EDITORIAL: Let’s make Christmas about peace

Editor Marv Knox

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For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

(Isaiah 9:6)

What if we truly celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace this Christmas? The implications would touch our lives far more personally and intimately than we might imagine.

To be sure, we witness the toxic evidence of war and violence everywhere we turn. Even as our nation winds down a war in Iraq, the United States continues to battle the longest war in our history, in Afghanistan. Brutality spawned by drug cartels has frightened visitors out of many regions of Mexico. Closer to home, daily news reports describe domestic abuse, shootings and road rage. This fall, our hearts broke as we learned how respected members of communities violated public trust and harmed innocent children.

Editor Marv Knox

Seen through this huge and glaring lens, we tend to look at peace as the absence of war, violence and abuse. This kind of peace merits pursuing with purpose and prayer. The world desperately needs fewer dangers such as these.

But as we examine our day-to-day lives, we realize we must seek a deeper, more subtle peace. As you probably know, the primary biblical term for peace is the Hebrew word shalom. Its meaning extends far beyond mere absence of fighting and strife. It also implies the presence of positive qualities, such as well-being and safety. It embraces the active presence of joy and satisfaction and fulfillment. Ultimately, its peace does not seek goodness and benefit for oneself but for the other.

Relatively few of us who read these words will fight in a war, stare down the barrel of a gun or mend from physical violence. But practically every day, simple low-level insidious forms of violence and conflict lacerate our lives and sear our psyches. Maybe it's the unnecessary and corrosive carping between spouses or the incessant spats between siblings. Perhaps its gossip in the neighborhood or church, and it might be infighting in the office. Sometimes, it's loud, obnoxious and obvious; often, it's incipient and almost invisible, but no less incendiary. On the one hand, yelling and berating and bitterness; on the other hand, teasing, subtle put-downs or exclusion. And also condescension, suspicious questioning, sharp rebukes. Verbal violence should be out of bounds in the Christian community. But it's the norm in so much of society, and sadly, church mirrors culture.

So, what if we truly celebrated the birth of the Prince of Peace this Christmas? What if we conducted an experiment in positive peacemaking from Advent through Easter?

Suppose we all monitor our minds and tutor our tongues, so that we speak only kindness and goodwill through the winter and the spring. Now, you might be thinking, "Surely, you can't expect me to agree with everything everyone does around me for four or five months." Of course not. But we can disagree agreeably. You might be saying: "Sometimes, people need a good talking-to. You don't know my kids, or my co-workers. They'll walk all over me." Well, being kind doesn't mean being a wimp. It means being soft-spoken, gracious and considerate, even in the face of fury.

Soon, we'll gather with family and joyfully mark Jesus' birth. Then we'll roll up the lights, pack up the tree and turn the calendar to a new year. That will be 2012, time for another round of elections and the kind of year that seems to spark incivility across our society. Think what could happen if Christians everywhere lived every day in the spirit of the Prince of Peace. We could change the culture, which could change history. And in the meantime, imagine the impact of sweet-spirited Christian peacemakers on our homes, in our workplaces and at our churches.

–Marv Knox is editor of the Baptist Standard. Visit his blog at www.baptiststandard.com.


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