Advent II sermon

Herewith a verison of Tim's sermon this morning...

MESSAGE: Peace
1 Introduction
How well do you know the book of Malachi? Probably better than you think. Did that first reading sound familiar?
tempting to sing the readings - text of Messiah
Handel saw a lot in the prophecies of Jesus' coming, and he set parts of them beautifully to music. The Messiah gives us a picture of a mighty king, wonderful counsellor, and so on. Today, though, our theme is peace, and that comes up less often.

2 Peace
What is peace?
Not quiet, or an absence of noise or conflict - more than that.
On Friday some of us were at the children's disco at school. It certainly wasn't quite, or still, but watching the children enjoying themselves I felt a definite sense of peace. Things were as they should be; God was there.

Our book group recently read "The Shack" by William Young. It gave us all a lot to think about. One of the things that struck me was a passage where the central character learns, "The Bible doesn't teach you to follow rules. It is a picture of Jesus. Words may tell you what God is like and even what he may want from you, but you can't do any of it on your own. You didn't think you could live the righteousness of God on your own, did you?"
And a bit later "Just don't look for rules and principles; look for relationships - a way of coming to be with me."

Peace is about relationships; about the relationship between us and the people around us, or between us and God, or between us and the world we live in. Relationships are active; they have to be worked at.

One of the names given to Jesus is "King of Peace". That doesn't mean he kept quiet and did nothing, or that he avoided conflict. On the contrary, at times he seemed to be looking for a fight! Sometimes the absence of conflict is a sign that we're ignoring evils that should be fought.

3 Readings
Peace isn't about accepting everything as it is, about an absence of change. If anything, it's more about accepting and welcoming change. Look at today's readings!
Malachi writes about a refiner's fire, and fuller's soap; Isaiah, quoted in Luke, wrote about valleys being filled and hills being made low.
As long as relationships are broken, or non-existent, there isn't real peace.

4 Christmas
Jesus came to show us his way. The thing that really stands out when we read the gospels is that he cared about people. He noticed them. They mattered to him. He needed friends, and he worked with them and through them.

In this season of Advent we're preparing to receive the greatest present anyone could ever have, the gift of God's own Son. He came to show us how to live in the right sort of relationship with God, one that would enable us to live in peace with God and with each other.
Have you ever given someone a present, and then been disappointed when they didn't show any interest, when all the thought you had put into choosing that present seemed to have been wasted?

A child perhaps - I can remember one birthday when Ian was about two when he was much more interested in a large cardboard box than in the present that had been inside it!
If you can picture yourself in that situation, perhaps you can imagine how God must feel when we reject his gift; when we show more interest in the turkey, and the parties, and the material gifts we're hoping for, than we do in the amazing gift of his Son.

5 Conclusion
I hope you'll have a peaceful Christmas - in the truest sense of the word. One thing we can do to make that more likely is to work at relationships. If we put real effort into the time we spend with the people around us, and with God, amazing things can happen. Amen.