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We continue in our Advent journey.  Last week the re-occurring theme was hope:  the belief that things will get better.  Of course, from a faith point of view, our hope is grounded in the promises of God.  The stories of faith we read and hear about over the course of our lives state this truth:  BECAUSE God has acted on behalf of God’s people in the past, so too will God act in our own lives.  There’s both the trust that God can be relied on, and the hope in the promise.

This week’s Advent theme is peace.  In society we sometimes say that nations are at “peace,” meaning that there is no war between certain peoples.  Or, the wayward child doesn’t have his or her hands wrapped around the parent’s neck, so there must be “peace” in that home.

The Hebrew Bible uses the word “shalom,” translated as our word peace.  In modern Hebrew one can use shalom as a greeting or good-bye.  Yet there is a greater depth in the meaning of shalom than our standard use of peace.  Shalom gets at the heart of the matter:  it focuses on completeness, wholeness; one of my seminary professors defined it as “the positive order of creation.”  In other words, shalom hearkens back to the first two chapters of Genesis, where harmony, wholeness, and completeness marked the Creation.

When the Risen Jesus greets his once-disciples, now-apostles, he wishes them shalom:  they have been reborn in the Spirit, and can now demonstrate the abundant life Jesus promises to all who call on him.

Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 

These words of Jesus are full of hope and promise, because the rest he promises is nothing more or less than the peace that passeth all understanding, the gracious gift of God to all those who turn to him in humbleness and emptiness.

May you find this peace in your lives as we all journey toward the greatest gift in Bethlehem.

Pastor Richard Mauthe