Speaker 1: I had mentioned, we are celebrating Advent here at Central in this new season of the new church year, and we're doing this while we wait and why we anticipate the coming of Christ.
Speaker 1: Our theme is called Advent by the Books, which is a throwback to my Lutheran or our Lutheran roots, if you grew up Lutheran, and we're sharing readings out of the lectionary, which is a pre-selected collection of scriptures from the Bible that can be used for worship or for your own personal growth and study during the church calendar.
Speaker 1: Typically in the lectionary you will find an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading and a Psalm reading, and if you wanted to follow along, you could do that this week by reading these readings.
Speaker 1: So we have Isaiah 40, which Angie just shared, we have 2nd Peter 3, 8 through 15, psalm 85, 1 through 2 and 8 through 13, and Mark 1, verses 1 through 8.
Speaker 1: You could take a picture of that and we would encourage you to do that this week.
Speaker 1: Specifically, this is about peace, and then ask yourself or challenge yourself how do these readings help me and guide me through my faith journey, but also in this idea of Advent season?
Speaker 1: Now, if you did not grow up Lutheran and maybe you're visiting here for the first time, or you've been checking out Central for a while.
Speaker 1: You're like what did I get myself into?
Speaker 1: They're using these strange words like Advent and lectionary and they're lighting these floating candles.
Speaker 1: I just want to tell you you're not at a cult group Like this is good stuff.
Speaker 1: We're just living in the Lutheran traditions and we would encourage you to ask us questions.
Speaker 1: So Ryan will take you out for a burrito, I'll take you out for a coffee, or ask Ben to take you out for a coffee, because he's in seminary right now.
Speaker 1: So this would be a good challenge for him as he's going through school.
Speaker 1: Like you could actually test him.
Speaker 1: What does lectionary mean, ben?
Speaker 1: And he'd be like, yeah, let me text Ryan and I'll get back to you on that answer.
Speaker 1: So we want you to dig a little bit deeper in our Advent season and in your journey and who we are.
Speaker 1: And, who knows, you might just kind of dig us and want to be a part of who we are as a family.
Speaker 1: Last week we celebrated hope in our first week and this week we are embracing the word and the action of peace, and although we have two more weeks left to come before Christmas and we'll be talking about love and joy.
Speaker 1: I personally think that peace is the central focus of this Advent season, not because I'm preaching on it today, but peace is what we should strive for while we live in the middle, and that is my title for today Find Peace in the Middle.
Speaker 1: But before we dig into what that means, find Peace in the Middle, let us pray together.
Speaker 1: By the way, thank you for this morning, calming our hearts and allowing us to live in this understanding of what Advent is.
Speaker 1: As we prepare and we wait for you and your story and who you are in our lives and God, I do pray that, as we live in this middle space, that we'll talk about a little bit more, that we do find hope and peace and love and joy in our lives and we can express those things, those actions, those words to this world.
Speaker 1: We love you, jesus.
Speaker 1: In your name, we pray amen.
Speaker 1: So we are definitely in the holiday season.
Speaker 1: We just completed Thanksgiving, we're moving closer to Christmas, we've got New Year's Eve, our family and members of this church actually are going to a new year's Eve wedding.
Speaker 1: So a member of this church is getting married and we're so excited.
Speaker 1: We have so many things, and during the holiday season, how many of you spend time with family and friends?
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you love it and you do traditions right, and you're making cookies and you're putting your trees up and hanging special ornaments and all those fun things.
Speaker 1: One thing I don't care for when I'm with my family specifically is the birth order challenge.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: So I'm a baby.
Speaker 1: Who's a baby with me?
Speaker 1: Like, don't act like a baby, but you really are a baby in your family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when I go home like I'm almost 60 people and when I go home, they treat me like I'm eight, like I know nothing.
Speaker 1: I have to sit at the kids' table.
Speaker 1: Still, there's no value in my relationship with them.
Speaker 1: I just don't understand and I'm like I'm a confident woman why, when I walk in my mom and dad's house, do I feel like I'm a child again?
Speaker 1: This is not fair and I've asked my husband many times like, is this just in my head?
Speaker 1: And he's like, no, not at all.
Speaker 1: But as much as I feel bad for myself, I really have a special place in my heart for the middles.
Speaker 1: Who are the middles?
Speaker 1: Gavin, put up really fast who are the middles?
Speaker 1: Okay, this explains a lot about all of you, right?
Speaker 1: Who are the oldest ones?
Speaker 1: You're all mean.
Speaker 1: You need to figure life out and start treating the rest of us with respect, right, but the Middles really do have a special place in my heart.
Speaker 1: This is a picture of my family when we were little.
Speaker 1: Look at us.
Speaker 1: I know my mom made those outfits for us.
Speaker 1: We're so cute, matchy, matchy.
Speaker 1: So that's my sister.
Speaker 1: On your left, that's my brother, stacy.
Speaker 1: He's our middle, and then I'm the cutest one on that side, my brother is our middle one.
Speaker 1: His name is Stacy.
Speaker 1: We call him Stace.
Speaker 1: I know it's a girl's name.
Speaker 1: That was another issue for him growing up, but we looked like twins, didn't we?
Speaker 1: We were literally like 12 months apart.
Speaker 1: In fact, all three of us were under four, and four years and two months.
Speaker 1: What was my mom thinking?
Speaker 1: But anyway, we were very close and I think that's what a lot of our struggle was.
Speaker 1: Is my sister, who is 16 months older than my brother, really held that torch of being the oldest like pretty tightly, you know, like she let us know, even today she is the oldest.
Speaker 1: We do what she's told.
Speaker 1: We all bow down to her.
Speaker 1: And then I was the baby Stacy and I were really, really close Actually we were.
Speaker 1: We acted like twins.
Speaker 1: He was actually in my grade and he hated that because you could never find his own identity and we would play well and we would do well together.
Speaker 1: But, boy, if he did something that stirred me wrong, I'd be like squawking because I'm the baby mom and immediately my parents would be like Stacy, leave her alone.
Speaker 1: So it's no wonder that he struggled with his identity and who he was and what is his voice, and I get that right.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think that we, as Christians, live in the middle in this disenchanted world, whether it's today, in 2023, or it's somewhere around 740 BC when the story of Isaiah took place that Angie read for us earlier.
Speaker 1: So what is the middle for us?
Speaker 1: Well, I look at our faith journeys and our relationship with Jesus as a three-point perspective, and we live in the middle between these two proclamations God has come and come, lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: The first God has come grounds our confidence of who we are as Christ followers.
Speaker 1: The second come, lord Jesus we believe will be answered soon in time.
Speaker 1: And that space in the middle, right where the arrows are, that space that is where you and I live between these two declarations.
Speaker 1: We believe, as Christians that God has come amen.
Speaker 1: We believe in the physical nativity, which we will be celebrating in a few weeks.
Speaker 1: We believe that Jesus came as a baby, this little tiny bundle of joy six pounds, two ounces, drooling, rosy cheeks if you were here for the night in Bethlehem strawberry, blonde hair, because we're in Minnesota, so you know our baby Jesus is are going to be Scandinavian, but we also had a little dark-haired, chunky little baby there that night and we celebrate that.
Speaker 1: He came as a baby.
Speaker 1: He lived, he died and he rose.
Speaker 1: And we believe that he will come again, but this time not as an infant.
Speaker 1: We believe he's going to come with vengeance and power and might, and maybe with a tattoo down his arm or up his leg.
Speaker 1: He's going to be carrying a sword in his mouth.
Speaker 1: He's driving a 1984 Camaro down just fast and furious, right Like this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how my God's coming back.
Speaker 1: And if we choose to believe that he came and he will come again, then in our lives, no matter what we're walking through, no matter what we're walking through, we should be filled with his peace in this middle space, because God reigns in and through us and, after all, isn't that why he came Right, and the setting of Judah during a period that was shared in our story today is, in many ways, the perfect backdrop as we are reminded to find peace in the middle of this chaos that we call our world.
Speaker 1: The backstory to our reading is the nation of Israel is circling down the drain as they are exiled to a foreign country, being held captive and are struggling to hold on to their identities as they try to remain faithful to their God.
Speaker 1: And Isaiah, the prophet, was telling the people there is peace coming.
Speaker 1: When he shared comfort, comfort, my people, says your God, speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her inequity is pardoned and that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all of her sins.
Speaker 1: Isaiah was prophesizing what was to come for the Israelites and for the readers, you and I, us.
Speaker 1: He was saying comfort, comfort, there is peace coming.
Speaker 1: The whole chapter of Isaiah 40 is designed to take our focus away from everything else and to consider the one true living God, as it begins with a message of comfort and redemption and it points to the coming of Christ as our good news.
Speaker 1: When verses 9 through 11 reads the sovereign Lord comes with power and he rules with a mighty arm in a Camaro, okay.
Speaker 1: And his reward is with him and his reward accompanies him and he tends to his flock like a shepherd.
Speaker 1: He gathers the lamb in his arms and he carries them close to his heart and he gently leads those that have young.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine hearing those words?
Speaker 1: If you were in exile?
Speaker 1: I would think I would hear hope and joy and love embodied by the idea of peace.
Speaker 1: But the Israelites struggled wrapping their head around that.
Speaker 1: And why wouldn't they?
Speaker 1: They didn't know Jesus yet.
Speaker 1: Gosh, sometimes we have a hard time wrapping our minds around the idea of Jesus being our center of peace, because we live in our own exiles, we live in our own troubles and peace can feel extremely small when I am in a dark place and when I am living in exile.
Speaker 1: But when I am strong and I am feeling confident, I feel connected to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Peace then can feel as if I'm a little kid on a very large playground and it feels blissful and freeing.
Speaker 1: When I was little, I loved to go to the rocket park in Oatana where everything felt so big it had a huge rocket slide that I felt like you were climbing for miles.
Speaker 1: Just to get to the top you had to go over a bridge and throw a spiral staircase and over more.
Speaker 1: This isn't it exactly, but it's very similar to that.
Speaker 1: And when you finally got to the top you felt oh my gosh, this is the best freeing feeling ever and you would slide down the bumpy metal swirly slide.
Speaker 1: And it was freeing, except on very hot days when the metal was scorching your skin.
Speaker 1: It was so big and robust and I felt larger than life at that park and on that slide.
Speaker 1: When I heard that they were tearing the slide down many, many years later, I took my son's to see it and I was shocked of how it felt small to me.
Speaker 1: I could barely fit through the tube and when I was walking across the bridge I'm like I don't know if it's going to carry my weight.
Speaker 1: It felt rickety.
Speaker 1: I missed the bigness and the freedom and the awe and the calm that it brought me as a child, and life without peace feels like that.
Speaker 1: It feels cumbersome and small.
Speaker 1: It can feel empty and burdened, but when I'm living in peace, my life feels large and whole and that is where we are to be living larger than life, in the middle, with the confidence and peace of Jesus by our side.
Speaker 1: But peace can be tricky for us, because it's one of those words that people often use but they don't always explain it well, based on their philosophy of life, on their politics, on their moral or ethical values, on their religion, and, I would also guess, based on what season of life that they are living on in, or perhaps the struggles that they are currently walking through.
Speaker 1: If I was asking you right now what does peace mean or feel to you, I would assume that we would all have many, many different answers, based on the same idea of tranquility and the sense of quietness.
Speaker 1: When I asked my family and friends, my conclusion was somewhat spot on.
Speaker 1: My husband said peace is the absence without conflict.
Speaker 1: My daughter-in-law said a clean house and a sleeping baby Makes sense, right?
Speaker 1: My husband's an empty nester.
Speaker 1: He watches the news, he's plugged into what wars are going on around the world.
Speaker 1: My daughter's living her house just trying to survive a new baby in her life.
Speaker 1: My friend Brenda said it's the stillness outside, it's hiking and it's breathing in God's beauty.
Speaker 1: And Ben, our student family ministry, said Disney World, and I would say true for him, but he also has to say Disney World without my children because his children didn't go with him and his wife Different places.
Speaker 1: My friend, tammy, said sending her grandkids back after a long weekend and all the grandparents said yes.
Speaker 1: And I would piggyback to that and say sending my adult children back after a long weekend.
Speaker 1: On Fridays when they come to visit I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't wait minutes until they're here and by Sunday morning 6 am like your bags are packed, let's go, your cars are running.
Speaker 1: I just need my peace back.
Speaker 1: We're in different places in our lives.
Speaker 1: My mom, I think, would say spending time with her children is peace for her this year because she lost her husband.
Speaker 1: I lost my dad this year.
Speaker 1: So when you're in different places in your life, the answer is different things.
Speaker 1: Last night some friends of ours and us, my husband and I, went to Minnesota Teen Challenge for their Christmas concert Amazing night of music and worship.
Speaker 1: 400 faces were singing and praising Jesus and in each one of those faces was a sign of peace because they're free from addiction.
Speaker 1: Even one of the stories that got up and said the day she walks out of Minnesota Teen Challenge, she's been there for a year.
Speaker 1: She's going into federal prison for a year.
Speaker 1: She was filled with peace because she's restored and she knows she's redeemed by our Jesus Amen.
Speaker 1: Lots of different answers based on who we are, what season of life we are living in and in.
Speaker 1: Our values and religions are no different.
Speaker 1: In some Eastern religions, peace means believing that everything dies and all is nothing.
Speaker 1: In the Bible we read the Hebrew word for peace is well, you should know that because Ryan talks about it every single week.
Speaker 1: The Hebrew word for peace is shalom and it is used in several ways.
Speaker 1: Genesis describes shalom when people are feeling physically well.
Speaker 1: In the book of Numbers reads when people who have shalom with God, they have for protection and a blessing, and I envision that like a shield.
Speaker 1: There are hints in the Old Testament that shalom with God is to be an interstate that comes from trusting in him.
Speaker 1: But it also talks about having peace with God through a covenant and that peace is conditional.
Speaker 1: When the nation strayed from God, he withdrew his shalom, which is where we found the Israelites in our story today.
Speaker 1: On a broader level in the Bible, humanity lost peace with God when sin entered the world, from the moment that Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and all of humanity became sinners, which put us in conflict with God.
Speaker 1: But then Jesus came and God restored peace All of the people said.
Speaker 1: Second Corinthians 5.18 reads God sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, because God doesn't want us to live disconnected from him.
Speaker 1: Peace with God comes from what Jesus did for us on the cross, amen.
Speaker 1: At my house I have a wall that hangs several crosses.
Speaker 1: It's a collage of crosses that people have gifted me over the years and I love it.
Speaker 1: It's the first wall you walk into when you come in our side door and when I leave I'm putting my shoes on.
Speaker 1: I look up at my cross wall and it centers my day.
Speaker 1: The crosses are all meaningful to me.
Speaker 1: I have one from my son who went to Spain in 10th grade and he brought it back.
Speaker 1: We've bought several when we've gone on vacations.
Speaker 1: I have one from my goddaughter.
Speaker 1: I have one from when I was in second grade and my parents were getting a divorce and my Sunday school teacher gave it to me.
Speaker 1: All of them mean something special to me, but this one in particular I love.
Speaker 1: It signifies God's peace as he's coming off of the cross and he's handing a dove as a signal of peace.
Speaker 1: It reminds me daily, when I see it, of all the beautiful stories that God shares, as he modeled it to us, but also shares in his preaching and in the Word of God, such as the Sermon on the Mount, where he said the peacemakers would be called the children of God.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the peace that he offered to his disciples sitting around the last supper, and he told them I'm going away, but do not be afraid, I give you peace, I will go and I will make a room for you, and then I will come back.
Speaker 1: It reminds me of the peace that he shared, not by overthrowing governments, but through his death and the sacrifices that he made for Jews and Gentiles and all of humanity.
Speaker 1: It reminds me that he came not to replace the obstacles of this world but to be the bridge of peace, so we can focus those our difficulties with confidence and assurance.
Speaker 1: While we live in that middle space, we know that we're always going to have troubles, right, we're always going to have struggles, but, as CS Lewis says, life with God is not immunity from difficulties but peace in the difficulties.
Speaker 1: And when we understand that, then we can feel inner peace and we can recognize that no longer do we have to face the battles alone.
Speaker 1: The battles have been won when we allow Christ to rule in our hearts.
Speaker 1: Colossians 3 reads Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.
Speaker 1: What does that say?
Speaker 1: Let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts.
Speaker 1: Now say it and put you in there Let the peace of Christ rule in my heart.
Speaker 1: Amen, friends, god wants His peace to rule in our lives.
Speaker 1: In fact, you'll find more than 790 verses about the peace of God in His word.
Speaker 1: So when you are troubled, when we are troubled, we can find peace in Scripture.
Speaker 1: For those with a broken heart, god gives us comforting peace For those with a confused heart.
Speaker 1: He gives us guiding peace For those with a shamed heart.
Speaker 1: He gives us forgiving peace when we have a worried heart.
Speaker 1: He gives us confident peace.
Speaker 1: He provides peace in every situation.
Speaker 1: So, while we are living in that middle space, that peace gives us the confidence that we need to survive in a world that pushes back against us.
Speaker 1: And isn't that the good news?
Speaker 1: No matter what we live in, no matter what the circumstances in our lives, no matter how hard life or the struggles are, peace is our hope, it is our joy, it is our love and it is centered in our relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And I don't know about you, but I love knowing that in all of my muck, in all of my hurt and in all of my sorrow, god has a bigger plan for me.
Speaker 1: I know I'm worthy, I know with Him I can conquer the struggles that I am facing in this world.
Speaker 1: And while I live in that in-between space and in that knowledge, it is easier than for me to offer it to others.
Speaker 1: And that central is how this kingdom works.
Speaker 1: We believe that he came, we believe that he is coming again, and while we live in the middle, it is our job as His disciples to give His peace and His promises away, because it is a beautiful gift.
Speaker 1: It is a gift beyond measure and a gift that this world desperately needs.
Speaker 1: So, central Lutheran church, this Advent season, find your peace, a peace that is bigger than life, a peace that is filled with hope and love and joy, and a peace that can be shared in a kingdom that is very disenchanted.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Move forward step by step and ok.