Advent 2020 - The Second Week - Peace

Isaiah 9:6 

For a child will be born to us,

a son will be given to us,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God

Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 

For me the part that leaps out, is that in The Kingdom of God everything is brought together... A Child, A King, A Counselor, A Mighty God, A Father, A Prince of Peace.

That is NOT human peace. 

Under human rule the best way to keep the peace is separation.... BOUNDARIES. This applies from the personal to the political. From our households to our neighborhoods to our world. We can exist as a family in peace, as long as we have boundaries around TV control and food and sleep hours. We can exist as a neighborhood with different ways of life as long as we have separate houses and often fences. We can exist as citizens of one nation of diverse religions and political perspectives by separating church and state. We can exist in peace with other nations that hold antithetical governmental structures or broadly accept different levels of human rights if we acknowledge physical borders to countries.

Peace = The Ultimate "You do you, Boo"

This division = peace is why we broadly accept ideas like divorce, making your own family, charter schools, gay bars, ratings on movies. It's why we bumper sticker our cars, go to makers fairs and farmers markets, join the NRA, wear or don't wear masks, follow or unfollow this or that person on Twitter or Instagram. We long for the peace that comes from similarity, agreement. We long to look around and nod and say "all is right with the world." 

God’s Peace, on the other hand, is defined by a coming together, a making whole, a reconciliation. King AND Father, Counselor AND Mighty. There is no separation between church and state, state and family, family and healer.

This pull toward unity immediately brings up the wars that remain within us. The wars we have sought to silence with boundaries. 

“That means agreeing to one morality... what if I don’t like those rules?”

“That means accepting and loving people I am angry with!”

“That means submitting to authority!”

It does. It means all of those things. 

Our divisions never ended the wars. The wars remain in us. They remain in me.

May we come to understand and love God's Peace. May we be willing to acknowledge and address the wars that remain inside of us.