Finding and Making Peace

We’ve come to the beginning of another new year. We Christians count time a bit differently than our culture. We start a new year with the First Sunday of Advent and use the Advent season as a time to reflect upon the dual nature of the coming of Jesus Christ into our world and lives. We remember the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and we anticipate the final coming of Jesus Christ with the full establishment of the commonwealth of God. Each Sunday of Advent has a particular focus that calls to mind writings of the Old Testament prophets and early Christians. The traditional themes, which we will use, are peace, hope, joy and love.

So how do we prepare for the coming of Christ? Simply put, we are to live honorably as Christ’s partners loving others, making peace and finding peace in our lives. But the world is filled with violence – in the media, on the streets, in our families. How can we find peace, be peace in such a violent world? We have to look beyond what our society shows us, listen for what is sung on the night wind, feel what is vibrating in the soul of the universe, sense the possibility that God’s way will come, and live as if the end is already here and the commonwealth of God has been established. We witness to another way; show another reality that will help set people free from the violence around them and free them from the message of our society that the only way to win, to have peace is through violence.

One of the things we profess as Christians is that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. So what does that mean? What do we mean when we say this, when we sing that line and use it on our greeting cards? This title comes from the writings of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah who was writing about the coming liberator of the people of Israel, a savior that would free them from the oppression and tyranny of their captors and bring about the commonwealth of God, the original intent of the covenant God made with Israel. You hear these words in Handel’s Messiah often sung this time of year. But I like the verses from a different part of Isaiah, the ones that say:
“He'll settle things fairly between nations. He'll make things right between many peoples. They'll turn their swords into shovels, their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore.” - Isaiah 2:4 (The Message)
This is a foreshadowing of what the commonwealth of God will be like when the Prince of Peace comes.

But there is another aspect to Jesus being the Prince of Peace that is much more personal which we hear in these comments of Paul’s to the Romans:
“But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can't afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don't loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!” - Romans 13:11-14 (The Message)
What Paul is writing about here has to do with how we are to be partners of the Prince of Peace; how we live, how we engage others, how we present ourselves and how we are in the world. We are to ask ourselves: In what ways do I live a peace-filled life? Do I make peace around me? Do I expect peace in this world? Do I call for peace and do I work for it? We who are partners of Christ recognize that we are set free from the cycles of violence that hold human society hostage. There is no other time to do this, the time is now. Jesus has come to show us the way and liberate us from the anger and violence that permeates our world. We are the peace that our world longs for because we are citizens of the new world order, the commonwealth of God.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace has come, born 2000 years ago in a stable in Bethlehem but he hasn’t come yet because our world still exists in a violent and fractured reality. We have encountered Christ; know him as a living part of this world as it is and as it will be. It is our calling, our vocation to live as peacemakers, as the light of peace in a violent world. As partners of the Prince of Peace our role is to practice peace in all the facets of our lives. We let peace be the way, the only way we interact with others and the world.

The message of this First Sunday of Advent and its focus upon peace is that we are to celebrate Jesus as the Christ, the promised liberator who frees us from our endless cycles of violence and that for this to be our way we must live as an ambassador for the Prince of Peace. To proclaim Jesus as the Prince of Peace and to be his representatives to a hostile and violent world means faithful practicing peace-filled living in all aspects of our lives.

There is no way to peace, peace is the way. The way of Christ is the way of peace. Come, Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace!