Question: How did you
experience peace this week?
A Reflection for II Advent All
Saints Church, Southern Shores, NC December 10, 2017 Thomas
E Wilson, Rector
Second Candle
Today we started the service by lighting the second candle
of the Advent Wreath which is a symbol of Peace. Last week we lit the candle of
Hope, next week will be Joy, and the fourth will be Love. These are followed by
lighting the Christ Candle on Christmas, a symbol of the birth of Jesus who is
the embodiment of hope, peace, joy and love.
I want to start off looking at Peace by quoting the prophet
Jeremiah (6:14) - “They have treated the wound of my
people carelessly, saying, 'Peace, Peace,' when there is no peace.” The prophet
is talking about a system that mouths words of peace while ignoring justice.
The cry of “Peace, Peace” when there is no peace is mainly a call for a
continuation of a status quo where we all pretend to get along and ignore
conflict.
Conflict is not the enemy; rather, it is inevitable. We are
human beings and we will bump up against each other in any complex situation.
The only time we will not bump up against each other is in the middle of a
highly choreographed dance which has required hours of practice, practice,
practice so that all the spontaneity of life is removed leaving only an outward
show. Without conflict we will never learn or try anything new. Without
conflict we will never grow. Without conflict we will never be honest; we will
only be nice and boring. Without conflict we die long before the end of our
lives.
One of the things many churches learn after the Priest
retires or moves to another church is how much people have tried to be nice,
and suddenly, when Father Daddy leaves, all the stuffed-down stuff comes to the
surface. One of the things I try to do on a regular basis is to disturb the
peace and throw some conflict in by moving furniture or changing liturgy or
throwing a different view into the mix with poems, reflections, or prayers. In
the Gospel lesson from Luke for today, John the Baptizer is doing that by
pointing out that the system the people operate under no longer is helpful and
the people need to “re-think”, or said another way, “repent”. Repent doesn't
mean that something is necessarily bad, but that it no longer works.
The problem comes in when we deny the reality. When we deny
reality, we become addicted to business as usual, the status quo, the peace
that is no peace. When I worked with addicts, I came to realize that shame does
not work, but reality does. The question was not “Aren't you ashamed about what
you were you doing?” but “How is that working out for you?” Addictions are
usually chemical or behavioral methods of denying conflict.
Bullies use the fear of conflict to get their way over
others. We see the latest round of exposure of sexual predators and how often
people let it go on because they wanted “peace”, a status quo. One of my
favorite hymns is “They Cast Their Nets in Galilee”, especially the line,
“Peace, peace there is no peace bur strife closed in the sod; yet pray but for
just one thing - the marvelous peace of God.”
The poet understood that there is no peace when all we do is
bury people or the past or feelings or emotions. Wars with others or within
ourselves solves nothing. Our Christian faith rests on the inability to see
burials of any kind as solutions but rather of the bringing what we have
stuffed down to life again.
The Marvelous Peace of God begins with honesty, that we are
human beings and that unless we are honest with others and ourselves, then we
start living a life of burying the truth. The energy to hide the truth takes a
toll and that toll builds resentments. The resentments seethe until there is an
explosion of hatred.
Currently we live in a society of resentments about abuses
both real and imagined that have been carefully orchestrated to be blamed on
scapegoats. “If it weren't for . . .”
becomes the mantra of resentment
searching for an outlet on someone or something. Scapegoating is not
new; Jesus was one of those scapegoats when the High Priest in John's Gospel
cautions stuffing down the truth of Jesus out of fear than facing a changing of
the status quo - “You have to understand that it
is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole
nation destroyed.”
What Jesus does is to rise out of burial, and instead of
looking for revenge as a way to deal with resentments, he offers love. There is
no denial, for out of honesty the wounds are still there in his hands and they
are acknowledged, but love has taken the place of resentment - honesty
accompanied with love.
The Advent Wreath is a good symbol of light shining into the
darkness of our souls so that we might look at our resentments that no longer
work for us as we strive to live in peace. The Candle is not to be used as a
club to tell others what they should do or not do, but to look inside ourselves
as individuals and as a church to move to wholeness by telling the truth
accompanied by love. Like Jesus we are not able to bring ourselves out of what
has been buried by the power of the one greater than ourselves, that power that
gives us opportunities to tell the truth and to love and to be healed,
individually and as a community.
Second Candle
Today we light the Peace Advent Wreath Candle
ignoring many news feeds about leaders' threats
as outward signs of posturing without any regrets
of the fear growing beyond what we can handle.
We know peace is more than absence of conflict
as if the outside bullies have some power over us.
Peace does not begin with the other but within us
when embracing resentment we become an addict
to wanting to get even, and then some even more,
so they would then watch their step to defer to us
in thought word and deed to give our ego a plus
push down another so they'd shudder at our roar.
The lights of the Candles isn't for them but for us
in twin lights might see resentment is superfluous.
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