All I want for Christmas is PEACE
First Sunday of Advent, December 2, 2007
Rev. David Tinney
Text: Isaiah 2:2-5
Theme:  God calls us to live today in the light of God’s vision of tomorrow.

   The story goes there was a man sitting at the breakfast table calmly reading his newspaper when 
his wife breezed through the kitchen, gave him a light kiss on the cheek and said matter-of-factly, “I’ll 
bet you’ve forgotten what day this is.”
   The husband answered defensively, “I have not!” and went back to reading his newspaper while 
she rushed to get ready to go to work.  All the way to his office it bugged him, “What day is this?”  He 
knew his wife was very sensitive about his forgetting important days like Valentines, anniversaries, 
and other special occasions.  But for the life of him he could not think what day it was.  So on the way 
home rather than take any chances he decided to purchase a box of candy, a dozen roses, and a gift-
wrapped bottle of her favorite perfume.  
   When he got home he rushed into the kitchen where she was preparing the evening meal and 
yelled, “Surprise!”  She replied, “Oh Sweetheart, this is the best Groundhog’s Day I have ever had.”  
   Do you know what day today is?  It is very special.  It is the first Sunday in Advent and the 
beginning to a season of preparation.  Hopefully there is more to these four weeks than just acquiring 
more presents, or battling in lines at the local malls, or setting up the tree and going to the office party.  
Hopefully it is also a time for removing some of the accumulated darkness of the past year and 
allowing the Child of light to shine brightly with new truth, new hope, and a new vision.  It is a time to 
reexamine how we want to live and whether or not we really want the Child of the manger to grow 
and take hold of our lives.
   The scripture that was read this morning is one of the classic texts of Advent.  Spoken centuries 
upon centuries ago by a strange prophet the words describe a great vision of justice, obedience, and 
peace that have brought hope to thousands not just in his time but across time.  There is not a one of 
us in this room that doesn’t long for the day when swords will be beaten into plowshares, spears into 
pruning hooks, and when we would not learn the arts of war anymore.  Yet when you read this 
famous text side-by-side with the morning newspaper don’t you just want to blurt out, “This guy was 
a lunatic.  He lost touch with reality and what humankind is capable of doing.”
   As I was writing this sermon the news announced the latest death of one of our young men 
serving in Iraq and the numbers climb ever closer to 4,000 and nearly 30,000 seriously wounded.  To 
date an estimated 650,000 Iraqis have died – a large percentage labeled as collateral damage.  We are 
now spending $270 million a day on the war.   Plowshares and pruning hooks seem very distant.
   On any given day on this planet there are at least 40 different armed conflicts flaring up.  On any 
given day in our country 46 people are murdered and 257 raped.  In the length of this worship service 
159 people will be violently assaulted somewhere in our country.   Humankind is not being very kind.
   On a lesser scale each one of us struggle with minor or major conflicts within our families, 
workplaces, or even churches.  We nurse our wounds, we cling to resentments, and we often live with 
unresolved issues that desperately need the salve of forgiveness and yet something stops us from 
reconciling and bringing peace.  The Kingdom vision spoken by Isaiah is still very distant.  Humankind is 
not exactly flocking to Zion for the basic instructions on how to peacefully coexist.  We are not climbing 
to the high ground of God seeking God’s wisdom and will for our lives.  We are not walking in the light.  
Instead it seems as a nation we are journeying deeper and deeper into the chasm of darkness.
   I don’t know about you but when I read the words of Isaiah I sometimes wonder what could he 
have been thinking.  Was he a whimsical dreamer?  Did he have this vision when life was good and 
conflicts were scarce?  Well the truth is just the opposite.  He was living in a time and place that was 
just as conflicted if not more as we are today.  When he was preaching his vision his homeland of 
Judah was surrounded by Syrian troops.  The neighboring Northern Kingdom of Israel was about to 
collapse and Judah was next in line.  This was a period of great darkness and uncertainty.  War clouds 
would linger over Judah for the next 150 years and not go away.  Death, destruction, and deportation 
were always on the minds of his people and yet this prophet had eyes that pierced the clouds of 
gloom and doom and were able to catch a glimpse into the distant future of God’s vision for God’s 
people.
   It was a vision of hope for people paralyzed in despair.  It was a vision of new light for people 
trapped in darkness.  It was a vision of a promised future when God would assume rule over the entire 
world and bring and end to war, poverty, injustice, and violence.  Over and over he proclaimed this 
message of faith that stated the world will never know peace and harmony until all humans 
acknowledge God as Sovereign Lord.  When we turn our backs on God, or leave God out of our lives 
we end up with a mess like we have today.  But, when we put God at the center of our thinking, 
planning, and living then we get a foretaste of the Kingdom.  
   Advent is a time of foretaste living. It is a time to listen to the voices calling for us to experience the 
Kingdom that will come one day.  It is a time to change our ways and to put God back in the center so 
we can begin to experience the Kingdom right now.  The prophets of old – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, 
Amos, John the Baptist and others – would all say God is calling us to live today in the light of God’s 
promise of tomorrow.  
   God is calling us to live today as if God we the center of our lives.  God is calling us to live that vision 
of peace, harmony, forgiveness, and reconciliation NOW so that we can start walking in the light of the 
Lord.  But how do we do that?  When the world is at war, when some of our lives are filled with 
conflict, how do you and I find peace?
   I believe that just as the Kingdom broke through with ONE infant child long ago and spread 
throughout the world, it can break through again and again through one or two people, or a church 
and spread throughout a community.  It starts with the firm hope and conviction that when we bring 
reconciliation, harmony, and peace to the piece of life that God has entrusted to us and that God will 
take care of the rest.  
   How do we live today in the light of God’s tomorrow?  Let me give you three practical ways to 
bring peace in your life that will overflow to the lives of others and let me start with a story.  Many of 
us in this room will remember the photograph of a young Vietnamese girl in agony as she ran down a 
country road naked and screaming in pain.  The girl’s arms were outstretched, her face contorted, and 
you could tell she was in terror.  A Napalm bomb had been dropped on her village and it seared off her 
clothing and severely burned her flesh.   She went running down the street screaming, “Non’g Qu’a, 
Non’g Qu’a” which means “Too hot! Too hot!”   
   That happened to Kim Phuc in 1972 and since then she has had 17 different surgical operations and 
months of rehabilitation.  She is still in pain.  Kim could have spent the rest of her life bitter and angry, 
but she lives in Canada and is a spokesperson on issues of peace.  When she was asked to come to the 
Viet Nam Memorial in Washington DC to speak one of the things she said was, “Even if I could talk face 
to face with the pilot who dropped the bombs, I would tell him we cannot change history but we 
should try to do good things for the present and for the future to promote peace.”  It was a powerful 
message of forgiveness and reconciliation.  
   The road to peace is paved with stones of forgiveness.  Think for a moment about how many 
battles have been fought because one side or the other, one country or another, one religious body or 
another, simply would not let the past be the past and forgive.  Think about how many families have 
split apart because of some stupid incident years ago that still has not been resolved.  Think at how 
much bitterness has been stored up over the years, churning and destroying like a poison deep inside.  
It is easy to spend our lives blaming others for our suffering or to be trapped in bitterness because 
things didn’t turn out the way we think they should have.  
   If we are going to walk in the light of our Lord, we need to forgive and let go.
   Let me tell you another story that is a little more humorous.  In the 1960s, a National Aeronautics 
and Space Administration team working on the Apollo moon mission took some astronauts to Arizona, 
where the terrain of the Navajo Reservation looks very much like the lunar surface. With all the trucks 
and large vehicles were two figures that were dressed in full lunar spacesuits.  NASA officials tell about 
a Navajo sheep rancher and his son who were watching the strange creatures walking about. 
   The father did not speak English so he asked his son to talk with the NASA folks to find out what 
was going on.  When it was explained to that they were astronauts training to go to the moon the man 
became excited and asked if he could send a message to the moon with the crew.  NASA personnel 
grabbed a tape recorder and the old Navajo spoke into it. When asked to translate, his son refused. 
The NASA people played the recording for other natives on the reservation, each of whom smiled or 
chuckled and likewise refused to translate. Finally, they paid someone to translate the rancher's 
message.
   The message read, “What out for these guys, they come to take your land.” 
   We live in a world where people don’t trust each other and where promises are easily broken, 
where words are cheap, and ulterior motives abound.  I believe we need to start building bonds and 
keeping faith with those around us.   We need to keep breaking down the barriers of distrust and start 
finding ways like our programs of Together We Build and From Roots to Fruit to build understanding.  
   I remember an old saying that goes, “If people like you, they will give you a hand.  If they trust you 
they will give you their heart and heart to heart, we can face anything together.”  When we learn to 
trust each other we will be able to face even the toughest issues together and then and only then will 
we have a chance at having peace on earth.
   Finally we need to understand that we are all connected and that we belong to each other.  Let me 
tell you one final story that comes from Jim Wallis’ book “Who Speaks for God.”  Jim writes about a 
reporter who was covering the war in Sarajevo and saw a little girl shot by a sniper in the middle of the 
street.  He threw down his pad and pencil and ran to the aid of a man who was now holding the child.  
He helped them both into his car and sped off to a hospital.  
   “Hurry, my friend,” the man urged, “my child is still alive.”  A moment or two later he pleaded, 
“Hurry my friend, my child is still breathing.”  Yet a little later he said, “Hurry, my friend, my child is still 
warm.”
   When they got to the hospital the little girl was gone.  “This is a terrible task for me,” the man said 
to the reporter.  “I must now go and tell her father that his child is dead.  He will be heartbroken.”  
   The reporter was amazed.  He looked at the grieving man and said, “I thought she was your child.”  
   The man replied, “No, but aren’t they all our children?” 
   We are connected one to another.  When any child is hurt you and I suffer as well.  When any 
senior citizen is deprived of good medical care you and I suffer as well.  We are all children of God and 
if there is to be peace, if we are to walk in the Light of Our Lord then we need to do it as one great 
family. 
   Mother Teresa said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each 
other…. How can you promote peace in the world?  Go home and love your family.”  
   I believe in vision of Isaiah can break into this conflicted, violent, out of control world ONE person 
at a time.  I believe it starts with each of us in this room living today in the light of God’s tomorrow.  I 
believe that the Kingdom will come when enough of us put aside our anger, wounds, resentments, 
distrust, misunderstandings, and prejudices and walk as children of God in the Light of our Lord.  
   
  http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/IraqNumbers.htm and 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442_pf.html
  http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_01.html 
  Steve Goodier, www.lifesupportsystems.com 
  Jim Wallis, “Who Speaks for God?” 1997
 
 
 
 
Advent 1
[ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS PEACE]

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