We are in the season of anticipation and preparation. It is the season for looking back to the birth of Christ as we celebrate his coming into the world with joy and thanksgiving. And we look forward to his coming into the world again.

Last week we anticipated with a sense of hope. Today we anticipate with a sense of peace. Today some congregations are celebrating Peach Sunday. Remember peace is not just the absence of war, or the end of conflict. Peace is for some, a sense of security, or prosperity, or faithfulness, or righteousness. Peace is a gift of God, it comes from God. Most of you know that the Hebrew word for peace is "shalom". Shalom is a word that most of all means wholeness and well being (Harper’s Bible Dictionary. San Francisco. Harper&Row. 1985, p.766-767). The coming of Christ is the coming of peace into the world. Don’t you look forward to a time of peace in your life?

Many of you will remember in the 1970’s and 80’s when tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics first began to lessen. We know that politicians were working in their arena, sometimes with great controversy and churches were working theirs too, also with great controversy. The cold war was coming to an end, and church groups were among the first non-governmental organization began building bridges to communist countries. They said, "in the name of the Prince of Peace we will be bearers of good news to people we have been told are our enemies. Let governments do what they do, and we will do what we are called to do", they said as they arranged trips to the Soviet Union, and began to put peace poles in their church yards. Those yard poles simply say in several languages, "Peace".

Zechariah, a priest of the temple, whose blessing of God and hope for his newborn son we hear in the passage from Luke, was a man at peace, but it was not always so. We hear him today after the anxious days had passed. We meet him after the time when Zechariah did not believe the message that his wife Elizabeth would bear a son who would be named John. It is after the angel’s proclamation that the boy’s birth would be cause for rejoicing and that he would be great, and that even before his birth he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. It is after Zechariah did not believe that his son will be the one to prepare God’s people for the coming of the Lord (Luke 1. 5-17). He did not believe it. In fact he protests that he and Elizabeth are not all that young anymore, maybe the blessing of children had passed them by.

For his disbelief, Zechariah is silenced. He will not speak again until the child Elizabeth carries is born. When he arrives, and Zechariah announces his new name, his relatives are confused. What kind of name is John? We don’t have anyone in our family with that name. What were you thinking? All Zechariah can say is, "his name is John." And then they said, "what will this child become?" (1.66).

That is the question we ask of every child that touches our lives. What will he do when he grows up? How will she make her way in the world? Will he accept and claim

as his own the faith of his parents or will he go his own way? Will she be OK? Can they do what is needed to succeed in the world? How will God walk with my children?

Zechariah, who was broken in disbelief and doubt, whose well being was disturbed into silence that would not let him talk to his wife, pray out loud in the temple, or order groceries from the farmer down the road, is now a man at peace. He knows the answer to these questions, but before he answers them, he first praises God.

Then after he is done praising God, Zechariah lets us overhear his words to John. He tells him what God has in store for him. This child with a name no one in his family has ever been given will indeed prepare the way for the coming Christ, and will make known our need for salvation and knowledge. His work of preparing the way will be like light breaking into a dreary morning.

In his prayer of blessing, Zechariah reminds us that his sense of peace and our own comes from God. If we have peace with God, we can find peace in the rest of our lives. We need that sense of shalom because we surely know the turmoil of its absence. We see it in war and disruption, discord and dysfunction. Imagine a world filled with God’s shalom – it doesn’t mean we will never have a bad day or a long night or hear words that chill our spirits – but it does mean that our sense of balance and well-being can be restored.

I want to encourage us today to anticipate and pray for, and work like heaven and earth depend on your sense of peace. Let’s join Zechariah and praise God for life given to us in ways that stun us.

It is by the love and grace of God that we are saved. So we praise God that a savior whom we know as Jesus the Christ, is being raised up for us. Thank God the prophets believed, and said so. One is coming who will get us ready for the coming of God into the world. Thank God that God is a promise keeper. Know that if we are faithful to God, God’s faithfulness will remain with us. Know that we are not redeemed to ourselves, but that God calls us and equips us with gifts, and has placed us in this holy community, not just for our own enjoyment, though we do enjoy the company of one another, but God has another purpose for the faithful. It is so that we will know God and serve God’s people without fear, without hesitation, without baggage, without a sense of hopelessness. Thank God in this Advent season and beyond for our redemption. Be at peace.

"Zechariah proclaims a word of prophesy by saying that the Messiah would ‘guide our feet into the paths of peace.’ How can we find peace in the midst of a world that appears to be spinning out of control – a world of war and abusive political power, a world filled with anger and chaos, a world of injustice and a lack of civility? Whenever one person seeks peace and pursues it, we are drawn one step closer to it becoming a reality in our midst. We are all called to be peacemakers! We are called to have our feet guided in the ways of peace" (David Downing in materials prepared for Peace Sunday, by Disciples Home Missions, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), 2006).

We can imagine a better world and work for it. Imagine a world where Baghdad and war are not synonymous terms; where schools are places of learning and teaching and character development; where churches are coming together for worship, joining together for mission, leading together in bearing witness to the hospitality, generosity, and salvation of God. Imagine well-being for every member of a household, wholeness in our spirits, no more stress related eating, no more anxiety filled sleepless nights, no outrage, no road rage, no rage period. Peace, shalom, wholeness, well-being.

That is what we anticipate these days, that is what we are preparing for this Advent. The introduction to our Advent meditation booklet explains our truest preparation for Christmas. It says, "much of the culture around us ‘prepares for Christmas’ by counting shopping days, going to parties, and generally eating too much and spending too much. Advent is an invitation to ‘prepare for the coming of the Lord’ both as an infant on Christmas Eve and as judge of the world at the end of time.

"It is time to stand back and look at our lives, to evaluate, and to increase our resolve to live a life fitting of Christian people. During Advent many of the scripture lessons, [like our reading from Malachi this morning], speak of the end of time, of the mystery and awesomeness and the awfulness of God’s power. They intend to get our attention.

"By the end of Advent, when we finally reach Christmas and the birth of baby Jesus, we are highly aware of just how much we and the world need a savior, and we are newly amazed at the vulnerable, gentle way that God comes to us in our need" (Partners in Prayer – Advent 2006. Sharon Watkins and Rick Lowery. Saint Louis, Christian Board of Publication). God’s light will come, and with it comes peace.

Malachi emerges from the pages of prophesy and tells us to be at peace, says a messenger of preparation will come. Zechariah emerges from silence to speech and proclaims that is his son John is the promised messenger whose path is the way of peace. John, whom we will come to know as the Baptist, grows up strong and holy and emerges from the wilderness one day saying, "now is the time, get ready, the Lord is coming."

And we, called by God, are like the prophet and the priest and the priest’s son. We are who are bearers of the coming good news, the savior is on the way. We praise God when people want to know why we say the things we do. When they ask us, "what is this church about, no one in my family has ever seen a group like this", all we can do is answer, "all we know is that God has formed us into a holy community, sacred to God and to each other. We are about building relationships that are faithful, friendly, and fair. We live in hope, we come in peace, we practice joy, we are all about love. We emerge like Malachi, Zechariah, and John because God’s love and light shines on us, out of bleakness and overcast grayness, and hopelessness and conflict, into the light of God because we have Jesus Christ. "It is Christ who gives us the example, the words, and the power to live at peace. May Christ begin with you and me in these moments of meditation and worship that peace may come through our living in the midst of the world. May we allow ourselves to become peace makers as we contemplate the gift of God’s peace, made evident as we gather around this table" (from David Downing), and as gather and we live in what it means to be his church. May we emerge into the marvelous life-giving, peace bringing light of God.

Thanks be to God. Amen.