Peace in a World of Violence – Luke 2:8-20; Isaiah 9:6-7
December 20, 2015Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Imagine starting your car, radio comes on, and you hear: “ISIS has been defeated; Al-Qaeda is no longer. Screening will no longer be necessary at the airport, immigration has been resolved… there is no need for a wall to keep people out or in; we have reached a place that we can in an orderly way process those desiring to come into our country.” In a word, peace.
Instead, vitriol dominates the public conversation and there is sufficient unrest that we have more candidates in the presidential race than ever in modern political history. One touts his success, another her leadership, another comes with calmness and sound speech, others experience, one wants amnesty, another no amnesty, one promises to bring down the mighty and still others that they will make you mighty.
It is into a world racked with chaos and conflict, a world trembling with violence, that Jesus was born. And with His birth there was an announcement. We read of that announcement in Luke 2:8-14. In short, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. …Peace on earth.”
The shepherds are given a sign, an indicator that this transformation, this peace has come. What is the sign? You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a feeding trough. In what sense is seeing a baby a “sign”. What is it a sign of?
Over 700 years previous, Isaiah envisioned this birth, describing it and its rather unusual promise of peace. Join us this Sunday as we take a fresh look at the promise of peace given in a world of violence.