December 8, 2025

SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT: PEACE

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives, however. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14.27)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

It is in the giving that we will find our greatest peace. We have seen where the declarations of “peace” are often unheeded and easily dispatched into the refuse of many other “meaningful” words. For the mighty ones of God, that refuse pile is littered with such words as faith, hope, love, mercy, forgiveness and God. Are you surprised at that list? I am glad for you to debate this entire reflection thus far with yourself. How easy it is for humanity to reduce something wonderful and powerful to letters. I listened the other day as a news broadcast was highlighting how each succeeding generation decides for itself a new vocabulary to express the same meanings of words which have preceded them. It is an exercise of “relevance.” Does changing the outward appearance of a word actually make it more meaningful or powerful? We know how our inflections and tones of voice can certainly add something to the words we speak. Making such emphasis does something far more than communicate its meaning. What emphasis does is specify what the word means to you. It elicits something of the speaker to be passed on to others so that in the communication of the word the meaning comes to life.

Not only does that word come to life but it also silences other parts of life which have less meaning. The beloved disciples of Jesus, John, wrote in his gospel rendering of the life of Christ, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” It is possible that John’s preamble to his gospel story about his beloved friend and Savior, Jesus, was intended to be a reflected back to the beginning of earthly time. Many, though certainly not a majority, will have their thoughts returned to when “In the beginning” was recognized as the start of the Creation Story of Israel and the people of God. Have you ever considered reading Genesis 1.1-2.3, the seven days of creation, as if you were the observer of God’s work? Yes, like those opportunities some are afforded to watch their own surgery as it is being done, we are given an “in the moment” vision of what was happening to us. It will become “our” creation story more than just, as if just was a limiting word, “the” creation story. Being the passive observer in a very active event allows the peace of the moment to anesthetize our own chaos and unrest. We can watch it happening and be captured in the wonder of it all and lose sight of the fact “it is happening to us.” We are caught up in peace and then awaken to the truth of God’s declaration as the Master Surgeon “it is good and very good.” God wasn’t just talking about “them.” God was talking about us.

Yes, we can see a correlation to the creation story in Genesis as we start to read The Gospel of John. I don’t really think that is what John had in mind. John was telling of his own re-creation, akin to Nicodemus’s “how can I be born again” dialogue he had with Jesus. John had found a kindred voice in Nicodemus’s words. In truth, that same voice speaks through every chapter and verse in John’s gospel. By all practical understanding, that same voice transcends the gospel and concludes with The Revelation of Jesus according to John which was chosen by the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D, to conclude the witness presented to those on earth whom God loved so much. It is a testament of peace. It was never meant to simply be a collection of books or chapters or verses or words. It was intended to be, as John declared, “the Word come to life on earth.” John was writing of his own creation as he penned the gospel. He was retelling how he watched himself come to life having put away his old life as a fisherman and took on the new life of being a fisher of men. The restless John of Capernaum, Jesus’ other hometown, became the “at peace” John of the Kingdom of God on earth. He was once called by others, including Jesus, a “son of thunder.” He would called himself “beloved” after his days with Jesus in life, death and resurrection. Doesn’t “beloved” have a peaceful ring to it? More so than “thunder,” I suggest.

So, too, can we feel the same peace with the Word come to earth in the form and image of God as Jesus of Nazareth. He wasn’t just a word. He was the living Word of God made flesh. He not only said the Word of God, He was the Word of God. He wasn’t just the spoken word but the verb, adverb and adjective of the spiritual language of God’s righteousness. Peace is not something that just exists. Peace is given. It can also be taken away. In the context of Jesus, the Prince of Peace, true peace is given, bestowed, endowed, bequeathed, lavished, poured out, poured upon, empowered, anointed and a vital part of the worship of God on earth as it is in Heaven. This we can glean from John’s gospel as written above in John 14.27, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives, however. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” It would do well with us as Christ followers to follow His example of being “peace givers” and “peace makers” (following the Beatitudes in Matthew). We are not merely to be peacekeepers. We do not keep the peace. That sense of ownership, which could be implied, may well incite the very opposite of peace which is chaos (in all of its worldly manifestations.) Perhaps if we spent more time “sharing the peace,” “giving peace” and “making peace” (especially with ourselves so that we can do it with others), than giving presents under the tree to fill the gaps of chaos and emptiness with temporary peace. There is no doubt we need to be compassionate and loving. However, just going through the motions of life and empowering entitlement is not giving peace, sharing peace or making peace that reconciles, heals, strengthens and builds up each person and every community. Let’s do “Jesus peace” by giving them “a piece of Jesus.”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.