Is Peace Even Possible? …Hello weekend readers. Here is the second Advent gift called Peace—the Shalom of God. In our world right now I wonder if people really want peace at all. It seems the exercise of the day is to wound and kill one another and sit in our hate and hate wipes out peace. We live in contentious times…but so did Jesus when He came into the world!

So, what is Biblical peace? The answer is comforting, ‘a wholeness or completeness brought to earth in the person of Jesus Christ the Messiah, the Prince of Peace.’ O my heart leaps in just that one sentence, despite the world’s mess. The word ‘peace’ is common in almost all languages. For many, peace means the absence of war. Biblically, it refers to the absence of conflict and it also points to the presence of something better in its place—Emmanuel!

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for peace is shalom, and in the New Testament, the Greek word is eirēnē. God’s shalom means complete or whole. For instance, when David visited his brothers on the battlefield, he asked about their shalom. The core idea is that life is complex, full of moving parts and relationships and situations, and when any of these is out of alignment or missing, your shalom breaks down. Life is no longer whole and it needs to be restored. As a verb it means to make complete and restored. And that is why Jesus’ birth in the New Testament was announced as the arrival of shalom!

The apostles claimed that Jesus made peace between messed up humans and God when he died and rose from the dead because He restored to wholeness the broken relationship between us and our Creator. For us, this means that we, the Jesus’ followers, are called to create peace. So, how are we doing on this project?

Let’s face reality in this society—peace takes a lot of work because it’s not just the absence of conflict. True peace requires taking what’s broken and restoring it to wholeness, whether it’s in our lives, relationships, or in our world. How can you restore brokenness for yourself and others this Christmas? It’s right here in Luke 2:14 [NLT], where the angels proclaimed:

“Glory to God in highest heaven,
and peace on earth to those
with whom God is pleased.”

So, where is that peace the angels promised us? Where is this ‘Peace on Earth’ today? Was that angelic night just a ‘one-off’ and not to be heard again?

Let’s stop a moment and read that last part of Luke 2:14—what does it tell us? In a more literal translation for us today, the angels were saying “there will be peace on earth once those of us start pleasing God.” And that’s the caveat…that little annoying word ‘but’…

The angels are saying “we have a job to do as well” and that means to please God, to walk as best as the sinners we are in trying to live the life the Lord asks us to live. When we do this, we permeate the world with God’s peace. We are “walking peace-makers” and because of that, through the mighty power of God we can change a warring world…if we want to.

Just like the early days of the Bible, wicked people are still breaking God’s commandments and, like their predecessors of old, have created most of the wars and problems that we’re facing today. Yet God will bring peace to the person who is pleasing Him. It’s not hard, but it takes a decision, just like anything else in life. Lay down hatred and peace can reign.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be that pleasing child that walks side-by-side with my Jesus—my Savior and Lord because I want others to experience the incredible gift of faith in Christ. There is nothing better! And, in doing so we help give the world the Shalom it so desperately needs. In Christmas 2023, might this just be the gift you pick up and use over and over and over again until you are face-to-face with Jesus in heaven? Your choice, AMEN.