Prince of Peace and Division

Micah 5:2 – 5a

For the past few years I have identified most, if not all, of the ministry work I do as peace work. This peace work takes many forms.

• Being an interim pastor
• Being an activist for LGBT rights within Christian denominations
• Co-facilitating workshops on sustaining your spirit
• Blogging
• Leading discussions on the intersectionality of oppressions

All of these things I do for the sake of peacemaking.

I struggle, though, with the notion of peace. What is it? I use the word to sign off emails, in workshops, in prayer, in sermons … but what is it. Is peace an it ... a thing. Is it an event? A state of mind and spirit? A community experience?

Webster has a few definitions.
1 : a state of tranquility or quiet: as a : freedom from civil disturbance b : a state of security or order within a community provided for by law or custom
2 : freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions
3 : harmony in personal relations
4 a : a state or period of mutual concord between governments b : a pact or agreement to end hostilities between those who have been at war or in a state of enmity
5 used interjectionally to ask for silence or calm or as a greeting or farewell

If these are the definitions of peace, then they are the definitions of what I hope my work, and our work, will accomplish. I think about the lion eating grass like the ox and laying down with the lamb to cuddle. That is the Christian picture of peace that I carry around with me. That is the promise that I heard over and over as a child and a young adult.

I think about the lion and the lamb; what they represent. The lion is a predator. The lamb is the prey. Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Jesus is also the Lamb of God.

In the book of Micah, little Bethlehem of Judah is promised to be the birthplace of the one of peace. According to the text, this peace comes in the form of Israel as a flock being fed and protected; the people of Israel living securely and being able to rest. Sweet rest. Isn't it nice to be able to rest securely?

Resting is different than being idle. One might be idle ... having nothing to do ... bored ... jobless … but that one probably isn't resting. Most likely that one is agitated and anxious. Just as rest isn't simply not doing work, peace is more than not fighting. Peace is more than being quiet. Peace is more than a pact between governments. Peace is more than the dictionary definition. The dictionary definition is a starting place. But peace includes all the spheres of being. It is a resting, I think, in one's thoughts, emotions, spirit, and body. Peace also includes communities and the planet. Chaos, unrest, and violence are inflicted across the board of creation. Peace, I think, is resting securely in wholeness.

Passing laws does not require someone's position to change on matters of racism, heterosexism, classism, violence, privilege and the like. But they are a starting point. A peace pact isn't peace, but it's a starting point. Learning how to sit or walk in mindful quietness is not peace, but it's a way to start.

Jesus as the Prince of Peace, says that he did not come to bring peace, but a sword. He himself is not going to enact peace in the land. His actions and his teaching will more likely cause unrest and division as people sort out how they think and feel about how this Messiah is going about being Messiah. This baby whose birth ... whose embodiment we celebrate because of the promise of who he is and what he will accomplish ... this baby whose mother was unwed yet the angels heralded his birth to her, to her fiance, to shepherds ... this baby as a man says – no, that's not what I'm doing. I'm here to heal people on the Sabbath in front of religious authorities; to feed way too many people with way too little food; and to give power to many so they too can heal and feed and stand up to those who are greedy in the name of God.

Being a peacemaker doesn't tend to involve much that looks or feels like peace.

Peace itself may look like a tranquil winter scene with a horse pulling a wagon, the snow on either side remaining undisturbed. But peacemaking looks more like standing in the way of non-peace for the sake of future rest, probably for someone else. Peacemaking means stepping in the way of violence; domestic violence, military violence, legalized violence, religious violence, environmental violence ...

Jesus as the Prince of Peace walked in the middle of harm's way and he provoked his followers to do the same.

We are not unlike little Bethlehem ... a small community in the midst of a larger one, insignificant by many standards. But from us the Prince of Peace is born ... is embodied. Peace still has not arrived. We are still in the midst of much struggle and little secure resting.

Jesus provided healing, food, and spiritual shelter for so many, as well as causing much distress as families were divided over whether or not to follow him. We are to carry on his legacy of peacemaking, which means that we are sometimes to be the source of division. We are to stand in harm's way. We are to offer the secure resting place of acceptance.

We are not here to simply be nice and smooth the wrinkles. I think we are here to ruffle feathers. We are here to make a statement that there are choices available. We are not to swim along in the stream of convention, being complicit with our own oppression or the oppression of others. We are to build dams to stop that stream.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, so threatening as a baby that one of the narratives says he had to be whisked away to Egypt because Herod was on the hunt for him. Herod was so determined to kill him that he mimics the story of Pharaoh in Egypt on the hunt for Moses. In both accounts, there is a massacre of babies 2 years old and under. In the Gospel story, it is Egypt which is the refuge.

For those in power, peace is very threatening. Peacemaking is dangerous. But it's our call, as the followers of Jesus the Christ.

As we approach the day where we celebrate the birth of our Christ on this earth and the subsequent birth of our own selves as christs as we are filled with the essence of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, I ask you to consider this: how shall we stand in harm's way for the future securing of rest? How do we continue the work of the Prince of Peace? Individually, what decisions do we make to faithfully participate in this action? Communally, what decisions do we make to faithfully participate in this action?

This radical reaching out of acceptance where all who come may be healed and fed causes division. Do we have the strength to be that radical? Do we have the vision to endure the criticism that comes with that kind of peacemaking?

As you adore the baby Jesus, and adore him I hope you do, I beseech you to say yes to his calling of peacemaking toward a future secure rest in wholeness.

Mulling my sermon

This is the 4th Sunday of Advent. I will be talking about peace and angels. Peace. What is peace? Is peace not-war? Is it not-chaos? Reducing peace to a thing, event, single experience, or theory does not seem right to me.

As most Christians interpret Isaiah 9:6, Jesus is the Prince of Peace and yet according to Matthew 10:34, Jesus did not come to bring peace to earth, but a sword. The text continues with Jesus promoting his set of family values.

Matthew 10: 35 - 39
35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and one's foes will be members of one's own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

And yet, here is another statement of family values from Jesus, Matthew 15:4-6
4 For God said, "Honor your father and your mother,' and, "Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.' 5 But you say that whoever tells father or mother, "Whatever support you might have had from me is given to God,' then that person need not honor the father. 6 So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God.

Prince of Peace
Lion of the Tribe of Judah
Healer
Thrasher of the Temple

Is peace standing in front of a tank, using your body to say "Stop this war!"
Is peace protecting a woman being beaten by a man by taking her into your home or standing between them?
Is peace healing on a Sabbath day on purpose to provoke religious authorities to hate you?
Is peace a man being nailed to a cross because he was not cowed by the religious and political manipulators of his day?
Is peace a tranquil winter scene with horse pulling a wagon, the snow on either side remaining undisturbed?

Do we live peace?
Do we enact peace?
Do we experience peace in a passive way?
Is peace deep?
Is peace on the surface?
Is peace freedom from illness?
Is peace watching yourself die from your illness?

Can peace include Violence? Blood? Passion? Sleep? Breathing? Chaos? Order?

Peace ... is there such a thing as peace? Can we find it in a food? In a relationship? In music?

Holding Joy in our Hearts

Texts: Zephaniah 3:14 - 20 and Luke 2:8 – 20

This is the third week of Advent, which is the week of Joy and of the Shepherds. We light a pink candle instead of a purple candle. As we anticipate the celebration of Jesus' birth ... of Jesus bursting into the lives of humans in an eye to eye / spirit to spirit / soul to soul kind of way, this week we focus on Joy and we focus on the Shepherds.

This joy and these shepherds are not superficial concepts. They are complicated and we must wrestle with their complexities. We are also given the Zephaniah text with which to wrestle.

The Zephaniah text is kind of a cheerleading text. "Sing aloud. Rejoice and exult with all your heart. Do not fear. Do not let your hands grow weak. I will remove disaster from you. I will change your shame into praise."

Jerusalem is going through a tough time. They are despondent, weary, and not praising God. Zephaniah is trying to energize them, telling them all the good things that they may have temporarily forgotten about the God with whom they are in relationship.

The shepherds are doing their job in the fields. It is night when suddenly an angel and the glory of God come out of nowhere, terrifying them. The angel calms them down by sending them on a kind of treasure hunt with a promise that this treasure is from God. Then the text says a multitude of heavenly host appears and praises God. After this praising, all that suddenly appeared leaves, returning to heaven. The shepherds are once again alone in the field.

They want this good news to be true. They believe in what they have just seen. So they go in search of the baby in Bethlehem. Upon finding this treasure just as they were promised they would, they return to their fields glorifying and praising God.

There's a notion that if it takes you seeing the promise to rejoice then your faith is little. We get that idea from passages like Thomas doubting, wanting to see Jesus' wounds and touch the hole in his side. But there are many other passages that talk about seeing the promise as the means for bringing joy and praise.

There are many of us here that would like to see a promise fulfilled. Some of us would just like to hear a promise made on our behalf. There are so many hard things happening – the war, the economy, health insurance, personal tragedy, community tragedy, the list can go on and on.

Christmas is touted as being "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year," but studies show that it is also a time of severe depression and hardship for oh so many. The expectation of what Christmas should be in comparison to how Christmas actually plays out in our lives can alone be depressing.

Yes, this is a time where like the shepherds we are working in the fields. It is a time like in Zephaniah where some of us do not feel the hope and the presence of our Divine Beloved in our lives. It is easy to go through the motions of Advent and Christmas, saying the right words and singing the right songs all the while covering up our sorrow and our disappointment.

This week we are to focus on Joy. For those of us whose circumstances are dire, we may find it difficult to believe in joy. For those of us who are just working in the fields, joy might also be difficult to latch on to.

I don't know how long it took the shepherds to get to the manger. The text makes it sound like they were there in a half hour, but I doubt that. They were walking and they couldn't just leave their flocks behind. They had to lead those flocks to wherever they wanted to go. As they were journeying ... as they were leading their flocks to see this promise they had been given, I suspect periodically they might have questioned their belief and maybe became frustrated with the journey taking so long.

Christian Advent is a tradition that has been passed down generation after generation since about the Middle Ages. The weeks that we celebrate have their meanings from long ago. It's interesting to know and understand why we do what we do. But, why do we continue the tradition and how does it give us meaning today?

Can we relate to the shepherds being given a promise and then sent on a treasure hunt to find that promise, bringing with them all the sheep that were in their charge? They were still responsible for everything they had been responsible for, but now they had this promise and a journey for the promise to be fulfilled.

Can we relate to the pain and suffering of Jerusalem as Zephaniah reminded them that their God was a good and loving God who really was on their side?

Has the promise of the embodiment of Jesus the Christ been fulfilled within you ... you as the embodiment of Christ? Can you get in touch with that? Does getting in touch with that fulfilled promise which is mostly intangible help you find joy? Not circumstantial happiness? Joy. Deep true joy. This joy which abides in the isness of our soul – based not on how this world works or how our life plays out, but rather on the trueness of our being in relationship with our Divine Love.

We can not base our Advent tradition or the call to Joy solely on the traditions of the past. We must know why today we bother to wait in hopeful anticipation of the celebration of the birth of the Christ. If we don't attach meaning to this for today, then the tradition is hollow instead of hallowed.

Finding the deep joy in our souls when things around us point to despair, is I think what Zephaniah was cheerleading Jerusalem to do. Last week we read Baruch 5 which was also a cheerleading kind of text. "Take off your garment of sorrow and affliction. Put on forever the beauty of the glory of God."

That has to come from somewhere. I believe we are created with a deep well of hope and peace and joy in our soul. Sometimes it flows better than others. Sometimes it does not seem to be flowing at all. The call that I hear from these texts is to reach out with whatever we can and believe the promise of good for our souls, our life circumstances notwithstanding. Reaching out with whatever we can may be called faith. It may be called determination. It may be called foolishness. Seeing the promise sure does help give us the ability to rejoice. The challenge is to see the promises we have already been given – the promises we have already seen and experienced – and then, to hold that joy in our hearts as Mary treasured and pondered the words of the shepherds in her heart. This deep well of joy that we hold in our hearts can then be accessed when we need it most.

This Advent, as we wait for the celebration of the breakthrough of the Christ to the people of earth, we also struggle with so many adverse situations. I am here to cheerlead you toward joy. Find the deep joy that sustains you. Call upon the true love of your God for the fulfillment of the promises for your soul. Remember that you are the Divine's beloved! Hold the joy in your heart as you journey field after field toward the next divine promise yet to be fulfilled.