"Peace Kills Fear", Sermon for Second Sunday of Advent.

The second Sunday of Advent is the Sunday that we light the candle of Peace. The opposite of peace is not war (though war is definitely not peaceful), but is fear. Fear is what stops us from being at peace within ourselves and with our neighbors, and even with God.

How do you find ways to work around your fears? What other opposites to peace can you come up with?

“Peace Kills Fear”

Sermon, Year B, Advent 2, December 7, 2014

Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, WI

© Rev. David J. Huber

Focus Scripture: Mark 1:1-8 

(you may also listen to the sermon)

“Prepare the way of the Lord,” said the prophet Isaiah. Prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight. And that’s the message that John the baptist is also proclaiming. He is there to help make some paths straight, to prepare people for Jesus. He’s setting the tone.

He’s also Jesus’ cousin. We don’t learn that in this Gospel, but we do in one of the others. The gospel writer here, whoever wrote this gospel of Mark, was not too concerned with origins. So we have no birth narrative about Jesus. It starts right here with the words we read, with John the Baptist, and then Jesus shows up as an adult.

Mark’s Gospel begins with this message from John to repent. To repent. That words gets a bad rap because it has been abused, and been used to abuse others, to call others to repent. Think of the guys on the street with the signs that say “Repent, for the end is near!” Or words about “Repent so you can get into heaven” or “If you don’t repent you will not escape the suffering that God wants to bring upon you.”

I don’t think that’s helpful. That’s not healthy talk about repentance. Not a good way to think about it.

To repent means simply to change direction. To change your path. It’s not a Golden Ticket to heaven. It’s not some kind of terrible self-flagellating or self-abusive activity that we have to go through to avoid God’s wrath or to re-earn God’s love. We always have God’s love. To repent is simply change direction. For us as followers of Jesus, it means to change our direction to follow Jesus again. We got a little off the path, we repent, we move back to Jesus’ path.

Our confessions are moment of repentance. A chance to say “These are the things that I or we are doing, which are not the things that Jesus would like us to do. So forgive us, and let’s move on.” It is to say that I am going to admit to how I have strayed from the path. I am going to admit it, say it. There is power in speaking it and not just thinking it. There is power in saying it out loud, or using the words. And then I will change my course away from it and back to following Jesus.

That’s all that Jesus wants, really. For us to follow. That’s what he says often in the Gospels, “Follow me. Do what I am doing.” Jesus always beckoning us, inviting us, even when we stray off the path. “Come back! Come back, and follow me!” Never putting up a stop sign to say “No, you can’t follow me until you feel bad enough, or guilty enough.” Jesus saying, “Yeah, whatever you did in the past, I know about it. It’s okay. It’s in the past. Come back to my path and follow me, and don’t worry about it. Be at peace.”

“Follow me and be at peace.”

Jesus doesn’t want perfect people to follow him. Perfect people are liars. None of us are perfect. There are not perfect people. But maybe follow Jesus toward perfection. Follow Jesus toward his perfect peace. Follow Jesus and find perfect peace.

Today we light the candle of Peace. Not because the world is at peace or because we have achieved it. The candle is not a sign to say, “We’ve done it!” But we can light it in defiance of the world, or as a witness to a world that is not at peace, to say that this is what God wants. God wants us to be at peace. And not just among nations, but within ourselves. Advent can be a very un-peaceful time. Lots of busy-ness. Christmas parties. Decorating. Going shopping. Concerts. Baking. Advent can be a very un-peaceful time, even though this is supposed to be a time for waiting and anticipation for Christmas. Our world is also not always peaceful. There are nations at war, people at war, violence in the world. Steve’s songs are, at some level, about that: finding peace in the busy-ness and chaos of the world.

[edit: the Steve here is Steve Carlson, who was our guest musician for the day. Hear his music and buy his CD at the link.]

When I think of “peace” I see visions of no war, no hurting each other, no violence. It would be nice to have the world not at war any more. But I also think of it’s opposite, which isn’t war, but I think it’s fear. Fear that often leads to not being at peace. Fear. At least in terms of what keeps us from being more peaceful.

I see an awful lot of fear in the world today. Our media thrives on it, our politicians make a living on it. The incidents in Ferguson are related to fear. Cops being fearful, the young black men being fearful, everyone in the system being afraid of one another. The riots come out of that fear. The chokehold incident with the cop in NYC is another sign of that fear. There is the fear of the other. Fear of immigrants, fear of LGBT brothers and sisters, fear of women in power, fear of other religions. Religions fearing one another. Nations fearing one another. Fears about losing resources.

We also have personal fears. Fear of losing a job, fear of getting sick and maybe losing our home because of it. The fear of not having enough. Or the fear of not being able to have everything we want. We have cities making it illegal to feed people who are homeless. That’s certainly wrong, and I think it comes out of fear. Fear that the homeless might be more visible, or more will come into town, or that we might have to admit our corporate sin that allows homeless to happen.

The angels always say, “Don’t be afraid!” Do not fear. Be at peace. There is a lot of our inability to be at peace that comes out of fear. That’s not the only thing, but to me it seems to be the big thing happening today. Fear all over the place. We are so afraid of so many things. The media keeps feeding the fear cycle. Politicians and other leaders keep boosting it.

Don’t let fear rule your life. Making your decisions on fear is a life of avoiding, not a life of living. Not a life of “going into” but of “staying away from.” Live into God’s generosity. Don’t be afraid. God will always love. God is generous. God is abundant. Live into God’s generosity and God’s hope and into Jesus’ peace.

Turn away. Change direction. Take a moment of repentance to change direction away from fear and into Jesus’ path of peace.

May you find that path this Advent season and coming into Christmas.

Amen.