By the time the second Sunday of Advent comes along, the hustle and bustle of Christmas season has picked up to a neck-breaking pace. This week, we have had 3 Christmas concerts (2 that required travel), the beginning of basketball season, a birthday to celebrate, and still our normal work and home responsibilities. Pulling in together to have quiet, reflective time seems terribly opposite of what we’ve been doing all week, but our souls long for the pause.
The second week is traditionally about PEACE. A terribly ironic theme given the anxiety that can spike up given the above mentioned pace… It has been my experience that peace is not something we come to on our own. Our brokenness fights for many other things… control, accomplishment, numbness, perfection… but peace can slip through our fingers.
A few years back, I began to think through this theme of peace is terms of reconciliation vs. an emotional/soul state one might feel. Consider these verses:
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-22
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:10-11
Jesus embodies God’s plan to make peace (reconciliation) with us and for us so that we could carry that message of peace (reconciliation) to to others. This I believe is where the root of our soul peace is found. It’s like a big, deep breath. When we can have confidence of who God is, who he says we are, and the length that God would go through Jesus to be reconciled with us, it provides a frame for everything else. Our striving can cease because no control, accomplishment, numbness, perfection can match that reality.
This is seen in the Christmas story through the vessels he chose to participate in the coming of his son. Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the three wise men, all is awe of how the God of the universe was interacting with humanity. The arrival of Jesus brought peace for all.
As we look ahead to the second coming, the peace that will come then is one that requires no veil.
12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
I Corinthians 13:12
Here are some questions to ask one another:
- What steals your peace?
- What brings you peace?
- How can you see the Gospel (the story of brokenness, rescue, and redemption) reflected in your peace?
- How can you share this with others?
Enjoy your family this week. I pray that even in the busyness of the season, you can remain anchored to the HOPE, and PEACE and that your connection with one another can serve as a reminder of those things.