Forty Words for Forty Days: Day 35-Peace

Peace is a quiet word. A still word. An at ease and tranquil word. I think of the peace movement of the 1960s. It expressed a desire for peace in turbulent times. I think of the peace marches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The people moved in peace despite the violence around them. I think of Jesus’ words, “Peace, be still,” in the midst of a noisy squall. 

Peace addresses the noise, the tumult, the aggression, the hostility; and peace undoes them. Peace ruins the discord, silences the racket, kills the fighting. Two kinds of peace come to mind. External peace and internal peace. The latter must not depend upon the former.

Inner peace comes when inner turbulence quiets, when inner aggression and animosity cease. Peace exists when the inner war ends. Internal peace always moves outward. A heart at peace is a mind at peace, is a will at peace, is a body at peace. A body and soul at peace is a life of peace.

Here is my reflective question for the day: “How does peace describe you?”

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

I heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

 

I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

 

And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

 

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

 

Till, ringing singing, on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Imperfect Peace

These words from Psalm 85:10 have stayed with me all through this second week of Advent:

“Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.”

So in today’s reading they again were forefront along with 2 Peter 3:13.

“We wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home.”

Imperfect peace comes to mind. The in-between time—that is, the time between the first advent and the second—is a time of imperfect peace. In this time, we don’t hear peace clearly. We don’t see peace fully. We don’t live peace completely. But a time is coming when we will have perfect peace, a time when living rightly will kiss peace and both will have a home.

Peace perfected and rightness realized.

Running toward Peace

As I have been thinking about peace during this Advent season, the word strive from 2 Peter 3 has been bothering me. “Strive to be at peace.” That is how my current version words it. So . . . out came my Greek stuff; and in my brief bit of research, I discovered that the word is a verb form of spoudh--speed. Thus, in this verse, it basically means to speedily move forward to be at peace. In my mind, this is a whole lot better than striving for it.

Striving connotes sweat and suffering and unsuccessful attempts to achieve something, in this case to be at peace. But hurrying to be at peace, I think I want to try it. It seems to give me permission to fail in my attempts. I don’t have to work up a sweaty fear that somehow I am not working hard enough. All I need to do is realize the urgency of the need for peace.

This is exactly what I want to do when I remember verse 8 from Psalm 85.

“God the LORD will speak peace to his people.”

I want to run to that promise. I want those words of peace buried into my being, hidden in the deepness of my soul, in that dark and mysterious place where God and I live together. I don’t want to put off hearing those words. I don’t want to delay and miss what might be spoken. I want to race toward that peace and embrace it.

Peace and Salvation

As I was reading today’s advent meditation, I noticed two similar ideas arising from Psalm 85 and 2 Peter 3. From the Psalm verse 9 came

“Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him.”

And from 2 Peter verse 15 came

“Regard the patience of the Lord as salvation.”

What I noticed about both of these verses is that they follow verses that have to do with peace. In the Psalm, God speaks his peace while his salvation is at hand, but not yet. And in Peter, waiting for the Lord and striving to be at peace happens as we regard God’s patience as salvation.

I understand this to mean that peace is a part of waiting on God. Too often, we grow impatient with God’s seeming failure to act. Yet here we are told that his lack of action is patience and our very salvation. So, waiting for God in patient peace is really a way of saying “yes” to our own salvation. 

Righteousness and Peace Will Kiss Each Other

“Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.”

These words from Psalm 85:10 are what captured my attention during today’s meditation. The Psalm tells me that righteousness and peace are intimate. They stand face to face in one another’s company. They gaze into each other’s eyes. One attends the other; one accompanies the other. Together they reflect the glory of God. What a beautiful image of tenderness this creates for me as I ponder the coming of the Babe and as I ponder the second advent of Emmanuel.

Peace?

As I thought about peace and meditated on the readings for this second week of Advent, several questions arose for which I have no answers as of yet. This week’s readings come from Psalm 85:8-13 and 2 Peter 3:8-15. 

Two verses conjured these questions: verse 8 from the Psalm and verse 14 from 2 Peter.

 “Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, 

for he will speak peace to his people.”

“While you are waiting for these things [the day of God],

 strive to be found by him at peace . . . “

To hear the words of peace that God will speak, I must listen with ears wide open. Attentive, alert. This much I know, but now come the questions:

How will God speak peace to me?

How will that peace look?

What are my expectations regarding this peace?

What is my part in discovering peace?

How does “striving” to be at peace look?

What kind of peace is he talking about?

These questions surrounding peace are unsettling for me. Does that mean that I am unpeacefully at peace?

Peace Refrain

Peace

For the second week of Advent, peace is the refrain. At the birth of Jesus, the angels sang "Peace on earth," but since that time, there has not been much peace on earth--at least, not in the way that we like to think about peace--no strife, no war, no conflict. To make sense of this discrepancy, the tendency is to make peace one of the inner life. Jesus gives us peace within.

And that is true. Peace must exist within before it can exist without. What I mean is that if we are to have peace on earth, we must have peace on the inside of us. So I must ask myself these questions:

Where do I need peace within?

If my external world is not peaceful, what in my internal world is not at peace?

How is the peace of my external world a reflection of the peace that exists in my inner world?