St. Athanasius Lutheran Church: Sermon for Advent 4 Midweek Evening Prayer

Jesu Juva

“The Blessing of Having the Way of Peace”

Text: Isaiah 40:1-5; John 20:24-29; Luke 1:57-79

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Guide our feet into the way of peace.

Say that to any Israelite and they would think of God guiding the feet of Abram from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land which God promised to give his descendants. Or they would think of God guiding the feet of Jacob to his Uncle Laban’s house when he was fleeing his brother Esau after fleecing his brother Esau. Or perhaps most of all, they would think of God guiding the feet of Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and through the wilderness with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night until they got to the Promised Land. God was always guiding the feet of His people.

People are looking for this today as well. Show me which way to go, God! Guide my feet to the right spouse, the right job, the right home.

The thing is, while all of those things may be good, none of those ways is the way of peace.

But Zechariah’s son, John, was all about the way of peace. Because of his preaching, people from all over went out into the wilderness - not a place you normally associate with peace! But there was. Peace, there. Peace in the wilderness. Because John was calling the people to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. For that is truly the way of peace: repentance and forgiveness.

Isaiah, as we heard tonight, said that part of John’s message would be that our warfare is ended. But what warfare is he talking about? We could do like the Pharisees, who claimed they had never been slaves of anyone, so how could Jesus set them free (John 8:33)? and say, we’ve never been at war with anyone, so how can it be ended? But just as the Pharisees were, in fact, slaves, slaves of sin, so have we been at war - war with God. Our ways warring against His ways, our thoughts with His thoughts, our desires with His desires, our lives with the lives He has for us. From the beginning, our sin has set us against God.

So one of the things John would do is preach repentance, that is, enable us to see our sin rightly. For Isaiah also said that the forerunner would lift up the valleys and make low the mountains; he would make level and plain the rough places and uneven ground. And in our lives, that means that instead of making our mountain of sin into a mole hill, like it really isn’t that bad, instead of belittling our sin, we repent. That instead of making the mole hills of sins committed against us into mountains, instead of magnifying the sin of others, we forgive. Instead of tripping each other up, we help each other up. Instead of throwing each other down, we lift each other up. That in this world of trouble and strife, in this world of me-against-you and against God, there be a way of peace. A way of life. A way of forgiveness.

For without forgiveness, there really is no peace. Whatever peace we have is quickly disturbed with our regrets, with past mistakes haunting us, past social media posts like skeletons in our closets, with questions of what if? And if you’ve been there, you know how difficult and enduring those things can be. And how peace shattering.

So the one whose way John is preparing has come to give us the peace we cannot get or achieve ourselves. The peace that doesn’t come from us, it must come to us. So John prepares the way. The way of peace. He calls us to acknowledge and repent of our sin, and then hear that healing, war-ending word: I forgive you all your sins. And at peace with God, knowing that God does not hold our sin against us, that our past regrets and failures are atoned for, we can live at peace with each other. And that is a great gift, to have such peace.

Many people do not consider repentance a gift. It is, rather, an obligation, a burden they must endure. And if repentance was about what we must do to atone for our own sins, then perhaps that is the right way to look at it. But it is not that at all. Repentance, rather, is about acknowledging that we cannot atone for our sins, and turning to the one who can. And did. And receiving His atonement, His forgiveness, His peace. The very gifts He wants to give us. And considered that way, repentance really is a gift. The gift we need the most.

And so the way of peace starts at the manger, goes through the Jordan, ascends the cross, and then rises from the dead. That is the way of peace for us as we baptismally die and rise with Jesus to a new life. A life set free with His forgiveness.

That was the path of peace St. Thomas needed. Today, December 21, is his day of commemoration. And he did not have peace. For him, Jesus was dead and so was all hope, his hope. He was filled with fear and regrets and did not know what the future held. But then he heard those words from the lips of Jesus: peace be with you. And the once-dead-but-now-risen flesh of Jesus was his way of peace. The flesh that once lay in the manger, the flesh that once ate and drank with him, the flesh that hung on the cross - he now put his fingers and hands on that flesh and into that flesh, and his warfare was ended, his turmoil calmed. He had peace. The peace that only Jesus can bring.

And that is our peace. We do not have the hands and side of the risen Jesus to put our fingers and hands into, but we do have the Body and Blood of the risen Jesus to eat and to drink. And as we do, our warfare is ended, our troubled consciences calmed, our sins forgiven. Your past can no longer haunt you when Jesus has taken that past, atoned for it, and left it buried and dead in the grave. All there’s left is peace.

And people are looking for this today. It’s a common wish this time of the year, heard in many songs and read in many cards: peace on earth! John points us to Jesus and says: there is your peace. That is the way. Be joined to Him. Die and rise to a new life with Him. Repent and be forgiven by Him. And this is the what all the other work of our Lord is all about, that we have been considering this Advent season - why we have been visited, why we have been mercied, why we have been enlightened: that we know and have the way of peace. That we know and have Jesus. These four weeks of Advent, of meditation on the Word of God and of prayer, have led us to this: to see in the manger far more than a baby, but a Saviour. To know there is peace on earth because that peace is lying in the manger. That we see the flesh and blood of Jesus in the manger and say: my Lord and my God! MY Lord and MY God. For this Great and Mighty Wonder (LSB #383) is born for you and me. To be our peace. That we might have a not only a Merry Christmas, but a blessed one, too.