Worship Preview 12.7.25 "Pax... Pleading... Peace..." Advent 2

Worship This Sunday: 10:30am –  “Pleading Peace…” : Jeremiah 6:6-17, Luke 1: 5-25, 57-80. Rev. Christopher Eshelman preaching.

Advent is a time of preparation. We look forward to celebrating Christmas and the familiar story of the holy infant. Advent is also about preparing for Christ’s return. Two weeks ago, I preached on the promise, found in Jeremiah and elsewhere, that “the days are surely coming.” Last week, Rev. Don Flanner talked about “Active Readiness.” This week we will begin an Advent series entitled “What Child IS This?” How we view the return of Christ varies from hopeful to violent. The prophets warn of God’s wrath at injustice, visions of destruction on “them” – the sinners intermingle with passages of grace, rescue, and reconnection. Recently I did a short series on “Jesus’ Mission Statement” were we looked at how Jesus’ ministry was rooted in prophetic texts; how he discerned and lived out his call, and what it reveals to us about God. Jesus consistently chose compassion and healing, even as he confronted those so full of themselves and their own understanding that there was no room for God’s inbreaking.

Sunday we will open with a passage from Jeremiah, where God laments the lack of good fruit and the distractedness of his people. The people are called back but refuse to walk in the way of the Lord, they refuse to heed the trumpet calls. God laments that the people instead chose false dealing, injustice, and empty proclamations of “peace, peace, when there is no peace.” We live in such times. Worship planner Marcia McFee writes, as she was thinking about how to approach Advent this year: “One of the most beloved carols we know, “What Child Is This,” came into focus as a way to do what the carol does – ask and answer the question of Jesus’ identity. It is set to a tune that offers the minor key of pathos, and so we will lean into it as we deal with the difficulties of the story’s context then, and now.

However, much like the hymn, this series is not meant to “bring us down,” but rather acknowledge the lament many of us are feeling and understand that God’s disruption of power came in a time much like our own. That is the good news! We can be assured that God is with us now. Emmanuel.

And the “silent Word is pleading…” Peace is traditionally connected to the Second Week of Advent. In the 1^stCentury, the empire declared the Pax Romana – the idea that Rome had established peace by the use of violence and subjugation. Times were good – as long as you were in favor with the rich and the powerful. But the Bible is written from the perspective of those on the margins. McFee draws from author Kelley Nikondeha, who says:” The big question of any time of “peace” is… “Who is the peace for?” Whose life is actually peaceful, and whose lives are diminished in order to have the peace as defined by “empire?” The peace and capitalism of our own time was built with the reality that only some people have benefited from it and others suffered for it. In the “Pax Americana” [fill in the blank for any nationality], who is truly “at peace” and cared for socially and economically?

To realize that God chose to disrupt the “status quo” in a time when the “status quo” claimed a “worldwide peace” under Roman rule is an interesting notion. Why would God come in the midst of “peace” if God didn’t have vastly different ideas from empire about what peace looks like and who peace is ultimately for? It is in this context that we consider the silence of Zechariah after he has an encounter with God’s messenger during his temple duties. Perhaps it wasn’t “punishment” for having doubted the message per se, but an opportunity for him to listen. Silence for the sake of listening more deeply is so necessary for understanding whether peace is truly peace for all. What are the stories we don’t know, we don’t hear, because we keep up the babble pertaining to our own slice of life? If we listen to the plight of others whose experience is different from our own, we are offered the possibility of raising our voices then, as Zechariah did, in solidarity and with more understanding than we once had. How is God interrupting our cozy ideas of peace and inviting us to listen to the cries of an oppressed humanity?

I recently became a grandfather. Watching our grandson begin to grow and experience the world – and remembering how a birth really does change the world – joy and exhaustion, new priorities and lingering panic of new parents confronting the reality of, how utterly dependent on mom, dad, and the extended family newborns are, is adding some depth to my experience of Advent and Christmas this year. Our vision of the child in the manger may be the soothing lullaby and the silent night, but the reality of babies, and of that time in history, is that of a “crying out.” It was a time when many were silenced and the need for prophesying justice in the midst of trauma was great. Zechariah does this when his silence is lifted. The Word became Flesh for such a time. How will we cry out for true peace for all people? How will we sooth the trauma of the world in our time? In anxious times, we can trust our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer – the day is surely coming! And in the meantime, we are rooted in giving thanks for all God has already done in Christ, enabling us to love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously. Thanks be to God!

No matter where you are on your faith journey, we invite you to experience the love and presence of Christ, together with us at 10:30am each Sunday and explore your next steps! 301 S. National here in Fort Scott.  Find your path, share your journey!