Monday, December 7, 2009

Peace on Earth?

Peace on Earth?

I recently received a Christmas card that proclaimed, “Peace on Earth.” This is a familiar and solidly Scriptural Christmas greeting. It was part of the angels’ praise chorus on that first Christmas evening, almost 2,000 years ago, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.” (Luke 2:14)

 
However, it struck me a little odd in light of recent news.  That we would be proclaiming “Peace on Earth” when global wars continue to rage and when people are still losing their jobs and homes every day.  That we would be proclaiming “Peace on Earth” when 30,000 children starve to death every day and five year old girls are sold in prostitution rings and brutally murdered.
 
The contrast is stark:  a peaceful, star-filled evening with angels singing the glory of God versus the smoggy, greenhouse gas-filled world of turmoil that we live in.  I sometimes feel like Bono, the lead singer of the band U2, who described this in a song from a few years back entitled, Peace on Earth:  "I'm sick of hearing again and again, that there's gonna be Peace on Earth . . .  Hear it every Christmas time but hope and history won't rhyme. So what's it worth, this Peace on Earth?” 
 
We could despair of ever realizing “Peace on Earth” in the face of ever present realities.  But, on second glance, there was not complete “Peace on Earth” when Jesus was born either.  Jesus’ homeland had been violently overthrown and occupied by a pagan Empire.  Soon after Jesus’ birth, the brutal King Herod had all Jewish boys under two years old slaughtered in a vain attempt to snuff out the new Messiah (Savior) that had been born.  There was no complete “Peace on Earth” that first Christmas either.  So what, then, did the angels mean?
 
“Peace on Earth” is part of the Kingdom of God, which is “NOW” and “NOT YET.”  There will be a day, when Christ returns, that all wars will cease, all violence will be over, when God “will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” (Revelation 21:4)  That is the “NOT YET” that we await.  As followers of Jesus Christ, WE are called to enact the “NOW” of the Kingdom of God, even “Peace on Earth.”  How?  By doing what Jesus did: sharing the Good News of salvation through Him, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, reaching out to the outcasts, loving and including children, and enacting justice for the oppressed.  
 
If we want to see “Peace on Earth” now, then we followers of Jesus are called to enact it today!  We may not be able to end global wars or save people’s jobs or homes.  We may not be able to save the 30,000 children that starve to death each day.  BUT WE CAN HELP SOMEONE!  Mother Teresa was once asked why she was not overwhelmed by the sea of humanity and its crushing needs.  She answered that she could not save the sea of humanity, but she could help one person at a time.  In each person, she saw Jesus.  And as Jesus said, when you feed, or clothe, or visit, or heal the “least of these,” you are doing that for Him.
Don’t be overwhelmed by the needs of the world!  Just look around and see the one or two people you can help today by sharing Jesus’ love.  Try one of these ideas:  Call or visit someone who is grieving, lonely, or troubled.  Share the Christmas story with someone.  Encourage a young person.  Give food to Stanly County Christian Ministries for hunger relief in our own community. Sponsor a child through World Vision or one of the other great global relief agencies.  
You cannot make “Peace on (the whole) Earth,” but you can make peace just where you are.  And if all Christians on Earth did that, the “NOW” and the “NOT YET” of God’s “Peace on Earth” would come a whole lot closer together!

No comments: