There is no peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
When we’re hurt, we have to decide to make our lives bigger than the pain we were caused….But it’s a choice we’ll have to make over and over. We’ll have to scream it, cry it, whisper it, say it boldly. And when we have said it enough times to enough people who love us it will get easier. - Jason VanRuler, Get Past Your Past
We’ve got a few hours left in this second week of Advent in which our watchword is peace. Given what is happening in the Middle East, it is a difficult notion to talk about with any sort of confidence. And honestly it feels wrong to make special exception for this year because peace is always an elusive quality around the holidays. There are always wars within the nations and within our hearts.
Part of what makes this all difficult is that we typically think of peace as one side of a binary. On one end there is war or conflict and on the other there is peace. Thus anytime there is any sort of struggle, our instinct is to think that peace has left the building. Even pop Christianity can unwittingly play into this idea. I cannot tell you how many t-shirts or bumper stickers that I have seen with the slogan “Know Jesus, Know Peace; No Jesus, No Peace.” The idea is that peace is something that you possess or you don’t.
In our heads, most of us know that peace is not simply the absence of conflict even if we instinctively are drawn to that idea. Peace helps us stay afloat when we are ravaged by the storms of conflict. Counterintuitive as it seems, peace can be at its most “powerful” in the midst of great struggle. Peace is something for which we actually have to fight. Not fight as inflict violence, but fight as in struggle against those things that rob us and our neighbors of…what? Safety? Belonging? The feeling of true home? Human dignity? Love? Likely all of the above and more.
I read that Bonhoeffer quote early in the week and it struck me as true. Peace is not this passive, meek and mild zen-like quality. It is something that must be dared. Especially in this world where sickness, death, loss, depression, and so much more can rob us of peace. It is a perilous pursuit. Peace is not something for the faint of heart or spirit. And it is not for the impatient.
Jesus brings us peace, yet he also tells us “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The peace of God which transcends all understanding is less a circumstance bestowed upon us than the seed of a tree that provides the shade and fruit of peace as it grows and flourishes. When the angels declared peace on earth to the shepherds, that was not the end of the story. In the life of Christ, peace grew and moved through the world. Then his followers were asked to continue to spread that peace into all the world. Jesus wants us to make something of this gift that we are given, to share it.
Thus peace is an ongoing project. The VanRuler quote has also stuck with me this week as I have thought about how peace is choosing something bigger than the pain in our personal lives or the larger world. It is choosing it again and again. Choosing it in confidence and weakness, joy and heartbreak. This perpetual pursuit of peace is stupid burdensome. In fact, I don’t think it is something that we can do on our own at any level.
It is wonderful that the next week of Advent (starting in a few hours) focuses on joy because one of my favorite verses of scripture ties the pursuit of peace with rejoicing:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:4-7
We don’t have to pursue this alone. When we rejoice in the God who created us and loves us, when we don’t forget that North Star, then we have a lifeline of peace even in the most difficult of times. The surpassing peace of God can help us do the difficult work of interrupting comfort, doing the difficult work of justice and reconciliation, and more projects of peace that can drain the best of us.
And that is not all that can help us try to be peacemakers in the world. We need each other too. One more quote that has stayed with me this week:
But perhaps our dishonesty to keep everyone comfortable has come at a steep cost*. The cost of being known and of knowing one another. How many times have you answered “How are you?” with, “Great!” or “Fine!” or “Busy!” while, in fact, you know you’re barely holding it all together? Or actually could use a friend? Or you don’t want to come across as need?….Maybe peace starts with the courage to share the truth with someone and to hear them echoing back to you a clear and resounding “same,” or “oh yeah, me too!” A peace in knowing we are never, ever alone.” - Kate Bowler, Bless the Advent We Actually Have
*I could write a whole entire blog on how much I did not enjoy that very convicting sentence as a conflict-averse Enneagram 9.
To pursue peace we need each other. And part of that process is being honest about the fact that…well, there are parts in our life that are not peaceful. That we are still in this state of becoming. After all, you can’t move forward if you ignore the things that are not quite right. We likely will find out that the problems we think are unique to us are actually shared by many who care about us.
So in this Advent, may we take it upon ourselves to embark on this daring quest of peace. May we continually seek God to guard our hearts and minds. May we be honest about our own process of peace and reach out to others for help. May we provide comfort for those around us. May we be peacemakers.
