Advent Day 8 - Peace

Luke 1:72-79
“Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

This passage from Luke 1 recounts the words of Zechariah just after the birth of his son John the Baptist, following his long-imposed doubt-driven silence.  He gives voice to the faithfulness of God to God’s people, the coming of the Light in Christ, and the promise of finding peace.  All those months of having his mouth closed with his eyes and ears open, Zechariah was having hope rekindled in his heart.
 
Advent 2024 in Western North Carolina seems a particularly hard season to find the peace we seek.  Routine trips to the grocery store, school or church include sightings of storm damage, from the dust of displaced earth and riverbed on the ground to unexpected patches of sky veiled formerly by graceful tree canopies.  The altered landscape is jarring.  It constantly reminds us of the grief we carry from Hurricane Helene, and the pain and loss our community is still experiencing. It feels as if we have to constantly defend our souls from losing hope. Tapping into peace these days is hard work.

So often I remember the particular wisdom of Julian of Norwich when I find myself in circumstances out of my control and faced with fear and doubt.  She wrote,  

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

She points us to the deep truth that our God has never stopped working in the world, that God’s purposes are coming to fruition even amidst the storms of life.  We can be assured that God is working good in the world and in us, to the end that the Kingdom of Heaven will come upon the earth.

Remembering this truth fuels our hope, and hope renews our sense of peace.  Peace, love, hope and joy all bolster each other in turn, bringing to mind how the persons of the Trinity contribute to the fullness of each other and so to the One.  All are interconnected, as we are connected to our Creator and to each other.
 
Zechariah gives us a key to finding the peace we seek: connecting ourselves to the Light of the coming Christ.  Turns out peace is not something we receive passively; instead, we must reach out for it.  At the very least, we must open our hearts, even if we need God’s help to do it. Finding peace requires action.  If that sounds contradictory, listen to the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love. 
Where there is injury, pardon. 
Where there is doubt, faith. 
Where there is despair, hope. 
Where there is darkness, light. 
Where there is sadness, joy.  
O Divine Master, 
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; 
to be understood, as to understand; 
to be loved, as to love. 
For it is in giving that we receive. 
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.

May the peace of Christ be with you.