by Rev. Eric Folkerth

For some of us Christians, Christmas is a hard season because of the juxtaposition of our faith with the Power of Empire. This coming Sunday is “Peace Sunday,” and at Kessler Park we’ll light the second Advent candle, the “Candle of Peace.” So, let me talk about this juxtaposition a bit.

All through our lives as Christians, but poignantly during Advent, our faith reminds us of how: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.”

Our Advent Hope calls us to trust in a world of Peace, beyond the event-horizon of our ability to see. We trust in God for the coming of that Peace. A world where:

"The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”

The problem of course is that the world continually gives us messages of war and worldly power. Advent Peace crashes headlong into the Power of Empire.

And, although it is uncomfortable to hear, there is no nation that more represents Empire in our world today than America. Sure, a few others rival us, but far too often America plays the part of Rome in the Christmas story, exerting power and control over other nations and peoples as Rome once did.

Yes, we try to be a good people individually. But man, we sure do get into a lot of wars, don’t we?

Some years back, I created this video that tries to illustrate this, by juxtaposing a classic Christmas song of peace with the words of sitting US Presidents-- the most outward and visible sign of Empire in our time.

Take a look at it HERE.

Whether you like or loathe some of the presidents in this video, they all represent American Imperial Power.

To me, juxtaposing their words —expressions such as “fighting for peace,” “a full generation of peace”— with the words of the hymn, helps us see the challenging differences in the messages and the starkly different ways that an Empire speaks of peace, as opposed to how Jesus does.

For two thousand years, Christians have been struck by these juxtapositions: This hoped-for peace of our faith….the heartbreaking warring of human beings.

There is actually a verse of the hymn we don’t generally sing that I think helps us see this juxtaposition. (I sing it in the video…)

"Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing."

See?

That’s it, right there.

Our *faith* speaks of deep faith.

Our *world* speaks of “man at war with man.”

But this coming Sunday, we’ll light that Candle of Peace anyway. We’ll hear the Christmas message….the message that Linus recites from Luke Chapter two about peace coming to all people.

We’ll hear the final words of the hymn that speaks to us of the hope of our faith, beyond the event-horizon of our world:

"For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.”

See you Sunday,

Eric

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