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[ Silence ] [ Music ] [MUSIC] ♪ For angels raise their hymns in the air ♪

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♪ To bless their hearts of gold ♪ ♪ It's only as a hill to live ♪ ♪ A temple raised so still ♪ ♪ The world is called and still to sing ♪

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♪ To hear the angels sing ♪ ♪ And the rose that dies at dawn ♪ ♪ With bitter wings unfurled ♪ ♪ And still the heavenly music ♪

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♪ Does the hallelujah resound ♪ ♪ The world is sad and lonely ♪ ♪ And they will always be your sons ♪ ♪ The blessed angels sing ♪

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♪ And may we raise that flashing flag ♪ ♪ To the land of the living Lord ♪ ♪ To the land of the dying land ♪ ♪ To toil all the night and day ♪

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♪ With thankful spirits and song ♪ ♪ In love, on high and on the mountain ♪ ♪ So still we all await ♪ ♪ The rest beside the weary road ♪

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♪ And near the edge of sea ♪ ♪ The Lord of His own hasten ♪ ♪ The prophet was foretold ♪ ♪ And in the end the serpent ♪

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♪ The crown he is the Lord ♪ ♪ And He shall over all the earth ♪ ♪ Its gracious kingdom speak ♪ ♪ And over the land of song ♪

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♪ Is now the end of sin ♪ - Speak to our hearts, oh God, in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, amen. Our text is the Gospel according to St. Luke, the second chapter, verses 13 and 14.

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And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." The subject, the Angel's Song. The Nobel Peace Prize for this year was recently awarded to Perez, the Prime Minister of Israel

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Arafat, the leader of the PLO, the Palestinian Liberation Front. Arabs and Jews have long been at odds. More than that, they have been at war, seeking to destroy each other. Now, these two leaders representing these warring factions

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have shaken hands as a symbol of peace, a symbol of concord, a symbol of harmony, a symbol of reconciliation. Soon after the handshake, however, there were signs of discord and disharmony

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manifested in bombings and killings. What was declared as a peace settlement was in truth a very uneasy peace. During this Advent season,

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let us revisit that event which occurred long ago while shepherds watched their sheep in a cool, crisp, wintery night. These earthly creatures were visited by a heavenly messenger.

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An angel came from heaven and announced good tidings of great joy, saying, "For unto you is born this day "in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord." The angel was accompanied by a heavenly choir

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that sang, "This Christmas, Athens, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men." This is the angels song, Heaven's Message to Earth.

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This is not a solo. It is a song that is sung in concert by the Celestial Choir. And what a wonderful message the words of this song contain.

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of this song contain? Peace on Earth. These are words that we dare not forget. And every time we need to remember these words.

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Cab Calloway recently died. And we're reminded of the fact that And he gained his fame because one night he was appearing with his orchestra and he forgot the words of the song, he forgot the words of the melody and he just filled them in with

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"Hidey Hidey Ho" and the people loved it so that he kept on doing it. But these are words, words of this melody we dare not forget. We are not to fill them in with our own hidey holes. They are words that are to be remembered,

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words that are to be treasured. No matter how pleasant sounding our words may be, let us listen anew to the angel song. song, words that express the divine dream for humankind, peace on earth, goodwill toward

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men. Now let's consider for a moment the social context in which these words that the angels sing appear. First of all, this song is sung in the Roman Empire. Rome rules the world. Rome is remembered for her Pax Romana.

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Roman peace, peace established by legions of soldiers. The Roman peace included slaves. The Roman peace was based on bondage and oppression. Roman peace was based on war. And then the Roman peace was based on the existence of various classes, one against the other, the bond and the free. The Roman peace was based

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on human exploitation. But the song the angels sang to shepherds on the Judean Heels is in a different key. This song is in the major key while the Roman piece, the song that the Romans were singing is in a minor key. The Angel Song is a song that was It was a song for the whole world.

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The Roman peace was based on just the Romans, which was for the welfare of Roman citizens. They were promoted over everyone else. Peace, peace, peace. Peace on earth.

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Peace. Now, there is a Hebrew word for peace, shalom, peace. It's a greeting. People use it, you know, when they greet one another, shalom, shalom.

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Just as we say hello, they say shalom. But the word really means peace, peace, peace. It's not just the kind of resignation of doing nothing. It's not the kind of attitude that you'd have

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in Casper Miltos of passivity, not that. But God's order, shalom is God's order. What is God's order? What's God's order for the world?

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What is God's order for you and for me? God's order. Shalom, God's order. God's rule.

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Shalom, God's rule. Shalom, God's reign. May God's reign exist in your life. Or may God's reign prevail in your life.

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God's reign. It's the, it's a kind of structure within this piece that reveals God's ongoing activity. In other words, it's not static,

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but it's the kind of peace that is active, revealing God's ongoing activity. Shalom, God's engagement with his creatures and his creation, shalom.

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So you see, shalom is based on divine initiative and human response. God does something, God reaches out, he takes the initiative, and there is a human response

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and they are united and there is a binding together in what we call a covenant relationship. Shalom. We mark this covenant relationship in marriage,

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in a wedding. And it's marked in our relationship with God by a marriage. And the marriage symbol is used time and time again in the Old Testament.

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God says, "I will be your God, and you will be my people. That's shalom. And we all sort of share this divine dream that someday, somewhere, there will be this shalom.

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That shalom that is expressed by Overcoming alienation. You know, we say overcoming alienation. Many of us are alienated from ourselves.

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We don't feel good with ourselves. We are alienated. We feel funny toward ourselves, and as the older people used to say when I was a boy,

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we feel funny toward one another. So why do you feel like this way? I don't know, I just have a funny feeling about so and so. It's like that poem said, "I do not like you, Mr. Fell.

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"The reason why I cannot tell, "but this I know so very well. "I do not like you, Mr. Fell." That's the kind of alienation many times

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that we struggle with in our relationship. So you see, peace is overcoming that sort of alienation. Peace is becoming reconciled where there is enmity, there is a reconciliation, there is union in shalom, peace.

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Peace. It is to redeem where there is bondage, peace. You see slaves were redeemed, price was paid, their freedom was given, they were released, they were free to live their

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lives according to the commands and the demands of God. Shalom, peace, peace on earth. You know, so often we want to think of that peace as being in some far off by and by when When all of the struggles of this world are over, we shall have peace.

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Well, we're talking about the kind of peace that the angels sang about is peace on earth. Right here where we live. Right here where we engage in relations one with the other to have peace on earth. And the angels song came into a world where people were heavily taxed.

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Roman soldiers could compel a Jew to carry their burdens. The angels song was sung in a world where tax collectors demanded more than they do. The angels song was sung in a world of oppression. The angel song was sung in a world where there were slaves.

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Yes, shalom. That cosmic harmony that exists where the world and all of its inhabitants are reconciled with God. That state of affairs is described by covenant.

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Covenant, covenant, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Now we are far from that in our world today. Oh sure, we have our United Nations, and in the United Nations charter,

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they have the words that it's organized that the world may be free from the scourge of war. I don't have to tell you how far we are from that. We have war among the Serbs, the Bosnians.

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We have war among the Haitians. We have our troops there now. We have a state of war among the Arabs and the Jews. far from that goal. And our political and social prophets continue to cry

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peace, peace, but there is no peace. But our world needs to hear again the angels song. Shepherds in the first century heard that song. They had an overwhelming sense of awe. A heavenly halo surrounded them and they experienced the divine presence. Then they had an inner peace, that peace which is the gift of God. That's the peace that

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we long for in our world. And the other day the Bosnian Serbs said that they would like former President Jimmy Carter to come and to serve as one who would be peacemaker because they felt that he would be impartial. So they would prefer him because they didn't think that our State Department was impartial.

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President Carter said that he would like to stay home during this season but if his presence were really necessary and he would be willing to go. Well that's sort of what we celebrate during this season. With all of the watering factions here on earth, Jesus Christ wrapped himself in human flesh and came to be

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with us. He came to give us that peace wherever his spirit prevails. He came to give us that peace. That peace is a greeting. He says, "Peace be unto you." That's what he says to his disciples following the resurrection. "Peace, his gift, peace be unto you." Peace, shalom, the gift, peace. And out there, out there, when the winds are blowing on the sea,

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When the waves are angry and the ship is being tossed about, they wake him up and he says peace. That's what he does in the midst of all of the turmoil, in the midst of all of the confusion and the strife in which we are placed, he brings peace and inner peace.

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And you say, "Oh, Reverend, where is that day? Where is that day that the prophet talked about when he says that the day will come when the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Where is that day?

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Reverend, where is that day that the Bible talks about where every person will be free to sit under his own vine and fig tree and none will be there to make him afraid? Where is that day? Where is the day when the kingdoms of this world

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shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ? Well, it may appear that we are far from it, but that day will come. That day will surely come,

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because the Lord God himself has promised it, and he sent his son into the world to live and to die, that we might realize that day, that day will surely come. Peace, the angel announced it.

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The choir sang about it. Peace, yes, sweet peace, God's gift. Peace of God. That peace that enables us to be reconciled with one another,

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That peace on earth that is a manifestation of the rule of God, that peace on earth that binds the people of God to God and with one another, that peace. Yes, this peace is heaven's gift. This peace is heaven's gift.

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I think it's expressed in the language of a gospel song that Tenley wrote long ago. For every pilgrim of the upward way, when he says beams of heaven as I go, through this wilderness below, guide my feet in peaceful ways, turn my midnights into days, and soon from life's grief and danger, I shall be free someday.

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Peace? Yes, peace. Peace. That's the scene that's over there in the book of Revelation.

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We have the struggle, we have the struggle all the way from Genesis to Revelation when Adam and Eve sin in the Garden of Eden, there's a struggle. All through the Bible we see that struggle. But when we come down to the close in Revelation, we find that peace being fully realized.

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There, there, there the angels around the throne singing, "Glory and honor, blessings and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne," because he rules completely. Peace. Peace, yes, it is that peace that God manifests when he wipes away all tears.

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Peace, yes, in a world that's free from pain. Peace where there is no crying. Peace where there is no sorrow. Peace where there is no dying.

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Peace, sweet peace. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men. That peace is to be manifested and concretized in history by our relations one with the other because it is a manifestation of the Spirit of God in our midst.

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That's his gift. As we sing now our hymn of invitation, we extend the privilege of the church, "Angels we have heard on high." This song suggests that we have heard the angels' song.

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And that somehow having heard the angel's song, that we will be messages of peace. The one who says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." We invite you to come. The door of the church is open. We invite you to come by letter, by Christian experience.

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♪ 'Cause we are here tonight ♪ ♪ Singing, singing all the night ♪ ♪ And the mountains in reply ♪ ♪ Can't believe their dread delight ♪

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♪ Gloria ♪ - Go on, the church is home. ♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪

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♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Shepherds, fathers, children hear ♪ ♪ Why these songs of happy cheer ♪

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♪ What red glories here we see ♪ ♪ One where time is fleeting ♪ ♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪

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♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ [MUSIC] ♪ How the Lord our King will be ♪

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♪ Christ the Lord when you are free ♪ ♪ Gloria ♪ ♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Gloria ♪

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♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Gloria in excelsis Deo ♪ ♪ Oh, glory ♪

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♪ In excelsis Deo ♪ - I want all the deacons, if you will, to come here for a moment, and the ushers, if you'll come down front right now,

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please, all ushers, deacons. [ Pause ] >> We're going to close this service by what is called the passing of the peace.

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I'm going to pass the piece to each one of these persons next to me. They will pass it to each other. And then we're going to ask you to go to the first person here in this section. And that person will pass the piece.

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And just to the first person, and you'll pass it on to the next. And you'll pass it on until everyone has received the piece. Some will go down this section here, and we will want others to go to the choir and passing the peace.

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And the words are, "The peace of God be with you." When you pass it, you say to the person, "The peace of God be with you." And the person receiving it says, "And with you." That's passing the peace.

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This is done in many religious services, not just as a form, but somehow that this symbol of passing the peace will be a part of our daily lives in our relationships, one with the other. When we would be tempted to lose our temper, when we would be tempted to use violence or

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some other means, that we would be passing peace, the peace of God. May the peace of God be with you. [BLANK_AUDIO] [ Silence ]