Seeking Peace In Hostile Times (Advent 2)

Luke 1: 67-79 & Luke 3: 1-6

Roger Lynn

December 9, 2018

2nd Sunday in Advent

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You have only to listen to the news for a few minutes or scan the headlines of the daily paper to reach the conclusion that we live in hostile and dangerous times. Mass shootings occurring more often than we can even keep track of. Wars raging across the planet. Repressive governments violating basic human rights of their citizens. Famine and drought and wildfires and the growing effects of climate change devastating countless people’s lives. If we are paying attention at all it is easy to reach the conclusion that this is a frightening time to be alive. 

And yet, it is in the very midst of such times that we have the audacity to gather together here this morning and light the Advent candle of peace. We dare to declare that God’s peace is actually a reality which is, even now, breaking into our world. Such bold claims represent either a strong undergirding of faith or else something resembling insanity. And the line between those two positions is often difficult to distinguish.

On the face of it the odds seem stacked against us. The evidence would seem to support an attitude of hopelessness. Sure, there are occasional signs of good news – people selflessly helping their neighbors or some unexpected good fortune coming our way from time to time. But if we are honest we also need to recognize that the darkness is never far away and it seems to be growing darker.

So why should we dare to be hopeful? Why would we continue to seek after peace in these hostile times? Because the God we find revealed in the Gospel story calls us to a different understanding of peace and how it manifests itself in the world. Zechariah’s song at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel provides us with a good contrast between two very different ways of looking at the world. And it illustrates how difficult it sometimes is to get beyond the world’s understanding of peace. Listen to some of the language in the first part of the song: “He has raised up a mighty savior for us...” “...that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.” “...to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear...” (selections from Luke 1:69-73) What is being longed for here is a mighty warrior who will come and drive the Romans from the Jewish homeland. Peace through power is the expected means by which this will be achieved. Which all sounds wonderful, until you remember that within the context of Luke’s Gospel, Zechariah is singing about Jesus. When we compare this image from the beginning of the Gospel with what we know about how things turned out at the end of the Gospel, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma. The one whom God sends, the “Prince of Peace”, does not, in fact, bring peace in anything like the ways it was being looked for and longed for. The Romans were not sent packing. In fact, the Temple was finally destroyed by them. Jesus was executed by them. Zechariah’s vision of what peace will look like and how it will be accomplished simply misses the mark. We are reminded once again that God’s ways are not our ways.

But it is interesting that Zechariah’s song includes another image, another way of understanding how God works. In the second half of the song we find a different perspective. “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79) This is peace not through forceful power, but through transformation. And it is worth noting that the word which we read as “peace” would have originally been heard as “shalom.” Shalom can be translated as peace, but a fuller, deeper, richer meaning of the word is “wholeness.” God calls us to seek peace in these dark and hostile days not through force and power, but through transformation and participation in the healing of brokenness, in our lives and in the world.

We see this spelled out even more clearly in our second reading from Luke, where we are introduced to Zechariah’s son, John the baptizer. In the first two verses of the reading we find a description of the political power structure of the day. This is the backdrop against which John’s message is set. And it is into the midst of this political landscape that God comes to John. Out of that encounter comes a message which calls us to repentance (literally turning around and choosing a different path) and a great leveling of the world. If Zechariah saw God guiding our feet into the way of shalom, John saw that shalom, that wholeness, taking the form of paths being made straight and rough places smooth. Again, this is a vision of peace coming into the world not by force but by transformation. We are brought back once again to the question, what does it mean to seek peace? What does that look like? How do I participate in it?

In this season when we strive to watch and wait and prepare the way of the Lord, as we struggle with what it means to seek peace in these hostile times, we can listen again to the good news that God is, indeed, working to restore not just our lives but our world to wholeness. But it is important to recognize that both the definition of peace and the means by which it is accomplished are different from how the world thinks about such things. In these days when nuclear missiles are called “Peacekeepers” and we refer to armed military units as “Peacekeepers” and any period of history where there are no major military conflicts is understood to be “peace time”, it is important to be reminded that the “Prince of Peace” whose birth we will celebrate later this month lived and died with a very different understanding of peace. It is a gift which comes from “the tender mercy of God.” It is a light that drives back the darkness, not a threat that punishes an enemy. It begins as a transformation within each of us and spreads as we are empowered to share the gift. Every time we respond to hostility with compassion and understanding rather than with force and violence, the power of the darkness is diminished. 

At the end of the passage from Isaiah which Luke uses to describe the ministry of John, we find the goal for our peaceful quest. That “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.” (Luke 3:6) We seek peace, we seek healing, we seek wholeness, not just for us, not just in our little corner of the planet, but for everyone everywhere. And the great and wonderful miracle is that we accomplish this by beginning right where we are, doing what we can, empowered by the tender mercy of God. Together let us begin to prepare the way of the Lord, in our hearts, in our lives, in our church, in our community, in our world. Amen.