The Way of Peace

Old Mystic, December 6, 2009
Second Sunday in Advent
Luke 1:68-79

Summary

The hope of Advent has been illuminated through the ages by John the Baptist’s message of repentance—which means change—and the call to follow a new path. It is the way of Jesus the Christ, the way of peace.

Sermon

Our story today describes the joyous moment of the birth of a child. It was a long expected child, a boy who was named John. He was a miracle son. His mother had been barren and her conception came as a pleasant surprise, and the annunciation came along with a powerful revelation from God. This child was going to be a prophet that will call people to return to God and that would show them the way. He was the voice in the desert who came to prepare the way; the path that is Jesus Christ.

According to text in Luke, Gabriel, the angel that revealed God’s purposes to Zechariah, John’s father, who was a priest at the temple, punished him to become mute until the child was born. Was it really a punishment, or was it perhaps a forced silence to stand in awe, in contemplation, and in reflection on the amazing experience of the holy he had just had? What we know, as we look into the text, is that when John was born Zechariah’s tongue was freed and spoke this beautiful prophetic song in exultation. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us.” Of course, he was not speaking of his son John. He was anticipating the way that John was going to illuminate for the people, the way of one who was greater than he—Jesus, the long awaited Messiah.

Zechariah’s song delivers a message that was new and old. It spoke about deliverance, salvation, and protection. It reminded his contemporaries about God’s promises and the covenant that God had made with his people. At the same time, it made the promise universal. He said, “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.” Zechariah’s son John was going to be the messenger of the way, a new way, the way of God, the way of Jesus; the way of peace.

There are two aspects of the way in Zechariah’s message that I would like to highlight. First, it is the way of repentance. Unfortunately, the common translation of the original word for repentance is mostly understood just as turning away from our sins; confessing our wrongdoing and receiving forgiveness from God. Not that I am going to take anything away from that understanding—after all, that is what the passage says. Yet, John preached about repentance and repentance means change.

Change is a loaded word that elicits many kinds of responses. In a sense, most of us, as human beings, may find ourselves resisting change because we love to be in the comfort zone of our daily routines without altering what is familiar to us. Very often, we relate change to the shifting of structures and patterns as to how our complex 21st lives are organized. We may even go with the current flow and say the common phrase that change happens. And indeed, change does happen and is in fact a constant. And we can barely adjust to that reality!

But change can go deeper. The way of change that John pointed to—the way of the Messiah—had political, economic, social, and spiritual dimensions. It is a change of heart in the individual which transcends and permeates the fullness of life for peoples, nations, and the whole world. Sin has to do with broken relationships, beginning with our estrangement from God, and from there it can grow to heights that very often amount to incredible evil things. In the biblical language of John and Jesus, as well as in the language of the prophets who were eagerly expecting the age of the Messiah, the change that repentance promotes is encompassing and systemic.

John was preparing the way. He was warning his contemporaries that the imminent coming of the Messiah meant that change—overwhelming change—was going to happen and, I should add, is still in the making. For that reason Advent comes again and again to remind us about it. Are people suffering in the world and even in our midst? Aren’t we still dealing with injustice, and hunger, and abject poverty, and oppression, and infirmity, and alienation, and despair? Change is being with us and will be around for a long time because a lot still needs to happen.

But there is a crucial question about change—the type of change that the Messiah brings. Can we change ourselves or is it Jesus the only one who can change us? Well, let us put the ball on Jesus’ court! Yet, the change that John was preaching about is in part change that we can effect because it is change in a relationship. We can choose to be in a close, beautiful, and experiential relationship with the Living God. It is that relation that we can seek and that is powerfully transformational.

The way of change, secondly, is also a way of peace. Peace is the transformation that is also the end of God’s promise, of God’s covenant, and the hope of Advent and Christmas. Our human understanding of peace is quite limited and yet, whatever we can grasp seems to be unachievable. The way of violence continues to be predominant in the world; we solve our conflicts with weapons—either to destroy our opponents or to deter each other to avoid the possible annihilation of the whole world. Peace, however, in the profound sense of shalom, God’s shalom, points to a sublime and ineffable status of existence. Words cannot describe it. It is a state of perfect and harmonious relationships; of tranquility, of joy, and of happiness. It is the triumph of love and life in its fullness as it has always been God’s intention since creation.

Peace it is not here yet in its fullness but there are signs among us. I like the comparison of our hope of a life of wholeness with the joy of a newborn child. Every child that I have seen born to our family has brought to us so much joy. It is in those great moments in life when we have a sense of God’s wholeness. And so it happened with Zechariah. He experienced that sense of hope, the hope of wholeness and God’s peace (shalom) in the birth of his son John. It had to do with the miracle of life and yet it also meant that the Prophet of the Most High was being born barely preceding the birth of the Son of God and with the task of showing us the way of peace.

Advent reminds once again that change is in the making and it is change for peace. The birth of Christ continues to be the good news of the season. And the challenge is the same: we are always invited to embrace the Savior who wants to embrace us. We are always called to a relationship; a relationship that is illuminating, empowering, and transforming.