BLOG 12/22/17. THE ENIGMA OF “PEACE ON EARTH”

Hey! On this weekend before the Christmas celebration, it might be worth looking at the enigma of the apparent contradiction that we pass over mindlessly, like “Peace on earth, good will to men,” vis-à-vis “Do not think not that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” The prophet foretold that the messiah to come would be called, among other things, the Prince of peace. So, what gives?

What gives is that both peace and also the sword are true. That said, you also have to realize that Jesus came to redefine our human existence. He came to inaugurate his eternal kingdom, his new creation, but his kingdom does not fit normal definition. It is a different kind of kingdom. He also came to bring peace, but a peace that is totally redefined. He also came to bring a sword, but it is a sword that exposes darkness and falsehood, discerns the thoughts and intents of the human heart.

He does, indeed come, to bring his own peace on earth, but it is a peace that, first of all, brings us to wholeness, and satisfies the “haunting void” that inhabits the human breast (maybe the meta-consciousness?). But it is also such a recreation and re-definition that is disruptive of all that exists in opposition to such. It exposes falseness and vanity and pride and the arrogance of human principalities and powers, so that soon Christ’s people became the victims of that other sword, i.e., the sword of the kingdoms of this world.

How to define God’s “peace that passes all understanding”? God’s Shalom? It is a peace that comes from knowing that one is reconciled to God by the blood of Christ, and that one is called to be an agent of his new creation, living in a servant role, demonstrating love and good works even to enemies and hostile forces.

It is so tragic that so much of the ostensible Christian community continues to define itself in terms of human kingdoms and institutions, seeking power and influence. Even missionary philosophies so often define our mission as us against them, rather than as those who wear on their feet the shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace, agents of God’s shalom. God’s people seem, so often, to hold other tribal religions in disdain, or as enemies, … but fail to realize that it is the fervent participants in those other tribal and cultural religions that Jesus came to seek and to save. He does want them to know and love him, but he also want then to know God’s love through us.

Where does one look to seek answers? To be sure, we are always (as the Apostle Peter reminds us) “aliens and exiles” in this human sojourn, but we are aliens and exiles who are agents of God’s peace. One might look again at the prayer of the gentle St. Francis: “Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred … let me sow love. Where there is injury … pardon. Where is doubt … faith. Where there is despair … hope. Where there is darkness … light. Where there is sadness … joy. O Divine Master, grant that I many not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood, as to understand, to be loved as to love. …”

The human scene is tragic, with so much violence, heartbreak, hopelessness. On this Christmas celebration, it is a good time to renew our vows of true discipleship as those who wear on our feed the readiness of the gospel of peace, to be agents of God’s peace in what is so often a heartless existence. A different kind of peace. A different kind of sword. And a radically different kind of Kingdom, all inaugurated by Jesus. Such is just a beginning. The enigma is complex. Perhaps I could refer you to Stanley Haeurwas’ classic: The Peaceable Kingdom.

And so, Merry Christmas to my readers.