{"id":13420,"date":"2014-12-22T12:19:04","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T17:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=13420"},"modified":"2014-12-22T12:19:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T17:19:04","slug":"peace-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/12\/peace-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace On Earth?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"birth(Credit: Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This Wednesday night, my church will gather\u00a0together for our annual Christmas Eve service.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m hoping my favorite Christmas hymn will make the cut this year \u2013 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing<\/em>. O Holy Night<\/em> gives it a run for its money, but Hark! The Herald Angels Sing<\/em> is still the cream\u00a0of the Christmas crop for me. I get that it\u2019s cheesy and more than a bit nerdy to admit this, but lines like \u201cVeiled in flesh the Godhead see,\u00a0Hail the incarnate Deity\u201d and \u201cMild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die\u201d give me goosebumps every time I hear them.<\/p>\n

But as much as I love Hark! The Herald Angels Sing<\/em>, there\u2019s one line in the song that rings a bit hollow this year \u2013 \u201cPeace on earth and mercy mild\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I think it\u2019s somehow theologically inappropriate to sing those words, after all the peace on earth part of that line is taken directly from the second chapter of Luke\u2019s gospel. Nor is it the case that I\u2019m\u00a0bothered by the ubiquity of tacky \u201cpeace on earth\u201d paraphernalia during the Christmas season, no matter how lost the particularity of that claim may be.<\/p>\n

But in a world filled with so much violence, where the death of young black men has become an epidemic, where cops are murdered\u00a0in their patrol cars, where war rages in every corner of the earth, and where countless stories of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse go untold\u00a0everyday, \u201cpeace on earth\u201d\u00a0seems pretty meaningless.<\/p>\n

Obviously,\u00a0there\u2019s a theological sense\u00a0in which Jesus was Peace incarnated. So, when we sing \u201cpeace on earth\u201d we\u2019re claiming that Peace has come to earth from heaven. But it\u2019s regular ole peace on earth we\u2019re talking about too.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which is why I find it so\u00a0hard to go to church and sing about peace on earth right after hearing about 132 children being massacred in a Pakistani school.\u00a0But admittedly, it\u2019s just a news story for me. I can only imagine the\u00a0excruciating pain those parents\u00a0must be experiencing right now.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not just current events that make it hard to sing about peace on earth.\u00a0I can\u2019t even fathom how difficult it must be for my neighbors just down the interstate in Newtown, CT\u00a0to sing about peace on earth as they get ready to face yet another Christmas without their children.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the\u00a0painful tension goes back much, much further than that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got to think that it was hope turned to disappointment for the shepherds who heard the angels sing and then saw the baby Jesus with their own eyes, only to wake up the next morning to find a world still ruled by violence. When their beloved\u00a0city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Rome years later, I have to wonder if the shepherds didn\u2019t think back to that holy night and wonder if the angels had just come\u00a0down to mock them.<\/p>\n

Where was the peace on earth?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s really easy for those of us who sing about peace on earth at church to then load up the family\u00a0in the minivan\u00a0after the beautiful candlelight service is over, drive back\u00a0to our warm, safe suburban homes, tuck the kids into bed, and forget about\u00a0the fact that our peaceful lives are not the norm.<\/p>\n

While we are setting out milk and cookies for Santa with our\u00a0kids, countless other families around the world are going to bed wondering where their next meal will come from or whether they\u2019ll even live to see another day in their war-torn homeland.<\/p>\n

So why do we even bother singing about peace on earth?<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the point in the face of so much evil?<\/p>\n

I believe we sing as an act of defiance. Our chorus is a holy declaration that the way things are is not the way they were meant to be nor the way they will always remain. At Christmas, we celebrate the peace that arrives\u00a0with the coming of God in a manger because we believe that God is coming again to make that peace permanent.<\/p>\n

Of course, between\u00a0those two moments of peace, violence remains a tragic part of our lives. However,\u00a0the\u00a0tension between our chorus of hope and the reality of this life is not found simply between the words we sing and the world we see. The tension is\u00a0also and perhaps primarily found between our songs of peace and our\u00a0willingness to be peacemakers. For, when we beat the drums of war and defend injustice, when we sing about peace but embrace violence, our words ring hollow and we make a mockery of the angel\u2019s chorus.<\/p>\n

Though violence may seem like the way the world works, as followers of Jesus we are called to\u00a0a different way of life that responds to evil in a way that is not of this world. As difficult as it can be to embrace, as children of God we have an unconditional\u00a0call to be peacemakers. Which is why it is not enough to just sing about peace. We must incarnate it as well.<\/p>\n

So this Christmas, as we light candles and join with the angels to proclaim glory to the newborn king, may we keep ourselves from singing empty words.<\/p>\n

May we remember our calling to make peace, not just in December but throughout the year.<\/p>\n

And above all, may there actually be peace on earth.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Credit: Wikipedia) This Wednesday night, my church will gather\u00a0together for our annual Christmas Eve service. I\u2019m hoping my favorite Christmas hymn will make the cut this year \u2013 Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. O Holy Night gives it a run for its money, but Hark! The Herald Angels Sing is still the cream\u00a0of the Christmas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":8461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPeace On Earth?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"(Credit: Wikipedia) This Wednesday night, my church will gather\u00a0together for our annual Christmas Eve service. 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