​4th Sunday in Advent                                            LSB #379:1-3, Peace Came To Earth, LSB #387
Text – Luke 2:19-20
 
But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.  And the shepherds returned, glorifying & praising God for all they had heard & seen, as it had been told them. 
 
THE DIAMOND FOUND IN THE MANGER
 
 
Parents can get very nervous as Christmas gifts are opened.  Some of those toys need assembly.  All those plastic pieces, the bags of small parts, the batteries that were supposed to be included, the printed directions – someone has to keep track of them all.   As fast as a child empties a box, Mom or Dad tries to gather & preserve all of its parts.  
When a five-year-old starts to break open bags & connect random things, it can almost be too much for Dad.  In the end, most every toy gets put together, though the occasional Lego set doesn’t look quite like the picture on the box.  
Some parents no longer give the children gifts with small pieces.  Books are safer.  A new doll needs no assembly, just love.  New pajamas & socks are ready to wear.  There is nothing to be lost, only gifts ready to enjoy.     The Christ Child & His peace come fully assembled.    There are no parts we must save    & there is nothing to build.  
Jesus comes as the precious, unmistakable gift in the manger.   We can’t lose the manger, & we never see it without the Child right in the middle.  He is the gift that brings His own story & needs nothing but love.  Christmas comes with God’s wonderful news of a lasting relationship – the Prince of peace joins the human race to Himself  for all time & eternity.  
In the excitement of Christmas, we can assemble many small pieces, but only one piece, one treasure, is needed.  Jesus is the diamond in the manger.  That’s what completes our star of peace.  We’ve walked through Advent with the five points of the star, seeking peace in several directions.  We’ve imagined that peace can be found if we get enough possessions, or peace might come if we can escape to a far-away retreat or lock our past equally far away.  We have tried to find peace in having control of our world.  We’ve tried to find our purpose in telling others how to live.  But in every case, God stops us before we go too far on a hopeless tangent.  At each point of the star, God gives us His own distinct peace.  
Left to ourselves, we’d go off on a search that would never end.  There will never be enough stuff or distance or control.  But with Jesus, we find peace right here, right now.   That’s especially true today.  Our peace is the treasure in the manger.  When we highlight the center of our Christmas star, the star becomes a picture of the manger.  
In the center of that manger is the diamond of His gift, but finding peace is not seeking a needle in a haystack.  Peace is finding the diamond of God’s Son in the straw of the manger.  That diamond is the infant Son of God.  He isn’t lost in the manger.  He purposely made the manger His home so He could be found there in humility. 
Who else would do this but God?  We treasure our important gifts & know where they are.  I can’t imagine a young woman, having gotten her engagement ring on Christmas Eve, would lose it.  She’s not taking it off or risking any harm to it.  Don’t ask her to wash the dishes tonight.  That diamond is the center of her world, & she’s keeping it safe. 
God’s treasure has come to be the center of our world.   What a wonder that our God puts the center of the universe, His Son, into the setting of the manger & the stable.  He doesn’t put Him safely in the Most Holy Place in the Jerusalem temple.   He doesn’t place Him, like a diamond set in gold, on the throne of the king.  He doesn’t have Him hover over us.  
All of those would make sense as the greatness of this gift should be seen yet protected.  The Son of God coming to the world rightly comes with the brilliant light of the glory of God & the chorus of angels singing.  It is right that shepherds – along with us – hear them & are stunned by the brightness & the message of a Savior born to the world.  But that outward glory is brought into one small, almost-hidden spot – the manger in a stable.  There we find the great gift of peace, like a diamond set within the arms of a manger.  
We’ve looked at the five points of a star as it illustrates different directions to seek peace, but those points lead us on a never-ending search.   True & lasting peace is the diamond held within the manger.  That infant Son of God, so small that He could be lost in all the chaos of Christmas, is our certain hope for peace. 
To help us find this treasure, let’s consider the journey of the shepherds in Luke.  They heard the news of the birth & dashed off to find the stable & the manger.  Let’s picture them as they came to the stable, perhaps led by the sound of a baby within.  What a moment as they suddenly filled the doorway to see Mary, Joseph & the baby.  
It’s likely that Mary & Joseph had no warning that the shepherds were coming.   The peace of those first moments with their Son must have been heavenly, given the long journey & the difficulty of finding a place to rest.  But now the birth is done, & their Son is with them.  Ah, rest & peace at last.  But not for long!  
Suddenly, there were shepherds, rough & tumble men, breathless from a race down the hills, filling the doorway, jostling to get a better view.   Imagine their questions & excitement: “Is He the One?  Do you know who He is?  Do you know what we’ve just heard?  Angels, a whole sky full of them!”  The stories they could tell one another.  
Mary likely told of the angel Gabriel.  Joseph could speak of the dreams that reassured him.  The shepherds could then recall every word of the angels’ message & the whole choirs’ song.  Maybe the shepherds held the infant Jesus.  Mary carefully handing the infant Jesus into the arms of a shepherd is quite a picture for us to ponder.  Shepherds were rough-handed men, but they knew how to hold the infant lambs.  Now picture one holding the newborn Lamb of God.  As he held the infant, did he speak to Him, telling Him of the angels’ song?  Before he can tell the whole story, another shepherd nudges him & says it’s my turn.  Let every shepherd have his moment with the Child, a moment that will last a lifetime. 
We can be in that picture.  Put yourself in the back row of the shepherds, one of the last to squeeze into the stable.  Eventually, the first ones must slip out the door, & you are left with Mary, Joseph & Jesus.  That is Christmas worship – taking the place of the shepherds, being the next generation to fill the stable & hold the infant in your mind, in a long & lasting moment.    
This morning, you & I heard again the events of that night, as they are told at every Christmas.  Remember how we turned the star of peace into the manger in the illustration today?  But now, the arms of the manger are briefly replaced.  The arms of the manger are your arms as you hold the infant Savior.  Look at Him & see the gift of peace that the angels declared.  
Here is peace to the world, not a mere wish, but the living Child who caused His birth in this way.  He came so that He could be held in the arms of the manger, the arms of His mother, the arms of the shepherds, & the arms of all people.  Holding the Son of God is the enduring gift of Christmas peace.  
In your home, when all the gifts are opened, you shake out the wrapping paper in case something is hidden there.  The paper gets tossed but you keep the bows for next year.  Most of the parts for the toys will be found.  Eventually, they’ll be assembled & look mostly like the picture on the box.  
The many decorations of Christmas will be put away, but the faith & the memories will remain.  That is especially true of the gift of Christmas, the Savior, & the peace that He brings.  In all our pursuit of peace, He is always God’s answer.  He is the peace that surpasses our understanding, but He is also the peace that perfectly understands each of us.  His peace ends our hopeless pursuit for possessions & power.  His peace is the Lamb of God held in His mother’s arms.  He is the gift of God, the diamond of Yahweh’s relationship with us; the treasure in the arms of the manger.  
Christmas has many little pieces that are important, no matter how small.   Parents have tried to assemble toys that have six bags of tiny pieces with an instruction manual of forty-seven separate steps.   Add an eager four-year-old helping to open those bags & spread out those parts & it’s easy to lose something in all that.   Many people today have lost their Savior. 
No matter how they have lost Him, our Creator & Savior has given each of us the privilege of helping people find that peace that surpasses all human understanding.  When Jesus returns there will be no more 2nd chances.  May Christ’s peace & love so fill your heart that it will overflow with the joy the shepherds experienced that night when they found Jesus?  Amen. 
 
 
Peace came to earth at last that chosen night when angels clove the sky with song & light 
& God embodied love & sheathed His might – who could but gasp: Immanuel!          How else could I have known You, O my God!   How else could I have loved You, O my God!  How else could I embrace You, O my God!  Who could but pray: Immanuel!   Who could but praise Immanuel!  Amen.[1]
 


[1] Text: Jaroslav J. Vajda. Copyright © 1984 Concordia Publishing House. All rights reserved.

​A STAR . . .  A SONG . . .  A CHILD. . .
 
 
A STAR        Said the night wind to the little lamb,
            “Do you see what I see?”
          A star, a star, shining in the night,
            With a tail as big as a kite.   With a tail as big as a kite.
 
            A star led the Magi from the East, to find the Christ & worship Him.  Astronomers today   point to a rare conjunction of planets that appeared low on the horizon as an unusually bright star.  This gives, for those who want it, a natural explanation of the Christmas Star – & we know that God did use natural circumstances to bring His good will to effect, & still does. 
But the Bible leaves the whole phenomenon of the Christmas Star in the category of God’s supernatural intervention.  It tells us that after their journey to Jerusalem,   & after conferring with Herod, the Magi saw the star again.   This time it went ahead of them to Bethlehem & stopped above the house where the Child was. 
            To see the Christmas Star as a special light,   placed into the sky by God for a specific purpose, fits well with the nature of the event it was featuring.  After all, the Christmas event is the most pointed expression of God’s not being just a distant Creator who’s left His creation to operate by itself under a system of natural laws. 
Christmas says to us that the Creator is personally involved with His creation.  It says that He even inserted Himself into the created world, into our human history, to become the Savior of sinful mankind.    In that context, it’s not too difficult to think of God providing a special light in the sky to personally guide the Wise Men. 
            Our concern tonight, however,   is not only a matter of “seeing stars” – not even this wondrous Star of Bethlehem.    “Do you see what I see?” takes us beyond explanations of the event – to see the One whom prophecies from the past & prophecies about the future point to as
God’s own Star.  He’s the Baby of Bethlehem, the One through whom the light of God’s truth & love beams down upon us.   He’s the One  whom Peter called “The Morning Star,” the one who, at the end of time,  will rise in our hearts to usher in the eternal day of life  with Him  in heaven! 
            Do you see   what I see?   Do you see that Star?     If not, let the night wind & the little lamb join the Word of God in showing Him to you this evening. 
2 Peter 1:16-19  For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power & coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.  For when He received honor & glory from God the Father, & the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain.  And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns & the Morning Star rises in your hearts.  (ESV) 
 
A SONG        Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,
                         “Do you hear what I hear?” 
                       A song, a song, high above the trees,
                         With a voice as big as the sea.  With a voice as big as the sea. 
 
What would we do without music to express our deepest feelings?        Like laughing together over some happy remembrance, as with clapping because of something that pleased us, like a hug expressing warmth & love – songs ring out to express our joy & our sadness,   our convictions   & our praise. 
All around the world this Christmas Eve   Christians are doing what we are doing – gathering in houses dedicated to God’s glory   to sing the great Christmas hymns & carols.   It’s the most natural thing in the world for us to do – for in doing this we are repeating what happened that 1st Christmas night. 
And the angels’ song that night: “Glory to God in the highest, & on earth peace among those who have His good will.”  (Luke 2:14)   Their singing was an expression of praise to God for doing what only God would think of doing.  The angels were more than just messengers of Good News.  Their singing expressed wonder   at the Creator’s great love for mankind.    They could not imagine a love so great   as to lead Him to reach out to sinful people like you & me to draw us back again into a living relationship with Him – & to do this by sending His own Son to become one of us,   to be born in a manger, to live as our Brother; to suffer & die in our place    as payment for your sins & for mine. 
You see the holy angels have never experienced the wonder of being surprised by God’s gracious forgiveness.  That wonderful experience is reserved for sinners like you & me.   But Peter says that “the angels long to look into these things.”  From their special vantage point, the holy angels recognized & appreciated the wonder of it all – & joyfully sang their songs of praise.
If the angels sang in praise to God for this amazing act of love, how much more   should we, the recipients of its blessings,   joyfully lift up our voices tonight! 
The song of the angels was indeed a message: Peace on earth, “among those who have His good will.”  It amplified what the angel had announced to the shepherds, & what the Bible still announces to us: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” 
Do you hear what I hear?     Do you hear   the song?     It says you are included   in the salvation of our God.  If you don’t hear it,   let the little lamb & the shepherd boy join the Word of God in teaching it to you this evening.   Then, believing & celebrating, you will join in singing praise to your Savior.    And, with the angels, you’ll be happy to sing it also to others. 
Luke 2:8-14 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, an angel of the Lord came upon them,   & the glory of the Lord shone round about them:  & they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for, behold,   I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.  And this shall be a sign unto you;   Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.’    And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, & singing, ‘Glory to God in the highest, & on earth peace among those who have His good will.’ 
 
A CHILD        Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,
                “Do you know what I know?
             A Child, a Child, shivers in the cold,
                 Let us bring Him silver & gold.  Let us bring Him silver & gold.” 
 
             Said the king to the people everywhere,
                 “Listen to what I say!  
             The Child, the Child, sleeping in the night,
                  He will bring us goodness & light.  He will bring us goodness & light.” 
 
In the final analysis, “The Child   is where it’s at.”  Christmas really is just an X-mas, an unknown quantity, a holiday of purely humanistic celebrating,   unless it centers in the Child.  
Years ago the Episcopal Church placed an ad in the paper showing Santa Claus pointing to Jesus & asking, “Whose birthday is it, anyway?”    Unfortunately, we too can get so involved with Santa Claus,   & with other secular trappings of the season,   that we may not even hear the question,   much less try to answer it: “Whose birthday is it,   anyway?” 
The shepherd boy & the mighty king point you to the Child.    They remind you that God’s gifts of goodness & light are wrapped up in the forgiveness & the acceptance   that our heavenly Father freely gives to us in His Son. 
They urge you to focus – & not just sentimentally on the Baby in the manger,   but also on the Suffering Servant of the cross, the divinely ordained destiny   that inevitably followed His humble birth as our Savior.    They want you to know that if you don’t know Him as your Savior from sin,   you are missing the point of His birth & of the entire Christmas celebration. 
The shepherd boy & the mighty king understand that the only fitting response on our part   is to bring Him silver & gold – as practical symbols of giving ourselves to Him in faith & love.  Be sure to wrap yourself in the offerings you bring as your Christmas gift to Jesus.   Invite Him again to flood your heart with His goodness & light. 
Do you know what I know?   Do you know the Child?   He is the One who brings God’s peace & God’s direction to my life.   In His grace  He blesses what I do for Him;  in His mercy  He forgives  what I do for myself;    in His kindness,  He forgets when I fail to do  what He calls me to.     Do you know that Child   in your life?       Is He your Lord & Savior?      He’s no longer the cute little baby in a manger.   He is now the grown-up Jesus, the Man who was rejected by His own people & crucified for your sin. 
Do you know that Man personally?     Do you talk with Him   frequently?     If not,    let the shepherd boy & the mighty king – let me & all Christians who know & trust Him – join the Word of God in assuring you:
He will bring goodness & light   into your everyday life.    That goodness & light will continue into His eternal Kingdom.    Do you know   what I know?    Do you know the Child? 
“For unto us a child is born, unto us   a Son is given:   & the government shall be upon His shoulder: & His name shall be called Wonderful,     Counselor,     the mighty God,     the everlasting Father,    the Prince of Peace.  Of the increase of His government & peace   there shall be   no end...”  (Isaiah 9:6-7 KJV)    Amen. 
 
Copyright 1998, RLP

​3rd Sunday in Advent – B                                                                              LSB #’s 354, 349, 388
Text – Isaiah 61:4
 
They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, devastations of generation to generation.
 
GENERATION TO GENERATION
 
 
“And the Lord God made for Adam & for his wife garments of skins & clothed them.”  (Genesis 3:21 ESV)   It is very possible that God took the life or lives of one or more animals in order to make those garments of skins.  It may well have been a lamb or two that gave their lives for the sin of Adam & Eve, & thus began generation to generation of devastations. 
Those devastations have continued in every generation since, thousands upon thousands of years.  The very 1st born human child killed the 2nd born.   By the time of Noah, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, & that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”  (Genesis 6:5 ESV) 
After God blotted out mankind from the face of the land, & Noah’s family repopulated the earth, along came the tower of Babel.  There, the people said, “…let us build ourselves …a tower with its top in the heavens, & let us make a name for ourselves…”  (Genesis 11:4 ESV)   “So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth…”  (Genesis 11:8 ESV) 
About 200 years after Babel, God called Abram to follow Him out of the darkness of idolatry.  Lot chooses to live in Sodom & Gomorrah & eventually the Lord sends two angels to the city.  They warn Lot, “…we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord…”  (Genesis 19:13 ESV) 
“Then the Lord rained on Sodom & Gomorrah sulfur & fire… And He overthrew those cities, & all the valley, & all the inhabitants of the cities, & what grew on the ground.”  (Genesis 19:24-25 ESV)  All those devastations occurred in the first 2100 years of human history.   There’ve been another 4000 years of devastations of generation to generation since.  Just in the past 110 years there has been WWI,  the Russian Civil War,  WWII,  the Chinese Civil War,  the Korean War,  the Vietnam War,  the Afghanistan War,  the Iraq War, now the Ukraine War  & war in the Gaza Strip.  Over 148 million people have been killed during those wars alone. 
In that time over 80 million additional people have died of starvation.  Countless numbers of people have been murdered & pandemics have killed millions more.  Sin has delivered death en masse, yet it also kills by a thousand silent cuts one person at a time.   Millions of people suffer abuse at the hands of friends & family many of the days of their lives. 
Devastations of generation to generation makes a fitting summary of human history.  That is what sin does.  Sinners victimize other sinners who then feel entitled to retaliate, seeking revenge against those who hurt them.  It’s a never-ending cycle creating more victims & more retaliation.  Much of our nation’s politics is driven by grievances & counter-grievances. 
As the endless cycle of violence escalates, everyone’s fuse grows shorter.  Explosions of anger happen on a regular basis.  Phrases like road rage & mass shooter have become part of our nation’s vocabulary.    Yet, the day is surely coming when all those long-standing devastations will finally be healed & repaired. 
That is what the season of Advent points to both in the 1st & in the 2nd comings of Christ.  Everything that sin has taken away, Yahweh will give back twofold, as Isaiah wrote: “Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy.”  (61:7) 
The season of Advent is so tightly connected to Christmas that we have a difficult time grasping everything it points to.   Advent reminds us that all of human history is being redeemed by Christ.   We see glimpses of it in our lives as forgiveness brings healing to broken relationships; as people recognize the voice of Jesus & follow Him.  The Good News of Jesus’ death & resurrection empowers people already today to become a force for reconstruction.  Mourners are turned into builders by Christ’s love. 
You’ve probably heard that more importantly than Messiah’s birth, Advent points ahead to Messiah’s return.  However, we tend to look at the arrival of heaven in very personal terms – no more sorrow, no more tears, no more suffering – for me.  But Advent also points ahead to all of human history being redeemed – generation to generation, no more devastations. 
God is working all of history to its final conclusion & that will encompass far more than our own personal salvation.  Revelation gives this description: “…a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes & peoples & languages, standing before the throne & before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”  (7:9 ESV)   
No more will wildfires devastate the forests.  Hurricanes will not destroy vast swaths of the land.  Animals will not eat other animals, & road kill by car & truck will never injure or maim another creature.  Children will not suffer from birth defects.  Pollution of the air & water will be no more.   No human being will suffer from anxiety, guilt or depression ever again. 
Holy Scripture tells us that the whole creation has been groaning as it awaits the return of Jesus Christ.  (Romans 8:22)   With His birth in Bethlehem, Jesus came to 1) bring good news to the oppressed, 2) bind up the brokenhearted, 3) proclaim liberty to the captives, 4) proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, 5) comfort all who mourn, 6) provide for those who mourn in Zion. 
Those were the promises that Isaiah was predicting for the people of Nehemiah’s day as they returned to Jerusalem.  Isaiah wrote about 190 years before the events he spoke of.  The people would be struggling with the task of rebuilding, not just the city but their society.  The land lies desolate.  The cities are all burned, laid waste without inhabitants, houses had no one living in them.  As they looked around their beloved city, they saw troubled relationships & power struggles with those who had not been taken into exile, but continued to make their lives in Jerusalem.  They saw no signs of a rebuilt temple.  God’s promise of restoration, comfort, freedom & praise seemed far off — yet it was spoken. 
The enormity of the building task is underscored in the description of what the comforted mourners will raise up & repair: “the devastations of generation to generation.”   You & I cannot see the obliteration of ancient Jerusalem but we do see “the devastations of many generations” in our world.  Millions of people are missing today because a parent chose not to have their child. 
The people of ancient Judah left God behind so Yahweh sent them into exile to wake them up.  When people leave God behind, en masse, devastations of generation to generation are always the result.  All the wars in human history are due to at least one nation’s leaders leaving God behind.  Advent is calling our nation’s people & leaders to return to God for salvation. 
The people of our nation need to wake up, to start watching & to be ready.  However, as children of God we are not just pointing fingers because each one of us also needs to be continually reminded that Advent is pointing to Christ’s return & the Day of Judgment.  Both the Old & the New Testaments remind us that the Lord disciplines those whom He loves. 
Yahweh does that, not out of spite or hate, but to call us back to Him.  Though we don’t see it now as clearly as we will in heaven, almighty God is already working to raise up & repair the devastations of generation to generation. 
That is happening now in millions of small ways & most especially every time the Holy Spirit brings someone to faith.  And it will happen on a grand scale on the Last Day as our Creator brings about the new heaven & the new earth.  All the devastations of this old & worn out planet will be completely repaired & they will never come to pass again.  For now, when your hopes turn to ashes, remember that God offers us a great new day in Jesus Christ through His death & resurrection.  Advent reminds us that the old is passing away & the new is coming.  In large & small ways, that process is always going on for God’s people.  The resurrection of Jesus made that certain.  The devastations of generation to generation will come to an end. 
At a time of year when the landscape surrounding most churches is bleak & hostile to life, when the least amount of daylight is right around the corner, the message of Isaiah 61 brings hope not for spring blossoms but for spirits made alive in God’s love as we prepare to celebrate Christ’s coming at Christmas.  We come alive when our sins are erased & our souls made clean.
Isaiah opens this text with the words, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”   This can remind us of the opening of Genesis where the Spirit of God hovered over the waters at creation.  Once again, out of the chaos of destruction & exile, Yahweh is even now creating something new.  He is not waiting until the Last Day to renew our hearts & our minds. 
As St. Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5: “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, & may your whole spirit & soul & body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.”  (5:23-24 ESV)   Amen. 
 
 
 
Hark the glad sound!  The Savior comes, the Savior promised long; let every heart prepare a throne & every voice a song.     He comes the broken heart to bind, the bleeding soul to cure, & with the treasures of His grace to enrich the humble poor.  Amen.  LSB 349:1, 3.  

​Advent Midweek 2                                                             Peace Came to Earth, LSB #’s 347, 343
Text – Ephesians 2:17
 
And He came & preached peace to you who were far off & peace to those who were near.
 
PEACE TO ALL NEAR & FAR
 
 
The weeks before Christmas can be busy.  The days of December bring us closer to more people than perhaps any time of the year.   The stores are full.   The lines are long.   The office Christmas celebration puts you in the same room with people you might see only once a year.  
Your family gets together the week before Christmas, & this year, your cousin with the smallest home is hosting.   It’s going to be tight!   Advent & Christmas bring us shoulder to shoulder with strangers, neighbors, family & friends.  A long checkout line, a crowded party, & sharing a couch with one person too many; that is no one’s picture of peace.  
Peace is the opposite image.  It is open space, quiet & calm.  If only we could find it.  That is the picture tonight as we continue to see how the star of peace comes to us.  This evening, we look at the two middle points of the star.   They stretch out & say, “Peace is about getting away!”   If we can get far enough away, we will find peace.  
It’s a natural idea, & we can spend a great deal of time pursuing it.  But once again, God knows the limits of our pursuit, spares us from a disappointing chase, & gives us far more than we would have found for ourselves.   Let’s start with imagining   that peace can be found in a place far away from where we are right now.  
What is your picture of that perfect place?  Is it a cabin in the woods set on a quiet lake?  You have the lake to yourself.  There are no other cabins to spoil the view; no motors waking you up.  There’s a perfect reflection of the trees on the far shore.   The only sounds are the waves gently breaking on the shore & the cardinals calling one another. 
There are no phone calls, messages, or emails to be returned; no 24-hour cable news to
remind you of the anger in the world.  There is nothing but peace.  Make some coffee or tea, sit on the porch, & soak it all in.  It sounds wonderful.  If you can escape to that place & stay there, it sounds perfect.  But what if you know that it’s never going to happen?  You can’t leave your work & live in the woods.  You can’t leave the people who depend on you.  
You need peace that fits life here & now.  That’s the other dimension of peace we often seek as we live here & now.  We can seek that dimension of peace by rearranging our past.  It can use some change & distance because the past doesn’t stay in the past where it should be – silent & out of sight.  Instead, the past intrudes into our present & it threatens even our future.  
The past has those people, those events, those harsh words, those tears   that never fully went away.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could erase them & move their dusty memory as far away as that cabin in the north woods?   What if we could deny the darkest parts of our past & retell our story with the best parts out in front?  
Let the worst parts be hidden under a mumbled sentence that no one can really hear.  Pick up the past & move it out of sight.  Then we could be at peace.   We hope that erasing our past will lessen the pressure on our crowded & stressful present.  Take either direction of the star & go as far as you can – deny our dark past or escape our overcrowded present.  
And what does God often do?  He stops us from going in either direction & offers peace to us where we are.  Jesus is our peace here & now, not in our separation from one another but in Himself.  St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:13–15,
“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one & has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that He might create in Himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace.” Amid the hostility & tension that we experience, Christ brings us peace.  Remember the disciples sailing in the boat?  A storm came on them, & they rowed furiously while Jesus slept peacefully.  Finally, they woke Him & asked, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”  (Mark 4:38 ESV)    Jesus rose, rebuked the wind & waves, & there was calm.  
Do you remember what Jesus said to them?    “Why are you so afraid?  Have you still no faith?”  (Mark 4:40 ESV)     Is your peace only found on a perfectly calm lake?   Do you block out Christ’s peace in the middle of a storm?  Who knows what storms may be right around the corner?   There is One who does know & His peace is waiting for you, there in the storm. 
He who creates calm within us, even when the wind & waves roar; He is   our peace.  Jesus is our peace by reconciling us to one another.  We try to bring peace to the conflicts of our past by retelling our side of the story.  We want to distance ourselves from those people & events.  But Christ brings peace by bringing together all people through His birth, life & death.  
From His birth in the stable to the gathering around His cross, His coming brings together those who would otherwise remain distant.  Paul says, “…He came & preached peace to you who were far off & peace to those who were near.  For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.  So then you are no longer strangers & aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints & members of the household of God.”  (Ephesians 2:17–19 ESV) 
Peace doesn’t come when we retell our side of the story.  Peace comes through the brokenness of Jesus on the cross.  Peace comes when our sins are completely erased, as Jesus gathers us from far & near, regardless of who we are.   Peace was created by Jesus’ death & resurrection.  In that event, we don’t merely come out better.  We are forgiven & at peace. 
Dream if you wish of that perfect cabin by the always-calm lake.  I’m not sure that it exists anywhere but in our dreams.  That’s okay.  We don’t need to escape to the lake, & we don’t need to escape by a retelling of our past.  Peace is offered to us this Advent when Christ is with us through His words of peace & power.  In Him, there is forgiveness for all of our past, & power over all the storms of today or tomorrow.  The peace of God is with us no matter how many people are leaning upon us with their demands for our time & energy. 
The peace from God is with us in long checkout lines, crowded parties, & when we’re sharing a couch with one person too many.  God’s peace is always with us right in the very center of His star.   If we can just be still, we will be comforted with knowing that He is the God who loves us wherever He finds us.  Amen. 
 
 
 
“Comfort, comfort ye My people, speak ye peace,” thus saith our God; “Comfort those who sit in darkness, mourning beneath their sorrows’ load.   Speak ye to Jerusalem of the peace that waits for them; tell her that her sins I cover & her warfare now is over.”    Make ye straight what long was crooked; make the rougher places plain.   Let your hearts be true & humble, as befits His holy reign.  For the glory of the Lord now over earth is shed abroad, & all flesh shall see the token that His Word is never broken.  Amen.  LSB 347:1, 4.
 

2nd Sunday in Advent                                                        Peace Came To Earth, LSB #’s 397, 763
Text – Matthew 2:10
 
When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
 
LOOK UP!  THE STAR OF PEACE DRAWS NEAR
 
 We have seen how Christmas starts earlier every year.  Not Christmas itself, which is still December 25,  & not Advent, which begins four weeks before Christmas.  Those dates are fixed, but the buildup to Christmas  has been creeping up earlier & earlier  each year.  
Stores compete to be the 1st  to put up Christmas colors & have Christmas sales.  Your co-worker in the next cubicle has been playing Christmas songs for two weeks now.    Christmas cookies have already been made &, in some homes, batches of them have already disappeared. 
We start early because we have a lot to do.  Christmas can be a pursuit & search to achieve so many goals.  Your personal goals might be  to get the shopping done early or have all the cards sent out before December 10.  Those are good, but for our Advent worship, we’re going to have a larger goal for these coming weeks.  
This Advent, we’re going to focus on how we seek peace & how we define the peace we are seeking.   That peace can be thought of as a five-point star.  Each point is a direction  or a pursuit that seeks one dimension of peace.  Left to ourselves, that pursuit would never end.  
But the good news is  that God meets us, stops our endless chase, & gives us a new understanding of His gift of peace.  That peace always comes through the birth of Jesus, the Word who became flesh, who stepped into our world to fulfill our desire for peace. 
Let’s start by drawing out the first point in our star of peace.  We’ll make the top point of the star a very common way to seek peace: possessions.   The more possessions, the better.   For many, this is the most obvious pursuit during Christmastime.   Getting ready for Christmas can mean getting more  & newer stuff  than we already have.   The promise of “getting”  is that Christmas will be just right  if we have all the right things.  That may include all the gifts we can imagine or enough decorations to stock our own Christmas store.   After all,  if one gift is good, five will be better  & ten might finally be enough! 
Picture this top of the star.  How tall does it have to be to achieve satisfaction?  Will this point ever stop?  How far & high does it need to go for you to find peace?   We’ve already found that out, even as children.  Yesterday’s toys lay broken & forgotten.  Tomorrow’s toys won’t last any longer.  Before we go any further in this pursuit, God stops us to say, “Enough!”  
To counter our pursuit of peace by gathering more & more, God instructs us with words of contentment from Paul: “But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, & we cannot take anything out of the world.  But if we have food & clothing, with these we will be content.”  (1 Timothy 6:6–8)  
God is a watchful Father who sees us dashing off,  gathering more & more,  building up speed as we plow ahead.  But He knows the dangers in our journey & snatches us up, saying, “Enough!”  God is like a father watching his children shoot down a snowy hill on their sleds, & everything is wonderful.    But at the bottom of the hill is a pond that isn’t quite frozen yet.  
What’s a father to do but play goalie & catch each child before they slide onto the pond!  His message is the same as our heavenly Father’s: “I know you want to go on & on,  but you have no idea of the danger.  Let’s stop right here.”  So our heavenly Father stops us out of love  & His knowledge of the dangers before us.  
The words of Paul fit perfectly: “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless & harmful desires that plunge people into ruin & destruction.”  (1 Timothy 6:9)    See how the Father catches us firmly before we plunge into ruin.  But besides catching us, our heavenly Father also provides.  He has already given us the food & clothing we need, along with the many other things that fill our homes & garages.  He could say, “There,  you have what you need,  so be content.”   And beyond that, He gives us His Son, leading us by the light of the star.  Imagine the pursuit of peace  the Wise Men completed.  They saw the star from a great distance & by God’s gift, they understood what that star meant.  
The Messiah promised in the OT was born!  They discovered a true treasure as it opened in the heavens.  Imagine their excitement each night as they waited for the stars to appear.   That one star appeared,  again & again,  guiding their journey.  They pursued the star & brought their treasures with them.  But they didn’t travel to add more gold to their packs.  
They knew their treasure would be a newborn child.   That’s the star that guides us every Advent.  That star still shines, & its bright points call us to look up for our treasure.  Our greatest treasure & richest gain are not saved in the cloud.  Our treasure is fixed in the message of the Christmas star.  Planets wander through the sky.   Clouds come & go, but stars are fixed in place.  
Peace comes from the certainty of the star that pointed to the One who is God’s lasting treasure.   Follow the joyful path of the Magi, who saw the star & were more than content, knowing that the King had been born.  The peace of God comes as He meets us & says, “Follow Me.”  The Magi followed a silent star,  but we can hear the words of the Savior Himself.  
They only saw the star as they traveled.  We have Jesus’ words every day.  Joyful, we join all who have heard His invitation & followed His star.   The Magi brought their treasures & happily left them behind because they had one focus that 1st Christmas.  Treasures of gold, incense & myrrh were nothing in comparison to that Child. 
Leaving Him, they rode away, retelling the story of the star & the Savior.  While they had to leave the infant Jesus as they returned home, Jesus, the greatest treasure, is with us every day.  The star of peace begins our journey with the promise of more than simply adding to our list of
presents.  Pursuing always the latest & the largest is a never-ending journey.  God stops us, as a wise Father, snatches us up, & says, “Enough!”   Look up & see a lasting star & treasure.  
The star of the Messiah’s birth is always before us, waiting for us to see.  The Messiah’s star is already in our skies.  The gift of His birth is more than enough to fill our Advent & our Christmas.  Peace is found in the One who has already come & made us His own.  Amen. 
 
 
As with gladness  men of old  did the guiding star behold;  as with joy they hailed its light,  leading onward, beaming bright;  so, most gracious Lord, may we  evermore be led by Thee.      Holy Jesus, every day  keep us in the narrow way;  & when earthly things are past,  bring our ransomed souls at last  where they need no star to guide,  where no clouds Thy glory hide.      In the heavenly country bright  need they no created light;   Thou its light,  its joy,  its crown,  Thou its sun which goes not down;  there forever may we sing  alleluias to our King.  Amen.  LSB 397:1, 4-5.