St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, December 6, 2009

Advent 2

Preparing for Peace – Rev. Cathy Russell

Luke 1:68-79

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Santa Quits!

Well I’m glad the kids are gone because I have some tough news for you. Apparently this year Santa has decided to hang up his jingle bells once and for all. That’s right, Santa’s quitting. How do I know this? Well he sent a resignation e-mail to some friends of mine who had wanted to book him for a Christmas show they put on every year. Santa’s reasons for quitting had nothing to do with getting too old to scramble down the chimney or deciding that the climate of Miami has got it all over the North Pole. No Santa’s reasons for quitting had to do with the fact that over the last couple of years, people have been asking him for things that he can’t possibly bring. Things like “world peace”. I think we can all agree that world peace is not something Santa can have the elves construct in the ole workshop. I mean the guy is mostly in the toy business, and though he has wonderful, magical powers that help him fly around the whole world and deliver presents to all the children on earth in one night, world peace is just not something he can leave in a stocking or under the tree. Peace is not something Santa can deliver.

Santa Can’t Deliver Peace

Now that was actually a true story, but of course it’s not about the real Santa. It’s about a man I know- we’ll call him Don. Up until this year, Don played St. Nick at a variety show put on by his son and daughter in law who happen to be friends of mine. And Don really did resign from playing Santa this year because people were asking for things that Santa can’t bring- things like “world peace”. Although the story of Santa Don’s resignation is somewhat amusing, I have come to realise that it also illustrates our relationship to the idea of peace on earth. On one hand, those requests for world peace reveal the depth of our longing for a world of true harmony and mutual understanding. And on the other hand, Santa-Don’s discomfort with these requests shows just how utterly powerless we can feel to make peace a reality. With civil wars, international conflicts, violence on our streets, in our schools and in our homes, any hope of world peace can seem like a fairy tale. We may speak our longings for peaceful relations between all people, but the problem seems so pervasive, so overwhelming, that we often doubt in our hearts that they will be realised, not in this life anyway. Of all the weeks in Advent- hope, peace, joy and love, peace is at once the most concrete and the hardest to attain- even, as it turns out, for Santa. Don was right- peace is not something Santa can deliver.

Peace on Earth can seem like a Fantasy

In fact, if we were asked, which is the bigger fantasy- the myth of Santa Claus or the hope for peace on earth, how would we answer? How would we answer days after the announcement that the United States is committing thousands more troops to Afghanistan, and that our military commitment includes a moving into a more dangerous region of that troubled country? How would we answer on the 20^th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre, a day when women engineering students at Ecole Polytechnique were targeted and 14 of them killed in a hate crime the like of which Canadians had never seen?

Peace is Made Not Simply Received

Well if we are expecting peace to be delivered to us, like a present on our wish list, then we really are living in a fantasy. Peace will not simply drop out of Santa’s sleigh into our world, our workplaces, our schools our homes, or our lives. As Christians we affirm that peace is a gift from God. We affirm that peace is a promise made possible through God’s care and concern for us- through grace. But the realisation of that promise on earth depends on our co-operation with God’s grace. God is not Santa Claus, and peace is not something we simply receive ready-made, pre-packaged and tied up in a bow-it is something we have to prepare for, something we have to work with God to make. Jesus said “Blessed are the peace makers”, words that connect God’s strength and blessing to human efforts at peacemaking. We are all called by God to be peace activists. We are all called to be peace makers, we are all called to co-operate with God’s grace, which is what Jesus’ ministry was all about.

What Peace Needs to Be Made in Canada in 2009?

We are so fortunate in this country to have never known the ravages of war on our own soil. And yet, in scripture peace is always much more than the absence of war. Peace for the people of God means freedom from oppression, protection from hatred, dignity for all people- all things that Zechariah celebrates in the song of praise we heard from the gospel of Luke. In our public attitudes and our perceptions of ourselves as Canadians, we have generally assumed that we meet these criteria also. That perception was shattered twenty years ago today when 14 female engineering students at Ecole Polytechnique were executed simply because they were women. Of course, the entire country was shocked and outraged, but women, particularly university students, were traumatised and felt a terrible sense of vulnerability in the aftermath of that cataclysmic event.

Naomi Klein, activist and international best-selling author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine says that this massacre of women in her home town was a “wake up call” that pushed on into a life of activism, reversing an earlier decision to stay out of public social critique. In other words, this terrible event made her realise that peace- that freedom from oppression, protection from hatred, and dignity for all people could not be taken for granted, even here in Canada. She realised that peace is something we make together, not something we simply receive. Although I have no sense of her religious conviction or lack thereof, Klein seems to fit nicely into the tradition of the prophets- rejecting the status quo, challenging the powers that be, calling the people to repentance. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s little boy John, who grew up to be John the Baptist, would probably find that he and Naomi Klein had a lot to talk about over a chai latte.

How Can We Be Peacemakers?

Well most of us are not going to write articles or books or make documentary films in the prophetic tradition in the cause of peace. Any public stance we might make would probably come in a letter written to our MP, our signature on a petition, or our attendance at a rally. And yet, as people of faith we still have a role to play. We may not be in the intellectual vanguard of an alternative social movement, like Naomi Klein. We may not be called to a radically ascetic lifestyle like John the Baptist but we can still be active peacemakers. At the end of his song, Zechariah imagines the breaking of a new day when Israel will be redeemed through the mercy of God, a day when God will guide their steps in the ways of peace. We can all take steps in the way of peace, we can all co-operate with God’s grace.

As I prepared for this Sunday early in the week, I spent some time talking to Ruth Mundy about her job as an outreach worker for Bethesda House, our local shelter for women who have experienced domestic assault and their children. Ruth reminded me that in our own region of Durham the police receive 12 domestic violence calls a day. So we may not have war, but we sure don’t have peace either. With all the advances our society has made in terms of gender equality under the law and in the public realm, the domestic sphere is still too haunted by oppression, hatred and humiliation. What became clear as Ruth and I continued to talk, is that hope for making our society more peaceful in private as well as in public depends not so much on laws and government policies, although those are indispensible. The hope for peace in our world lies with us, with how we treat each other and how our children see us treating each other.

We Can Make Peace Every Day

Every day in all our dealings with people- strangers, co-workers, friends and family we have the opportunity to be peace makers, every day we can choose to walk in the ways of peace, every day we can choose to co-operate with God’s grace. We can choose to reject language and behaviour that insults or puts down. We can treat people with respect even when we have profound disagreements. We can teach our children and young people that guys can show emotions other than anger and aggression, and that girls can aspire to be something more than sexy and submissive. We can seek forgiveness when we hurt someone, and work on changing our behaviour. And when we do these things, we are walking in the God-given way of peace- and that is no small thing. It is these basic, everyday interactions that can make real and lasting change. Far from being powerless, we each have an amazing God-given power to make peace, a power that God calls us to use in all our relationships. So let’s use it, let’s follow God’s call to walk in the ways of peace at work, in our homes, with our families, in our church. Peace is made by you and me co-operating with God’s grace, relying on God’s strength. The best way to prepare for peace is to make it. And blessed are the peacemakers thanks be to God, AMEN.