay comfortable, but to be made complete and holy in Him. May we trust that what He did for us all at the cross is powerful enough to put an end to all that keeps us cut off from God, and from our neighbours. And with the Spirit’s help, may we seek ways to practice God’s peace in our daily lives, and with those all around us. Amen.