Steely-Eyed Peace
Week Two of Advent: The theme is peace – the peace of the Lord. My dear friend Tom Orr from St. James in Greenfield, IN, and now from Cross of Grace in New Palestine, IN, wrote the following which is an excerpt from a sermon he wrote several years ago. Such wise words. I appreciate you sharing them with me, us, Tom.
“And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth,
5 and he shall be the one of peace”
-Micah 5: 4 - 5
“But God is merciful. He gives Micah a new vision. He sees deliverance following judgment. He clings to hope. He speaks of one being born at Bethlehem who “will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God . . . and he will be their peace.” (Mi 5:4-5)
He will be their peace! What an amazing claim! And what is our response, as Christian disciples, to this bold and audacious prophecy? It has been 2000 years since the birth of Jesus and the world still reels from the effects of warfare, carnage, oppression, and misery. Are we crazy? Are we simply poor, deluded fools to think the peace of Christ means anything? What is it about the peace of Christ that moves us to stay the course, to never abandon hope? Why do we exchange the peace of Christ during our Sunday worship?
We do this because it is the most visible expression of the love of Christ that we have. The peace of Christ is a gift offered to us freely, but we must accept it freely before it will work in us. Jesus says, “My peace I give to you, not as the world gives. . . . Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (Jn 14:27)
The peace of Christ must transform our hearts and change our lives. This is not some wispy, pie-in-the-sky sort of peace that hopes everything will turn out all right in the end. It is steely-eyed and purposeful and bold. Such peace gives us an assurance and a courage that we wouldn’t otherwise have. It is truly the peace that passes understanding.
John Lennon’s famous song says, “Give peace a chance.” I’ve always thought it was a well-meaning song, but it seems to be about peace in the abstract, without any tangible expression of what it means to be peacemakers.
Thomas Merton, one of the great prophetic voices in our generation, speaks about the real meaning of peace in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation. This is required reading for Christian peacemakers. Listen to what Merton says:
‘To some men peace merely means the liberty to exploit other people without fear of retaliation or interference. To others peace means freedom to rob . . . . To still others it means the leisure to devour the goods of the earth. . . . And to practically everybody peace means simply the absence of any physical violence that might cast a shadow over lives devoted to the satisfaction of their animal appetites for comfort and pleasure.
‘Many men have asked God for what they thought was “peace” and wondered why their prayer was not answered. They could not understand that it actually was answered. God left them with what they desired, for their idea of peace was only another form of war. . . .
‘So instead of loving what you think is peace, love other [people] and love God above all. And instead of hating the people you think are warmakers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed—but hate these things in yourself, not in another.
‘So we begin to understand how this idea of peacemaking really works. It has to begin inside us if we are ever going to get it right. My friends, the peace of Christ hasn’t been tried and found wanting. It simply hasn’t been tried enough! We have yet to discover if it can change the world. Do you believe the peace of Christ can change the world? If your answer is yes, it will certainly change your life, which is one step closer to changing the world.
‘Christian peacemakers need to stand for something or else Bethlehem means nothing. We may as well let the soldiers shoot up the church if we aren’t serious about laying down our weapons—our pride, our fear, our greed, our ignorance, our very lives—for the sake of peace. Being peacemakers isn’t optional for Christian disciples. It is what we are born to be. This is the work Jesus started at Bethlehem. This is the work he wants to perfect in us. We are his peace.’ Amen.”
What a great couple: Tom Orr & Terri Garcia