December 9th, 2025
Peace
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:7
I was born in 1959. Which means I was raised in the shadow of the Cold War. My entire childhood, we heard of nuclear threats and nuclear war. There were books about it and educational films about it. In 1983, a theatrical movie called War Games was released. It was a relatively innocuous nuclear threat thriller. In the same year, ABC aired a made-for-TV movie called The Day After. The picture it painted of the aftermath of nuclear war was, to say the least, a bit bleak. I remember having dreams about being trapped in Russia or being attacked by the Soviet Union and unable to find a safe place. My youngest sister suffered a great deal of anxiety over the idea of a nuclear holocaust.
I think it is safe to say that most of the nation longed for peace. From the mid-sixties through the 1970’s, the word “détente” was tossed around. This apparently meant that things were better, but maybe not so great. By the eighties, things were heating up again. The situation was sometimes spoken of as if we were actually going to achieve “peace through strength,” but I think most of us knew that wasn’t true. At some point during the late 1980’s, I learned of the government terminology for the state of affairs between the United States and the Soviet Union: “permanent pre-hostility.” That’s…not exactly the same thing as peace, is it?
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. Again, the language was interesting. It was known as “the peaceful revolution.” By that time, I was thirty years old, and I knew that it had been no such thing. Totalitarianism has caused and continues to cause far too much suffering and far too much death to have anything associated with it—even its overturn—called “peaceful.”
By this point I suppose you are wondering about this political and historical discourse, so I will explain. Today in church we lit the candle of peace. There is always a bit of sadness for me associated with this candle. The Scripture tells us that we will long for peace, but there will be no peace. We cry for it, ache for it. We even— dare I say it? —fight for it. I don’t suppose I have to explain the irony of that. I often wonder at people who discuss whether folks are pro-war or not. Who in their right mind is pro-war? There may be those of us who acknowledge that sometimes war is inevitable or even necessary, but only a sociopath would actually want war. And yet, here we are, and here we have been for millennia now. Someone is always at war somewhere. There is no such thing as literal “peace on earth.”
And yet there is. Remember the candle of hope? Remember that relentless Light, shining in darkness? Each of us, in our hearts, can have peace. We can know that somehow, sometime, all will be well. We have a Redeemer. Christ came to earth to give us the peace that Paul talks about, the peace that surpasses understanding. It’s a peace so deep, so profound, so very, very real, that war and strife and conflict simply cannot touch it. It is a peace that makes no earthly sense. But it is there. May we all know this peace, not only during Advent and Christmastide, but always.
Amen.
“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 4:7
I was born in 1959. Which means I was raised in the shadow of the Cold War. My entire childhood, we heard of nuclear threats and nuclear war. There were books about it and educational films about it. In 1983, a theatrical movie called War Games was released. It was a relatively innocuous nuclear threat thriller. In the same year, ABC aired a made-for-TV movie called The Day After. The picture it painted of the aftermath of nuclear war was, to say the least, a bit bleak. I remember having dreams about being trapped in Russia or being attacked by the Soviet Union and unable to find a safe place. My youngest sister suffered a great deal of anxiety over the idea of a nuclear holocaust.
I think it is safe to say that most of the nation longed for peace. From the mid-sixties through the 1970’s, the word “détente” was tossed around. This apparently meant that things were better, but maybe not so great. By the eighties, things were heating up again. The situation was sometimes spoken of as if we were actually going to achieve “peace through strength,” but I think most of us knew that wasn’t true. At some point during the late 1980’s, I learned of the government terminology for the state of affairs between the United States and the Soviet Union: “permanent pre-hostility.” That’s…not exactly the same thing as peace, is it?
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. Again, the language was interesting. It was known as “the peaceful revolution.” By that time, I was thirty years old, and I knew that it had been no such thing. Totalitarianism has caused and continues to cause far too much suffering and far too much death to have anything associated with it—even its overturn—called “peaceful.”
By this point I suppose you are wondering about this political and historical discourse, so I will explain. Today in church we lit the candle of peace. There is always a bit of sadness for me associated with this candle. The Scripture tells us that we will long for peace, but there will be no peace. We cry for it, ache for it. We even— dare I say it? —fight for it. I don’t suppose I have to explain the irony of that. I often wonder at people who discuss whether folks are pro-war or not. Who in their right mind is pro-war? There may be those of us who acknowledge that sometimes war is inevitable or even necessary, but only a sociopath would actually want war. And yet, here we are, and here we have been for millennia now. Someone is always at war somewhere. There is no such thing as literal “peace on earth.”
And yet there is. Remember the candle of hope? Remember that relentless Light, shining in darkness? Each of us, in our hearts, can have peace. We can know that somehow, sometime, all will be well. We have a Redeemer. Christ came to earth to give us the peace that Paul talks about, the peace that surpasses understanding. It’s a peace so deep, so profound, so very, very real, that war and strife and conflict simply cannot touch it. It is a peace that makes no earthly sense. But it is there. May we all know this peace, not only during Advent and Christmastide, but always.
Amen.
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