Have you ever looked at your social media feed or the local news and think that the world just isn’t what it ought to be? With wars, disasters and environmental issues making headlines, political figures and powerful personalities seeming to control at every facet of life, something always feels “wrong.” On a smaller stage, we don’t need anyone to tell us that even our personal worlds aren’t what they should be: friends sometimes betray friends, people disappoint one another, even your own mind can feel like it’s out to sabotage everything you do. Something, again, always feels “wrong.”
As we work our way through the Bible, we encounter an idea called shalom (or peace). It’s the idea of wholeness, and everyone and everything fitted and working together as intended. Sure, if two people aren’t fighting, they are “at peace” but wholeness is more than just a lack of hostility. It’s that sense of well-being and flourishing when everything is ordered and in place. Shalom is not just a peace that keeps things from being broken, but speaks of a peacemaker that repairs where that harmony has been lost.
The Creation was made in true harmony with God’s intent for all things, and then as a grand gift, God granted rule and stewarding dominion of Creation to Humanity. In turn, Humanity was invited to sit with God, to rule with Him, and govern the harmonious world that God had created. But as a species and as individuals, we declined the invitation and squandered our gifts, disrupting the harmony and peace between us and God, Creation, and each other.
In one of His titles in Isaiah 9, the Messiah (the King of God’s Kingdom who He sends to confront evil and to purify His people) is called the prince of peace. We Christians know this is Jesus, and as we work our way through the Gospels, we always see Jesus reversing the disharmony and its effects and re-inviting human beings to join with God in ruling the world under God’s priorities of wisdom and love.
True wholeness and shalom starts within us, but it’s not something that we can produce on our own. Just like a broken and out of tune violin can’t play a proper tune, human beings cannot produce true peace when disconnected from our Creator. For those who know Him, Jesus restores the peace between us and God first, and the Spirit nurtures this peace in our lives. His Presence of peace grounds us even when all around us is broken, hostile or disharmonious. And since the peace and shalom that Christ gives is not dependent on our circumstances but on Himself, we can be empowered to extend this peace and the invitation to true peace to others by being peacemakers in our lives.
The Advent season reminds us, as we wait in hope for the coming eternal peace in the world, that we can be peacemakers in our personal worlds today, following in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace Himself.