WEBVTT 00:00:01.809 --> 00:00:04.250 Don't you dare talk to me about gaza without 00:00:04.250 --> 00:00:07.429 dealing with the violence in the text. The prophets 00:00:07.429 --> 00:00:09.990 didn't suggest judgment, they pronounced it. 00:00:11.050 --> 00:00:13.830 And God cut down more nonsense than you've got 00:00:13.830 --> 00:00:28.489 verses memorized. Welcome back here to the Semi 00:00:28.489 --> 00:00:30.309 -Seminary, and I'm your old buddy, Pastor Jim. 00:00:30.410 --> 00:00:32.750 This week's episode takes you right into the 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:35.390 heart of a world trying to hold itself together 00:00:35.390 --> 00:00:38.469 with duct tape and good intentions. We start 00:00:38.469 --> 00:00:41.670 where most of us live, juggling responsibilities, 00:00:42.189 --> 00:00:46.070 managing tensions, doing our best to keep the 00:00:46.070 --> 00:00:48.770 peace even when it feels like the room is shaking. 00:00:49.679 --> 00:00:53.780 Then we'll walk straight into Isaiah's wild vision 00:00:53.780 --> 00:00:57.219 of wolves and lambs sharing the same pasture. 00:00:57.659 --> 00:01:01.520 Here, Jesus' whisper of peace the world can't 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:06.060 counterfeit. And let Paul teach us about dividing 00:01:06.060 --> 00:01:11.060 walls that Jesus tears down. And somewhere between 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:14.219 the ancient prophecy and our own tired shoulders, 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:19.500 grace starts to rise like a green shoot. Up through 00:01:19.500 --> 00:01:23.700 a stump. And friend, as you press play on this 00:01:23.700 --> 00:01:26.200 episode, know this, you're not just tuning into 00:01:26.200 --> 00:01:29.840 a podcast. No, you're slipping into our little 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:33.299 country church on a Sunday morning. Same creaky 00:01:33.299 --> 00:01:37.180 pews, same paper bulletins, same burnt edge coffee 00:01:37.180 --> 00:01:40.299 warming in the kitchen. Folks are now settling 00:01:40.299 --> 00:01:43.359 in. Someone's whispering hello to one another. 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.379 The Advent wreath is lit with two candles now. 00:01:46.500 --> 00:01:50.680 Hope and today, peace. You found your seat just 00:01:50.680 --> 00:01:54.500 in time, and I'm glad you're here. I'll see you 00:01:54.500 --> 00:02:03.260 on the other side. So Advent Week 2, we're talking 00:02:03.260 --> 00:02:07.689 about peace. Today, our discussion is called, 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:16.650 Is Your Peace in Pieces? And I hope that, I really, 00:02:16.750 --> 00:02:19.030 really hope that as you listen to these kind 00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:23.189 of Christmas messages, maybe if you feel like, 00:02:23.229 --> 00:02:26.469 man, I really feel like I know the story pretty 00:02:26.469 --> 00:02:32.210 well, that you'll listen for maybe something 00:02:32.210 --> 00:02:36.849 you didn't know. And if maybe I don't really 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:39.090 know this story that well, then I hope you listen 00:02:39.090 --> 00:02:40.930 really closely so you'll know the story better. 00:02:41.750 --> 00:02:45.110 So I'm really hoping that in these discussions 00:02:45.110 --> 00:02:47.810 that there's going to be some things that if 00:02:47.810 --> 00:02:49.870 you've been around the church for any period 00:02:49.870 --> 00:02:52.509 of time that you might feel pretty comfortable 00:02:52.509 --> 00:02:55.810 with. And then you might go, wait a minute, I 00:02:55.810 --> 00:03:02.889 didn't know that. Before we rush into it, let's 00:03:02.889 --> 00:03:09.330 just take a breath. And last week, we lit the 00:03:09.330 --> 00:03:12.789 candle of hope. And if you recall, we said that 00:03:12.789 --> 00:03:15.349 hope isn't something that we build. It's something 00:03:15.349 --> 00:03:19.530 that breaks into the world. And this week, we 00:03:19.530 --> 00:03:23.870 came to the second word on the Advent wreath, 00:03:24.050 --> 00:03:30.219 peace. Now, again, Given the theme, you might 00:03:30.219 --> 00:03:34.560 already know what I'm going to say. That the 00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:40.419 world has its own version of peace. And that 00:03:40.419 --> 00:03:43.580 version of peace is one that we are expected 00:03:43.580 --> 00:03:50.000 to maintain, manage, control, perform. A peace 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:53.800 that we have to keep propped up like a porch 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:58.539 that's just two nails away from giving out. So, 00:03:58.539 --> 00:04:01.979 right off the bat, let me ask you very gently, 00:04:02.060 --> 00:04:06.580 think for a moment, friends. Have you ever been 00:04:06.580 --> 00:04:12.479 told to keep the peace? When what that really 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:16.560 meant was don't make waves, don't ask questions, 00:04:16.620 --> 00:04:21.319 don't bring up that thing that hurts. Don't disrupt 00:04:21.319 --> 00:04:24.240 the fragile calm that we've managed to somehow 00:04:24.240 --> 00:04:30.730 duct tape together. The world's peace is fragile. 00:04:31.910 --> 00:04:36.970 And it depends on our ability to hold everything 00:04:36.970 --> 00:04:42.009 still. Your ability to keep your family from 00:04:42.009 --> 00:04:46.089 fighting. Your ability to keep your emotions 00:04:46.089 --> 00:04:50.389 at bay. Your ability to keep your workplace from 00:04:50.389 --> 00:04:57.509 collapsing. Your ability to keep smiling. When 00:04:57.509 --> 00:05:02.029 you want to scream, this is the peace the world 00:05:02.029 --> 00:05:08.870 expects from us. The peace that rests on our 00:05:08.870 --> 00:05:14.509 shoulders. Peace that depends on our performance. 00:05:14.509 --> 00:05:18.970 A peace that evaporates the second the room gets 00:05:18.970 --> 00:05:26.490 honest. But hear me. Peace that can be lost by 00:05:26.490 --> 00:05:30.730 telling the truth was never peace to begin with. 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:40.629 Jesus once said, My peace I give to you, not 00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:46.110 as the world gives. And that tells us something 00:05:46.110 --> 00:05:51.850 very important. The world's peace is counterfeit. 00:05:53.379 --> 00:06:00.540 God's is a gift. The world's peace is the absence 00:06:00.540 --> 00:06:05.879 of conflict. God's peace is the presence of Christ. 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:12.959 The world says make it peaceful. Advent says 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:20.250 receive the one who brings peace. Church, if 00:06:20.250 --> 00:06:23.089 you've been carrying the burden of keeping everything 00:06:23.089 --> 00:06:28.250 together, if you've been the glue, the fixer, 00:06:28.250 --> 00:06:33.629 the mediator, the emotional shock absorber, this 00:06:33.629 --> 00:06:38.550 Sunday, friend, is for you. Because peace of 00:06:38.550 --> 00:06:42.430 God is not something you produce. It is something 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:48.579 that arrives. And it arrives in the strangest 00:06:48.579 --> 00:06:56.160 way, as a tiny green shoot growing up out of 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:02.600 a dead stump. Let's get into it. Isaiah 11 opens 00:07:02.600 --> 00:07:06.259 with an image that makes no sense until you maybe 00:07:06.259 --> 00:07:11.120 live through a loss you didn't choose. A shoot 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:14.339 shall come out of the stump of Jesse and a branch 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:19.939 shall grow out of his roots. Now, let me slow 00:07:19.939 --> 00:07:26.600 down. The Hebrew word for stump here is geza. 00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:32.379 And geza only appears three times in the whole 00:07:32.379 --> 00:07:38.600 of scripture. And it's not just a word for tree 00:07:38.600 --> 00:07:44.009 remains. It's actually a word for something that 00:07:44.009 --> 00:07:50.209 has been deliberately cut down. Something that 00:07:50.209 --> 00:07:57.730 has been felled by an axe. The word Geza has 00:07:57.730 --> 00:08:03.230 violence connected to it. Israel had been cut 00:08:03.230 --> 00:08:08.370 down. The monarchy had failed. The nation was 00:08:08.370 --> 00:08:12.170 fractured. The temple, at this point, was compromised. 00:08:13.110 --> 00:08:17.389 The kings that kept coming one after another 00:08:17.389 --> 00:08:22.110 were disappointing at best and destructive at 00:08:22.110 --> 00:08:28.569 worst. And the family tree, that line of David, 00:08:28.769 --> 00:08:38.100 had been reduced to a geza, a stump. And can 00:08:38.100 --> 00:08:45.000 you hear the ache in that metaphor? A stump, 00:08:45.299 --> 00:08:48.860 it's what's left when someone has come through 00:08:48.860 --> 00:08:54.779 with an ax. A stump, it's what remains after 00:08:54.779 --> 00:09:00.559 a fall you couldn't stop. A stump is a memory 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:07.820 of height and strength and shade. to a reminder 00:09:07.820 --> 00:09:15.820 of what it is not anymore. And some of us are 00:09:15.820 --> 00:09:22.419 living with stumps in our lives right now. A 00:09:22.419 --> 00:09:24.759 relationship that didn't survive the winter. 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:33.899 Dream that never quite sprouted. Faith that used 00:09:33.899 --> 00:09:38.509 to feel like a towering oak. But now, somehow, 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:45.730 feels cut to the ground. Future you planned that 00:09:45.730 --> 00:09:51.289 got bulldozed by one single phone call. Marriage 00:09:51.289 --> 00:09:57.889 used to provide shade and shelter. Now nothing 00:09:57.889 --> 00:10:03.549 but rings in the wood and a memory of what once 00:10:03.549 --> 00:10:11.610 was. And Isaiah doesn't say God magically restores 00:10:11.610 --> 00:10:16.889 the tree. He says something stranger, something 00:10:16.889 --> 00:10:22.649 quieter, something almost invisible. A shoot 00:10:22.649 --> 00:10:28.990 shall come out of that stump. Now, continuing 00:10:28.990 --> 00:10:33.029 with our Hebrew word lesson for today, the word 00:10:33.029 --> 00:10:39.080 for shoot is koder. A tender twig. Something 00:10:39.080 --> 00:10:42.600 so small that you'd miss if you weren't paying 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:45.720 attention. Something a landscaper might trim 00:10:45.720 --> 00:10:49.980 away without thinking twice. Not a full -grown 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:56.379 cedar. Not a mighty oak. Not a sudden return 00:10:56.379 --> 00:11:03.720 to what once was a shoot. A single green sprout. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:10.639 Has no business being there. This is the way 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:16.100 God brings peace. Not by rewinding the story, 00:11:16.279 --> 00:11:20.720 but by planting new beginnings and fallen places. 00:11:23.100 --> 00:11:27.360 And the ancients would have understood that symbol 00:11:27.360 --> 00:11:34.700 immediately. Jesse was David's father. And from 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:40.840 his line, Jesse, would come a future king. But 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:46.179 by Isaiah's day, that royal line looked dead. 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:54.620 The last decent king now was a far distant memory. 00:11:55.759 --> 00:11:59.779 The current occupants of the throne were either 00:11:59.779 --> 00:12:07.240 weak or wicked or both. Notice, Isaiah doesn't 00:12:07.240 --> 00:12:14.480 say from the stump of David. He reaches further 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:21.980 back to Jesse, to the father before the king, 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:28.440 to the root before the glory. It's as if God 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:34.149 is saying, listen. I'm not starting from where 00:12:34.149 --> 00:12:39.789 the crown failed. I'm starting from before the 00:12:39.789 --> 00:12:45.110 crown existed. I'm going back to the beginning 00:12:45.110 --> 00:12:52.129 and doing something new. Why is this important 00:12:52.129 --> 00:12:57.029 to us? Because this, friends, is how grace works. 00:12:58.539 --> 00:13:02.299 It doesn't try to just fix your worst chapter 00:13:02.299 --> 00:13:06.419 of your life. It reaches back before the failure 00:13:06.419 --> 00:13:10.279 and plants something that failure can't touch. 00:13:12.440 --> 00:13:15.940 Isaiah is not describing a thriving kingdom. 00:13:16.440 --> 00:13:20.019 He is describing a kingdom that has been cut 00:13:20.019 --> 00:13:25.440 down. And yet, in the middle of devastation, 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:32.629 God says, watch the stump. Because there, in 00:13:32.629 --> 00:13:37.490 the place where everything looks finished, peace 00:13:37.490 --> 00:13:44.110 begins to grow. And not just inner peace, not 00:13:44.110 --> 00:13:49.570 spa day peace, not don't rock the boat peace. 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:59.139 Isaiah's peace is a cosmic reordering. Wolves 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:04.840 lying down with lambs. Leopards lounging beside 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:10.440 goats. Children safe beside vipers. The whole 00:14:10.440 --> 00:14:17.960 of creation unlearning its violence. Peace is 00:14:17.960 --> 00:14:23.620 not about the absence of trouble. Peace is creation 00:14:23.620 --> 00:14:30.320 remade from the roots. And that root is Jesus. 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:35.840 Not the Jesus that we decorate in velvet in December, 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:40.100 but the Messiah who grows out of the dead places, 00:14:40.259 --> 00:14:44.960 walks into the world's violence, and makes peace, 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:52.379 not by avoidance, but by incarnation. Now with 00:14:52.379 --> 00:14:57.200 that in mind, let's hear the text. A tune. Your 00:14:57.200 --> 00:14:59.960 ears, friends, to the reading of God's word. 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:06.679 Prophecy, the poet Isaiah Ben Amoz. Chapter 11 00:15:06.679 --> 00:15:12.000 of his prophecy, beginning verse 1. Shoot shall 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:15.440 come out of the stump of Jesse. Branch shall 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:18.720 grow out of his roots. Spirit of the Lord shall 00:15:18.720 --> 00:15:22.419 rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding. 00:15:23.559 --> 00:15:27.580 Spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge 00:15:27.580 --> 00:15:33.019 and the fear of the Lord. His delight shall be 00:15:33.019 --> 00:15:38.220 the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what 00:15:38.220 --> 00:15:43.679 his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:47.480 but with righteousness he shall judge for the 00:15:47.480 --> 00:15:52.519 poor and decide with equity for the meat of the 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:56.620 earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod 00:15:56.620 --> 00:16:01.100 of his mouth, and the breath of his lips he shall 00:16:01.100 --> 00:16:05.820 kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt 00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:09.240 around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around 00:16:09.240 --> 00:16:14.899 his loins. The wolf shall lie down with the lamb. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:19.080 The leopard shall lie down with the kid. The 00:16:19.080 --> 00:16:23.649 calf and the lion will feed together. And a little 00:16:23.649 --> 00:16:28.789 child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall 00:16:28.789 --> 00:16:31.190 graze. Their young shall lie down together. And 00:16:31.190 --> 00:16:35.830 the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing 00:16:35.830 --> 00:16:39.909 child shall play over the hole of the asp. And 00:16:39.909 --> 00:16:42.509 the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's 00:16:42.509 --> 00:16:46.889 den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my 00:16:46.889 --> 00:16:50.049 holy mountain for the earth. will be full of 00:16:50.049 --> 00:16:54.129 knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the 00:16:54.129 --> 00:16:59.309 sea. Friends, thus ends the reading of God's 00:16:59.309 --> 00:17:06.109 word. Now, did you notice what Isaiah never tells 00:17:06.109 --> 00:17:12.009 us to do? He never says, now go try harder to 00:17:12.009 --> 00:17:16.410 make peace with this. Because peace is not humanly 00:17:16.410 --> 00:17:20.789 possible. You can't make wolves lie down with 00:17:20.789 --> 00:17:23.529 lambs. You can barely make brothers and sisters 00:17:23.529 --> 00:17:29.309 do it. Isaiah is describing a world only God 00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:34.809 can create. Which brings us to Jesus' words centuries 00:17:34.809 --> 00:17:40.410 later. My peace I give to you. I do not give 00:17:40.410 --> 00:17:45.640 as the world gives. World's peace is managed. 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:50.720 God's peace is bestowed. World's peace is fragile. 00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:56.079 God's is resilient. World's peace relies on us. 00:17:56.200 --> 00:18:02.579 God's peace sits with the spirit. And Paul says 00:18:02.579 --> 00:18:06.839 it even more bluntly. He himself is our peace. 00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:13.390 Not he brings us peace. Not Jesus teaches us 00:18:13.390 --> 00:18:18.769 peace. Not he inspires peace in all of us. He 00:18:18.769 --> 00:18:25.789 is peace. Peace is a person. And when that person 00:18:25.789 --> 00:18:29.250 arrives, things that shouldn't coexist start 00:18:29.250 --> 00:18:33.650 sharing the same pastures. Hostilities starts 00:18:33.650 --> 00:18:39.599 losing its grip. Walls begin coming down. Dividing 00:18:39.599 --> 00:18:44.279 lines somehow get erased. Weapons become forgotten. 00:18:45.279 --> 00:18:52.319 And Paul knew what he was talking about. In that 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:56.579 same Ephesian chapter, he's writing to a church 00:18:56.579 --> 00:19:01.319 that is torn between Jewish and Gentile, non 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:06.880 -Jewish, Christian believers. And these two groups, 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:10.900 they had every reason to stay suspicious of each 00:19:10.900 --> 00:19:16.359 other. Centuries of resentment towards one another. 00:19:16.579 --> 00:19:21.359 Religious superiority on one side, cultural exclusion 00:19:21.359 --> 00:19:26.460 on the other. And Paul says that Christ has broken 00:19:26.460 --> 00:19:31.980 down the dividing wall of hostility. And we think, 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:36.230 what a great metaphor. but I wonder if you know 00:19:36.230 --> 00:19:41.930 what he's actually referencing. In Herod's temple, 00:19:42.190 --> 00:19:49.029 there was a literal wall, a barrier that separated 00:19:49.029 --> 00:19:53.069 the court of the Gentiles from the inner courts 00:19:53.069 --> 00:19:59.029 of the Jewish people. Gentiles could come close 00:19:59.029 --> 00:20:07.039 to God's presence, but not. Signs on the wall 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:13.700 warned that any non -Jew who crossed it would 00:20:13.700 --> 00:20:17.599 be executed. And archaeologists have actually 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:24.759 found these signs. That is the wall Paul is saying 00:20:24.759 --> 00:20:30.309 is being torn down. with a wrecking ball, not 00:20:30.309 --> 00:20:34.470 with political revolution, but by absorbing the 00:20:34.470 --> 00:20:39.930 hostility of his own body on the cross. By becoming 00:20:39.930 --> 00:20:43.490 the place where enemies meet and find themselves 00:20:43.490 --> 00:20:50.009 somehow siblings. That's the mystery of the cross. 00:20:52.349 --> 00:20:59.359 It doesn't just forgive individual sins. It unmasks 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:05.119 the structures of hostility. It doesn't just 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:10.720 reconcile you to God vertically. It reconciles 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:15.920 you to your neighbors horizontally as well. Peace 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:23.049 with God creates peace with others. And if that 00:21:23.049 --> 00:21:26.430 sounds a little too abstract, fair. Think about 00:21:26.430 --> 00:21:32.049 it this way. There are people in your life you 00:21:32.049 --> 00:21:37.569 would never naturally sit beside. Political opposites, 00:21:37.609 --> 00:21:43.150 old wounds, family fractures. But the table of 00:21:43.150 --> 00:21:48.670 Christ is bigger than your guest list. And when 00:21:48.670 --> 00:21:53.930 peace arrives, Real peace, shoot from the stump 00:21:53.930 --> 00:21:59.609 peace, it has a way of seeding common enemies 00:21:59.609 --> 00:22:05.390 in the same pew. That is what Advent points us 00:22:05.390 --> 00:22:10.390 toward. A peace we cannot achieve. Going in a 00:22:10.390 --> 00:22:14.710 place we never expected. From a root we thought 00:22:14.710 --> 00:22:21.369 was dead. So let me ask you. When you hear the 00:22:21.369 --> 00:22:27.849 word peace, what do you feel? Do you feel relief? 00:22:28.750 --> 00:22:34.329 Or do you feel responsibility? Because for most 00:22:34.329 --> 00:22:39.390 of us, peace has just become another burden. 00:22:40.910 --> 00:22:44.710 Don't upset anyone. Don't say the wrong thing. 00:22:45.549 --> 00:22:49.670 Don't disappoint the family. Don't stir up conflict. 00:22:49.730 --> 00:22:52.849 Don't be the reason someone else gets angry. 00:22:56.670 --> 00:23:01.329 Have you ever been the one holding the fragile 00:23:01.329 --> 00:23:09.349 peace in your family? The one who smooths everything 00:23:09.349 --> 00:23:16.349 over? The one who absorbs the tension? The one 00:23:16.349 --> 00:23:19.849 who mediates every conflict, translates every 00:23:19.849 --> 00:23:24.170 misunderstanding, and swallows your own feelings 00:23:24.170 --> 00:23:30.769 just to keep everybody comfortable. Anyone? That's 00:23:30.769 --> 00:23:37.309 not peace. That is emotional hostage -taking. 00:23:39.289 --> 00:23:43.509 Or maybe for you, peace has become a state that 00:23:43.509 --> 00:23:49.069 you have to enforce. Be calm. Don't worry. Don't 00:23:49.069 --> 00:23:54.750 panic. Don't feel this. You've been trying to 00:23:54.750 --> 00:23:58.650 duct tape your inner world into stillness. And 00:23:58.650 --> 00:24:04.569 that's not peace. That's suppression. Or maybe, 00:24:04.750 --> 00:24:11.710 and this one is a little harder to admit, you 00:24:11.710 --> 00:24:15.559 have been holding on to a grudge because letting 00:24:15.559 --> 00:24:21.700 it go somehow feels like losing. Like the person 00:24:21.700 --> 00:24:27.420 you hurt wins somehow if you release them. Like 00:24:27.420 --> 00:24:30.660 peace somehow means injustice never happened. 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:37.380 That's not peace either. That's exhaustion dressed 00:24:37.380 --> 00:24:42.460 up as principles. Or maybe... And dude, I see 00:24:42.460 --> 00:24:47.019 this one at the food pantry all the time. You've 00:24:47.019 --> 00:24:49.500 been waiting for circumstances to change because 00:24:49.500 --> 00:24:55.079 then you can feel peace. Once I get a job, once 00:24:55.079 --> 00:24:58.440 that diagnosis comes back, once the kids are 00:24:58.440 --> 00:25:02.059 settled, once the bills are caught up, you've 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:05.579 made peace conditional on something outside of 00:25:05.579 --> 00:25:10.089 your control. And that's not peace. That's hostage 00:25:10.089 --> 00:25:13.789 negotiation with the universe. Real peace does 00:25:13.789 --> 00:25:17.509 not come from your effort. Real peace comes from 00:25:17.509 --> 00:25:22.490 God's arrival. And arrival means you're not the 00:25:22.490 --> 00:25:31.309 source. Friend, you're the recipient. Now, here's 00:25:31.309 --> 00:25:35.500 what counterfeit looks like. Counterfeit peace 00:25:35.500 --> 00:25:39.759 is the absence of conflict. Real peace, presence 00:25:39.759 --> 00:25:44.740 of Christ. Counterfeit peace demands silence. 00:25:45.859 --> 00:25:51.279 Real peace brings healing. Counterfeit peace 00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:54.799 says don't disturb the calm. Real peace says 00:25:54.799 --> 00:26:00.400 I will sit with you through the storm. And the 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:03.640 world hands you its counterfeit peace, and it's 00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:06.339 wrapped in phrases like, just let it go, keep 00:26:06.339 --> 00:26:10.660 the peace, stop overreacting, just breathe, calm 00:26:10.660 --> 00:26:16.839 down. The world's peace is shallow enough to 00:26:16.839 --> 00:26:22.700 break under the weight of your real story. Christ's 00:26:22.700 --> 00:26:28.319 peace, O church. Christ's peace has roots deep 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:33.339 enough to grow out of dead places. Roots strong 00:26:33.339 --> 00:26:36.299 enough to push up through the stump. Roots old 00:26:36.299 --> 00:26:41.099 enough to hold creation together. Roots tender 00:26:41.099 --> 00:26:44.920 enough to wrap themselves around your sorrow. 00:26:46.539 --> 00:26:50.680 So let's talk about the peace that arrives as 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:55.490 a shoot from a stump. God could have brought 00:26:55.490 --> 00:26:59.309 peace as an army. He brought it as a sprout, 00:26:59.490 --> 00:27:04.490 a child, a presence easily overlooked. Think 00:27:04.490 --> 00:27:07.190 about it. When the Prince of Peace finally arrived, 00:27:07.329 --> 00:27:10.710 he didn't come with a press release. No fanfare, 00:27:10.849 --> 00:27:13.769 no palace announcement, just a teenage mother, 00:27:13.930 --> 00:27:17.910 a confused carpenter, and a feeding trough in 00:27:17.910 --> 00:27:21.230 a town so small that it barely made it onto the 00:27:21.230 --> 00:27:25.670 maps. Peace begins in places too small for the 00:27:25.670 --> 00:27:30.309 world to notice. If you are awaiting peace with 00:27:30.309 --> 00:27:33.109 fireworks and resolution messages, you might 00:27:33.109 --> 00:27:37.230 just miss it. Peace often looks like a quiet 00:27:37.230 --> 00:27:41.549 moment in an otherwise chaotic week. A word that 00:27:41.549 --> 00:27:45.769 lands softer than you expected. Stillness you 00:27:45.769 --> 00:27:50.990 did not manufacture. The stump. is the most honest 00:27:50.990 --> 00:27:54.190 part of Isaiah's entire image. Not a forest, 00:27:54.329 --> 00:28:00.690 not a flourishing branch, a stump. Peace finds 00:28:00.690 --> 00:28:06.289 its footing in your grief, your endings, your 00:28:06.289 --> 00:28:11.849 exhausted places. Peace grows in what feels like 00:28:11.849 --> 00:28:16.609 failure. And this is the scandal of grace, my 00:28:16.609 --> 00:28:19.170 dear friends. Grace does not wait for you to 00:28:19.170 --> 00:28:21.769 get your act together before he plants something 00:28:21.769 --> 00:28:26.730 new. The stump does not have to prove it deserves 00:28:26.730 --> 00:28:33.269 another chance. The shoot just appears. Unbidden, 00:28:33.349 --> 00:28:40.130 unearned, and unstoppable. I think about those 00:28:40.130 --> 00:28:42.309 folks that come through the pantry line. People 00:28:42.309 --> 00:28:45.849 have been cut down by layoffs, medical bills, 00:28:46.130 --> 00:28:50.529 divorces they didn't want. And they apologize 00:28:50.529 --> 00:28:58.029 for needing help. They say things like, I never 00:28:58.029 --> 00:29:02.210 thought I'd be here. And I want to say, this 00:29:02.210 --> 00:29:05.130 is exactly the place where new things begin. 00:29:06.569 --> 00:29:10.430 Not in the palace. In the place where the tree 00:29:10.430 --> 00:29:17.150 fell. And Israel didn't pray for a sprout. Mary 00:29:17.150 --> 00:29:21.390 didn't ask to carry the Prince of Peace. Paul 00:29:21.390 --> 00:29:24.890 did not request the Spirit to tear down dividing 00:29:24.890 --> 00:29:30.309 walls. Peace is a surprise. Mercy that interrupts. 00:29:31.710 --> 00:29:34.950 You don't have to know the right words. You don't 00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:37.369 have to reach a certain threshold of spiritual 00:29:37.369 --> 00:29:41.390 maturity. Peace doesn't arrive because you finally 00:29:41.390 --> 00:29:45.029 prayed hard enough or believed deep enough. Peace 00:29:45.029 --> 00:29:49.490 arrives because God is in the business of showing 00:29:49.490 --> 00:29:56.230 up when nobody expected him to. Jesus doesn't 00:29:56.230 --> 00:30:01.789 hand us peace and walk away. He is peace. He 00:30:01.789 --> 00:30:07.349 stays, he remains, and he abides. No wonder. 00:30:08.299 --> 00:30:10.759 He says, do not let your hearts be troubled. 00:30:11.700 --> 00:30:17.000 Not because trouble is gone, but because he's 00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:22.900 present. Peace isn't a transaction. It's a relationship. 00:30:24.700 --> 00:30:30.059 You can't hold peace in your hand because peace 00:30:30.059 --> 00:30:34.819 holds you. You can't lose peace to a bad day 00:30:34.819 --> 00:30:40.740 because peace isn't a mood. It's a person. And 00:30:40.740 --> 00:30:46.400 that person isn't going anywhere. So here's the 00:30:46.400 --> 00:30:50.720 invitation this morning. Stop trying to hold 00:30:50.720 --> 00:30:54.700 peace together and let it hold you. Stop trying 00:30:54.700 --> 00:30:57.759 to be the one that keeps everybody else stable. 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:01.359 Stop trying to regulate every emotion in the 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:06.880 room. Stop trying to manufacture calm. Peace 00:31:06.880 --> 00:31:11.500 is not a skill. It is not your job. And it is 00:31:11.500 --> 00:31:16.599 not your achievement. Peace is a person. Peace 00:31:16.599 --> 00:31:21.039 is presence. Peace is a shoot that grows out 00:31:21.039 --> 00:31:24.619 of stumps. And if you want to receive peace, 00:31:24.880 --> 00:31:27.680 you don't have to climb towards it. You simply 00:31:27.680 --> 00:31:34.150 have to stop pretending you are the source. And 00:31:34.150 --> 00:31:36.609 maybe this morning, for someone here, maybe that 00:31:36.609 --> 00:31:40.049 means confession, admitting you've been trying 00:31:40.049 --> 00:31:43.390 to be everybody else's savior, acknowledging 00:31:43.390 --> 00:31:46.490 that you've been holding your own self responsible 00:31:46.490 --> 00:31:51.150 for the outcomes only God could produce. Maybe 00:31:51.150 --> 00:31:55.769 today, for others, it means release, letting 00:31:55.769 --> 00:31:58.309 go of a grudge you've been clutching like a security 00:31:58.309 --> 00:32:01.990 blanket, opening your hands and trusting that 00:32:01.990 --> 00:32:05.759 justice belongs, Someone stronger than your anger. 00:32:08.240 --> 00:32:13.559 Maybe today it simply means rest. Putting down 00:32:13.559 --> 00:32:16.880 the burden of being the family's emotional thermostat. 00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:22.619 Stepping back from the exhausting work of manufacturing 00:32:22.619 --> 00:32:28.839 calm in a world that refuses to stay calm. Picture 00:32:28.839 --> 00:32:33.880 it with me. Stump, cut down, silent. Dead looking. 00:32:36.539 --> 00:32:44.799 Then, almost invisible, a green shoot pushing 00:32:44.799 --> 00:32:50.819 through the dust, defying the evidence, carrying 00:32:50.819 --> 00:32:56.940 the future inside itself. This is what God does 00:32:56.940 --> 00:33:00.880 in you. This is what God does in his church. 00:33:01.640 --> 00:33:06.140 This is what God does in the world. Peace arrives, 00:33:06.720 --> 00:33:11.400 peace descends, peace grows, and peace finds 00:33:11.400 --> 00:33:18.460 you. So let it. May the peace you cannot manufacture 00:33:18.460 --> 00:33:22.259 find you this week. May the shoot from the stump 00:33:22.259 --> 00:33:25.400 grow in places you thought were finished. May 00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:28.240 the presence of Christ, your peace, your root, 00:33:28.380 --> 00:33:32.369 your rest, steady your steps. Quiet your spirits 00:33:32.369 --> 00:33:43.410 as you go. Amen? Amen. Peace is a hard word, 00:33:43.529 --> 00:33:46.450 isn't it? We want it, we chase it, we try to 00:33:46.450 --> 00:33:48.369 stitch it together with our own tired hands. 00:33:49.450 --> 00:33:52.910 And if today's message pressed on a tender place, 00:33:53.109 --> 00:33:56.109 if it exposed the weight you've been carrying 00:33:56.109 --> 00:33:59.130 or the silence you've been keeping, hear me gently. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:03.400 You were never meant to manufacture the very 00:34:03.400 --> 00:34:06.940 thing God promised to give you. Peace doesn't 00:34:06.940 --> 00:34:09.420 come because you finally got the room quiet or 00:34:09.420 --> 00:34:13.480 your head steady. Peace comes because Christ 00:34:13.480 --> 00:34:15.980 stepped into the wreckage and refused to leave. 00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:21.380 And if that truth unsettled you a little, or 00:34:21.380 --> 00:34:24.840 if it breathed something soft into you, that's 00:34:24.840 --> 00:34:29.110 the Spirit doing, the Spirit does. turning our 00:34:29.110 --> 00:34:34.090 stumps into soil for new beginnings. So let that 00:34:34.090 --> 00:34:38.690 peace find you this week. Let it arrive where 00:34:38.690 --> 00:34:42.110 you stopped expecting anything to grow. And friend, 00:34:42.190 --> 00:34:45.150 thank you for joining us here in our little church. 00:34:45.210 --> 00:34:47.949 Thank you for sitting with us. I mean, real folks, 00:34:48.070 --> 00:34:52.349 real pews, real coffee. If you found grace in 00:34:52.349 --> 00:34:54.510 what you heard, if you felt the nudge of hope 00:34:54.510 --> 00:34:58.079 or glimmer of peace, Feel free to throw that 00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:00.780 like in the offering plate, not as a donation, 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:05.019 but as a witness you're still tuned in. And if 00:35:05.019 --> 00:35:07.000 you'd like to walk with us through the rest of 00:35:07.000 --> 00:35:10.920 this Advent journey, go on, tithe your subscribe. 00:35:11.460 --> 00:35:14.000 It lets us know you want to keep meeting here, 00:35:14.119 --> 00:35:18.519 candle by candle, story by story. And until then, 00:35:18.579 --> 00:35:20.480 friend, be blessed.