Malachi 3.1-4; Luke 3.1-6
Welcome to the Season of Advent …
four Sundays to Christmas …
four Sundays to remember the foundations of our faith.
Hope, peace, joy, and love.
Our word today: Peace.
What is peace? How can we human beings live together so that we can actually stop destroying one another, and build the better world?
Peace in the world, and peace within our own souls.
Blessed are the peacemakers, says Jesus, for they will be called children of God.
The Hebrew word for peace - Shalom -says it well: to make something whole, complete … everything in its place, and place for everything, working together, as God intended.
The flourishing of society …
The prophet Micah says: They shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.
Not just for some, but for everyone!
Life is a shared effort:
Lift up the fallen,
Help the weary,
Carry those who cannot walk.
Care, mercy, kindness, forgiveness, the second chance, the third chance … respect the needs of another … the physical needs so many have, the emotional needs all of us have …
To pay close attention to those in need - the defenseless, the weak, the minorities … because every society has those who love to bully … and right now we have more than our share of bullies.
A prominent politician says: immigrants are poisoning the blood of our nation…. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America, not just to three or four countries that we think about, but all over the world. They’re coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.
Poisoning our blood?
What does the Bible say?
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself …
“Cursed be anyone who deprives the alien, the orphan, and the widow of justice.”
Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien: I am the Lord your God.
Coming at it from another angle, Paul the Apostle writes: There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ.
In Christ, boundaries are erased … in Christ, borders are crossed … the dividing walls of hostility, says Paul, have been broken down.
If ever there has been a time for the church to turn to the foundations of our faith, it is now!
We open the pages of Scripture and read with care … we consider what others have done in trying times, when faced with insurmountable odds … we search the pages of the past, to learn how we might cope with today’s challenges, and chart a way into the future.
Ann Patchett, gifted writer, recalls a time when she and a friend rented a room on the coast of Scotland … gathered in the sitting room, one evening, watching “… in horror as the owner sat and pulled apart the most beautiful sweater [she’d] ever seen, winding the yarn back into balls. ‘I wanted a new sweater,’ she said…. ’I’ve had this one for years.’”
Another fine writer, Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw poet and essayist, in her book about the Osage Indian murders in Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th Century …
One of her characters says I’ve written another chapter for the Bible … it goes like this:
Honor father sky and mother earth. Look after everything. Life resides in all things, even the motionless stones. Take care of the insects for they have their place, and the plants and trees for they feed the people. Everything on earth, every creature and plant wants to live without pain, so do them no harm. Treat all people in creation with respect; all is sacred, especially the bats.
Live gently with the land. We are one with the land. We are part of everything in our world, part of the roundness and cycles of life. The world does not belong to us. We belong to the world. And all life is sacred.
Pray to the earth. Restore your self and voice. Remake your spirit, so that it is in harmony with the rest of nature and the universe. Keep peace with all your sisters and brothers. Humans who minds are healthy desire such peace and justice.
I once knew a man who said about everything, “My daddy used to say …”
He had one smart daddy, no doubt … but I always wanted to say to him, “What do you say?”
Whatever your mothers and fathers may have said, the question remains: What do you say?
I think of the great Notre Dame of Paris … burned down and left in ruins … but the world pulled together … the world knows it need Notre Dame … so the money pours in, and today it’s open … not quite the same, but it’s Notre Dame … a place to remind us of the best things in life … a place to remind us: Look up, if you want to know how to live!
Who are those who rebuild the burned down cathedrals?
Who are those who unravel the old and knit the new?
Who are those who add fresh chapters to the Bible?
Who are the peacemakers?
They’re right here … in these pews, down the street, around the corner … if you look, you’ll see them … if you listen, you’ll hear them … when you look within your own soul, you will hear Christ calling you … your conscience will be stirred, your soul empowered … the Peace of God becomes your peace, my peace … it’s Jesus who says:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of God.
And so it is, the Second Sunday of Advent, 2024.
Amen and Amen!
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