Advent 2021: Peace
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Malachi Translation
Malachi Translation
“Look! I am sending my messenger, and he will straighten up the road before me. Suddenly the Lord himself, who you seek, will come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, Look! He’s coming!” says Yahweh of the heavenly armies. Who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like a fuller’s soap.
He will sit down as a refiner and cleanser of silver, and he will cleanse the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will approach Yahweh with righteous gifts. And the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to Yahweh like the days long gone, like the former years.
Luke 3 Translation
Luke 3 Translation
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Caesar Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was ruler of the Jews, and the tetrarch of Galilee was Herod, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came on John, son of Zechariah, in the wilderness.
He went everywhere around the Jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, just as it was written in the Book of the words of Hosea the prophet:
“A voice crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled,
and every mountain and hill will be brought low,
The crooked places will be straightened,
and the rough spots in the road will be smoothed over.
All flesh will see the salvation of God.’”
“Peace, Peace” when there is no peace
“Peace, Peace” when there is no peace
What do we do with the peace candle?
Christ notes that he has come “not to bring peace but a sword”
Yet we call Jesus the “Prince of Peace”, and scripture commands us to “live peaceably with one another”. Jesus even remarks “blessed are the peacemakers.”
What does Jesus mean about bringing a sword instead of peace? And how do we square a decidedly un-peaceful world with the peace we’re called to?
“Not Peace, but a sword” shows peace cannot come at the expense of truth. In fact, we see in scripture that peace can only come through truth.
The division speaks of will come about because people deny the truth of the gospel.
To achieve peace we must begin by at least acknowledging the severity of the problem that destroyed peace to begin with
Hebrew: שלמ
fundamentally indicates a wholeness: everything is as it should be, people are together in shalom, etc.
If there is no shalom, there is no wholeness. Something has gone missing
Often, however, we try to move on with peace without recognizing the thing that’s missing. We try to ignore the problems preventing peace, and thus attempt to bring about peace through a lie.
וַֽיְרַפְּא֞וּ אֶת־שֶׁ֤בֶר עַמִּי֙ עַל־נְקַלָּ֔ה לֵאמֹ֖ר שָׁלֹ֣ום׀ שָׁלֹ֑ום וְאֵ֖ין שָׁלֹֽום׃
“I declare bankruptcy”
History of America
World War I and II
Slavery/Civil Rights
Rome
“Pax Romana”
Peace can’t simply be declared. We have to work for it.
Peace: Clearing the Way
Peace: Clearing the Way
Peace as “preparing the way of the Lord”
Every valley filled and mountain laid low
Anything that gets in the way of peace must be addressed. The path must be made “straight”
“Straight” and “crooked” are justice issues. Peace first requires justice
Prepare “the way of the Lord”
From Is 40, the path for God to come, but also for the people to leave and be saved (Exodus imagery)
“Way of the Lord” also metaphor for Torah
We “clear the way” for God to come and rescue us by “clearing the way” in our hearts, by living a life obedient to God’s Way
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So to be “clear the way” is to make a path straight from us to Jesus, to put no obstacles between us and Christ who is the only one who can truly fix what is broken, making us whole again and thus creating true peace.
This is, btw, the reason Judgement is necessary before the eschaton. We must make things straight: set right all the injustices and clear out everything that blocks the path between us and God.
Peace as Repentance
Peace as Repentance
Peace, then is first and foremost an act of repentance. It means making things straight that were once crooked. Turning our paths back toward God
This is why Malchi speaks of “refining fire” and “fuller’s soap”.