The Peace Advent Candle
A couple of Sundays ago, we lit the 2nd candle of the Advent season - The candle named as peace. Oh my...If peace was as "easy" to attain as lighting a pretty-colored candle?!
Growing up I learned ways to avoid "rocking the boat" so as to avoid my earthly father's biting sarcasm. I became mighty skilled at hiding! I thought avoiding conflict was how one "keeps the peace!"
“Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other.” (Psalm 85:10)
God's kind of peace and peace-making are always deeply honest and relational. Consider what the Psalmist binds together: steadfast love + faithfulness + righteousness + peace! Each element is a profound "study" in itself, but bound together, we experience a by-product, God's peace, which we call Shalom. This requires a lifetime of learning and practice.
The intimacy of meeting and of kissing speaks to a foundational thought: God wants to be known and to know us. God's children - His Church - long to know and be known. These most intimate relationships are always the context for God's peace!
May the Holy Spirit provide the courage we need to be peace-makers today!
Rev. Anne Raudsepp Hardy, Associate Pastor for Congregational Care Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene
Published: 12/14/2020
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