He Shall be Called: Prince of Peace

Dec. 18, 2022

We’re continuing our message series, “He shall be called!” Isaiah the Prophet in the Old Testament spoke God’s promise: there would be a new king, a child born to us, who would be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. In the Wonderful Counselor message, we learned to listen to the counsel of God and others. In Mighty God, we learned that it’s ok to have weaknesses. We don’t have to be the strongest person. God is mighty and he lends his strength when we are weak. Today we are talking about the Prince of Peace! God gives peace the world can’t give.

I had my first root canal on Monday. I needed some peace, I was scared, so I asked Kevin, what’s it like? He said it doesn’t hurt. He said the pain is what you have wrong with your tooth that brings you to the root canal in the first place! It went ok. How would you describe your normal state? Would you feel peaceful before a root canal? Or worried, like you might take your teddy bear?

There are times when we particularly experience anxiety. Almost 14 years ago, a plane took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York city. As they climbed higher and flew over the Hudson River, the plane struck a flock of geese. People on board guessed something was wrong: both engines had flames shooting out of them. There were no engines. The pilot didn’t have to make an announcement: “If you’ll notice, we’ve lost all our engines. If everyone would please pray.” There was no announcement like that. But the flight attendants said it got very, very quiet on the plane. It seemed like most people were praying! The flight attendants were praying too! Happily, everyone survived.

God gets our attention when we experience difficulty and anxiety. Have you ever prayed in an airplane? Especially when there is turbulence, and your stomach is doing flip flops while the plane bounces up and down! Isn’t it amazing how spiritual you are! You are so focused on the moment. You aren’t worried anymore about how you’ll pay your bills or about that friend you’re so mad at. Now suddenly, you’re not mad at anybody, you love everybody, you’re confessing everything! You promise God that you’re going to become a minister if He gets you out of this mess! Remember last week Rev. Worley mentioned we really need ministers? Think about what you promised when you thought you might die! When life is spinning out of control, most of us tend to move in the direction of God.

Because difficulty and the anxiety that goes with it grab our attention and point us to God, God gets more done when there are bumps along the way in our life than in the smooth paved roads of life. Think of when you play a sport. You love it when you have a great game, and they name you the most valuable player. But you learn more when you have a terrible game. When you’re playing soccer and you score a goal for the opposing team: you decide you will NEVER do that again! You learned something!

We all know that when we’re in crisis: we need God’s peace! We need Jesus, the prince of peace! Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” When we pray to God for peace and help, we know God hears and is working. But what are we supposed to do in the meantime, while we wait for God to come through?

Today we’re going to hear the apostle Paul teach about the peace that God gives, in difficult times. Paul was the apostle to the non-Jews. God struck him down on the road and turned Paul’s life around to following Jesus. Paul didn’t have an easy journey. He went around to places outside of Israel, telling people about Jesus. These people had never heard of Jesus. Some were Jews, but many were Gentiles, who had many gods, not one. This whole idea of Jesus the Messiah was something out of this world to them. But Paul was able to talk to them and start churches. He starts a church in Philippi. Later Paul goes to Rome. He preaches in the temple: you need to accept Jesus is the Messiah. And the Jews are so angry they attack him, and the Romans arrest him. And they send Paul to Rome to stand trial. He is on a ship for Rome and gets in a shipwreck and then he’s stranded on an island for several months. Finally, he gets to Rome where he is in prison in a home. From prison Paul writes letters to the churches he started. And he writes one to the church in Philippi.

Paul is in a difficult situation. You might think he doesn’t understand my troubles. But then, oh yeah, he’s been attacked and beaten and arrested and shipwrecked, and stranded on an island, and now he’s in prison and things don’t look good for him when he gets his trial. So maybe he does have something to say about peace from God! Because in the end, we think Rome beheaded him. He wrote the letter to the church in Philippi from prison and teaches us how to pray when we need peace. We’ll look at Philippians 4:4-7.

In Philippians 4:4 Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always!” If we took out the “in the Lord” part, I could understand. Rejoice in your new job! Rejoice in making the team. Rejoice in your Christmas presents! We all know how to rejoice in something good. You jump up and down or you get a big smile on your face or shout, “Woohoo!” And you post it on social media. And everyone can tell something great happened.

Paul is teaching, when life gets harder and you have less and less, it’s time to rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice that God loves you so much and his grace is with you in every moment, especially your worst moments. And when you take in how amazing God’s love for you is, you learn to rejoice in God’s goodness. It’s like the Whos in Whoville who sang a joyful song when they discovered Christmas was stolen. The Grinch puzzled, “It came without ribbons, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags!” Let’s pause and practice rejoicing in the Lord a moment. God is so good. Put a big smile on, like you won the lottery! And tell some people near you, “God is so good!” We just rejoiced in the Lord always!

In Philippians 4:5 Paul says, “Let your gentleness, or your character or your kindness be known to all.” Paul is saying don’t get a short fuse because things are tough. Don’t let your difficulties mean you destroy your relationship with the people around you. If your joy is only associated with good times, then in bad times you’ll lose your character and people will wonder, what’s wrong with you? Your character is the result of what God has done in you. Don’t let your difficult circumstances control how you treat other people.

In Philippians 4:6 Paul says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” We know, we’re trying not to be anxious, and we’re praying like crazy already! Paul is saying focus on prayer, bring your problems to God and leave them with him! Look around for all you have to be grateful for. Paul is saying spend more time in prayer and gratitude, and less on worry.

In Philippians 4:7, Paul promises, “The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Paul says, it’s not about the circumstance of the moment. If you want the amazing peace of God, no matter what difficulty you find yourself in, come to me. If you spend your time reading my word, if you spend your time praying, if you become gentle, no matter what, and you spend more time giving thanks than you do worrying, you’re coming to me for the peace I give. If you can rejoice like the Whos in Whoville even when tragedy has happened, God promises: I’m going to send my peace, which is beyond understanding. That peace, the peace of God, that is what we all really need.

I experienced that peace when I was worried when I would find a job. I was serving St. Peter’s in Tremont, and I knew my time there was coming to an end. I went to God, over and over. I found peace. Peace before I got a job here!

Have you ever experienced the peace of God in a very rough time, before your prayer was answered? Would you raise your hand if you’ve ever had that peace? Look at this! This is God inviting you to a closer, deeper relationship with Him that you never get to until your world begins to fall apart.

My homework for you this week is to read Philippians 4:6. Let it remind you to keep praying, until the peace comes. Then don’t stop praying!

It’s easy to rejoice when something great happens in your life. Hopefully at that time we say, “Thank God!” and we see that God had a hand in it. But God gets our attention so much more when we find ourselves in rough circumstances. It’s a chance to grow deeper in faith and closer to God.  We find that we experience a peace that is not of this world, and not from an answer to our prayer, but peace because God has changed our hearts. Amen.