Peace on Earth

Seems like we really need to hear the message: Peace on Earth.

It can be troubling, even depressing, to read the news and witness the violence around the world, even from afar. Has everyone gone mad? Until, unfortunately we step back and realize, to our dismay, that the world has always been in turmoil. I was chatting with a friend and lamenting the cruel bombing of Gaza that is underway. And it is. But he reminded me of the one million bombed and killed by the Germans and the two million bombed and killed by the allies in the Second World War. Then we consider the millions killed under Stalin, how many killed in South America? Then the First World War. The list and the numbers are beyond belief. That’s only within the last one hundred years. We haven’t factored in suicides, gun violence, murders, abortions, and drug overdoses.

Wherever human beings have lived there has been trouble, unfairness, exploitation, power lauding it over the weak, rich exploiting the poor, the strong nations ravaging the vulnerable. And if we take another step back and examine beneath the surface we may discern the problem lies deep in the human heart. Merely singing ‘Peace on Earth, Goodwill toward men,” is like playing an Ed Sheeran song over cancer victims expecting healing. Yet we insist on preferring the gift wrapping while neglecting the gift.

It was the angels appearing to shepherds in a field that declared “Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all….”. That was no trite song; it was drawing attention the the birth of a unique and remarkable baby, God’s son, in Bethlehem. Why?

Never grow weary of these words. “God so loved the world that he sent his son, Jesus, that whoever believes in him should not die, but have everlasting life.” The angels were not singing band aid comfort songs, they were declaring God’s remedy for a broken world where human beings have lost the plot. We were greedy, exploiting one another, maiming and victimizing one another. It was a world of Romans, Greeks, slaves, violence, inequality of genders, poverty, and extreme wealth. Sounds familiar?

Human beings are the same everywhere – physically. Cut and we bleed, all require oxygen, submerge in water and we drown, expose to disease, whether smallpox or Covid, we succumb. Similarly, the laws of nature are universal. We are witnessing that reality only too clearly. Gravity is the same anywhere on earth, seasons come and go on both sides of the equator, tides rise and fall, day follows night, the moon shines full or new, climate change melts the ice caps and sets the savannah blazing.

What never changes is the impact of evil upon the human heart. Whatever occupies our hearts gives rise to our thoughts, our attitudes, our beliefs, and our actions. Evil places self at the center and conducts all its activities to meet self’s desires, longings, satisfactions, and gratifications. It matters not who gets hurt or exploited for self to have its way. Security for self depends upon crushing all others, controlling the culture and context, doing everything to ensure that what self has is not exploited or stolen. Security for self is found in status, possessions, power, influence, and self fulfilment. It maximizes its own value and diminishes the value of all others.

Evil in the human heart is the polar opposite of love, or life lived in freedom. Evil spelled backwards is live. When God’s son was born in Bethlehem it was one of the most audacious and unexpected revelations. The evil human heart bombs to defeat and suppress, to intimidate and victimize, to force compliance or to ultimately alienate through death. Evil’s only means of transformation is through force from the outside in. Evil can never transform the human heart from stone to flesh, or hardness to compassion, or from hatred to love.

At this present moment the Middle East is experiencing cruel and unfathomable hostility and suffering. Both sides call on the name of God, except the one they name has nothing to do with the baby born in Bethlehem, in the West Bank, two thousand years ago. God’s response to the cries of his people (all humanity) was to deliver a baby as a gift, not a bomb as a show of force. It seems naïve, sweet, not comprehending the real world. As if we do!

There were many who clamored around the adult Jesus to have him lead political action, insurrection, and revolution. Every time he refused and walked away. “I only do what my father tells me to do,” he responded. Bloodied, whipped, wearing a crown of thorns, nailed to a cross by those whom he had come to save, he said, “Father, forgive them, they have no idea what they are doing.” Three days later he would rise from the dead in as equally an unexpected turn of events as his virgin birth. It was on the Cross he confronted the deepest roots of evil, the cell in the DNA, terminally infecting the heart to which humanity had no antidote. Until Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

His life is to provide context, teaching, revelation, and hope for humans battling to understand why life is often so tough and unfair. His death is to break evil and release forgiveness, grace, mercy, and healing for broken and wounded hearts. His resurrection is to declare to a broken and twisted world that there really is a bigger picture, a greater meaning, and a hope for a future we can hardly imagine. But it takes work, it takes asking for forgiveness personally, it takes responding, – it invites a free choice, every day really.

I get so discouraged sometimes when I look at the corruption, the exploitation, the overwhelming impact of darkness and evil that always seems to have the upper hand. Every day I need to be reminded myself of these words that I write. God’s Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. Jesus is my rock and my hope, my light in the midst of the turmoil and darkness. He really has overcome all that motivates evil. He withholds judgement, and his hand, because he loves everyone equally fiercely. He doesn’t want any to make choices that lead them beyond his reach to be held captive in the hell that is evil’s promised land.

Peace on earth always begins, and is fueled, by the individual human heart. As the saying goes. Peace in my heart leads to peace in my home. Peace in my home leads to peace in my street. Peace in my street leads to peace in my town, my province, my nation, my world. Love working its wonders from the inside out… a baby defeating a bomb, love melting hatred, forgiveness cancelling revenge, humility proving itself to be stronger than pride, weakness overpowering strength in the strange economy of God, the Spirit giving life to the flesh.

This Christmas let’s not despair and abandon hope, neither personally nor internationally. Wars come and go, rulers rise and fall, God’s love endures forever. Evil taunts us with unbelief, cynicism, disillusionment, or terms to disregard truth… Christmas is fake news?

I can’t change the world, but I can pay attention to what occupies my heart, where peace is rooted in me, and live from there as best I can. The angels continue to declare a timeless invitation, and the declaration that God’s ways have never been our ways… Thank God. Peace on earth is still to be found in the person of Jesus – who patiently and persistently continues to reach out to all: Palestinian, Jew, and every tribe and nation on earth.

No one deserves his love, yet all are offered it, and invited. Not a superficial tune for a song, but a deep transformation of the heart. He made the first sacrificial move, evil wants us to live checkmated, Jesus offers peace and freedom. Your move… Which means, I guess, I choose to live in response to Him, or the darkness around.

No contest. And we always will need one another to encourage and to keep believing.

A family hiding from the storm
Found no place at the keeper’s door
It was for this a Child was born
To save a world so cold and hollow

The sleeping town, they did not know
That lying in a manger low
A Savior King who had no home
Has come to heal our sorrows

Is there room in your heart?
Is there room in your heart?
Is there room in your heart
For God to write His story?

Shepherds counting sheep at night
Do not fear the glory light
You are precious in His sight
God has come to raise the lowly

Is there room in your heart?
Is there room in your heart?
Is there room in your heart
For God to write His story?

You can come as you are
But it may set you apart
When you make room in your heart
And trade your dreams for His glory
Make room in your heart
Make room in your heart

Mother holds the promise tight
Every wrong will be made right
The road is straight, the burden’s light
For in His hands, He holds tomorrow

Is there room in your heart?
Is there room in your heart?
Is there room in your heart
For God to write His story?

You can come as you are
But it may set you apart
When you make room in your heart
And trade your dreams for His glory
Make room in your heart
Make room in your heart

Make room in your heart
Make room in your heart

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: John Mark Hall / Matt Maher