December 10, 2017              Peace                                                                                               

         Every month, when I go home to Jerseyville, I go visit with my mother in Belleville, IL. This weekend when I went, we talked about what it was like when I went to college in the 80’s and when she went to college in the 50’s. As you might imagine, this conversation was filled with rememberances of how much more peaceful life was in the 50’s. The war was over, and the civil rights movements had not yet begun. School was a place where people studied and became something, it was not a party like the 80’s. People were more decent to one another then, and knew how to think of others as much as they thought of themselves. My mom went to Elmhurst, a church college. And in those days, it really was a church college. There was chapel on Wednesday and church on Sunday, and you went to both, everyone went to both, not because there would be some kind of punishment, but because it was expected. Life was simpler, clearer, and straighter than it is now.

         I know this sounds like your typical longing for the old days conversation, but it isn’t always wrong to reflect on good spiritual qualities from our past, and consider how we might apply them to our lives today. Life today is not simpler, clearer, and straighter than it was back then. As I have noted in recent weeks, we seem to have complicated problems today, we have people who confuse the issues rather than solve them, and we have crooked people out for themselves alone. We wrestle with issues like gun control, immigration, disaster relief, the economic divide between rich and poor, prejudice, partisanship, sexism and racism. In this day and age, we are all tempted to be like those we see daily in our media, out for themselves alone, unthinking towards others. In this kind of world, we are bound by sin, and tormented with suffering and death.

         But on this second Sunday in Advent, we hear good news! First of all in our reading from Isaiah, who announces that our time of suffering is coming to an end. The LORD is coming to lead us out of these days, to level the mountains of fear, to make straight the paths of our lives, and to give life to a people bound by our ways of sin and death. Isaiah gives this good news to the people bound in Exile in Babylon, and John the Baptist gives this same good news to the people living under Roman occupation during Jesus life. On this Sunday, two thousand years later, I proclaim it to you! As Paul says this morning, a thousand years are like a day to the LORD – two thousand years have passed, and God still calls to us, still seeks for us to be saved, still seeks for not one of us to be lost.

         At our Prairie Association Meeting some weeks ago, our speakers invited us to this salvation. They invited us, in this world constantly trying to get us to hurry up, to slow down. To listen to ourselves and to others, and to reflect upon our lives rather than simply react to what was going on around us. To repent of this world centered only on ourselves, and to live in a world filled with others. They invited us to get in touch again, with the God who loves us, who calls us to take care of ourselves, and calls us to love one another. They called us through faith to a simpler, clearer, and straighter life. And the goal of that life, is peace, peace for ourselves, and peace for our world.

         Now I know that after only 6 months among you, that the people of Somonauk are not like those people I see on the news every day. I know you are a people who have a great deal more peace in your lives than most. I have seen not only this church, but the other churches in this community have mission after mission that addresses the needs of others, and challenges their membership to slow down and think about others. You are a wonderful people, who have found life in Christ!

But I also know that the world tugs at you, especially during the Christmas season, to hurry up and react, and think only of yourselves. The world tugs at you to be anxious and fearful, and complicate your lives. Don’t do it!  When you feel rushed this holiday season, take a moment to think about what’s really important, the relationships you have not the things you buy. For all who suffer in this season, the good news is, that for those who seek the LORD as your shepherd, your days of suffering will soon be over, and you will find pastures of peace for the living of your life. Amen.