Today, I want you to consider your deepest prayer related to
peace for this Christmas. Why is peace important in your life?
Some students of human behavior
suggest that the existence of language produces the possibility of peaceful
relation with the other. The existence of language testifies to the previous
reality of the welcome to the other. In that sense, language is the first
ethical gesture. It invites us reasonable discourse. Through language, we
cooperate with others in the use of power in order to bring about a proper
ordering of life with nature and life together. If we still long for peace, it
may be the continuing influence of this impulse toward the development of
language.
We long for peace, at some level. John
Wesley had early Methodists in England ask each other, “How is it with your
soul?” Your soul integrates mind and will on the one hand with bodily life on
the other. A healthy soul moves toward wholeness, integrity, and authenticity.
Faith, hope, and love will be present in a healthy soul. A damaged soul will
show itself in being at war that leads to haste, envy, disappointment, and
discouragement. In a healthy soul, peace will be present, even in chaotic
times. A healthy soul has a hopeful approach to the future. A healthy soul is
thankful. Yet, it seems so difficult for us to live it[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [Some of you might enjoy the footnotes!]
Your
prayer for peace may relate to something in your personal life, for the local church,
for the community, for the nation, or for the world.
As
for me, my prayer related to peace is that any difficult circumstances I face
next year will not draw me toward warring with myself or with others, but will
rather bring me closer to peace. I pray for peace between the churches, so that
we can genuinely offer the peace of Christ to others. I pray for peace in our
nation so that voters can bless each other rather than stir up dissension
between each other. I pray for peace between nations, and especially, the peace
of Jerusalem.
[1] All of us gathered here probably would like the world Isaiah describes
in this passage. Yet, unlike that world, pesky lions lunch on Zebras, wolf
packs still gang up on sheep, snakes keep after children. We do not seem wise
enough or strong enough to figure this out.
Peace is difficult, after all.
Where
can we find true peace? Wolves still attack lambs. Living things still get sick
and die. Why can we not eliminate conflict? We cannot, because peace in this
world is unnatural. Wolves eat lambs. Lions eat antelopes. Human beings conduct
violence and wars against each other. We will need a godly leader to bring
peace, because peace requires our transformation.
[2] A favorite hymn of mine is “It is Well with my Soul,”
written in 1873
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Rivers can be peaceful. As Psalm 23 puts it so
beautifully and memorably, “He makes me
lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my
soul.” Yet, life has another, darker dimension to it. The sea of life can
indeed by rough, dangerous, and life-threatening. As I understand it, the waves
of the sea can be relentless, if one is caught in them. Life can feel that way.
Again, as Psalm 23 puts it, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley ...”
Now, the Christian has the assurance of the presence of God even then: “you are
with me. Your rod and your staff - they comfort me.” As Horatio G. Spafford
penned the words, “It is well with my soul.” The companion he had in good times
remains his companion when life is difficult.
Yet,
the writer of this hymn seems to know that this answer to human trials, as
meaningful as it is, needs more. The final verse of this hymn becomes
apocalyptic.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Maranatha – Come, Lord Jesus.
I wonder if one can have genuine, vital faith, if that prayer is not in some
way powerful. “Haste the day” when the times that seem so out of joint now, the
times that are so ambiguous today, the times today when I can see no further
than the nose on my face, yes, haste the day when it shall all become clear. I
have pondered why it is that this hymn has affected me so powerfully for so
many years. It may be the possibility and hope I find in it. My life has had
its share of joys and sorrows, of everything moving easily and when life seems
burdensome. Clouds rolling back, trumpets sounding, and the Lord descending,
with all its “mythological” language, still speak to me. At times, when I
contemplate whatever such images may mean, “it is well with my soul.” I am not
sure that apocalyptic will make much sense to you, if some part of you does not
have that hope.
Peace refers to harmony. In terms of one’s
relationship with God, it refers to inner rest, harmony, peace, and freedom
from anxiety. It refers to a state of reconciliation with God. Such peace is
one of the fruits of the Spirit. Hebrew shalom refers to health and welfare, a
state of agreement between persons. Such peace exhibits love, gentleness, and
forgiveness. Such peace will bring unity. Paul emphasizes peace because he
longed for that which would bring Jew and Gentile together in one church.
[3] I came across a reference to a “human library.” It
started in Denmark. The idea was to set up a station with 75 people with
various types of stories to share. People of various religions, people
struggling with various handicaps, and people from differing work backgrounds.
The idea was that for a few days, you could “check out” a person for 30 minutes
and talk with them. You could find out from a real person with a real story
what it was like to be that person. It made me think, though, of what would
happen if people outside of the Christian faith could check us out and “read”
us. What would they find? Would they find a strain of this vision for peace
that, regardless of how imperfectly, we might seek to write into our lives? To
refer to politics, donkeys and elephants do not get along well. In economics,
bulls and bears seem incompatible. We have many types of Christians today,
leaning toward the progressive or the conservative. Yet, I ask this seriously,
do we not all have a longing for peace? Isaiah is inviting us out of
contentment with our divisiveness and to get lost in the thought of peace
[4] One of the blockages many people have with
Christmas is that it just not make sense. Christmas invites us to think
differently about our lives. It will take a stretch of our minds to think so
differently. That God, who is Infinite and Eternal, would become human, is
beyond anything our rationality could imagine. God has chosen the weak and
foolish things of the world to confound the wise. We do not go to Washington DC
or Wall Street to find our answer to the longing for peace. We go to Bethlehem,
to the stable, and the manger where the babe lies. At some point, we may need
to confess our ignorance, and come to the babe in the lap of Mary.
It is a ridiculous thing, that the one true God, the
high Majesty, should be made human ... Reason opposes this with all its
might. Here those wise thoughts with
which our reason soars up towards heaven to see God in His Majesty, and to
probe how God reigns there on high, are stripped from us. The goal is fixed elsewhere, so that I should
run from all the corners of the world to Bethlehem, to that stable and that
manger where the babe lies, ... Yes, that subdues reason ... there it comes
down before my eyes, so that I can see the babe there in His Mother's lap ...
Where, then, are the wise? Who could
ever have conceived this or thought it out?
Reason must bow, and must confess her ignorance in that she wants to
climb to heaven to fathom the Divine, while she cannot see what lies before her
eyes in the manger. - Martin Luther
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