Advent 2C
Texts for Worship
Second Sunday of Advent
December 10, 2006

PEACE

The theme of this second week in Advent is PEACE. The three scriptures I'm meditating upon and through this week are Malachi 3:1-4, Luke 1:68-79 and Luke 3:1-6, I'm thinking about peace - and wondering what it is. On TV this week the new Holiday GAP ad is highlighting PEACE as a hip-hop background for their massive multinational selling of hip clothes. At the same time for some diverse and different people with whom I've spoken this past week PEACE is "getting out of Iraq," for others it's "staying the course in Iraq," for some concern about Beirut, Palestine, Youth Violence in Oakland, or family members suffering from Cancer. What is it about Peace? I've noticed in the past two years that it's a lightening-rod word that quickly forments polarizing positions-taking wether on the liberal or conservative side of things. But what do the Christian scriptures testify about in terms of PEACE?

This week the words from the prophet Malachi (the first passage) are about the Prophet-Messenger that will come to prepare the way for God, when God shall come in the future to his temple. This messenger will announce a day of judgement or refinement - much like precious metals are made more precious and beautiful in a refiner's fire. Such a "refined" or "purified" priesthood-people is the way that God wants and longs for his people to be in Malchi's time (and ours too) in such a way that their offering - the way they live every moment and aspect of their lives - will be pleasing to God.

The second passage - Luke 1 - is the song of Zechariah, song after the miraculous birth of his son John who will become the great prophet (foretold by Malachi according to Christian tradition), the Baptist who prepared the way for Jesus of Nazareth, through his call to conversion and openess to a new way of life. Zechariah talks of the work of the Lord who will lead the people into life from death, light from darkness, guiding our feet into the way of peace. John is only who he is created and meant to be in relationship to Jesus - the one he comes before and for whom he's preparing the way. It's not his crazy haircut, avant-garde clothes, or apocalyptic preaching that make John unique. It's his relationship of interdependency, mutuality, and reciprocity with Jesus of Nazareth, that make him John the Baptist. This way of peace is a journey-path meant for a community based upon and through relationship with this mysterious man from Nazareth.

The third scripture (Luke 3) tells of the beginning of the minsitry or teaching of this John the Baptist. Peace for John is the prepartion of all humankind to see (experientially, philisophically, materially, spiritually, and emotionally) the salvation of God. A SHALOM peace of community in which all are invited to the table by God. (Check out Isaiah's word-vision of this in chapter 2 of his prophecies.) It makes me wonder even more. Peace for most of us is peace-and-quiet, peace from the daily routine, more of a "break" from life, a personal time-out when we get what we want when we want it. But these scriptures (and all the testimonies of the Bible) paint the picture of PEACE as a communal thing, more of a fullness-of-life than a break from it, more of a deeply proactive and participatory thing than a passive individualistic lawn-chair-on-a-deserted beach-vacation-break. Why is it that in our culture when we imagine PEACE it's often so individualistic and me-centered? In the midst of this I'm reminded of two things:

First the Hymn Finlandia - the national hymn of Finland - and words that were written to the melody (we recently sang this at our church) Here is here.

Lloyd Stone wrote an international version of the lyrics in 1934

This is my song, Oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar and mine.
This is my home, the country where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my sacred shrine.
But other hearts in other lands are beating,
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.

My country's skies are bluer than the ocean,
And sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too and clover,
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine.
Oh hear my song, oh God of all the nations,
A song of peace for their land and for mine.

Another verse by Josh Mitteldorf, for difficult times

When nations rage, and fears erupt coercive,
The drumbeats sound, invoking pious cause.
My neighbors rise, their stalwart hearts they offer,
The gavels drop, suspending rights and laws.
While others wield their swords with blind devotion;
For peace I'll stand, my true and steadfast cause.

A verse by Georgia Harkness

May truth and freedom come to every nation;
May peace abound where strife has raged so long;
That each may seek to love and build together,
A world united, righting every wrong;
A world united in its love for freedom,
Proclaiming peace together in one song.

And second, words of Jesus of Nazareth in John 14:27

"Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not be troubled and do not be afraid."

How do you imagine peace? What would it look like? What does it looke like? When have you felt most at-peace? Share your thoughts and stories on the blog to help in the sermon creation and discussion at Fruitvale Church.