I am sick of war. I am sick of hearing about war and seeing its dreadful effects. Benjamin Franklin said  we've never had a good war or a bad peace. I grabbed coffee this week at MDL on the south side of the  square and about lost it when I saw Rep. Pence's picture on the front page praising our alleged progress in Afghanistan when the very same day it seems that the government there has been negotiating with an impostor alleging connection to the Taliban. I am sick and tired of giving gold-plated weapon systems to the Pentagon but acting like that is not a part of government spending. Isaiah is working off the same page as Micah 4, and Joel flips the image (3:10). Helen Keller said that she wanted the understanding that leads to peace more than the peace that passes understanding. the Internet cites Jimi Hendrix but it was Gladstone who said the world would find peace when the power of love would replace the love of power. I love the sentiment, but the practical, realistic side of me asks what do we do in the interim? I'd love to see us put as much energy into a Peace College as we do the War College. I'd love us to put the energy in rebuilding some of our industrial base with the same attention we give to making new generations of sophisticated killing hardware.

 

I always say that shalom is a greeting but in Hebrew includes peace, health, prosperity, well-being, wholeness. Often, we translate peace into a sense of inner peace. I'll gladly settle for the basic meaning of peace as war being shut down. Ps. 122 offers a wonderful blessing on all facets of the life of Jerusalem, all playing on different strands of meaning of shalom. the psalmist is much more spiritually advanced than I. where I see frustration, the psalmists sees room for a blessing. It's listed as a psalm of ascent, it may have been read or recited for all the pilgrims on their way up the Temple mount. Maybe even one stair at a time, the Pilgrims would stop and recite a prayer.  Prayer transforms  a thirst for peace, even frustration for  peace, into a blessing that touches all. In a time when the threat of terror has us being treated like cattle for inspection at airports, it is a great prayer for our own security and well-being.
 

 

God's advent of peace is a new, different transformed future. Advent marks a new church year. Advent is about us living into god's way and time. the future is noticing the trends of past and present and charting a path. History has been called one damned thing after another. God is not locked into our past; God is not locked in trend lines. God's Advent, God's movement toward us is a unpredictable sea change. Sometimes I think that God's way is hurtling toward us, and we are backpedaling as fast as we can to avoid contact with it. Advent is about us keeping alert to the contacts made between God's looming advent and our future. One day the world will resemble a Communion service. People will be able to share with each other,Yes, they we will share the necessities of life: food and drink,but they will share the deeper necessities of of their thoughts and feelings. Instead of leaders crawling over themselves to attain martial glory, they will sit up front, to be able to serve and then be served last.One day we will have no new wars to study at West Point, no flags folded for the grieving family. Life will be Eucharistic, an endless thanksgiving, a thanksgiving for the blessings of peace.