Advent Clip for IVP

Peace

Advent is the season of waiting in the Christian calendar. How long, O Lord, is the question we ask. This second week of Advent we wonder, how long, O Lord, must we wait for peace to rule and reign among humanity in this world?

Over and over again the Bible tells us that God is the God of peace. He is the one who is able to grant us peace because he is the source of peace. God, in his beautiful diverse community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the very definition of peace. He can keep us in perfect peace because he embodies peace in his radiant, glorious communal life. While there is no conflict in the Trinity, peace is more than the absence of strife. It is the presence of wholeness, well-being, everything being as it ought. Oh how true this is of God! He is the fulness of love, joy, and glory, eternal beauty.

This is our tension sisters and brothers! We want this peace to be embodied in our lives and communities as well. Our frustration is that we strive for peace, but never seem to arrive! I have good news for you though! Our desire for peace isn’t ours alone. It’s God’s desire for us as well. Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.” He doesn’t give us peace like the world gives is, just removing strife. He gives peace as the positive presence of his blessing to pursue love, communion, and reunion with others. He gives it to us that we might image God in the peace that exists within God himself. That we might image him as beautiful community. This is why we are told in the letter to the Hebrews to strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).

While Advent reminds us that we wait and long for peace to reign, this season also reminds us that we’re called to strive for it right now. Not in an abstract way, but on the ground in our lives as we relate to one another. He gives us his Spirit for this pursuit of beautiful community. The peace we are invited into by Jesus Christ is not solitary. It restores our relationship with God and with our neighbors. His peace includes unity and harmony. It includes restoration, reconciliation and renewal. What does it look like in practice? It looks like bearing one another’s burdens (Gal 6.2). It looks lie owing no one anything, except to love each other…love is the fulfilling of the law (Rom 13:8, 10). It looks like welcoming and accepting one another, just as Jesus Christ welcomes us into the glory of God (Rom 15:7). We could go on and on, but note that in these passages I quoted from Galatians and Romans are written to a diverse group of Christians, people from various backgrounds, ethnicities and social statuses. They, like us, were still waiting for the fulness of God’s peace to reign in the world. But they, like us, were called to a life of pursuing this peace as a witness to the power of God’s Spirit. And it looks like a rich love and welcoming of others in Jesus’s name across the lines of difference that divide us.

In Jesus Christ, peace is permanent. He has reconciled to himself all things, making peace by the blood of his cross (Col 1:20). May he bless us, we who have been brought into this peace and reconciliation; may he bless us this Advent season and beyond to wait in peace, pursuing the beautiful community he is committed to creating. God bless you.