Peace

We were road racers. That was one of the things that my family did together as I was growing up. I know we were a little weird, you don't have to remind me. My father was a runner. So, he would get all of us kids out training with him, and as a family we would go out to some of the 5k & 10k road races in the area.

There was one race that we rarely missed. It was associated with the Watonga Cheese Festival. Every year they would have a large festival with all kinds of cheese related activities, oooh what fun. And the 5k run was called the Great Rat Race. I was thinking of that today because I’ve been thinking a lot about “peace”. I know, the connections don’t seem obvious, but there is a connection, I promise.

Our world is full of tension and strife – it seems worse these days, but I’m pretty confident that it is the same as it has always been. Conflicts, tensions, violence seem to be ubiquitous in this world. There is a constant power struggle, it seems, and that’s coming from someone who’s not a Marxist.

The witness of Scripture locates this tension in the human heart. There is a deep seeded maneuvering and positioning among human beings to get to the proverbial “top”. It is the Great Rat Race, which is fleshed out at various levels of human life. We experience brokenness as relational beings as a result of our broken relationship with our Origin and source of being.

Our growth and development as healthy human creatures is deformed and our vision is warped. We are plagued with the disease of “god-grasping” and will continue to experience the effects of this disease – brokenness, violence, and death. Can we experience true person-hood? (If I can use anachronistic phrases when speaking of the Biblical witness, which I can and will.)

Who is the greatest? That question seems to sum up the fallen life. We see the effects of that question every day - Who is the greatest? That seems to be a driving question in our lives, in our society and in our world. Our Lord addresses this question with the answer – children, servants, slaves.

People speak of the paradox of the Kingdom or the upside-down Kingdom. But, it seems to me that we live in an upside-down world. We need our vision corrected and we need to be re-formed. St. Augustine says it this way, “O Lord, You made us for Yourself and we are restless until we find our rest in You.” Until this truth becomes a reality, peace is not a possibility. Until every knee bows and tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, peace is not a possibility. And by that I don’t mean people becoming religious because we have all seen the fruits of religion – it simply magnifies human sinfulness. That is the “not yet” of the Kingdom.

However, we must rejoice in the “already” of the Kingdom. We do experience a foretaste of that rest and peace now, even in the midst of violence and strife. We are called to bear witness to the peaceable Kingdom even now, to offer up proleptic signs of what is yet to come. May we live as a community of grace that confesses Jesus Christ is Lord. May we live as children and servants of the King. May the peace of the Kingdom shine forth in our lives, especially at this time as we celebrate the inhomination of the Word - the Child King.

And so we pray: “O God our Father, who did send forth Your Son to be King of kings and Prince of Peace: Grant that all the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdom of Christ, and learn from Him the way of peace. Send forth among all people the spirit of good will and reconciliation. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” ~ Prayer from The Book of Worship