The Heresy of Peace

A reflection on the second Sunday in Advent

My family’s Advent wreath

Peace. That’s the theme for this second Sunday in Advent. In this season during which we recall the anticipation of Jesus coming into the world, there will be many overtures to peace. In many churches today, people will greet each other with signs of Christ’s peace. But many of the people proclaiming peace do not love it. At least, they do not love it for everyone. In their relationships, in their theology, and in their voting habits, they are agents of chaos, terror, and violence. They are like the people about whom the prophet Jeremiah wrote:

For from the least to the greatest of them,

everyone is greedy for unjust gain;

and from prophet to priest,

everyone deals falsely.

They have treated the wound of my people carelessly,

saying, “Peace, peace,”

when there is no peace.

They acted shamefully; they committed abomination,

yet they were not ashamed;

they did not know how to blush (Jer. 6:13-15a, NRSV).

I reject their peace, for it all too often comes at the expense of other people’s rights and lives. Their peace is dependent upon the subjugation of Black, Latinx, Asian, Indigenous, LGBTQIA, disabled, poor, and immigrant peoples.

They proclaim peace while wielding swords against us:

     Swords that promise mass deportation

     Swords that threaten jobs

     Swords that deny healthcare as a human right

     Swords that ban abortions

     Swords that dismantle public education

     Swords that plunder the environment

     Swords that burden the poor and working class

     Swords that enrich and empower oligarchs

     Swords that exclude and demean

     Swords that endanger marriages 

     Swords that separate children from families

     Swords that embolden hate crimes

     Swords that praise warmongers and genocidal dictators

     Swords that bungle global pandemics

     Swords that foment insurrection

     Swords that strike down checks and balances

     Swords that erode the pillars of democracy

     Swords they wield even as they reach out a hand, put a smile upon their countenance, and proclaim peace.

I reject their offers of false peace. And yet, today I light the Advent candle for peace, not because peace has come, but because we desperately need the in-breaking of Christ’s peace. The Prince of Peace was born into a deeply troubled and unjust world, one in which a ruler would order the murder of all infant boys in Bethlehem because he felt threatened that one of them would someday jeopardize his power. Like our biblical ancestors two thousand years ago, we live with despots on the world’s thrones, demagogues who incite rage, resentment, and violence against the marginalized in order to secure their own position. In any given news cycle, we hear accounts of the surge in nationalism, autocracy, and war around the world. We need the peace of Christ.

But the peace that Christ offered was never a forced resolution of the world’s ills. Peace is not something that Jesus imposes upon the world. It is a way of being that Christ invites us into. It is a characteristic that must be nurtured intentionally. And frankly, it is a way of being that most people reject, even those who personally witnessed Jesus embody it in his ministry and teaching. The way of peace is an anomaly in a world that continuously chooses the path to power. Peace is a heresy against capitalism, against systemic oppression, against war, against conquest, against the logics of empire.

Blessed are the heretics.

How are you nurturing your peace in these days? Leave a comment and let us know.