December 6, 2009 – PEACE at Christmastime
One of America’s greatest poets was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The year 1860 found Longfellow happy in his life, enjoying a widening recognition, and elated over the election of Abraham Lincoln which he believed signalled the triumph of freedom and redemption for the nation. The following year the Civil War began.
On July 9, 1861 Longfellow’s wife, Fanny, was near an open window sealing locks of her daughter’s hair, using hot sealing wax. Suddenly her dress caught fire and engulfed her with flames. Henry, sleeping in the next room, was awakened by her screams. As he desperately tried to put out the fire and save his wife, he was severely burned on his face and hands.
Fanny died the next day. Longfellow’s severe burns would not even allow him to attend Fanny’s funeral. His white beard, which is so identified with him, was one of the results of the tragedy – the burn scars on his face made shaving almost impossible. In his diary for Christmas day 1861 he wrote, “How inexpressibly sad are the holidays.”
In 1862 the toll of war dead began to mount and in his diary for that year Longfellow wrote of Christmas, “A merry Christmas say the children, but that is no more for me.”
In 1863 his son, who had run away to join the Union army, was severely wounded and returned home in December. There is no entry in Longfellow’s diary for that Christmas.
But on Christmas Day 1864 – at age 57 – Longfellow sat down to try to capture, if possible, the joy of the season. He began:
I heard the bells on Christmas day.
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
As he came to the third stanza, he was stopped by the thought of the condition of his beloved country. The Battle of Gettysburg was not long past. Days looked dark, and he probably asked himself the question, “How can I write about peace on earth, good will to men in this war-torn country, where brother fights against brother and father against son?” But he kept writing – and what did he write?
And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth”, I said,
For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
It seems as if he could have been writing about today. We hear in the news, from near and far, of wars, fights, natural disasters, families breaking apart, marriages failing, finances crumbling, it goes on and on and on.
Then, as all of us should do, Longfellow turned his thoughts to the One who gives true and perfect peace, and continued writing:
Then peeled the bells more loud and deep;
“God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
And so there came into being the Christmas carol, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”
Christmas time these days seems far from a peaceful time of year. As soon as you turn on the radio or the television in December, all we hear are noisy ads compelling us to go into debt just so we can give expensive gifts to everyone we know. They also tell us that we’re SAVING money as we shop at their store. So we go the malls and hear the peaceful cry of whining and screaming children (and parents) as they wander seemingly aimlessly through the hallways and into the stores with their credit card out and ready to see if it will pass the swipe test. Well the way I see it is that when you buy something, no matter what the price is, you are still spending money. You’re not saving anything. You save money when you put it away and don’t spend it. If we all saved money at Christmas time, we wouldn’t spend a thing! Is that what the good folks who work in retail want us to do?
Then there are the lists. You know the ones I’m thinking of, Christmas wish lists. I remember as a child writing out my wish list. It started the day the Sears catalogue arrived at home. Once I could get my hands on it, I’d flip to the toy section and look for all the electronic gadgets, cars, games, etc that caught my eye and write them down for “santa” to see. Now my lists were long, but not exorbitant, at least in my thinking. But I have seen lists that are a little extreme…take Calvin for example (image). The sound of children begging for all the latest toys and crying because they don’t want to be in the mall are sounds that don’t bring much peace to their parents, or anyone else within earshot of them.
Peace, I believe, is something that we all want, something that we all need in our lives. And I also believe that God wants us to be AT peace as well. In the Christmas story in Luke (and there’s no Santa in this story) God tells the shepherds in the fields surrounding Bethlehem that there has been a baby born. Good news of great joy for all people, Christ is born! And the angels, a great company of them, praise God by saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE to men on whom his favour rests. God’s favour does rest with men, with people. He loves us. He doesn’t want war and suffering, whining and complaining, pain and sorrow, worry and doubt. He wants us to have peace. And that is why He gave the gift of Jesus to a world full of people He loves.
In John 14:27 Jesus tells us, ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’
The peace the world offers is often so temporary. Peace treaties in the Middle East never seem to last or very long. Peace in our lives is often rocked by sudden changes in the economy, relationships that go through troubled waters, or visits to the doctor that bring news we don’t want to really hear. Suddenly our peaceful existence is lost somehow….but it doesn’t have to be so.
The peace that Jesus gives is different; it is NOT temporary, it is NOT affected by the stock market, it is NOT based on outside appearances or the state of our health. Jesus’ peace, God’s peace, is based on the fact that God loves us, all of us, and He wants to change us from the inside out, so that we see things the way He does, and react to our circumstances in a way that many people just can’t understand. Why, because they don’t know the One who gives us that kind of peace.
So how do we have peace in our lives, especially at this crazy time of year? Well, I put together a little acronym for us, so that perhaps we can look at this time of year without all the worry and strife that we can all get caught up in.
• Pray and read the Bible daily. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is to the life of everyone who is a Christian. Having a relationship with God, or claiming to have one, and not devoting ourselves to daily talking and listening to our heavenly Father is no relationship at all. If being a Christian is simply something we DO on Sundays, we’re missing the point completely. Without daily coming to God in prayer and daily reading part of the Bible, we are not going to have the kind of relationship that God wants with us. When we pray, we are simply talking to God, bringing our needs and cares, praises and thanks to our Father. I love it when my kids come to me to talk with me, about anything. I miss it when they don’t. And they probably miss it when I don’t talk with them. I believe it is the same with God. He loves it when His children come to Him, with all our cares and thoughts, the stories of our day, the feelings that we have, the expression of our appreciation for Him, anything and everything. In Luke 18 Jesus tells his disciples how they should pray and never give up. In Romans 12 we are told ‘Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.’ Ephesians 6 says ‘pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.’ And Colossians 4 ‘Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.’ I believe that if we start our days with prayer and the Word, we will have a better perspective of how to have peace in this dark world.
• Exercise restraint. How many of us have heard of the phrase, ‘I’m having a MasterCard Christmas?’ It’s a sad fact that many people will go into debt, some folks, serious debt, just to buy gifts for their family and friends. Sure they’ve given things to their loved ones, but what they’ve really bought for themselves is a long time of paying back the credit card companies to pay for all those gifts that they could not really afford to give. What that calls into question in the whole area of gift-giving. Is an expensive gift more special than one less expensive and more thoughtful? And to take that a little further, is our time not more valuable than anything you could buy at a store? And do we spend more time in the malls than with the people we want to give these things to anyway? I’d suggest we all take a good look at how we spend our time and our money at Christmas. Make a budget and try to stick to it. Make sure you budget your time as well. People should see the value in your relationship rather than being concerned about how much money you’re willing to spend on them.
• Attitude check. Before we get all stressed out about Christmas and shopping and wrapping and decorating and family gatherings and eating too much and partying too much and… whatever, we need to make sure we’re in the right frame of mind. Getting together around the holidays can be a very tough time for people. It may be the one time of year you get to spend some time with folks you may not see until the next Christmas. And if we are harbouring feelings of resentment and bitterness about being around some people, we are not going to be able to enjoy the holidays much at all. Though it may be hard to be in celebratory situations with certain people, we must remember that Christmas is a time of love, of joy, and of PEACE. Going into a family gathering and starting an argument with a family member over something can really ruin what should be a time of celebrating the gift of Christ. So when we think of being with people we don’t get along with so well, remember that Christ came to this earth WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS and HE DIED FOR US AND FOR THEM! God doesn’t just love Christians, He loves the entire world, He loves you…so much that He gave His only Son that WHOEVER believes in Him should have eternal life. No one is beyond God’s love, nor should they be beyond ours.
• Christ-centered Christmas. This really should be obvious, but do we somehow leave Christ out of Christmas? The world sure tries to do just that, trying to make the celebration all about giving I-pods and plasma TV’s rather than focussing on the reason for all the giving. We often hear that the tradition of giving gifts is centred on the wise men giving their gifts to the baby Jesus. But before those gifts were given, GOD GAVE. Before anyone thought of placing gifts on or under a tree, GOD GAVE. Before any store figured that people want to shop for ‘X-MAS’ presents 24 hours a day, GOD GAVE. Jesus is the best gift of all. He’s wrapped in God’s love for all of us, and He is offered to ANYONE who will receive Him, not just at Christmas time, but anytime, anywhere, at no price. The Bible says in Romans 10:9 ‘That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
In the story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, there’s a pivotal moment when the Grinch turns his ear toward the little town of Who-ville, waiting to hear the cries and wails of the Who’s as the sleepy village awakens to realize that Christmas has been stolen. But that is not what he hears at all:
“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
And it does mean more, a lot more than all those things. Christmas means that God has come to earth, because God loves you! We were at the centre of His purpose in coming to the world He created; let’s make Him the centre of our celebrations for His wonderful gift of Jesus Christ!
• And finally, Evangelism opportunities. Christmas is one of those times of year when many people who normally don’t think about ‘spiritual things’ or of going to church, are more likely to do just those things. Easter and Christmas time have the highest attendance in many churches. This year, perhaps one of the things we need to pray about is for God to give us opportunities to share what we believe about Christmas with someone, or maybe many people. Perhaps this year, we will be able to find a moment to share with someone what God has done in our lives and the difference it makes having God as the centre of everything we do? Perhaps this year, instead of getting caught up in buying presents, we will give the gift of our testimony to someone who has not given their heart to the Lord? Maybe it’s inviting a friend or co-worker to church for a service. Maybe it’s inviting someone to your home for a Christmas meal together. Who knows? God does. And if we ask for just such an opportunity, I believe He will grant that. What we need to do is be willing to share, willing to obey when God says, 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
