Advent--A Pearl in the Harbor

December 11, 2016                   NOTES NOT EDITED

Advent:  A Pearl in the Harbor

Luke 2:14; Isa. 9:7; 26:3

SIS: Peace throughout the course of your life is a matter of experiencing the Presence of Almighty God.

Let’s read the Christmas Story.

Every year for the last nearly four decades, I have led churches in the celebration of Advent.  Each Advent I have preached on the four same themes:  love, peace, hope, and joy.  When I have spoken on peace, I have almost always referenced the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is memorialized every December 7^th. 

This week, as we explore peace I want to tell you about a man of war.  That man was Captain Mitsuo Fuchida.  Fuchida is memorialized in history as the Japanese Pilot that led the first wave of attacks on Pearl Harbor on this date in 1941. This attack on a previously uneventful and quiet Sunday morning nearly devastated our Navy and left 2,403 Americans dead and 1,178 others were wounded. Japanese casualties were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor was captured (Wikipedia). This event pushed America into the Second World War, which up to that point, our leaders had managed to avoid.

Captain Fuchida coordinated the entire bloody air attack. He was fiercely loyal to Japan and her Emperor. After the war, Fuchida was called on to testify at the trials of some of the Japanese military for war crimes. This infuriated him because he had such a deep contempt for America. He strictly followed the Japanese Bushido Code. He was convinced that America had been just as cruel to Japanese POW’s as Japan was to American POW’s. The Japanese cruelty of those they captured is legendary in war history. Under the Bushido Code, Fuchida not only felt the barbaric treatment of American POW’s was justified, but it was demanded by the Bushido Code that called for revenge to restore honor.

Through a chance meeting of his former flight engineer—who Fuchida thought had died at the Battle of Midway but had instead become an American POW—Fuchida came face to face with the Christian teaching of forgiveness and loving one’s enemies. He became obsessed with trying to understand how one could maintain honor and forgive one’s enemies. Through his flight engineer Fuchida learned that Americans did not torture and abuse POW’s but, in fact, treated them with love and respect.  This simply did not make sense to Fuchida.  He became obsessed to learn more about this forgiving of one’s enemies.

As we say, “to make a long story, short,” Fuchida became a Christian, and not just a Christian but a Christian evangelist travelling the world until his death in 1976 preaching about the peace he found in Christ. This Captain of Death in the Pacific became “A Pearl in the Harbor.” Fuchida is just one of many, many multiple millions that have found love and forgiveness through surrender to the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.

Fuchida’s story highlights the transforming power of forgiveness. The war in our spirits is overcome by the peace God’s love and forgiveness brings.  A man who rained down death in Pearl Harbor became a Pearl in the Harbor.  A man of war became a man at peace by encountering the Messiah.

One of Israel’s prophets gives us a prophetic description of the Messiah centuries before Jesus was born: Isaiah 9:6-7

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Miraculous Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

Isaiah will go on to talk about “peace” 28 more times as He

outlines the ministry of the Messiah.  One of those 28 times is

Isa 26:3:

3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is

steadfast, because he trusts in you.

There is no doubt: If we keep our minds fixed upon the Prince of Peace we will have peace in our lives all the time.  Yet, we all know that much of our life—perhaps even most of it—it characterized by conflict, not peace.  The apparent contradiction between what God promises and what we experience has to do with a misunderstanding of what “peace” in the Bible means.

The Peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of trouble, but is rather the confidence that He is there with you always.  Biblical peace is not the absence of trouble but the Presence of God.

This is why I call a man of war a “Pearl in the Harbor.”  A pearl offers a perfect illustration of what “peace’’ means in the Bible. That familiar verse we read earlier describes God’s peace, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to people He favors!” (Luke 2:14).

God promises peace but we experience near constant conflict of some type.  It may be global conflict, as in war, or personal, as with some other individual.  We come face to face with the great irony of human existence; peace is highly valued but seldom experienced for long. I once read that in the entire history of the world there has only been a total of about 200 years of peace.

Conflict, not peace, is the default setting for humanity.  A close examination of Luke’s verse reveals that the Bible clearly recognizes the human predicament—a strong desire for peace, but a near constant experience of conflict.  The resolution to this apparent contradiction is to understand the biblical word, “peace.”

The Latin word for peace, “pax,” has the meaning we most commonly associate with peace—the legal or political agreement for two or more parties to cease from war. The English word for peace comes from Latin through Middle English and carries this same meaning—a cessation of conflict.

The Greek word, eirene (eh ray nay), has a different foundation. It does not primarily refer to a legal or political relationship between parties, or merely an “attitude” in life. The Greek concept of peace refers primarily to a “state of being.” We speak in English of “being at peace.”  This is close to the Greek meaning.  Now certainly, the absence of war or conflict could and does contribute to a state of peace, but this is only coincidental not necessary. When the gospel writer, Luke, talks about “peace on earth” this peace does involve a “relationship,” but not one between men but between men and God.  It is not a relationship with other people or our circumstances.  In the biblical sense, we can be a “perfect peace” in the midst of even the greatest conflict.  Now, back to the idea of a “Pearl in the Harbor.”

Fuchida was a man at war; a man in conflict.  We are introduced to him in history at Pearl Harbor that was literally “on fire” from war.  Yet, the ultimate result of this great conflict in Fuchida’s life, is that he was transformed by God’s forgiveness and received God’s peace.  A pearl is the result of a similar transformation.

A tiny grain of sand enters an oyster’s stomach and irritates the lining.  This is a “conflict” of sorts.  The oyster goes to war against this invading grain of sand by secreting a substance that encapsulates the invader and neutralizes it.  The result of this conflict between the oyster and the sand is a beautiful pearl.   A pearl is the picture of peace rising out of circumstances of conflict.  Hence, I call Mitsuo Fuchida, the “Pearl in the Harbor.”

Perfect peace is not about perfect circumstances but a relationship the Perfect Prince.  We can be in a state of peace, even when war rages all around us.  I’ve take a great deal of time to outline how God’s peace is more than the absence of conflict, it is the Presence of His favor in our lives—every stage of our lives.

I want to move through the Word of God and demonstrate that at every stage of our life, regardless of circumstances, we can have peace, if as Luke delares, “God’s favor rests upon us.”

1.  If God is with you and His favor rests upon you, you will be at peace IN THE WORKING TIMES of your life (Haggai 1:1-6)

(Hag 1:1-6)  In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest: {2} This is what the LORD Almighty says: "These people say, 'The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built.'" {3} Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: {4} "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" {5} Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. {6} You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

So many people are filled with stress and dissatisfaction in regard to their work, or vocation in life.  Many slave and strive, but never get ahead. Many people feel they have no “piece” of the pie and so, they have no peace in their lives.

Someone told me many years ago, “wealth is not so much how much you can make, but how much you can keep.” Peace in the working times of our lives comes from knowing that God is blessing us, even if our efforts seem to be less than blessed.  Nothing is more frustrating to our peace of mind than to strive and work hard but seem to make no progress.  But peace is about a personal relationship with God, not our productivity index at work.

A first– grader by the name of Angie came home from school

one day proudly wearing a blue ribbon pinned to her shirt.  She had won “first place” in her class’s natural history contest.  She drew a giraffe with “three legs.”  Her Mom (having not been trained by HeadStart) questioned the little girl’s picture: “But, honey, your giraffe only has three legs.  A giraffe has four legs.”  Not deterred, the little girl spoke brightly, “Yeh, I know.  But I was the closest one in the class.”

That is a sweet story but at its core is the rotten philosophy of modern success: the modern mindset tells mankind that success is not achieving the goal of excellence, but merely staying ahead of the next guy.  Many people in the world manage to be “top dog in the rat race” but never experience a sense of well-being because they eliminate the pursuit of God from the equation of a successful life.  When we do this, even being top rat in the race will not bring us peace.  Productivity without a personal relationship with God will make the “working times of our lives” bitter, disappointing, and full of conflict.

If you want to experience “peace” in the working times of your life, you must keep God in the equation of what it means to be “truly successful.”  We may work “at” the factory, but we work “for” the Lord.  That’s the key to peace in the working times of life.

2.  If God is with you and His favor is upon you, you will have peace IN THE WAITING TIMES of your life (Psalm 27: 1-3, 14)

(Psa 27:1-3)  The LORD is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid? {2} When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. {3} Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.

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(14)  Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

The word translated “wait” in this passage means “to bind together, or gather.”  There should never be a wasted or useless moment in the life of a believer.  It is very frustrating and disturbing to think that any of the precious few moments of our lives are being “wasted by useless waiting.”  Wasted waiting destroys one’s peace of mind.

I’ve read where we spend literally years of our lives, “Waiting. . .”

at the bank; at the grocery store; at the doctor’s office; for our kids to come home; for our “babies to be born.” . . . ;  or, for a prayer to be answered.  Wait, wait, wait.  So much of life is “waiting.”

Hurry up and wait.  This is a lesson every veteran learns in “Boot Camp.”  We would “double-time” (run) to get to the chow hall and then wait a half hour to eat.  We’d run every where . . . and then wait.  Our leaders made us wait to teach us to rely on those in charge of our lives.  Waiting in life becomes productive when we let it teach us to trust in the Lord.

Remember, the Hebrew word for wait can mean, “to gather.”  When we wait on the Lord as the Psalmist instructs us, we are not “wasting our time,” we are gathering our strength and collecting our spiritual resources.

Waiting, when God is in it, is not a wasting time but making the best use of time.   The greatest waste of time is not “waiting on God,” but going on ahead without him.

Men will drive around lost for hours rather than stop and ask for directions . . . This is foolish.  We not only run out of gas, but we run out of patience.  We would do much better to simply pull over and “wait for our wives” to read the map!

We inflict needless pain and anxiety upon ourselves when we “get ahead” of God and fail to wait upon His blessing.  A man, thinking himself clever, once asked God, “How long is a million years to you?”  God replied, “It’s just like a second my child.”  The man asked a second question, “How much is a million dollars.”  The Lord replied, “It is just like a penny to Me.”  Thinking he had ceased upon success without struggle the man quipped, “Well, then, could I have a penny?”  God replied, “Certainly, my child, in a second!”

God does indeed have great blessing in store for us – but we must wait. But, when we have the assurance and hope of better things to come, we can have “peace in the waiting times of life.”

           

Do not move a muscle or move ahead one inch in your life until you are certain that God is with you and His favor is upon you. If you do not wait on God, you will not have peace in your life.

3.  If God is with you and His favor rests upon you, you will have peace IN THE WORRYING TIMES of your life (Phil. 4:6)

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Everyone worries.  Some people even worry when they have nothing in their life to worry about.  It is human nature.  The Nativity Story is full of circumstances that could cause great worry and anxiety.

Joseph had plenty to worry about.  His wife was pregnant—with the Son of God, no less!  She was ready to give birth and all the rooms in town were full.  Mary had more than enough to worry about.  She knew that Joseph was worried.  Nothing worries a wife more than knowing her husband is worried.  This was Mary first child.  She was young and no doubt scared.  Everyone in Bethlehem had reason to worry.   They were all on their way to a TAX AUDIT!  Life will never disappoint you by leaving you with nothing to worry about.

We cannot escape frustrating moments in life, but we can escape anxiety and the tendency to worry needlessly.  Life does not have to be perfect for us to live in perfect peace.

I remember one gift a teen-age daughter gave her mother for Christmas.  As you know, teens can be very frustrating for parents.  They know everything and think they need you for nothing, but they ask you for things all the time – it is frustrating.  Anyway, this teen-age girl got her mother some very expensive “wrinkle-removing creme.”  Just the gift a mother in mid-life hopes to receive.  The mother was talking about this gift with another mother.  The other mother asked, “Well, what did you daughter give you last year.”  The mother of the teen replied, “The wrinkles!”

Life will give you “wrinkles,” even without worrying about the health and welfare of your children.  There will always be times of “worry in our lives.”

           

We need to follow the advice of the pop singer who sang:  “Don’t Worry, Be Happy!”  I’d sing it, “Don’t worry, trust God.”

When you are concerned, turn to God. Cast your cares upon Him because He cares for you. We can be at peace in times of worry when we know that God is with us and His favor rests upon us.

4.  If God is with us and His favor rests upon us, we can be at peace IN THE WANING TIMES of our lives (Lk  2:25-30; 36-38)

(Luke 2:25-30)  Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. {26} It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. {27} Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, {28} Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: {29} "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. {30} For my eyes have seen your salvation,

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(36-38)  There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, {37} and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. {38} Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

I’ve preached this texted about these two old people many times.  Now, I’m living the story.  If you live long enough, you will get old. And, if you get old, your strength, your health, and you wealth will wane – which means “lose strength or power.”  I know all the clichés like, “you are only as old as you feel.”  Well, somedays I feel 60!  And, there’s that one about “age is just a number.”  Yep, it sure is, and the larger the number the greater the challenges in regard to strength and health.  I know some of you youngin’s don’t believe it, but sooner or later, your life is going to wane.  A time will come when your “get up and go has done got up and went!”

Even cars wane, or lose power.  Mechanics call it “low compression.” Your pistons just don’t have the punch they used to have.  You don’t have enough “carbs” in your carburetor.

I like to plan ahead so I’ve been thingking, What do you get a ninety-year old woman for Christmas? There was a very kindly old lady in the community.  Everyone loved her.  She lived in a small, well-kept, wood frame house at the end of a cul-de-sac.  For years her neighbors had been buying her little knick-knacks for Christmas.  As she approached the golden age of ninety, a friend asked her what she wanted for Christmas.  The woman who was winding down in life smiled and said, “A kiss . . . . . . so I won’t have to dust it!”

A man was constantly being nagged by his wife to go get an eye exam.  As we get older, our sight isn’t what it used to be, but many people don’t want to admit it.  The man resisted.  Finally, the frustrated wife made an appointment to see the eye doctor.  The day before the man was to go to the eye doctor he came into the kitchen where his bride of 30 years was sweating over a hot stove with her hair in curlers.  The man was suddenly overcome by his love for his bride.  He reached over and pecked her on the cheek and said, “Honey, you really look good to me.”  The surprised wife quickly replied, “That’s it!  I’m cancelling your eye appointment!”

We all face the time when our strength and power will wane.  We need to remember Simeon and Anna in the Christmas story.  I’ve watched people grow old.  I’ve watched people die simply because their bodies wore out.

People who die in the presence of the Lord, die in peace.  Though a believer’s physical strength may wane, his or her spiritual strength can increase exponentially.

Paul understood the “waning times of life,” but was still at peace.  He declared with great confidence:  That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are* being renewed every day (2Cor. 4:16).

Peace can be our gift from the cradle to the grave . . . . in our Working Times; in our Waiting Times; in our Worrying Times and in our Waning Times if God is with us and His favor is upon us – we can have peace within us, if God’s favor is upon us.

Isaiah 9:6-7 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called MiraculousCounselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

Isaiah 26:3 3  You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is

steadfast, because he trusts in you.

(Luke 2:14)  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

Life can be full of conflict and our hearts still be in perfect peace.  It was through the course of a great conflict that a man of war like Mitsuo Fuchida discovered peace.  He truly became a “Pearl in the Harbor” of God’s peace. 

You can know that peace, too.  It only takes surrender—surrender to the Prince of Peace.