Peace

Intro

Advent is a season of waiting, of hopeful expectation. What we often wait for above all is peace. We live in a turbulent, violent world where peace is a rarity. Our nation, especially, is one in which peace has historically been hard to find. Since the founding of America, we have been in almost constant war. From the Revolution, to civil war, two world wars, wars in Korea and Vietnam, and the ongoing wars in the Middle east, few generations have seen America at peace for long. We have had a steady stream of civil unrest and domestic turmoil. From rebellion against Britain, to a civil war, blood in shed between corporations and worker’s unions, cultural upheaval in the 60’s and 70’s, the Civil Rights movement, and the current unrest concerning race, poverty, and politics today, few have seen an America at peace with itself.

Though we seldom see it, peace is what we hope for. Some people, however, have a different idea of peace than others. The peace offered to us in this life is not always a peace we should accept. It is certainly not the ultimate peace offered by God. When God speaks through the prophet Isaiah, saying “Comfort, O Comfort my people!” he invites us to turn our eyes to the coming peace which the Lord is ushering into the world. The first step toward lasting peace, towared Holy Peace, lies in the first word of Isaiah 40: נחמ, “comfort”. It is a word often used at funerals, to console grieving mothers. When we hear that word, “comfort”, our minds might immediately jump to the end result: a time and place where tears do not flow, a state of being where we no longer shed tears, our hearts no longer ache. But here, comfort is not a result, it is a process. Before God’s people can have comfort, they must be comforted, which means, first and foremost, to recognize that there is something deeply wrong. True comfort, after all, does not come form drawing someone’s attention away from their suffering. It means that we recognize their suffering as a real problem, it means to recognize that something has gone amiss, that there really is something wrong, something missing that used to be there but now is not. And only then can we work to restore that missing thing, to put things back as they should be, and bring about true comfort, true peace.

The Bible recognizes that true peace comes not from avoiding or covering over the deep problems in the world, but from facing them head on. This is why God instructs his prophet, first, to comfort Israel. To acknowledge the people’s real suffering. To affirm that something is missing that shouldn’t be. And only then can the journey to peace properly begin.

First Voice: Preparation

God commands three voices to speak in this passage, three things the people need to hear to arrive at comfortable peace.

First is preparation

Clear the way

What in your life is preventing you from peace?

What stops you from healing?

What are you using to keep God away, to prevent his healing presence from reaching you?

Make Straight the highway

Straight paths emphasize righteousness, i.e. right living

We want to make a direct path from God to us, not turning this way and that

In the Wilderness and Desert

wilderness/desert are not only dangerous, but deadly places to travel

God himself makes the Journey. God comes to bring us peace. He initiates, he gifts, but we still participate by opening our hearts, by preparing a road for God

So often, despite God’s graciousness, we make the already deadly journey even more difficult for God

Hills, mountains, and rough places

We want the path itself to be good ground to walk on

We must cultivate good soil

Spiritual disciplines create good soil

John the Baptist embodies this preparation

He calls for repentance, he washes away through baptism

Baptism is a way of preparing our hearts for God, a visible symbol of God’s grace preparing us for transformed hearts

Second Voice: God’s Word Stands

Preparation is for the next life, but also for this life.

While the first voice commands preparation, the second offers assurance that we’re not clearing the way for nothing

An object for peace is distrust

The world sets a precedent for dissapointment

God’s trustworthiness is apparent by his character and actions in history

The unshakable faithfulness of God allows us to participate in peace in the present, even as we await ultimate peace in the future

The trials of this life should not shake us if we have God as a foundation

The Holy Spirit cultivates peace in us because we already know the end beforehand, we already know the peace that is to come, and that should give us peace now

Third Voice: Peace of God

Finally, the third voice points our eyes ahead to that peace which God promises

God will rule, there will be true justice

God will himself will tend the sheep, there is security from all harm in his arms and lap

God leads with gentleness and care, because he does care

Our hurts and pains are not glossed over, but what was missing before is restored

Proclaiming Peace

This final voice is not only assurance, but also carries a command: to proclaim

God calls his people to be מְבַשֶּׂ֣רֶת, which in the Greek of the LXX and New Testament becomes εὐαγγελιζόμενος, or in English, “evangelists”. It means simply, “one who announces good news”

We are to stand and proclaim with boldness, confidence, and power the good news. Even while things are broken down, ailing, suffering, and dark, God’s people announce good news: it will not always be so!

This final command to be evangelists, bearers of good news, relies on the words of the other two voices

By announcing, we are inviting others to help us prepare the way for the coming king, the Prince of Peace

By announcing, we exhibit a steadfast hope in God’s word, knowing that it will stand even when everything else fades

Hope and peace go hand in hand.

We should never proclaim “peace, peace” when there is no peace

Nevertheless, we remain hopefully expectant of the peace God promises for all of creation, hopeful and expectant of the return of the Prince of Peace. In its own way, that hope provides us with peace even now. With comfort and security that, as bad as things may be, they will not remain that way.