SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2024 - AND ON EARTH, PEACE
Carolyn Smith
December 8, 2024
And on Earth, Peace.
What a great swinging song from our choir! Love that one. In story, word and
SONG, there is something good here amongst us. Instead of Isaiah, we could have
read Luke 2 with Angels shining and singing and swinging and the great multitude of
the heavenly host proclaiming “Peace on Earth”. We’re not far off though - Big, bright,
Highest-heaven energy - A Voice crying “Make way! Every valley, Every mountain,
The Glory revealed, a herald of Good tidings.”
This is “Hallelujah Chorus” BIG right now - bold and bright, just like Handel composed the
masterpiece with these verses of Isaiah, a Vast and resounding proclamation of a Vision
that feels pretty tangible here, right now. With all the sensations of this dream very
present, the sense of PEACE we speak of rings out like bells, like Santa at the end of
the ticker-tape parade. It’s SO GOOD to feel it here together - Our Faith story of
divine goodness and hope and love unleashed, it feels real and possible today, it’s good
to be reminded what we are working for and creating together!
Breathe in that hope and joy - it’s like a prayer... as it fills us, we settle in, ... settle in
to this peace, in this calming place among friends, a safe and warm and prayerful
peace, And we now think of stables and mangers and quiet peace where all is calm,
and all is bright. And we trust, we know... this is another reflection of our PEACE
story.. a world at peace, the star rising, a child yawning, the moon on the breast of the
new fallen snow... a peacefulness that is real and needed and maybe it resonates
better with some of us. We could use a warm embrace in a weary world. It gives a
sense of Sanctuary. Because when we head out from here, we’re back to the regular
world, and we’re either going to hang on tight and carry peace with us, or it gets
squeezed out of us. Who’s feeling out of synch with Christmas peace already?
At church we’re talking about Advent, all about waiting time and preparing time, but
no one else seems to be waiting... We’ve been seeing Christmas decorations in
stores since August, and while I enjoyed singing along to Rudolph at the grocery store
yesterday, I’ve heard Hippopotamus for Christmas 3 times already, yuck! and we’re
barely out of the first week of the month. We’re baking lots and eating too much and
the garish lights might be too much already. For some, instead of bringing Peace, it’s
becoming Noise... when we really need the calm, bright, peaceful night.
OR we’re clamouring for the fun and energy of Christmas to drown out troubles
and stress. More than a few people have gone all out this year with the lights and
decorations because they’re tired of the gloom and worry in the world around us.
The trouble is whether we have any reserves of peace for the moments when the
quiet hits and the headlines hit and heartaches hit? God forbid it get quiet, Will we
have strength to face ‘all the fears of all the years?’ Real Peace is a moving target, so
to speak, and how we need it, how we miss it is different from one house to the next,
one relationship to the next, where there are different worries and longings. From
town to town, facing different troubles, from nation to nation, from age to age.
The headlines read: poverty and hunger on the rise, fear of attacks, refugees struggling
and victims of war displaced, Leaders failing the people, and I’m talking about the time of
Isaiah- a renowned prophet from 750 BC. 3500 years ago... The Hebrew people
who had risen to some comfort and might, had been overrun and exiled from
Jerusalem, cast out of their Temple. Some were feeling they’d caused the downfall,
and all were suffering the outcome. Headlines of the struggles sound the same as
now, and I don’t know when in history it was or will ever be different. Peace was a
goal, and a memory, and a dream that might have felt like an insult where it was
missing. Or it feels like a joke, for anyone who has given up. And some were guilty of
squandering it. So here WE are singing and rejoicing, proclaiming PEACE, here we
are quietly lighting candles and sharing peace, and here we are... deeply, keenly aware
of how desperately it is missing in places where it counts so much.
And this all matters because as much as Peace is a noun, a thing we look for and
count on, it’s a Verb, an action that we do, or we don’t do: we - either individuals, or
little groups - we make peace, or we break it. Humanity has so much capacity to
generate peace, and so much shameful history in breaking it.
It is fleeting in our nations and systems, even extinguished intentionally by Greed. It
struggles to flicker to life in our encampments and shelters in town, or the food
banks clamouring for funding and progress. It struggles to stay alight in our halls of
power and parliament. Dare I say, when peace starts to glow between neighbours,
how often does something rain down to polarize and push us away. And maybe it’s
sputtering in your own home or heart... small flickers of what should be there, but
having a hard time being kindled ... like a damp match with cold hands on a dark
night. For those of us finding our way in the dark, where o where can we find it?
And Isaiah calls through the wilderness, Comfort, O Comfort my people!!
Our story, our vision says Comfort, my people! Humanity has longed for peace, and
ached for it, whether 3500 years ago, now, and all times in between. Many crave the
gentle sense of peace like star-lit skies above dark fields abiding, or stables warm and
safe. Some work tirelessly to make way for the vision bold and bright, the Highway in
the desert, whatever wilderness; some hold it together between allied but different
sides, others seek it with one person in particular. These vastly different experiences
of Peace and hope are real for the people who are living them, or maybe more
blatantly, for the ones missing out on them, And it’s a fool’s errand to compare them
or weigh one against the other.
What is more important? Poverty in Oakville? Mental health struggles or better
hospital funding? Warring nations, And of these issues versus a warming planet? A
fight at home, or democracy deteriorating globally? Wrong question - Each one is
important, each one is darkness and compounds the next. And - this has always been
true- Each darkness has people rising like light against it.
The right question is: how we - you, me, us - how do we meet the darkness where
we are?
Like Isaiah’s time, but 1200 years ago, the same dark headlines could be read - and a
man named Francis faced it down with his sleeves rolled up... All these years later,
Fred and Val shared St. Francis’ words as they lit our Advent candle: They said: “All the
darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
All the darkness: Some of us feel like we’re in the dark... we feel anything but peaceful
or confident of the direction to go. If not for you - the ones with courage and vision
and the song of the angels on your lips, if not for the peace you share, it could feel
too dark. Yet, the light of a single candle against the darkest time comforts us, lets us
put one foot in front of the other, a next right step, whatever highway we’re on.
Once upon a time, pre-pandemic, this easy going lighthearted bunch at St. Paul’s - we
passed the peace. Remember? And I’d stand here while you all wandered around,
chatting, enjoying each other, sharing this wonderful energy. LOVED it! And go
ahead now and peek around - say hi to one another, heck you might even go and
really share peace with one another.... What a gift and community it created!
So these people who are lights, you make me think of another glimmer of wisdom -
Carl Jung, a student of minds and souls and purpose mused: “As far as we can discern,
the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”
Is that good enough as our sole purpose? Beyond just BEING here living life - just
stumbling along - as People of rainbows and living water and lifting the lowly, we are
blessed with the Light of the World as the way we walk.
So this season you’re going to hear the same old same old stories again. Angels and
shepherds, kings and tyrants, gentle sheep and babes in arms. And we’ll sing of Peace
every which way. If it wasn’t TRUE, the story would have been lost down through
the ages. Here together, we have faith in this endless vision of Peace, that these
messages bring comfort. And doesn’t that Peace lift valleys and level mountains?
Week after week, we’re here, celebrating with each other, trusting each other, and
elevating each other in our gifts to give something back, something bigger together.
Bravely, we trust that the peace here is big enough to handle challenge and debates.
And we, together, we challenge others - ‘Peace' is our rainbow flag outside, and
friendships with other faiths, and bridges between them. Some are out bringing
peace to others with Christmas trees and crammed police cruisers filled with food,
and hospital help and cookies and calls. Those of us who need comfort: there is
peace in the resting time, in the quiet time too. And when YOU need to be on
your feet, preparing the way, from a high mountain, ( and I’m looking at the tenacity and
energy of this St. Paul’s church in this town, in this time,) then get up there, where you
are called, blessed as Light for the world.
Let us all bask in that glow...Peace is all of this and far more.
Peace I leave with you. Amen.