We often long for a life of peace, a life without troubles, trials and temptations. Yet Mary and Joseph remind us that when one problem is solved, another invariably raises its head! Despite having peace with each other again, life – this time in the form of Roman bureaucracy – intervenes to make things difficult for them. A census is ordered which means they have to travel from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem, the town of David. (Luke 2:1-5)

Even nowadays, travel is not encouraged for heavily pregnant women, but Mary had to make this journey. Then, just to make life even more difficult, when they eventually arrived in Bethlehem, there was nowhere for them to stay. (Luke 2:6-7) Giving birth in a room full of animals can’t have been exactly peaceful; I’m often amused by our idyllic (and utterly unrealistic) Christmas carols which speak about silence and no crying! ‘All is calm, all is bright’ would not, I am sure, have been Mary’s assessment of the situation!

Peace does not always mean an absence of activity, noise, frustration or difficulty. I am reminded of the story behind the hymn, ‘It is well with my soul.’ Written by Horatio Spafford, he was a successful lawyer and real estate investor who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871 and then lost his four-year-old son to scarlet fever. Thinking a holiday would do his family some good, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some pressing business at home. However, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in a terrible collision and sunk. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all four of Horatio Spafford’s precious daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

It’s hard to imagine the grief and horror of this situation, and yet this man of God wrote this hymn on the way to his wife:

‘When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll—

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know

It is well, it is well with my soul.’

Peace with God can exist even in times of tragedy and heartache.

This year, Oxford Languages (the creator of the Oxford English Dictionary) titled ‘goblin mode‘ as the 2022 ‘Word of the Year.’ The phrase first appeared on Twitter in 2009 and means ‘to reject the idea of returning to normal life or to rebel against the unattainable aesthetic standards and unsustainable lifestyles exhibited on social media.’ So now you know…

I love new words and am always interested in how language changes over time. Nothing thrills me more than word play and beautiful words. Yesterday my three-year-old granddaughter told me the name ‘Tia’ was a sad name, because it was (in her mind) associated with crying. I was impressed that these homophones (Tia/ tear) evoked such a perceptive response in such a young child!

I frequently ask God for a Bible verse or word that is on His heart, and I feel that that word at present is ROBUST – meaning strong and healthy or vigorous.

In the Message version of the Bible, the word ‘robust’ is found in several places (‘a robust faith’ in Titus 1:13, ‘robust in love’ in Eph 4:16, ‘robust well-being’ in Isaiah 66:12). The word is often translated ‘sound’ in other versions, but I like ‘robust’ because for me, it does sound more vigorous and allive than ‘sound‘!

God does not want us to be feeble, fearful people. He wants us to ahve a sound mind and right thinking so that this affects our physical health (giving us a ‘robust body’ as Prov 14:30 in the Message version puts it.) The key to strong mental and physical well-being is to have a mind that is fixed on God. (Col 3:1-3) The more we focus on God and allow His very breath and blood to flow through us, the more we will be nourished (like a growing foetus) ‘so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.’ (Eph 4:16, The Message) As Rend Collective put it, ‘You are the power in our veins, our Lord, our God, our Conqueror.’ (‘More Than Conquerors’,)

God speaks not only to Mary through miraculous means, but also to Joseph. (Matt 1:18-25) His intervention means that Mary and Joseph are once again united in purpose and in peace. Joseph is reassured of Mary’s integrity and God’s miraculous work in their lives. It may indeed be an unprecedented situation, but actually, this is foretold in Scripture (Isaiah 7:14) and both individuals have a part to play in the situation.

We can be reassured that when God speaks, He will confirm His word to us and will work in families. He does not ride roughshod over individuals, but invites us to participate in His plans. If we are struggling with situations, we can bring our anxieties and worries to God, and His word promises us that His peace, which transcends understanding, will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)

The Christmas story does not initially appear to have much to do with peace. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s news comes as a great shock. Then we have the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, a young girl in Nazareth. (Luke 1:26-38) She is a virgin who is pledged to be married to Joseph, but she is told she will conceive and give birth to a son. (Luke 1:31) She shows great maturity and faith in accepting this truth, but Joseph (not surprisingly) finds it incredible. He has to wrestle with feelings of rejection and betrayal, assuming she has been unfaithful to him, musing about what to do and how to divorce her without causing disgrace to her. (Matt 1:18-19) Their happy relationship is under threat. God’s intervention in their lives must have meant great upheaval and very little peace initially.

Jesus, one of whose names is the ‘Prince of Peace’, does not always seem to bring peace to us (see Matt 10:34). He disturbs our routines and our everyday lives; He makes demands on us that can seem utterly unreasonable. He tells us to forgive our enemies and to bless those who persecute us. (Matt 5:43-48) He urges us to love the unlovable and to do good to all. He reminds us that everyone is our neighbour and that we have a responsibility to all. (Luke 10:25-37) Those of us who become Christians are sometimes surprised by the animosity this arouses in friends and family. Peace can seem a long way off, an unattainable goal.

And yet as we continue, we will see that peace does come. If it’s not yet yours, wait for it. God brings peace into turbulent situations.

At our ‘Little Big Church‘ tonight, Garry asked us all questions about journeys (including our favourite forms of transport and how we had come to church.) At this time of year, we think about the journey of Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem and also how the angels, shepherds and wise men all got there. For Jesus, His journey was from heaven to earth through a miraculous pregnancy – perhaps the most amazing journey anyone has ever done!

Some journeys are difficult and dangerous; we watched a video about the Caminito del Rey in Spain, which is known as the world’s ‘most dangerous walkway’. Some journeys are boring and uneventful. Life is often described as a journey, with heaven our destination. As Doug Horley reminds us, we won’t get to heaven on the back of a camel, or a sheep, jeep, pogo stick or even by going to church! We can only get to heaven through Jesus; He is the only way to the Father. (John 14:6) But even when life’s journey brings grief and difficulties, if we persevere, there is joy in the journey and freedom to those who obey (‘Joy In The Journey’, Michael Card.)

‘There is a joy in the journey,
There’s a light we can love on the way.
There is a wonder and wildness to life,
And freedom for those who obey.

All those who seek it shall find it,
A pardon for all who believe.
Hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind

To all who’ve been born of the Spirit

And who share incarnation with him;
Who belong to eternity, stranded in time,
And weary of struggling with sin.

Forget not the hope
That’s before you,
And never stop counting the cost.
Remember the hopelessness when you were lost?’ (‘Joy In The Journey’, Michael Card)

This morning we looked at Isaiah 9:6-7 and saw how this prophecy of a ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’ who will reign on David’s throne forever was fulfilled in Jesus. Christmas is a time when the light dawns on those living in the land of deep darkness (see Isaiah 9:2, John 1:5); it’s a time when we see God working miraculously in many ways, but we also see that there is much that is also strangely mundane about the Christmas story.

A miracle was needed to save the world, because sin has separated mankind from God and there is no one righteous, not even one. (Rom 3:10-11) Only a sinless human could bridge the gap between humanity and God, but because of sin, no human is capable of doing this. God, therefore, sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. (Gal 4:4) The first miracle we see is the fact that the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son who will be called ‘Immanuel’, ‘God with us.’ (Is 7:14, Luke 1:31) That just doesn’t happen naturally!

Jesus is both fully human and fully God, a miracle we celebrate each year at Christmas. There are other miracles in this story: angelic messages and a star to guide the wise men from the east being the most notable ones. But there is also much that is mundane in the story: Zechariah’s months of being unable to speak (Luke 1:5-24), the inconvenience of a trip to Bethlehem because of a Roman census (Luke 2:1-3), the fact that there was no room for Mary and Joseph at any guest house and so the birth of Jesus took place in a stable (Luke 2:1-7). We might have expected the birth of God’s King to be at a palace amid great fanfare, but despite the miracles of Christmas, there is a sense of ordinariness which is shocking. This reminds us that Jesus had to learn and suffer, just as we do (see Hebrews 2:17-18, Phil 2:6-7). He is our great high priest precisely because He has shared in our humanity and knows what we go through. We have so much to celebrate because of Christmas!