Word of Salvation – Vol.43 No.46 - December 1998

On Earth Peace to Men

A Christmas Sermon by Rev D K Baird on Luke 2:14

Scripture Readings: Luke 2:8-15; Galatians 4:1-7

Suggested Hymns:

BOW 264; 262; 276; 256; 268; 265

Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

As you drive onto Kooragang Island, on the northern edge of Newcastle (NSW), you pass a BHP slag heap on your left.  Along the top of the slag heap four sculptures have been erected in a line.  It is a TAFE project funded by a local television station.

The four sculptures depict the four elements which make up the world: earth, water, air and fire.  This idea that the world is made up of these four things goes back to the philosophers living around 400 BC.  So, it’s an ancient idea, but an idea that's true enough.  The basic elements of the world.

This Christmas morning I want to make a link between these basic elements of the world and the way we celebrate Christmas.  Of course I'll have to explain what I mean before this riddle becomes a bit clearer to you.  To explain the riddle i want to link the words, “Glory to God in the highest... and on earth peace to men" – the words of the heavenly host – with the words of the apostle Paul to the Galatians where he speaks of the basic principles of the world.

So this Christmas morning I have this riddle for you:
            what is the link between the basic elements of the world
            and the way we celebrate Christmas?

Follow me along as we try to work it out.

Let's start by going to the gospel of Luke and listening to the heavenly host praising God.  This was what the shepherds saw and heard while they were minding their sheep in the fields that night.  Out there that night an angel had appeared to them announcing the birth of Christ the Lord; and saying they would find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger in the town of Bethlehem.

As the angel finished his announcement, “Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying.  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests!"

These words have become one of the most well-known sayings in the Western world: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men."  You have probably heard these words many times over the last couple of weeks.  At carols by candlelight, in shopping centres, on the radio, on Christmas cards, in the front windows of homes.  These words sum up what Christmas is all about.

But what was the heavenly choir saying when it sang these words of praise?  Because these are words of praise, aren't they?  The choir was 'praising God' for the great announcement the angel just made.  And it is GOD who was being praised because it was something incredible HE was doing.  He had arranged for Christ the Lord to be born.  The heavenly choir could hardly help themselves: as soon as the announcement is made they spontaneously burst into song.  Such a great thing it is.

But although these are words of praise to God, most people seem to focus on the second part.  The bit about, “On earth peace to men."  "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men."  In fact, Christmas as we know it seems to be all about peace to men, doesn't it?  For the past month all sorts of people have been doing their best to show peace to others.  'Tis the season of good will.  All sorts of people send cards to each other, buy gifts for each other, have a drink together, and so on.

Which is great!  Neighbours say hello to each other; people talk with each other in the supermarket – it’s good.  It's wonderful to see.  But the funny thing about it is, many people who show good will to each other don't seem too interested in praising God.  Many who have wished each other a happy Christmas over the past week are not in church anywhere this morning.

Could it be they have misunderstood something?  After all, the heavenly choir sang, “Glory to God...and on earth peace.”  It seems many have reduced that to a time for good will.

A couple of weeks ago the children from the local school came for a Christmas service in our church.  One of the Bible readings the children read was this one, except they read it from a different Bible version.  So that it read like this: "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth for all those pleasing him." Which left me with the idea that God will give us peace if we do good and please him.  Whereas what we read before is different: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests."

What is Christmas really about?  Is it about God giving us peace if we please him enough?  Or is it about God graciously resting his favour upon us although we do not deserve it?

The heavenly choir praised God for graciously resting his favour upon us who do not deserve it.  That is what Christmas is really about.  The Lord's gracious favour given in Christ the Lord.  It is something HE has done, and so HE is to be praised.

Our society has distorted the meaning of Christmas into a season of goodwill where we do good to others.  It is then a humanistic Christmas.  Something WE do.  In praise of the human spirit and human good will.  Where the focus is “on earth peace to men." But God is relegated to the sidelines.

Mind you, there is a lot of good in a human Christmas.  People greet each other people give to the City Mission.  People give to World Vision and Care Australia.  Many Christmas wishes are exchanged.  Much good will is shown.  It's a very encouraging time of the year.  After all, it's much better to wish people a Happy Christmas than, say, steal their Christmas presents.  But a human Christmas is not yet the Christmas the heavenly choir sang about.

But I still haven't told you the secret to our riddle have l?  Remember the four sculptures on Kooragang Island showing the four basic elements of the world: earth, water, air and fire.  I said there was a connection between them and the way we celebrate Christmas.  Actually, I have already given you a hint.  I wonder, did you pick it up?

The apostle Paul, in Galatians, also talks about “the basic elements – or principles - of the world." Paul takes this very same phrase from the philosophers – “the basics of the world" and gives it his own meaning.  By the basics the philosophers meant earth, water, air and fire.  But to Paul, the basic principles of the world are, law and flesh, which he talks so much about in the letter to the Galatians.

The basics of every human society and of every human religion are law and flesh.  It's about human beings – flesh and blood – doing their best to respond to law.  Knowing in their conscience what is right and wrong and trying to satisfy themselves they are doing good.

And isn't this exactly what people do at Christmas?  'Tis the season of good will, when we all make a special effort to greet our neighbours and help the poor.  'Tis the time of year when much good is done.  Which is great.  Many are helped by this.  But as wonderful as that is, it is still a human Christmas – a Christmas based on the basic principles of the world; a Christmas based on law and human goodness.  A Christmas not yet gospel-based.

Do you see what the apostle says about the basic principles of the world?  He says that when God sent his Son we were released from those basic principles and allowed to live on a higher plane.  No longer just on the level of law and flesh, but now on the level of the gospel of his Son.

Paul is actually talking about the changeover from Old Testament to New.  Under the law of Moses the Jews were in slavery under the basic principles of the world, that is, they had to experience what happened when law met flesh; and feel the failure - their inability to please God.  And so, long for the Christ whom God had promised.

But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son to set them free from that.  Now they could enjoy the full rights of sons.

Well, for us, too.  God has sent his Son.  So we no longer live under law and flesh - the basic principles of the world.  We, too, need to feel the failure of that merely human way of just trying to do the good our conscience tells us to do, but not yet living out of the gospel.

That merely human Christmas, where, at best, we just feel good about ourselves - we need to give that up as a hopeless failure.  We need to embrace God's Christmas, where HE rests his gracious favour upon us.

Conclusion

And so, we are set free to celebrate Christmas the way the heavenly choir did.  They celebrated what God had done.  They were not celebrating a human Christmas, but God's Christmas.  They were not celebrating a season of good will, or of people making a special effort to be nice, or of the goodness of the human spirit.  They were celebrating God resting his favour on men who did not deserve it.  They were celebrating the gospel of Jesus.

That's the sort of Christmas we are to celebrate, too.  In spite of the pressure to conform to a human Christmas.  But when we are set free by the coming of his Son, God sets us free to celebrate his Christmas.

Let's celebrate then, not in a merely human way, celebrating human good will.  But in a God-centred way, as the angels did, praising his grace in sending his Son.

Amen.