Isaiah 9:2-7
​by Interim Pastor Doug Marshall

Thought for Meditation:        
O come, Desire of nations, bind All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife, and discord cease; Fill the whole world with heaven’s peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. 
The Presbyterian Hymnal #9, v3

One of my hobbies is collecting comic strips.  I have a manila envelope filled with Christmas comics.  Let me share a few with you.
 

• Family Circus:  Dolly and PJ are standing in front of a stained glass window with an angel in it.  Dolly tells PJ, “His name is Harold.”  “Hark the Harold angel sing.” 

 

• Calvin and Hobbes:  Calvin comments that there are only a few days left until Christmas.  He says “What better way to celebrate a religious holiday than with a month of frenzied consumerism… Getting loads of loot is a very spiritual experience for me.”

 

• B.C. is one of my favorites.  Johnny Hart, who writes B.C. is a Christian. He wrote a poem about Christmas:

It seems to me that since the “Fall” – without even thinking it odd –
That man has had no trouble at all believing that he can be God.
How he would do this I cannot conceive, tho he certainly think that he can –
And yet, he cannot bring himself to believe, that God can become… a man.
 
Several years ago a comic strip caught my attention.  It was a comic called “Shoe.”  In the first panel Santa is carrying his bag of toys toward the sleigh.  One of the reindeer asks him a question.  “So what’s our featured gift this year, Mr. C?”  Santa responds, “It’s a simple thing, really.  It seems to be on everyone’s list again, so I thought I’d give it a try.”  In the third panel Santa has a weary look on his face.  “Of course… no one knows how to take care of it, so it’ll break as soon as I deliver it.”  With a disgusted look on his face, the reindeer asks what the present is.  “What, is this another lousy toy made in Cheapville?” Santa responds, “No, it’s peace on earth.”

I don’t know what the gift looked like that Santa was going to give, but most of us would put peace near the top of our wish list.  We long for peace, peace for the world or even peace for our own lives.  Yet, so often our lives and our world don’t have peace. 

Think of some of the main headlines from this past year.  Aleppo has been in the news all year, hundreds, maybe thousands of people killed.  In June there was massacre at the Pulse nightclub down in Orlando, Florida.  In July twelve police officers were shot in Dallas.  Five of them died.  This last week we heard about the truck that ran into the Christmas market in Berlin, killing at least a dozen people.  The Russian ambassador was killed in Turkey and a suicide bomber killed forty eight people in Yemen.  On and on the list goes.  On top of that many of us have our own stories that never make the news, but they remind us that we don’t have peace:  the death of loved ones, people getting sick or having surgery, fears about our jobs or the economy. We need peace.  Friends, I have good news for you tonight.  The Prince of Peace has come.
 
One of the great Biblical words is the Hebrew word for peace – shalom.  Shalom is a word that is still used today in Israel, as a greeting or a way of saying goodbye to someone.  It is a blessing that people give to one another.  Shalom certainly includes the absence of war or violence, but it is so much more.  Shalom is wholeness, or completeness.  It means harmony, prosperity and security for all people.  Peace involves health and righteousness and truth.  Shalom includes having wonderful relationships with other people and with God.  Essentially, Shalom means the same thing as salvation.

The prophet Isaiah wrote at a time when the people of Israel desperately needed peace.  There was a darkness that filled the hearts of God’s people.  The Assyrian empire was growing in power. They had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and were threatening the southern kingdom of Judah.  Judah’s kings were weak and sinful.  Into that darkness Isaiah brought a message of hope.  “The people who live in darkness have seen a great light…  A child has been born to us, a son.  He is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:2, 6). 

This child will be the Messiah, a king.  He will have the power to bring peace into this world and into our lives.  About 700 years after Isaiah wrote his words, the angels proclaimed to the shepherd’s that Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to all his people” (Luke 2:14).                           
 
We all get glimpses of peace at times, experiences that point to the true peace that comes from God.  Let me share with you an image.  It happened almost 24 years ago.  It was on a Thursday morning.  It was one of those weeks where I was swamped.  On top of a sermon that I needed to finish I had a funeral to plan, a Sunday school lesson to get ready and several other tasks.  I had gotten up early to do some work and Tanya had just gone out for a walk.  I was just starting to get in to my work when Alli, my youngest daughter, woke up.  She was about 3 or 4 months old and had not been feeling good.  I ran up the stairs, grabbed her out of the crib and took her downstairs.  I didn’t want her to wake up the other two kids.  I thought that maybe I could get some work done while I held her – Not a chance!  She started with a bit of a whimper and built up into a full-blown scream.

lly against my chest, and she continued to relax.  Eventually she went limp and fell asleep, a dead weight in my arms. There was no way I was going to move and chance waking her up, so I sat there and simply enjoyed holding her.  There is nothing like holding a sleeping infant.  A peace came over me that changed my attitude for the whole day.  2000 years ago another infant was born that brings us peace, not for a few moments or a day, but for eternity.  Jesus is our Prince of Peace. 

One caution for us.  We all have images of what we think peace will look like for our lives.  Maybe it’s holding a child or a grandchild.  Maybe it’s having more than enough money so you don’t have to worry or having a job that you enjoy and pays enough to pay the bills.  Maybe it’s getting all the housework done and all the tasks marked off your list.  There are endless images of what peace might look like and that is okay.

  However, the peace that Jesus brings us, the peace we long for, will probably look far different than we expect.  No one expected the Messiah, the one who would save Israel, the Prince of Peace, to be a little baby, born to an insignificant family in an out of the way place.  They expected a king to ride in on his horse, with an army behind him.  Instead, Jesus rode in on a donkey and ended up on a cross.  That certainly wasn’t expected. Jesus surprises us by who he is and what he does.                        
 
Stuart Briscoe was raised in England during WWII.  He describes what life was like during that time.  They had rationing.  From the age of 9-15 he never heard the church bells ring, because the bells ringing was a signal of the expected invasion by the Nazis.  People didn’t want to hear the bells.  They had blackouts, no streetlights, much less the Christmas lights that we have today. People hung black clothes over their windows and doors so no light escaped.

One night he was awakened from his sleep by the ringing of the church bells.  He jumped out of bed, peaked out his window and saw an astounding sight.  Street lights were on.  People had their windows open, letting light stream out into the night sky.  People were dancing and singing in the streets.  He called to his father, “Dad, what’s going on.  Why are the bells ringing?”  He dad called back, “Peace has broken out all over the place!”
It was the end of WWII.  Of course, that peace did not last, for true peace only comes from Jesus Christ.  It is the peace announced on that midnight clear, 2000 years ago, when the angels sang, “Peace on earth, good will to all, from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
 
Most of our Christmas carols were written in Europe.  They retell the Biblical story in poetic form.  It Came Upon the Midnight Clear was written in Massachusetts, by an American pastor.  It was written in 1849, a time when our country was not at peace.  Slavery was tearing our country apart, leading toward the Civil War.  The industrial revolution was creating chaos in the north.  The gold rush had just started in California. 

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear is a unique Christmas carol because it is one of the first to describe the world we live in, with all its turmoil.  It describes a world that needs peace: 
     And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are blending low,
     Who toil along the climbing way With painful steps and slow.
​
Yet this is a positive song because it proclaims that in Jesus Christ peace has come into our world.   Jesus is the Prince of Peace.                               

​Isaiah 9:2-7; John 10:27-38
by Interim Pastor Doug Marshall

Thought for Meditation: 
Of the Father’s love begotten, Ere the worlds began to be,
​He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He.  
Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!           The Presbyterian Hymnal #309

As Tommy and his family were eating dinner he asked his father a question. “Dad, is it okay to eat bugs?”  His dad answered, “That really isn’t an appropriate topic for the dinner table.  We can talk about that later.”  After dinner his dad asked, “What was it you wanted to ask me?”  Tommy replied, “Oh, it doesn’t matter now.  I just noticed that there was a bug in your soup.”

When Angie turned 14 her parents gave her the most wonderful gift – her own phone.  This was before cell phones and smart phones.  Until this point if Angie wanted to talk to her friends she had to use the phone in the kitchen, with her parents and nosy brother listening in.  Now she had her own phone and her own line.  Life was great.  One afternoon a few weeks later her father got brave and went on an adventure into her bedroom.  It was a typical teenager’s bedroom, a total disaster.  Clothes were all over the place.  Books, papers and other stuff covered the floor.  Angie was sitting on the bed, surrounded by this chaos, sobbing.  Her father sat next to her on the bed and asked what was wrong.  Through her tears Angie said, “My phone just rang and I couldn’t find it.”

Cathy was several years older than Angie.  At 16 ½ she had just gotten her driver’s license.  After a couple of months her parents trusted her enough to let her drive to one of her friends’ homes on a Friday evening.  She still had to be home by her curfew, 12:00 midnight.  On Saturday morning her father went out to get the newspaper and came in rather upset.  Cathy came out of her room about 11:30 am.  She was groggy and it didn’t look as if she had gotten enough sleep.  Her father asked her what time she got in.  She said, “Oh, not too late.”  With a straight face her dad said, “Then I guess I’m going to have to talk to the guy who delivers the newspapers about putting it under your tires.

Of course, not every father is as loving and patient as these two were.  Even the best father is far from perfect.  And the fact that our fathers, and our mothers, are not perfect means that everyone has a longing deep inside to be loved by our father.  

I became very aware of this in 1982.  That was the year that Tanya and I were in Kentucky, working at Buckhorn Children’s Center.  There were 20-25 kids who for any number of reasons, were not living with their parents.  Most of them had fathers who were terrible.  Some of the kids had been physically abused by their dad’s. I remember Eddie telling me how his dad used to take cigarettes and burn holes in his arms.  Some of the dads struggled with alcohol.  They took what little money the family had and spent it on booze, rather than buying food.  Some of the dads were in prison.  At best, these fathers ignored their kids.  

What really surprised me was that as bad as these fathers were, all of the kids looked forward to visits with their dads.  It did not matter how bad they were, the kids thought their fathers were wonderful.  Most of them wished they could live with their fathers.  The kids at Buckhorn expressed the longing that we all have to be loved by our fathers.  

Let me tell you another story about a father.  It’s a story we all probably know, from one of my favorite movies, The Sound of Music.  Captain von Trapp has just returned to his home.  He brought with him the Baroness von Schraeder, the lady he is planning to marry.  As the captain and the baroness get out of the car, Maria and the kids are on a boat in the lake by their house.  They are singing, laughing and having a wonderful time.  They end up falling out of the boat, getting drenched and walking up to shore.  The captain blows his whistle and they line up to be introduced to the baroness.  Then the captain sends them inside to change their clothes.  The baroness goes inside too.

Maria starts to follow the kids into the house.  Captain von Trapp stops her and they have an argument.  He scolds her for not following the rules that he had set up for his children.  She gives it right back at him for not being the dad that they want and need.  He ends up firing Maria.  Right at that moment they are interrupted by some music.  The children are singing, their voices blended in beautiful harmonies. “The hills are alive, with the sound of music.”  The captain is shocked.  He has never heard them sing before.  He rushes in to the house to listen.

When he got to the room he sees the children singing to the baroness.  For a moment he hesitates.  Then he joins in the song. Together they sing this beautiful piece.  At the end of the song they all stand still, unsure of how to act.  Then the captain opens his arms and the children rush to surround him.  They laugh and hug each other.  
It’s my favorite moment in the whole movie.  It doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I start crying.  It is a symbol of the longing we all have for the love of a father.  

Ten to fifteen years ago 60 minutes ran a segment that showed the importance of having a father.  At a South African wildlife preserve 39 rare white rhinos were killed.  They were killed, not by poachers, but by juvenile delinquent elephants. 

About ten years earlier the park had too many elephants.  They decided to kill the adult elephants whose young were old enough to survive without them. There was a large group of elephants that grew up without fathers.  These young elephants roamed together in gangs and began to do things that elephants don’t normally do.  They threw sticks at other animals and acted like bullies. A few of the young males became violent, knocking down the rhinos and stomping them to death. 

The park rangers theorized that the young elephants were acting badly because they didn’t have adult role models.  They brought in several large, adult, bull elephants, who established dominance and put the young bulls in place.  The bad behavior of the young elephants stopped.  They were mentored in how to live and act.  They needed the tough love of a father. 

I tell you these stories about father’s this morning because I believe that our longing for the love of a father is met in Jesus.  In our passage from Isaiah he uses four names to describe the Messiah: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.  We believe that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor, who guides us and shows us what God wants for our lives.  Jesus is the Mighty God, who protects us from evil forces in our world.  Today’s message is that Jesus is our Everlasting Father, who loves us with the perfect love of a perfect father. 

Most scholars think that Jesus never got married or had children.  He never was a father in the sense of having children.  However, Isaiah tells us that Jesus, as the Messiah, is our Everlasting Father.

That could be confusing for several reasons.  First, one of the central doctrines of Christianity is the Trinity, God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Jesus is the Son, not the Father.  Second, during Christmas we usually focus on Jesus as a little baby.  We tend to ignore the fact that babies are demanding and hard work.  They grow up, and that is challenging as well.  Since Jesus became a man I usually think of him as my brother or my friend.  Sometimes I think of him as my boss or master.  All of those are healthy, normal images that we have of Jesus.  Isaiah gives us another way to think about Jesus.  He is our Heavenly Father, whose love for us is God’s love. 

Another reason that people struggle with the image of Jesus as our Father is that their own fathers were not very good.  They were more like the fathers of the kids in Buckhorn, absent, negligent or abusive.  The reality of their own father’s has caused many people to reject the Trinity, with God as our Father, or even Jesus as our Eternal Father.  

I understand that struggle.  I don’t want to downplay the pain that some father’s caused.  However, I’m not ready to reject God as Father, or Jesus as Father.  

If it is hard to wrap your mind around the idea of Jesus as your father let me offer you two ideas.  First, there is a tendency to think about our fathers, who were not perfect, and then think of what a perfect father would be like, and claim that is what God is like.  Unfortunately, that is backwards.  We can’t start with our own fathers to decide what God is like.  We must always start with God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the first person of the Trinity, and then say that is what human fathers should be like.  We must always start with God, not with human fathers.

Second, in and through Jesus we have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, the first person of the Trinity.  The love that Jesus has for us is the same as the love that our Heavenly Father has for us.   It is God’s love.  Jesus’ love is a perfect love, that fulfills our deepest need for love.  The love of God that we know in Jesus can never be taken from us.  That is what Jesus claims when says that he is one with the Father.  Jesus love is the love of the Father.  The love of God that we know in Jesus in the perfect love of God that fulfills our need for love.        

I don’t know most of your fathers.  Some of you here this morning are grieving the death of your father.  Some of you probably had fathers who were absent or negligent or even abusive.  What I do know is that everyone’s father is, or was, imperfect.  The best father was still a sinner.  The fact that our father’s aren’t perfect, means that all of us have a longing for the perfect love of a perfect Father.
​
Friends, the good news today is that our longing for love, our need for love, is met in Jesus Christ, for he is our Eternal Father. 

Thought for Meditation: 
Of the Father’s love begotten, Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He.  
Of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!
The Presbyterian Hymnal #309

As Tommy and his family were eating dinner he asked his father a question. “Dad, is it okay to eat bugs?”  His dad answered, “That really isn’t an appropriate topic for the dinner table.  We can talk about that later.”  After dinner his dad asked, “What was it you wanted to ask me?”  Tommy replied, “Oh, it doesn’t matter now.  I just noticed that there was a bug in your soup.”

When Angie turned 14 her parents gave her the most wonderful gift – her own phone.  This was before cell phones and smart phones.  Until this point if Angie wanted to talk to her friends she had to use the phone in the kitchen, with her parents and nosy brother listening in.  Now she had her own phone and her own line.  Life was great.  One afternoon a few weeks later her father got brave and went on an adventure into her bedroom.  It was a typical teenager’s bedroom, a total disaster.  Clothes were all over the place.  Books, papers and other stuff covered the floor.  Angie was sitting on the bed, surrounded by this chaos, sobbing.  Her father sat next to her on the bed and asked what was wrong.  Through her tears Angie said, “My phone just rang and I couldn’t find it.”

Cathy was several years older than Angie.  At 16 ½ she had just gotten her driver’s license.  After a couple of months her parents trusted her enough to let her drive to one of her friends’ homes on a Friday evening.  She still had to be home by her curfew, 12:00 midnight.  On Saturday morning her father went out to get the newspaper and came in rather upset.  Cathy came out of her room about 11:30 am.  She was groggy and it didn’t look as if she had gotten enough sleep.  Her father asked her what time she got in.  She said, “Oh, not too late.”  With a straight face her dad said, “Then I guess I’m going to have to talk to the guy who delivers the newspapers about putting it under your tires.

Of course, not every father is as loving and patient as these two were.  Even the best father is far from perfect.  And the fact that our fathers, and our mothers, are not perfect means that everyone has a longing deep inside to be loved by our father.  

I became very aware of this in 1982.  That was the year that Tanya and I were in Kentucky, working at Buckhorn Children’s Center.  There were 20-25 kids who for any number of reasons, were not living with their parents.  Most of them had fathers who were terrible.  Some of the kids had been physically abused by their dad’s. I remember Eddie telling me how his dad used to take cigarettes and burn holes in his arms.  Some of the dads struggled with alcohol.  They took what little money the family had and spent it on booze, rather than buying food.  Some of the dads were in prison.  At best, these fathers ignored their kids.
 
What really surprised me was that as bad as these fathers were, all of the kids looked forward to visits with their dads.  It did not matter how bad they were, the kids thought their fathers were wonderful.  Most of them wished they could live with their fathers.  The kids at Buckhorn expressed the longing that we all have to be loved by our fathers.  

Let me tell you another story about a father.  It’s a story we all probably know, from one of my favorite movies, The Sound of Music.  Captain von Trapp has just returned to his home.  He brought with him the Baroness von Schraeder, the lady he is planning to marry.  As the captain and the baroness get out of the car, Maria and the kids are on a boat in the lake by their house.  They are singing, laughing and having a wonderful time.  They end up falling out of the boat, getting drenched and walking up to shore.  The captain blows his whistle and they line up to be introduced to the baroness.  Then the captain sends them inside to change their clothes.  The baroness goes inside too.

Maria starts to follow the kids into the house.  Captain von Trapp stops her and they have an argument.  He scolds her for not following the rules that he had set up for his children.  She gives it right back at him for not being the dad that they want and need.  He ends up firing Maria.  Right at that moment they are interrupted by some music.  The children are singing, their voices blended in beautiful harmonies. “The hills are alive, with the sound of music.”  The captain is shocked.  He has never heard them sing before.  He rushes in to the house to listen.

When he got to the room he sees the children singing to the baroness.  For a moment he hesitates.  Then he joins in the song. Together they sing this beautiful piece.  At the end of the song they all stand still, unsure of how to act.  Then the captain opens his arms and the children rush to surround him.  They laugh and hug each other.  
It’s my favorite moment in the whole movie.  It doesn’t matter how many times I see it, I start crying.  It is a symbol of the longing we all have for the love of a father.  

Ten to fifteen years ago 60 minutes ran a segment that showed the importance of having a father.  At a South African wildlife preserve 39 rare white rhinos were killed.  They were killed, not by poachers, but by juvenile delinquent elephants. 

About ten years earlier the park had too many elephants.  They decided to kill the adult elephants whose young were old enough to survive without them. There was a large group of elephants that grew up without fathers.  These young elephants roamed together in gangs and began to do things that elephants don’t normally do.  They threw sticks at other animals and acted like bullies. A few of the young males became violent, knocking down the rhinos and stomping them to death. 

The park rangers theorized that the young elephants were acting badly because they didn’t have adult role models.  They brought in several large, adult, bull elephants, who established dominance and put the young bulls in place.  The bad behavior of the young elephants stopped.  They were mentored in how to live and act.  They needed the tough love of a father. 

I tell you these stories about father’s this morning because I believe that our longing for the love of a father is met in Jesus.  In our passage from Isaiah he uses four names to describe the Messiah: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.  We believe that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor, who guides us and shows us what God wants for our lives.  Jesus is the Mighty God, who protects us from evil forces in our world.  Today’s message is that Jesus is our Everlasting Father, who loves us with the perfect love of a perfect father. 

Most scholars think that Jesus never got married or had children.  He never was a father in the sense of having children.  However, Isaiah tells us that Jesus, as the Messiah, is our Everlasting Father.
That could be confusing for several reasons.  First, one of the central doctrines of Christianity is the Trinity, God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Jesus is the Son, not the Father.  Second, during Christmas we usually focus on Jesus as a little baby.  We tend to ignore the fact that babies are demanding and hard work.  They grow up, and that is challenging as well.  Since Jesus became a man I usually think of him as my brother or my friend.  Sometimes I think of him as my boss or master.  All of those are healthy, normal images that we have of Jesus.  Isaiah gives us another way to think about Jesus.  He is our Heavenly Father, whose love for us is God’s love. 
Another reason that people struggle with the image of Jesus as our Father is that their own fathers were not very good.  They were more like the fathers of the kids in Buckhorn, absent, negligent or abusive.  The reality of their own father’s has caused many people to reject the Trinity, with God as our Father, or even Jesus as our Eternal Father.  

I understand that struggle.  I don’t want to downplay the pain that some father’s caused.  However, I’m not ready to reject God as Father, or Jesus as Father.  

If it is hard to wrap your mind around the idea of Jesus as your father let me offer you two ideas.  First, there is a tendency to think about our fathers, who were not perfect, and then think of what a perfect father would be like, and claim that is what God is like.  Unfortunately, that is backwards.  We can’t start with our own fathers to decide what God is like.  We must always start with God, the Father of Jesus Christ, the first person of the Trinity, and then say that is what human fathers should be like.  We must always start with God, not with human fathers.

Second, in and through Jesus we have a relationship with our Heavenly Father, the first person of the Trinity.  The love that Jesus has for us is the same as the love that our Heavenly Father has for us.   It is God’s love.  Jesus’ love is a perfect love, that fulfills our deepest need for love.  The love of God that we know in Jesus can never be taken from us.  That is what Jesus claims when says that he is one with the Father.  Jesus love is the love of the Father.  The love of God that we know in Jesus in the perfect love of God that fulfills our need for love.        

I don’t know most of your fathers.  Some of you here this morning are grieving the death of your father.  Some of you probably had fathers who were absent or negligent or even abusive.  What I do know is that everyone’s father is, or was, imperfect.  The best father was still a sinner.  The fact that our father’s aren’t perfect, means that all of us have a longing for the perfect love of a perfect Father.
​
Friends, the good news today is that our longing for love, our need for love, is met in Jesus Christ, for he is our Eternal Father. 

Isaiah 9:2-7;  Ephesians 6:10-13
by Interim Pastor Doug Marshall

Thought for Meditation:
The devil’s temptation strategy is to depersonalize the ways of Jesus but leave the way itself intact.  Peterson,  The Jesus Way, p36
​