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Peace for All Who Need It: Sermon · Beyond the Sermon

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  You're listening to Beyond the Sermon, the podcast of First
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  Methodist Church in Collingswood, NJ.
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  On our podcast, the goal is not just to share the sermons we've
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  preached, but to go beyond the sermon and talk about what we're
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  learning and what God is doing in US and in our community.
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  For Advent 2025 we are in a series called Brought to the
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  Light, Advent for all who need it.
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  This series is looking at the themes of Advent and how Jesus
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  comes to us all. You can find more information
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  about our church at fumccollingswood.org.
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  Thanks for listening. This morning Scripture comes to
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  us from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 1, starting in verse 18.
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  This is how Jesus the Messiah was born.
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  His mother Mary was engaged to be married to Joseph, but before
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  the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she
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  became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not
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  want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the
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  engagement quietly. As he considered this, an Angel
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  of the Lord appeared to him in a dream.
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  Joseph, son of David, the Angel said, do not be afraid to take
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  Mary as your wife, for the child within her was conceived by the
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  Holy Spirit, and she will have a son, and you are to name him
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  Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
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  All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord's message through his
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  prophet. Look.
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  The virgin will conceive a child, she will give birth to a
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  son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God is
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  with us. When Joseph woke up he did as
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  the Angel of the Lord commanded and took his took Mary as his
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  wife, but he did not have sexual relations with her until until
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  her son was born and Joseph named him Jesus.
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  This is the word of God for the people of God.
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  Thanks be to God, Amen. There will be a day when the
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  House of God, like a mountain or the hills, will be lifted up as
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  a river flows ever to the sea. All the nations will flow to him
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  like a living stream. There will be a day when the
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  Prince of Peace, we'll break the bow and sword and make all wars
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  cease, and our guns and bombs will be melted down into
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  plowshares for the harvest. How we're longing for it now.
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  When we'll go to the mountain of God, We'll walk in his ways.
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  We'll look on his face. We'll go to the mountain of God.
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  We'll cast down our pride and walk in his light on the
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  mountain of God. This is how Caroline Cobb's song
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  There Will Be a Day captures the longing that we feel for the day
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  that's coming, when God will come again and restore all
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  things. And we truly know the peace that
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  we long to feel and which which feels so elusive in today's
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  world. And I think if we're honest, we
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  acknowledge that longing for peace, but I think there's also
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  a corresponding agreement that we make that, that we can't
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  really know peace like that until that day, right, Until the
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  day the Lord comes again. And I, I understand how we get
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  there. When you look around at the
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  world all around us, it's, it's chaos, right?
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  There's wars, there's economic stress, there's division and
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  polarization, there's natural disasters.
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  And even closer to home, right there, there are
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  misunderstandings within relationships, children and and
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  even parents who are making what we see as the wrong decisions
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  the the competing demands of of our faith with the world.
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  When we see and and feel and live among those things all the
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  time, it tends to lead us to react in three different ways,
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  right? We, we react with anxiety, with
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  anger and sometimes even with shame, right?
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  Those are natural reactions we have.
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  But but I think underneath each of them, underneath each of
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  those reactions, there it's a form of, of fear or fear that
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  causes us to push back in anger or to withdraw in shame or, or,
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  or to spin right, paralyzed in our anxiety.
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  I I think this this is where Joseph is when we're introduced
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  to him in the midst of the Christmas story in Matthew, his
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  fiance, the one betrothed to marry him.
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  She, she winds up pregnant and all Joseph knows that he's not
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  the one who made that happen. We could expect Joseph to react
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  in any of the three ways. We were just talking about or,
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  or maybe even in a combination of those three Anger, anxiety,
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  shame. We could expect Joseph to get
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  angry at Mary's assumed unfaithfulness and betrayal.
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  We, we could expect Joseph to feel anxious about what people
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  were going to say or do when they found out.
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  We could expect Joseph to experience the shame of being
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  rejected or like he wasn't good enough for Mary.
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  But I think it's as Joseph is weighing his options, right?
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  He's, he's leaning toward breaking off the engagement
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  quietly because he doesn't want Mary to bear the weight of the
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  shame and disgrace that would come once the news got out.
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  It's in the midst of all this that God breaks into Joseph's
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  story and he breaks in with an offer of peace.
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  So I'll look this morning at, at the rest of Joseph's story,
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  right? And so as Joseph is is trying to
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  wrap his mind around all that's happening with his fiance, he's
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  trying to figure out what he's going to do about it.
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  I wonder if Joseph is trying to figure this all out while Mary's
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  down seeing Elizabeth in that time if if that was when all
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  this was happening. But but as all this is
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  happening, an Angel interrupts Joseph's deliberations and and
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  appears to him in a dream. And it's through the Angel that
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  the word of the Lord comes to Joseph, right?
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  The Angel speaks directly to that fear.
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  Beneath the mixture of reactions that Joseph is experiencing, God
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  understands. He understands the fear that
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  would have played on Joseph's emotions, the internal struggle
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  between doing what was right for him and wanting to protect Mary.
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  So the Angel says don't be afraid, don't be afraid to take
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  Mary as your wife the the child within her.
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  It's from the Holy Spirit. She will have a son and you're
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  to name him Jesus because he is going to bring salvation to his
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  people. And in that message, as crazy as
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  it must have seemed to Joseph, God was inviting Joseph into an
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  experience of peace, a peace unlike anything Joseph had
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  experienced before. God was teaching Joseph that
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  that true peace, true peace, it can exist despite the
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  circumstances that exist all around us.
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  God's word to Joseph revealed that God was present in the
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  midst of what was happening. Joseph wasn't in this alone.
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  Mary wasn't in this alone. God was acting in the midst of
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  those those that situation and he was present to Joseph.
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  And, and it's only God's presence, right, that brings us
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  that kind of true peace that we're all longing for.
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  What appeared as a disruption to Joseph, not just to Joseph, but
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  but to his plans for a quiet life as a Craftsman with a wife
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  and a family. What appeared as a disruption to
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  all of that was actually the unfolding of God's plan of
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  redemption, right? It was a plan that had been in
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  the works for far longer than Joseph was aware of it.
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  It went back further than this. But, but listen, it went or
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  sorry, I went back further than this, But listen to these words
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  from the prophet Isaiah, which are quoted there in Matthew 123.
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  It says, look, the virgin will conceive a child, she will give
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  birth to a son, and we'll call him Emmanuel, which means God is
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  with us. Isaiah prophesying some 6 or 700
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  years before Jesus's birth. And like Matthew's version of
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  Jesus, genealogy makes clear it was a plan that stretched back
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  through King David all the way to Abraham and God's promise to
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  Abraham that through him and his family, God was going to bless
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  all the nations of the world. That's why the Angel calls
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  Joseph son of David, right? It's not that his dad was David,
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  but that he was a descendant in the line of David.
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  He, Matthew, makes it clear that Joseph was in this family line
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  from the great King David. And Joseph wasn't just some guy
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  who who happened to get caught up into this bigger story that
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  God was writing. Joseph was chosen just as much
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  as Mary was chosen to play his role in the coming of the
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  Messiah. And so the peace that Joseph is
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  invited to experience, it wasn't just anchored in what God was
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  doing in that moment. It was anchored in the very
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  promises of God. It wasn't just anchored in God's
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  Word, to Joseph in the dream, but in the promises that have
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  been given to God's people, to to David, to Abraham and Sarah,
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  and even further back to Adam and Eve.
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  It was this peace rooted in the presence and the promises of God
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  that allowed Joseph to respond in obedience.
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  Or when it says in verse 24 that when Joseph woke up, he did as
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  the Angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.
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  This wasn't just a blind obedience, it was it was action
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  based on Joseph's trust that God was with him.
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  God's word to Joseph gave him the courage that he needed to
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  step out in faith to do what God was telling him to do, which
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  went exactly opposite of the direction of what the world
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  would have told Joseph to do. And just like Joseph today, in
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  the midst of of whatever stuff of life we might find ourselves
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  in this morning, we too can trust God's presence with us and
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  His promise to never leave us nor forsake us.
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  We can walk forward in obedience to God's leading, even when we
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  don't understand it all, and even when we don't have all the
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  answers we would hope for. And I wonder this morning, I
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  wonder if there's anyone here who feels like their life has
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  been interrupted. Anybody, anyone whose plans have
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  been disrupted. All right, four of you, 4 of you
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  feel like your life has been interrupted.
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  But, but it's all of us, isn't it?
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  It's all of us in one way or another.
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  And I'm not going to stand here this morning and tell you that
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  that all the circumstances and situations you're facing are
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  because they're what God wants for you.
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  But I am going to tell you that he wants to be with you in it.
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  He wants to be in it with you even in the midst of the
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  situations that are the result of other people's sin or even
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  just the the result of of living life in the midst of the broken
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  world that we live in. God is with you, and He's
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  working things for good, even when we don't quite see how we
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  can trust His presence and His promises, and we can find true
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  peace in Him. I want to encourage you this
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  morning to ask God to draw near to you in the midst of whatever
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  situations you find yourself, to ask Him to to speak His word of
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  truth to you. We have the opportunity this
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  morning to respond to what God is saying and doing by by
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  participating in Holy Communion. But that's not the only way that
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  God draws near to us. I want to encourage you to to
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  develop the the kind of rhythms in your life that that make
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  space for you to experience and know God's presence.
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  Spaces where you can learn to hear his voice speaking to you.
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  You can develop an intimacy with him where where when he speaks,
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  you recognize it could be be through things like prayer and
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  Scripture reading on your own. It could include things like
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  joining a group that helps you walk more closely with God or
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  joining us for one of our prayer sessions where we listen to
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  God's voice in Scripture and respond to him in prayer.
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  That there's any number of ways, but we, we have to choose those
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  things or we have to choose those rhythms.
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  At some level, though, it's going to mean looking less to
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  the world and the things of this world, right?
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  And looking more to God because we trade peace for anxiety,
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  fear, shame and anger when our lives are formed more by the the
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  noise and the news of this world than we are by God's promises,
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  His Word to us, and His presence with us.
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  A number of years after God met Joseph in the midst of his chaos
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  and fears, that little baby Jesus he was telling him was
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  going to be born. He'd grown into a man and he's
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  getting ready to leave his followers as he goes towards his
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  death on the cross. And and Jesus told his
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  followers, he said, I'm leaving you with a gift, Peace of Mind
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  and heart. The peace I give is a gift the
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  world can't give. So don't be troubled.
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  Don't be afraid, right? Jesus offers us a peace that
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  comes from the very presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
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  The God who's not just with us, but the God who's in US.
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  And listen to what Paul told the the young church in Philippi.
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  This is Philippians 4 beginning in verse 6.
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  He says don't worry about anything, instead pray about
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  everything, tell God what you need and thank Him for all He
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  has done. Then, then you will experience
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  God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand.
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  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ
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  Jesus. And now, dear brothers and
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  sisters, one final thing. This is still Paul, not me, this
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  is Paul. One final thing.
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  Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and
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  pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are
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  excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all
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  you have learned and received from me, everything you heard
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  from me and saw me doing. Then.
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  There it is again. Then the God of peace will be
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  with you. His peace, God's peace, will
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  guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
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  And the peace, the God of peace, will be with you.
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  Because He is Emmanuel, God with us, we can trust His presence
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  and His promise to us. Let's pray together, God.
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  We confess. We confess that we have not
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  always trusted you. We've not always trusted your
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  presence with us. We've not always trusted God
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  that Your word to us is true, but we've not always trusted
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  that we can know peace here in this life, even as we live in
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  this world. We've allowed our our thoughts
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  to be shaped too much by the cares of this world and the
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  noise all around us. Would you help us?
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  Would you help us, Lord, to know your peace, to bring everything
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  to You in prayer, to do all that you have told us to, to set our
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  minds on what is true and honorable and all those things
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  so that we can know your presence with us.
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  We can hear your voice to us in the myriad ways that it comes to
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  us day by day. And we, like Joseph, could step
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  forward in trust and faith and obedience to whatever it is
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  you're asking us to do that we give you ourselves this morning,
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  and we pray this Jesus in your name, Amen.