Colossians 3:1-2, 15-17 (MSG)
1-2 So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.
15-17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of Jesus, thanking God every step of the way.
Today is the second of the four Sundays of Advent. As you know, the church has long years assigned different attributes or subjects to each of the four weeks: Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. Each of these four words is short, simple, easily approached and easily understood ... but when we start digging a little deeper, we discover that each of these simple-appearing words is really quite multi-layered, with all kinds of varied nuances.
Last week we learned that Hope is both a verb and a noun with meanings ranging from a casual wish to a deeply-held conviction to an activist approach to world issues. It turns out that Peace has even more layers.
I don’t often use Wikipedia as my source for information, because it is volunteer-written and not always academically reliable, but it has some interesting information in its article on Peace. When we trace the origin of our English word back through French to the Latin pax, we get meanings such as "peace, compact, agreement, treaty, tranquility, absence of hostility, harmony" – these are mostly meanings that have to do with an absence of war or fighting. This is the word mostly used in the New Testament.
Further back in the Old Testament, the word used was the Hebrew, shalom, which we today usually translate straight across as peace, but if we look more carefully, shalom has a whole different meaning having to do with “being complete, or whole.” Shalom is clearly related to the Arabic salaam, which – in addition to peace, can mean “justice, good health, safety, well-being, prosperity, equity, security, good fortune, and friendliness.”
Many cultures use their version of “peace” as a blanket salutation, instead of “hello” or “goodbye” – just as a general expression of goodwill toward the recipient.
On top of all these, we have the whole range of expressions of personal inner peace, when we are “at peace with ourselves’ or have reached a meditative state of inner peace.
And then, of course, Jesus had a few rather important things to say about peace, and peace-makers. First, he used “Peace be with you,” as an all-purpose blessing -- “hello” or “good-bye” depending on circumstance. He rarely spoke with anyone without wishing them peace.
Peace was his “good-bye” when he knew his earthly life was coming to an end:
Last week we learned that Hope is both a verb and a noun with meanings ranging from a casual wish to a deeply-held conviction to an activist approach to world issues. It turns out that Peace has even more layers.
I don’t often use Wikipedia as my source for information, because it is volunteer-written and not always academically reliable, but it has some interesting information in its article on Peace. When we trace the origin of our English word back through French to the Latin pax, we get meanings such as "peace, compact, agreement, treaty, tranquility, absence of hostility, harmony" – these are mostly meanings that have to do with an absence of war or fighting. This is the word mostly used in the New Testament.
Further back in the Old Testament, the word used was the Hebrew, shalom, which we today usually translate straight across as peace, but if we look more carefully, shalom has a whole different meaning having to do with “being complete, or whole.” Shalom is clearly related to the Arabic salaam, which – in addition to peace, can mean “justice, good health, safety, well-being, prosperity, equity, security, good fortune, and friendliness.”
Many cultures use their version of “peace” as a blanket salutation, instead of “hello” or “goodbye” – just as a general expression of goodwill toward the recipient.
On top of all these, we have the whole range of expressions of personal inner peace, when we are “at peace with ourselves’ or have reached a meditative state of inner peace.
And then, of course, Jesus had a few rather important things to say about peace, and peace-makers. First, he used “Peace be with you,” as an all-purpose blessing -- “hello” or “good-bye” depending on circumstance. He rarely spoke with anyone without wishing them peace.
Peace was his “good-bye” when he knew his earthly life was coming to an end:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
We are all pretty familiar with that verse, but I found it very interesting to read in the Message version:
I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
That is “peace” used in the sense of “shalom” – wholeness. “I’m leaving you well and whole.” I like that usage of the word.
And then, of course, we have – first in the familiar language:
And then, of course, we have – first in the familiar language:
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”
But this is how it reads in The Message:
“You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. T hat’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family.
So – having all these layers at our disposal, and returning to Matthew 25, as we will all throughout Advent - ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’ – how do we go about ‘being’ peace for those whose lives appear to have little or no peace?
I have to warn you that what follows is not a happy list. I depressed the heck out of myself while putting it together this week.
These, and so many like them are truly the “least of these” that Jesus loves. How do we reach out to them? What are we called to do?
I have to warn you that what follows is not a happy list. I depressed the heck out of myself while putting it together this week.
- What does peace look like right now to a family crammed into a border refugee camp when they can’t go home again, because home has been destroyed, and they can’t go forward because no one will take them in?
- What does peace look like to a young African-American male walking down the street, knowing that at any moment someone could decide he looks dangerous and makes them feel frightened and shoot him – and likely get away with it?
- What does peace look like to a teen-age girl who has run away from her home, because no one would believe her when she tried to tell them about Uncle Fred and the games he liked to play with her -- only to end up working the streets as the “property” of the local pimp – and when she tries to cry out for help, once again no one believes her?
- How many mercilessly bullied children today are finding their peace at the end of a rope noose because no one will listen and no one will help?
These, and so many like them are truly the “least of these” that Jesus loves. How do we reach out to them? What are we called to do?
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