A Friday Reflection: Peace, Peace…But?

They have treated my people’s brokenness superficially, claiming, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. Jer. 6:14

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. A day of commemoration of a meal in 1621 between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag. It was a gathering of different cultures to celebrate and to give thanks for a successful harvest. It was a peace meal that would initiate fifty years of peace between the distinct people. However, eventually the peace faded and war broke out between the two groups. 

Fast forward to 1863 during the American Civil War where Abraham Lincoln, on the heels of his issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, pointed back to the 1621 peace meal as an example of the spirit that would heal the wounds of war, put an end to the civil strife and restore the nation. He declared the last Thursday of November as an offical annual holiday marked by thanksgiving, celebration and peace. Also, Lincoln stirred the people to humbly repent of “national perverseness and disobedience” and to provide tender care to “all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife.”[1]

Lincoln cast the vision for future Thanksgiving Day observance, and thus throughout the years on Thanksgiving Day most U.S. citizens have strived to gather together with family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and strangers to give thanks, to celebrate, to pass the peace and to take care of one another. There has been many annual meals commemorating that first thanksgiving meal and Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day vision. The nation says peace, peace!

But we need to ask ourselves, is it superficial? Is it sincere? Will it last? In the United States, the day after Thanksgiving Day is referred to as “Black Friday” and throughout the years, Black Friday has been creeping in reverse into Thanksgiving evening and extending to “Cyber Monday” and into the Advent season. Black Friday is all about saving on material goods. People camp outside waiting for the stores to open so they can take advantage of all the deals. Every year there are people getting into fights over the hot deal items. On Thursday people offer a turkey wing to their neighbor while on Friday they elbow a stranger in the face. Seemingly peaceful on Thursday but a complete savage on Friday. We can celebrate and be grateful for the harvest but then get completely overrun with materialism, consumerism and discontentment. 

We can gather with family, friends and neighbors, and we can even put our differences aside for a few hours all in the name of Thanksgiving Day. We can feast and go around the table saying why we are thankful while neglecting to apologize or repent for the wrongs we have committed to one another. Thanksgiving Day can become a superficial treatment to the brokenness of our relationships. We can say “peace, peace when there is no peace.” 

How do we experience geniune and lasting thankfulness and peace? Well, I think Lincoln touches upon this with his emphasis on grace, mercy and providence of the Almighty God. Lincoln explains that even “in the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity” the nation has experienced bountiful blessings. He states, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”[2]

Thus, we should sincerely and humbly look to God praising and thanking him. Not just with our lips but with our whole hearts, with our whole being, with our whole life. We should always be quick to confess our sins to God so that we might experience his grace, mercy and peace. We should always be quick to genuinely confess our wrong doings to one another so that we may experience forgiveness and reconciliation. We should always be quick to forgive so that we may experience God’s restoration.  

Moreover, we should resist the “Black Friday” culture. I think the team over at Advent Conspiracy has done great work at reversing the hijacking (which begins on Black Friday) of the Advent and Christmas seasons. They do a good job at explaining how materialism and consumerism have crowded out the meaning and purpose of Advent and Christmas.

If we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day to the glory of God and settle into the true meaning of the Advent and Christmas seasons, then we will more fully experience God’s goodness and greatness through the redemptive life and work of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus became incarnate and died for our sins and was resurrected, we also are resurrected and our resurrection hearts and lives will be filled with genuine and lasting thankfulness and peace. 

On the western church calendar, the Advent season starts on Sunday Dec. 1. Let’s forgo Black Friday (or cyber Monday if your already shopped today) and prepare to settle into Advent.  

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[1] http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm

[2] http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm

John Calvin: Christian Scholar and Reluctant, yet Faithful, Pastor

John Calvin recognized early on in his Christian life that his gifts and skills were that of a scholar and author rather than an active reformation leader or pastor. Thus, one of the most significant aspects about his life was his ability to systematize protestant theology through writing. His Institutes of the Christian Religion played a major role in the furtherance of protestant theology during the reformation.

Another significant aspect of Calvin’s life was his availability for kingdom ministry. Calvin knew that he was more equipped to be a scholar and author and was reluctant to take on any ministerial roles. In fact, he declined such roles on numerous occasions, but when he experienced the Holy Spirit’s call to certain ministerial work, he submitted and served the church as a pastor. On one such occasion he was on his way to a comfortable life as a writer in Strasbourg, but he was detoured on his trip and landed in Geneva. He had planned on staying in Geneva for a day and then continue on to Strasbourg; however, after he had an encounter with a leader named Farel, who challenged Calvin to stay and pastor those in Geneva, Calvin had a change of heart and decided to stay in Geneva and help the protestant movement. Eventually he left Geneva and made it Strasbourg where he planned on fulfilling his original intentions to settle as a writer, but once again, a leader, named Bucer, recruited Calvin to the pastorate, and Calvin agreed and became the pastor in Strasbourg.[1]

This aspect of Calvin’s life should be emphasized because Calvin could have stuck his heels in the ground and refused to do anything other than scholarly writing, but he had an available heart before the Lord when things were coming together for him to step into pastoral ministry. It was not easy for Calvin to detour from his plan of a quiet life as a writer, but I imagine that he recognized that God was leading him in different directions, and so he needed to follow God rather than pursue his own ambitious plans.  

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[1] Justo L.González, The Story of Christianity: Vol.2 Reformation to the Present Day, Rev. and Updated, 2nd ed. (New York: HarperOne, 2010), EPUB edition, pt. 1, ch. 7, “The Reformer of Geneva.” 

Luther and His Confessor

A significant element in Martin Luther’s life was his relationship with his confessor and priestly superior. As a spiritual advisor, Luther’s confessor had helped him during his spiritual and theological struggles by suggesting that Luther read the writings of the medieval mystics. Through the reading of the mystics, Luther experienced some liberation by adopting the mystic ethos of loving God. This enabled Luther to focus less on his internal struggles with sin and more on experiencing and reciprocating God’s love.

When Luther’s experience with the writings of the mystics had ran its course due to the re-emergence of his internal struggles with his past and with sin, his confessor did not give up on him but gave him further counsel. The confessor boldly and wisely ordered Luther to begin teaching the Scriptures at University of Wittenberg. The purpose of such an order was attached to the hope that if Luther began teaching and pastoring others, then he would be able to break away from his internal struggles. Thus, Luther began to teach the scriptures which eventually led him to lecture on the Epistle of Romans. At this point, the Holy Spirit pressed upon Luther Romans 1:17 which changed his perspective and life. He was set free by the truth of the redeeming gospel that “justification by faith” is a free gift from God to sinners. With his new perspective on the gospel and his new experience of God, Luther subtly began his new reforming mission.

This part of Luther’s life should be reflected on because it is an incredible picture of the drama of redemption and the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of God’s storied people. God has acted through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit ministers and leads people to enter into the redemptive drama where people are liberated from sin, torment and death. The Holy Spirit opens people’s hearts and minds in order to understand God’s salvation. As the Holy Spirit leads the body of Christ in their performance of the drama of redemption through loving and ministering to one another, people will experience the grace, mercy and peace of Jesus Christ.