Advent - Peace has come
Readings for this week December 9 - 14
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Day 1 – Shalom
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Isaiah 9:1-7
Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace but its meaning is broader and deeper than just a simple absence of conflict. Shalom is not just the absence of war, although that is obviously a key meaning that most people would be familiar with and would pray and work for. It can also refer to a person’s wellbeing, their personal wholeness, the desired settled, calm state of their life and being. It is this idea of life that is central to shalom, a word that means whole or complete, all there, with nothing missing or damaged, everything fully functioning as God intended. A whole life; life, in its entirety, in all its aspects and facets, in harmony, complete, integrated. And to bring shalom, as God promises his chosen one will do, is to make whole and complete, to rebuild and to restore.
Jeremiah had promised that God himself would come as the embodiment of justice and righteousness, in a way that all the kings had wholly failed to do. It is the same with the promises we find in Isaiah: God will bring peace, he will turn up in person bringing true peace for all people. God promised Isaiah that an anointed king would bring true shalom – true peace and wholeness that would be without end, when all things would be made right, all that was broken would be healed, all that was not whole would be made complete. This promise was one the Israelites eagerly anticipated and hoped for – the ultimate shalom, the restoration of all things in the person of God’s anointed Messiah.
Question to Consider
What experiences of shalom have you had? In what ways has Jesus brought peace and wholeness to your life?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, our world needs peace, needs shalom, needs a return to wholeness and completeness – a return to you. Thank you for reaching out and giving of yourself so that such wholeness is possible. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – Peace on Earth
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 2:8-20
Isaiah foretold it; Jesus embodied it; Luke recorded it. The birth of Jesus was heralded as the arrival of peace to the world. As recounted in Luke’s gospel, the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, sees the angelic host praise God, declaring his glory and proclaiming that peace has come to the world in the form of the tiny baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Jesus came to reconcile us with God, to restore the divine-human relationship that we had shattered with our disobedience, and to restore our dysfunctional relationships with each other as well. Jesus brings peace because Jesus himself is our peace. Peace, on whatever level you wish to name, is only possible through him, the one whose continued presence with us makes peace and makes us peacemakers too.
But as mentioned earlier, true peace like this is more than just the absence of conflict and requires more from us than just sitting back and waiting for God to restore and reset everything. Our task is not only to look around, see where conflict exists and bring the peace of God to those situations – although it is also that. But even more, we are to be proactively sowing the roots of peace in every situation we find ourselves in. We need to model peace, both inner and outer, and show the world what the fruits of peace look like. The shepherds were told of Jesus’ birth and invited to visit the newborn and his parents. They did so, and then immediately began spreading the word of what they had seen and what God was now doing. They had a part to play and it wasn’t just observing.
Question to Consider
Where are you bringing peace at the moment?
Prayer
Almighty God, may I be a herald of peace in a world in pieces. May I always tell others of the peace you bring and show them through the way I live what your peace looks like. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – To Be Peacemakers
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 5:9
Jesus is the true king of this world, he is the Prince of Peace – but his world is not peaceful. There is not a corner of the world that is not afflicted with unrest and dissension of varying degrees for various reasons. We talk about Christmas as a time of peace and goodwill to all people, but how many people and places in the world could truly be described in these terms at the moment? The large part of the call of God’s mission and the task of his church is to be a place where peace is not only found, but worked for, strived for, struggled for whenever it is threatened. The Son of God became the Prince of Peace so that we, his children, may go out into the world as peacemakers, bringing reconciliation to broken relationships just as he did.
We are to be peacemakers following in the footsteps of – and heeding the contemporary call of – the Prince of Peace. Jesus is still active in the world he loves; his Spirit still moves and still calls us into the spaces and places where peace is needed most. Jesus brought peace between God and humanity and between the various factions of the human family itself. He didn’t dump a vague concept called ‘peace’ in our midst and then disappear. He called a community into being around him that exists still, that he guides and empowers even now, and that is to carry on his work in the world. Being peacemakers is one of those tasks – a difficult task but a necessary one.
Question to Consider
How are we to be peacemakers in our world? What does that look like on a global scale? What does it look like in our communities?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, in a world beset with violence and recrimination, make me a peacemaker in your troubled world. May I seek to bring your just and perfect peace to the lives of those around me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Peace be With You
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – John 20:20
“Peace be with you” is not just a greeting. It is a statement about the new reality that the followers of Jesus inhabit. Most of us probably view peace in negative terms – peace is the absence of war or trouble, the lack of discord or strife. But as we have seen the biblical idea of peace – of ‘shalom’ – goes much deeper than that, stretching out further to include the idea of wholeness and completeness; the concept of people and creatures and creation being set free to flourish and become truly themselves in God. Jesus came as the Prince of Peace. He embodied life in all its thriving and abundance, and did so in order that we might embody it too. When we embody peace, we show the face of the gospel to the world, and we show how to live and love the way God intends all people to live and love.
When Jesus says “Peace be with you” it isn’t only a greeting, a polite formula, an empty phrase, like our blasé modern day “How are you?” that we usually answer with an equally blasé “Fine” when people ask us how we are. It is a deep truth that the presence of Jesus brings peace, and that because through his Spirit he is always with us, peace is also with us. “Peace be with you” is a statement of fact that we can hang on to, but also share with others. Whether or not we say “peace be with you,” our presence, like that of Jesus, should be a harbinger of God’s peace wherever we go.
Question to Consider
What does peace mean for you? How can we offer peace to others? Why is it important that strive to do so?
Prayer
Lord God, I need your peace, a peace that is a divine gift from you. Teach me to receive your peace, but also to live it and offer it as a gift to those around me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – The God of Inner Peace
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Psalm 4:8
Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers; blessed are those who work for peace and strive to make it a reality in this world. Peacemakers may not always (or ever) be welcomed; they may be sneered at, looked down on and reviled. But Jesus calls us to strive anyway. It is the task that matters, not the reception. Jesus brought peace between God and us. We need to work for peace between each other, as hard as seemingly fruitless as that road may often be. This is one of the realities of being a disciple of the true king of this world.
But it isn’t just outer peace that we work for; it isn’t just an ending of conflict that we seek to offer others. We seek inner peace too, the peace and reconciliation that has been established between God and us, through the work of Jesus. We need no longer struggle within ourselves to find peace, to let go, to be calm and steady and thankful. Our inner turmoil can also be made peaceful, dampened down, done away with. This is the other side of the peace-making coin that we have to offer: we can share with others the reality of the inner peace that Jesus brings. This is the peace that comes when we realise, and then accept, our true identity as children of God. Showing others that they are his children too, and that his boundless love is for them as well, is a way we can bring peace directly into the lives and hearts of the people of this world. Shalom for all.
Question to Consider
How have you experienced God’s peace? How has knowing Jesus helped made your life more peaceful, both inside and out?
Prayer
Loving Father, help me reveal to others the true peace you bring your people, through the calming work of your Spirit. May I show others what the inner peace and contentment brought by your love look like. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)