The Government of Peace
Preface
By way of introduction I need to explain that in the Bible the word “peace” does not mean the absence of conflict. It means something like wholeness, healing and salvation (Deut 6:24-26; Luke 7:50; 8:48).
Our Problem
Despite our outward affluence which is the envy of the world it is a tough time to live in Australia. We are suffering from an anxiety epidemic: 2 million Australians suffered a serious episode of anxiety this last 12 months, 1in 3 women 1 in 5 men suffer will suffer from mental health condition due to anxiety in their lifetime.[1] Examples: farmers whose properties are at risk of repossession by the banks (email I received yesterday on this subject ‘An Open Letter to the Australian People’ has gone viral on the internet 1.7 mill.) My wife received a phone call last week from a young mother whose husband was admitted to hospital with an expected heart attack; actually the damage had come from a panic attack after a near road accident which led to an adrenalin surge that bruised some heart muscle. Greatest single cause of stress across the nation in recent days has obviously been the threat of terrorism. The PM is demanding answers, the media is demanding answers – to be realistic the general public don’t really believe government, no matter how much money it puts into health or security can bring us the settled peace of mind that we all seek. In response to the terrorist attack in Sydney I wrote an article which said, “Terrorism only works where people are afraid to die.” A famous theologian once said, and I will come back to this later; “People fear death not because they know that they must die, but because they know they deserve to die.” There are many types of fear-inducing deaths.
A devoted Christian friend of mine was up in the middle of the night not only checking the state of the siege but the state of the financial markets; Australians have a huge fear of some real financial death. I remember being at my wife’s sister in law’s parents place trying to talk with him about Jesus and received a response from her dad which is so typical of Aussies, “As long as the beer is flowing freely everything is good.” When he was diagnosed with cancer he became hopelessly intimidated. To enter into real peace we need to return to a promise made more than two and a half thousand years ago which is still real today.
The Promise
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be uponhis shoulder, and his name shall be calledWonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,.” (Isa 9:6-7). As a nation however we are losing touch with this message of peace.
A friend took us on a canal cruise down in Mandurah last Tuesday evening; most of the lights were the usual Father Christmas type displays and I was left mourning the disappearance of nativity scenes. Is there anything more restful than the image of kings, shepherds and animals gathering around the crib of Jesus? The angelic message that still night of Christ’s birth was full of promise, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace amongst those on whom his favour rests!” (Luke 2:14). The message of a God who has loved the world so much to send his only Son to save us from ourselves is an amazing one.
This year marks the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Truce of 1914. More than a 100,000 soldiers put down their weapons and shared in carol singing and Christmas celebrations. This was a unique display of human brotherhood and peace amidst one of the most violent events in human history. The shared festivities between warriors didn’t come because Germans, French, English, Austrians and Russians were extraordinary people but because when they heard the church bells ringing on Christmas Day across Europe they remembered someone who was the most extraordinary peace-bringer in the history of humanity, they remembered Jesus, and they remembered that through Jesus what they had in common was much greater than what divided them. Jesus is still “the Prince of Peace”. That is at the heart of the message of Christmas which Australians so desperately need to hear today. We however have a major problem; the Church is overwhelmingly failing to communicate the reality of Christ’s peace.
Jesus our Peace
I was listening to the radio during the week and they were interviewing someone about the follow up from the Sydney siege. The person being interviewed was emphasising that it was the common humanity of ordinary Australian people, not politicians and certainly not religions and their leaders, which would take the nation forward into peace and harmony. I thought to myself, “This is a typically secular framework; we can tolerate religion at the margins of society as long as its adherents keep to themselves.” Then the interviewer thanked the Rev Bill Crews from the Uniting Church in Sydney for his views. It turns out that Bill has the most popular Sunday night radio programme in Sydney. I could not believe that a so-called Christian leader could divert the nation’s attention away from the humanity of to us. This is a recipe for disappointment and a sign of the crisis engulfing institutional religion today; we have lost the power of the presence of Christ.
By Paul’s day Jews and Gentiles had been alienated for centuries, his recipe for reconciliation is the presence of Jesus. “For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility” (Eph 2:14). Jesus is our peace. The New Testament consistently ties our enjoyment of the peace of God to something which our consciences struggle to receive. God has “reconciled all things to himself…making peace through the blood of the cross” (Col 1:20). Having been justified/put right with God by Christ blood we have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rev 5:1, 9). The blood of the cross tells us that in Christ God has completed his judgment on humanity, and so should we.
Let Go
When my wife was first diagnosed with cancer I immediately remarked, “The worst that can happen to you is that you die.” A friend of mine is being pursued to likely bankruptcy, financial death cannot rob him of his relationship with God through Christ, and he is living exactly like that. So many Christians are striving for self-improvement, spiritual growth, striving to improve the church, to have a perfect marriage or family, or suffering from guilt and shame – the very opposite of peace – and feeling like they are failing. I was walking to a disturbed father in his 40’s the other day whose children are in some strife he said, “You always want your kids to end up better than yourself. I’ve failed”. I said to him, “Jesus never called anyone a failure.” (Or a success either.) If you look to meet the expectations of others, or your own expectations, you can never enjoy that “perfect peace” which Jesus alone can give you (Isa 26:3). I remember being part of the organising team for a March through the centre of Adelaide many years ago in protest at the commercialism of Christmas. The banner at the head of our procession read, “Jesus was born to die.” The power of the cradle is the cross. This is the reality of the peace the world cannot give nor can it take it away (John 14:27).
Conclusion
I have called this talk “The Government of Peace”. We all know our prosperous will remain peaceless as long as it is led by the name-calling childish parliamentarians with which we are so familiar. It is the government of Jesus Christ the ordinary men and women of Australia need to calm their troubled hearts and every one of us is called to be a representative of that government (John 16:33). Only Jesus can bring lasting peace to a terrorised and fragile world; and the power of his peace should first be in the place where his people acknowledge him as “Lord”. We come to communion for comfort week by week to receive “the blood of Christ” but we need to ask the Lord for the power of his crucified presence to free us from our many fears of dying. Let me close in an unusual way; 80 years ago a Christian missionary was beheaded by Communists in China. Here is a poem John Stam penned shortly before his death:
Afraid?
Afraid? Of what?
To feel the spirit’s glad release?
To pass from pain to perfect peace,
The strife and strain of life to cease?
Afraid—of that?
Afraid? Of what?
Afraid to see the Savior’s face,
To hear His welcome, and to trace
The glory gleam from wounds of grace?
Afraid—of that?
Afraid? Of what?
A flash—a crash—a pierced heart;
Darkness—Light—O Heaven’s art?
A wound of His a counterpart!
Afraid?—of that?
Afraid? Of what?
To do by death what life could not—
Baptize with blood a stony plot,
Till souls shall blossom from the spot?
Afraid?—of that?