Sunday, the Second Week of Advent

Peace

The second candle on the Advent wreath is PEACE, but the biblical concept is far deeper, broader and richer than the English word implies. We generally think of peace as a state of tranquillity, an absence of turmoil, war, and these meanings are also incorporated in the Hebrew word, but “shalom” is less about tranquillity, and more about well-being, wholeness and harmony. The English word “peace” might be well represented by an engine at rest, but “shalom” is essentially dynamic, an engine alive and running, idling or at full throttle, with the various components working together to the same end.

Genesis 1:2-5 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.

In the beginning God moved to bring form into formlessness, content into emptiness, light into darkness. And so we see that the cosmos is God’s “shalom” project: day and night, sea and land, sky, sun, moon and stars moving and working together.

"Let the land produce vegetation... Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky... Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds...” Genesis 1:11, 20, 24

So life is introduced to the cosmos. But what is life if not the very spirit of shalom? It is the sorting principle at work, the material of the cosmos taken up continually, chosen, sifted and directed in novel ways to new ends. And so we see God’s love giving rise, not so much to the tranquil passivity of “peace”, as to the dynamic activity of “shalom”.

Then God said "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26

God created human beings, you and me, to be instruments of his peace, his SHALOM, in all the earth.

Reflection: Am I an instrument of God’s peace in my little spec of cosmos? Do I bring that life-fostering harmony, that spirit of shalom, to the people and the places of my world?