"And on Earth, Peace" is the title of the Christmas Musical we will be presenting next Sunday night. The title led me to some thoughts for this worship blog having to do with peace. I have noticed in Luke 2 where we find the Christmas story that we find some important "worship" words: glory, joy, praising, and of course peace. Another word I add is implied throughout this chapter . . . hope. Hope runs through individuals and groups of people throughout chapter 2 of Luke. When we gather as the body for worship, we find all of those words involved in our worship. Every worship experience reminds us and others of the hope we have in Christ. We are always interested in the glory of God and joy is a natural expression of what we know in Him. That all leads us to praise, and as we are reminded of all He is and all we have in Him the final result is peace. He is our peace. Emmanuel, God with us, is peace because He lives in us.
There are several Christmas carols we sing as we gather together that remind us of that peace. Some of those lines are - "fill the whole world with heaven's peace", "and peace on earth to men", "peace on earth and mercy mild", "sleep in heavenly peace", "the words repeat of peace on earth, good will to men", "Everlasting Prince of Peace", "grant to us Thy heavenly peace", "our peace eternal making". And there are more.
I remember struggling all my life with the theme of "peace on earth" at Christmas. All my life I have seen a lack of peace in politics, a lack of peace among people groups, a lack of peace in families, a lack of peace between countries. I have asked myself many times, "Where in our world is this peace?" But when Jesus invaded the world He brought peace, because He is peace. We who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior can experience complete peace because He lives in us. So in the midst of a chaotic, peace-deprived world, we know perfect peace in Him. When we gather reminding one another that he was "born to save", we are reminding one another and remembering in our own walk with Him that He IS our peace. It is the kind of peace that passes all human understanding as expressed in Philippians and literally guards our hearts so we can experience joy and peace. May we remember in the midst of chaos the wonderful gift of peace that has been given to us in Christ. And on earth, peace . . . because He came. mjm
