Ready for peace?

“He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn“

Thank you for joining as we continue in this time of expectation awaiting the Lord’s return.

Last Sunday we considered hope, the first Advent theme, acknowledging that our confidence and surety are in Christ Jesus Who delivers on all God’s promises, most particularly on the help that is ours so we may live out the gospel. We also reminded ourselves to ‘pencil in’ Jesus’ return every day so that we might be ready for that day when all of our hope is fulfilled.

The second standardized theme for this Sunday of Advent is that of peace.

If we have hope, we tend to also have its cognate which is peace. Think of it this way — if we are sure of what is to come, what is being delivered to us, how could we possibly be uneasy or not at peace?

In Isaiah we are painted a picture of perfect peace. Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; The baby shall play by the cobra’s den, and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair. There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain. 

All this vision and all its implications are about the coming of the Lord Jesus, for all in the Old Testament points to Him, the Gospels reveal Him fully, Acts preaches Him, the Epistles teach Him, and Revelation points to His return. Reaching Isaiah’s vision does not depend on us, we cannot achieve it, only the King of Peace, the Root of Jesse can, and we can share in His perfect peace, but only if we believe. 

God sent Jesus into the world to bring us a peace that is beyond all understanding. The Roman Caesars and governors, the Russian, Chinese, and North Korean communists, the Nazis, the Jihadists — not a one can understand why the earthly holds no fear for us. We know it is because those who have given their whole selves to Christ find peace that overcomes every kind of evil.

John comes, crying out in the desert, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” Often, it seems to us, that such a statement is accusatory. Who are you to tell me to repent? Our offense at the cry of the Prophet, of whom Jesus said there was no greater man born of woman, is an internal failure on our part. We must own up to what is wrong, those places we refuse to surrender to Jesus. 

That little reserve of ‘I am a rock, I am an island’ in us needs to be dashed on our Rock, the Prince of Peace. We need to let Him baptize us in the Spirit, with a fire that burns away fear and anxiety, a fire that frees and releases us to everlasting peace. In peace we rest in hope. In peace we see clearly what must be done and shared, and we acknowledge that no one and nothing can take it from us.

Ready for hope?

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime.

Thank you for joining as we begin this new liturgical year, a time of expectation as we await the Lord’s return.

The sort of standardized theme for the First Sunday of Advent is that of hope. Of course, that causes us to pause and perhaps think about what hope means, where we might find it, and when we might add hope’s arrival to our calendars.

Put simply, hope is having confidence in God’s faithfulness, that He will complete what He has begun. It is also the surety that all God’s promises will be fulfilled — 100% delivered.

Well, that defines hope, and where we might find it — in Christ Jesus of course — but when will its fulfillment arrive, where should I pencil it in? That is the tough part, isn’t it?

St. Paul is reminding us that time is growing short, our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, the day is at hand. We can certainly agree, based on our life experience, that time does grow shorter by the day. Life is not stagnant nor is the time till Jesus’ return getting longer. But where to pencil it in?

Paul wasn’t making this all up. He is merely repeating the words of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus wherein Jesus says over and over: the Kingdom is at hand. We hear Jesus speak on this very subject in today’s gospel: “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. So, you must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” But where to pencil it in?

Brothers and sisters, Isaiah’s message is so very hopeful, the source of our theme. We love to hear those words about swords and spears being turned into tools of life. We enjoy getting to those few lines about peace and no more war. We like it so much that we miss our obligation, what it takes to get there: “Come, let us climb the LORD’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.”

So, we are called, at the start of the liturgical year, to refocus, re-commit, renew, and set to work in living out our faith. We must live up to our baptismal pledge. We must live as citizens of the Kingdom. The gospel path must be our daily walk. We must not sit on our hands, for our connection to hope is in how we live right now.

Our duty right now is the making of hard choices between the world’s way, society’s way, our own way, and God’s way. Only one of those ways leads to life, the rest to death.

God’s promise of help is ours so we may live out the gospel. Let us do it, and pencil in Christ’s return everyday living ready for Him.

Love.

Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

This Advent we focus on the promises of God. We have provided a handy follow along book of reflections and devotions covering thirty promises of God broken down under the categories of hope, peace, joy, and love. This final week we reflect on God’s promise of love.

Remember that promises from God are things we can absolutely count on. We have perfect assurance that God’s promise of love will be fulfilled. We know this more so because God has shown us by His outward action that His love is perfect and all giving.

St. Paul is reflecting on that very fact in today’s Epistle. He calls our attention, once again, to the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, came to once and for all consecrate us — that is to make us holy and pleasing to His Father. He would do this, not through the sin offerings of people, which God did not delight in, but through the love offering of Himself, the perfect sacrifice as willed by the Father.

It is key for us to focus on the value of offerings. You see, the sin sacrifices of people could never compensate God for what they had done. Rather, its key metric was in the way it forced people to evaluate, in a tangible way, the cost of what they had done. 

Now if a person were really dedicated to loving God, they would say the cost is too high. I must rather turn away from sin and by doing so, not suffer the cost consequences. But the people never did change, they got caught up in paying to play. Their hearts remained hard, not like the hearts of flesh God wished them to have. For them, it boiled down to an equation in the Law.

To change the equation, to fully carry out the will of the Father, His Son, Jesus, had to step up and say yes. He had to give His love totally to the Father in sacrifice. By doing so He carried out the Father’s will for us. 

Jesus carried out the Father’s love mission. He destroyed the old equation of cost sacrifices and says to us, come, live in my love. St. John’s repeats Jesus’ words: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.“

The choice is clear. We have met our God Who gave Himself as sacrifice. We cannot pay, there is no option for that, so we must choose to dedicate ourselves to Him, to live in His love. If we make that choice, we are among those made holy by God’s perfect love gift.

In the face of God’s love, Mary served, Elizabeth proclaimed, and John leapt. In the face of God’s love, we must also serve, proclaim, and leap, not to pay, but as sign of love in our consecrated lives.

Joy

Exhorting them in many other ways, he preached good news to the people.

This Advent we focus on the promises of God. We have provided a handy follow along book of reflections and devotions covering thirty promises of God broken down under the categories of hope, peace, joy, and love. This week we reflect on God’s promise of joy.

Remember that promises from God are things we can absolutely count on. As such, we have absolute and perfect assurance that God’s promise of joy will be fulfilled.

As I began reflecting on this Sunday and its readings and gospel, the song: “I’ve got joy, joy, joy deep in my heart” kept ringing in my ears. Indeed, that is God’s desire for us, that we would have His joy deep within us.

I would be remiss if I did not remind myself and all of us that God’s joy, here on earth, is not giddy happiness. It is not the worldly definition of happiness at all. Rather, it is a deep and profound contentment that all is well in my life. Happiness is an emotion while joy is both emotion and state of being.

Joy means I have an assurance, a promise from God that I can face whatever comes with a feeling of good pleasure, inner contentment, and satisfaction because I am in Jesus, because the Holy Spirit dwells with me and guides me through everything.

God is at work in our lives, and He has shown us a way through, especially through trials. If we have placed our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, there is no question as to our ultimate outcome. We can therefore be joyfully content no matter what.

John came as the Forerunner to preach a message of good news. The Savior, the Messiah, the One Who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire is coming, and we know He is returning. By John’s preaching people came to repentance, a change in their lives that gave them real joy. They were no longer burdened by wrongs they committed, and they were refreshed. They could approach life joyfully.

So too we. Our Advent guide points out, we have (1) Each Day as a Gift, (2) A God Who Gave His Life for Me, (3) Salvation, (4) A God Who Delights in Me, (5) An Approachable God Who Listens, (6) A Choice of Joy Amidst Trials, and (7) God’s Trustworthy Promise. We can live joyful lives in all these promises.

We are called to the knowledge that God is indeed with us. He is present in our everyday lives. He is accessible and open to us. In any circumstance or situation, we can accept comfort and peace, contentment — that is: joy from God.

Paul re-reminds us: The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at all. Let us then go forth with joy, joy, joy, deep in our hearts. 

Peace.

For God will show all the earth your splendor: you will be named by God forever the peace of justice

This Advent we focus on the promises of God. We have provided a handy follow along book of reflections and devotions covering thirty promises of God broken down under the categories of hope, peace, joy, and love. This week we reflect on God’s promise of peace.

Remember that promises from God are things we can absolutely count on. As such, we have absolute and perfect assurance that His promise of peace will be fulfilled.

Our first reading is taken from the Prophet Baruch The book is a reflection of a Jewish writer on the circumstances of the exiles returning, or yet to return, from exile in Babylon.

We can imagine ourselves set upon by enemies, separated from our homes and those we love, pressed into servitude and in mourning for all that has been lost. We know that our failures and sins have led to this end. We long to return to our God and to home. Our souls seek peace, the peace only God can deliver – how He will bring us back.

Peace is a sweet promise from God. As with those exiles, we live amongst constant chaos. If our homes are seemingly at peace, the news invades. Uneasiness, discomfort, and stress surround us. The world is dissolving but we, by faith, know that God is still on the throne and because of that we have the peace given us through Jesus Christ.

Peace comes when we really trust in Jesus Who conveyed His Father’s promise of peace. God, Who is greater than all people and things, Who is bigger than the universe, Who surpasses all understanding is the only one who can deliver true peace, a peace beyond our understanding. but that we can experience if we accept it. If we accept His peace all is well because we are in God and have His rest on the road to the Kingdom.

God’s promise of peace removes obstacles. It smooths the way to heaven. It allows our hearts, minds, and bodies to rest peacefully and to walk the way unobstructed by the wild world — on the smooth path.

As our Advent guide points out, we have (1) Peace In Our Struggles, (2) God’s Guidance, (3) A Lord That Bears Our Burdens, (4) Relief From Troubles And Fears, (5) Wisdom Along The Way, (6) Wise Example To Follow and Learn From, and (7) The Ability To Be Peacemakers Ourselves. We can live that.

Peace is more than the absence of conflict or discomfort. It is completeness, health, justice, prosperity, and protection. To have peace we must live fully in the peace promise of God, His gift. Having peace means we know and trust in our spirits that everything will really be better than just ok no matter what. It will be perfect!

Hope.

The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.

This Advent we focus on the promises of God. We have provided a handy follow along book of reflections and devotions covering thirty promises of God broken down under the categories of hope, peace, joy, and love. This week we reflect on God’s promise of hope.

First, let us cover what a promise is. A promise is an assurance that what is said will come to be. I am sure we have been assaulted in our lives by unkept promises, whether the kids forgot to clean up or take out the trash, a seller reneges on a guarantee, or more seriously a promise is broken at a level affecting our relationships.

Every broken promise hurts. Each affects our trust relationships. Assurance seems not so assured. But thanks be, we have a God Who provides promises we can absolutely count on. You see, God cannot lie. God, in His perfection, can only utter truth. As such, when God makes a promise, we have absolute and perfect assurance that His promise will be fulfilled.

God promised to give us hope. But what is hope? Hope is not the kind of wishy-washy thing we engage in day-to-day — I hope I win the lottery, I hope my ship comes in, I hope it doesn’t rain or snow. No, the hope God offers is a certainty about the future. In God’s promises of hope we have certainty that the things He said will come to pass and that impacts our lives in the present. If we know our future, how we live today changes.

Our study guide covers seven areas of hope promised by God. It helps us inspect our lives and see if we are living today as our future portends. The hope promises are these:

Light in the Darkness — Jesus is the Light. He helps us inspect those areas of darkness in us that need His cleansing light.

Renewed Strength — we do not have to struggle — God will come through on our behalf no matter the circumstance.

Hope and a Future — for those loyal to God, who follow His gospel way — our current situations are not our always situation. God has a plan and future waiting for us.

A Full Life and Eternal Life — It is life that is a gift now/today and awaits us eternally. This life cannot be taken away from us unless we allow it. This life was won for us in the passion, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Anything is Possible with God — yes, God has no barriers unless we erect them through unbelief.

God Is Our Firm Anchor— He cannot be moved, and He gives us assurance. Let us be confident in our hope.

This week let us focus on our assured hope.