Peace Part Three

 

How did yesterday’s prayer pondering of the Advent Hymn, O Come, O Come Emmanuel go for you?  Did you find yourself singing the words all around the house, did you hum the tune in your car when you went out for groceries, did you gain a new insight or an idea into the kind of peace you long for in these dwindling December days?  I want us to keep praying these words today, because they are so powerful and can be a doorway to letting our shy souls get a word in edgewise.

 

We often talk about peace…but I am not sure we are always clear on what that word means.  Peace has many different dimensions and can take several shapes in our life.  Peace might mean an inner quiet when the voices in our heads and hearts start shouting too loud.  Peace might mean for us to see each other as fully created/crafted in God’s image.  Peace might mean putting an end to violence verbally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually in our world.  Peace might mean wholeness (remember the Hebrew word for peace, “shalom” means) ~ feeling whole and the holy embrace of God; as well as a wholeness that I am not complete without you.  There is a beautiful Zulu phrase, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,” which means that a person is a person through other people.  It is a whole philosophy with which we can ground and guide our lives.  Bishop Tutu says that this phrase/philosophy means we are “open and available to others, affirming of other…has a proper self-assurance.” 

 

I love this!  The philosophy doesn’t mean that I have to give up the core/center of who God crafts and creates me to be AND neither can I be fully myself without others whose presence awaken me to more and more of my fullness.  To be sure, there are people who don’t affirm or accept me.  There are people who frustrate me.  There are people who sometimes rob me of my peace.  Sometimes I let people live rent free in my mind.  Ever find yourself composing an email at 2 am to someone?  An email you know you will not send, but your mind keeps writing.  That is allowing a person to live rent free in your mind.  Other times people barge into our life unwelcome and uninvited with their pain unprocessed littering/leaving their hurt in our lives.

 

Our connections to other humans are complicated.  Our relationships to others are never static, always evolving in new directions (some evolutions are welcome and others are not!). 

 

Part of the power of peace (I also believe this for hope, joy, and love) is found in sharing this with others.  Peace won’t rest or reside only within us, true peace longs to be shared with others. 

 

Who might you share peace with today?  How might you share peace through your words, tone and tenor of your voice, your presence, or even a smile?  Remember from Sunday how your words can be a plowshare…your presence can be a pruning hook harvesting the fruits of the Spirit in the world today.  Let these questions simmer in your soul before you set out into this beautiful ~ though broken ~ world today. Amen.