Advent 2 Good Hope for Peace on Earth

Today, we light the candle of Peace. There is considerable comfort and peace, in the assurance that all of us “share in the grace of God” together. Blessed voice in the midst of a hard place.  

That Advent Reflection from the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, marked the lighting of the Candle for Peace on the Second Sunday in Advent.  This is indeed a hard place that we find ourselves in a world that seems to be anything but peaceful.  Reflecting on this brought to my mind the beautiful carol Christmas Bells which is based on the 1863 poem "Christmas Bells" by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and was written during the American Civil War.  As a reminder, the carol begins (please exclude the masculine language):

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet their songs repeat
Of peace on Earth, good will to men

The verse that came to my mind was actually a middle verse:

And in despair I bowed my head
"There is no peace on Earth, " I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on Earth, good will to men

That seems to me exactly what I was thinking when I thought about the birth of the Prince of Peace which we are preparing for this Advent.  Admittedly, there is peace on earth but it seems to be receding into the distance and becoming a goal which is less achievable these days.  Admittedly, there have been other times in the world in the not too distant past that peace seemed to be even a most distant hope.  When I look around, I see divisions growing deeper and wider and the chasms that divide us seeming to become insurmountable.  It has been two thousand years since the Prince of Peace was born in Bethlehem so why has not peace taken a stronger foothold in the world and in the hearts of men and women? 

How then do we, who follow the Prince of Peace, respond to this?  Last week I wrote about the lighting of the candle for Hope.  There is still hope for peace within us and in the world.  However, that hope needs to be based on concrete action and not just wishful thinking.  If we are to hope for peace, we must each seek the peace of God which passes all understanding by seeking peace within ourselves and with each other.  A commentator on cable news in the United States speaks of “good trouble.”  It is the kind of trouble which seeks to disrupt and change the unjust systems in the world – that is good hope.  For this to be good hope and good peace, it cannot be accomplished through violence.  That is the message of the Prince of Peace.  Jesus taught that you are not to return violence with violence – you are to turn the other cheek – you must love your neighbour even if he or she is the despised Samaritan. as difficult and seemingly unnatural that is.  There is a turn towards good hope in the carol a few verses later:

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
(Peace on Earth)
(Peace on Earth)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on Earth, good will to men

That is the good hope for each of us and for the world – wrong shall fail and right will prevail - we need to work for peace through good hope and good trouble.  The carol Christmas Bells is a carol for our time and for our world today so if you have the opportunity join in and raise you voice and sing.  Here is a link to it on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOGz9WqNQoI. 

May we all be blessed with good hope for peace on earth on our journey.

 

 

Let Christmas Bells Ring

The bells have been ringing out this Christmas despite the Pandemic shutdown that has loomed over us in Ontario and other parts of Canada – and much of the world.  The Bishop of Huron Diocese decided to closedown face-to-face worship on the Sunday before Christmas.  However, we were still able to ring the church bells (or in the case of St. James, Parkhill bell) on Christmas Eve at 6;30 and Christmas Day at noon as requested by Archbishop Linda Nichols, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.  The Christmas Day bell ringing can be seen on the St. James Anglican Church Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/St-James-Anglican-Church-Parkhill-114562600251874.  We had a simple liturgy with the opening sentence and collect for Christmas Day from the Book of Alternative Services:

Sentence
I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the
people; for to you is born this day a Saviour, Christ the Lord.
Luke 2.10–11
Collect
Almighty God,
you wonderfully created
and yet more wonderfully restored our human nature.
May we share the divine life of your Son Jesus Christ,
who humbled himself to share our humanity,
and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

This was followed by the ringing of the church bell to celebrate the birth of Jesus in lowly estate in the stable in Bethlehem.  The ringing of church bells has been part of the tradition of worship and is used to mark occasions both joyous such as Christmas Day and weddings as well as those more solemn occasions such as the tolling of bells at funerals.  I listened to a program on C.B.C. radio recently (I’m not sure which one) that told of the foundry in Italy that has been making bells for a thousand years.  It has been owned and run by the same family for all that time.  Anglicans are often accused of being focused on our traditions but you can’t get much more traditional than that – it is truly amazing.  The bells forged by this foundry can be found all over the world.  The reporter for this story advised that she was reporting from Rome and noted that there are over one thousand churches in Rome.  Consequently, the sound of bells being rung can be almost defining at times. 

Our single bell at St. James church makes only a small but perhaps not significant sound compared with that.  However, there were thousands of bells which rang out throughout Canada and the world on Christmas Day.  They all announced the Good News of the birth of the Prince of Peace. 

I will close with the word from that wonderful carol which celebrates the bells that are rung on Christmas Day announcing the birth of the Prince of Peace.

 

 

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

 

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet their songs repeat
Of peace on earth good will to men

And the bells are ringing (peace on earth)
Like a choir they’re singing (peace on earth)
In my heart I hear them (peace on earth)
Peace on earth, good will to men

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men

But the bells are ringing (peace on earth)
Like a choir singing (peace on earth)
Does anybody hear them? (peace on earth)
Peace on earth, good will to men

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep (peace on earth, peace on earth)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good…

 

May you have blessings of peace throughout this Christmas Season

Achieving Disagreement

Last Sunday was the second Sunday of Advent.  We lit the candle for peace.  Perhaps this was done with a something of futility and perhaps despair.  As the carol says:

And in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men

(I heard the Bells on Christmas Day)

I believe that we can be excused from falling into despair (the opposite of Hope which is the first Advent candle.  We have examples of totalitarian governments springing up in countries that are democracies. Perhaps springing up is the wrong word―infecting would be better.  The Brexit foolishness is slouching towards its inexorable uncertain conclusion.  Our American neighbours seem also to be inexorably split into two divides separated by an ever-widening chasm between red and blue.  Signs of peace seem to be few and far between even as we prepare for the birth of the Prince of Peace.

I was reading an article in the New York Times, After Bush, Obituary Wars, by Frank Bruni which addressed the reaction to the eulogizing of George H. W. Bush.  commentator on the left were scathing in their reaction to uncritical assessment of his life that was put forward by many.  As Bruni said, there was much to criticize in a man who “leaned on the despicable Willie Horton ad, who nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, who did little in the face of AIDS.”  However, there was much to eulogize in a man who was basically a good and honourable man.  As the column noted, we have the need to see our villains without redemption and our heroes without blemish.  It is comfortable to see things in black and white.  We don’t have to make the effort to deal with the subtleties of the grays in the world.  Our prejudices are affirmed and confirmed. 

One way to address this was presented in an On Being program, The Future of Marriage https://onbeing.org/programs/david-blankenhorn-and-jonathan-rauch-the-future-of-marriage/ .  The program was a discussion by two men who have been on opposite side of the same-sex marriage debate.  It is not my desire to get into this mine field (at least at this time).  What I want to uphold is the approach that they used in discussing this rather fraught issue for different perspectives.  They proposed that what people would aim for when they are on opposite sides of an issue is “achieving disagreement”.   The goal is not to come to a point where both parties come to the same position.  Rather it is to understand and accept that people can have different positions which can still allow us to respect the other party.  As they note, “being right is not as important as making a pact with my fellow Americans on the other side so that we can live together.”

Living together perhaps does not seem like a high ideal to aim for, especially at this time of year.  However, if we can learn to live with one another and accept each other as human beings, worthy of respect we will have achieved a great deal.  From a Christian perspective it is seeing each other as Children of God and we can begin to strive for peace on earth and goodwill to all.

The carol does not end in despair.  Rather, it ends in hope; hope for peace on earth:

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does he sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men

Blessings on your journey.