May Season's Peace Start in Our Hearts and Spread Into Our
World
By REV. Dr. JOHN SCHULE
Special to the Gazette
Once again, it is that time of the year when the darkness is
shattered with the light of the angelic chorus: "Glory to God in
the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men." And yet,
as the sophomore class at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High
School recently reminded us in the Vineyard Gazette: "Peace on
Earth Remains Elusive."
Beginning with the Thanksgiving celebration of family, pausing for
the observance of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa, and ushering in the
new year, the holiday season is a very special time of the year when our
hearts and minds yearn for peace.
We were not a family given to quoting Scripture, although my
great-grandmother - Grandma, we called her - taught us
passages from the Holy Scriptures such as the 23rd Psalm and the
Lord's Prayer. But what I remember most about her was the aura of
peace she wore. I can still hear her whispering: "the peace of God
that passes all understanding . . . glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace to all men of good will . . . peace, peace, peace must begin
with me!" Each time I heard those words whispered so gently, it
seemed to me like a shaft of warm sunlight pouring straight into my
heart.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/12/22/content/christmas_stained_glass_sm.jpg" I did not understand it. Mine was only an intuition of what peace
might mean. And yet that intuition spoke quite clearly of favor and
goodness and hope far more powerful than any adversity I would ever
experience.
No matter where we are in our earthly pilgrimage, the peace of God
speaks to us. It is something not of this world, something that we have
desired and hardly tasted.
And yet we seek peace throughout our journey, even at times when we
do not recognize it as such. Sometimes we feel an intimation of
wholeness that we do not have, an inarticulate desire that we bring to
ourselves in those precious quiet times. In this sense, peace is present
by virtue of our need of it.
At other times, the peace we seek in our daily journey is only a
fragment of the real thing. We attempt to fill the void through an idea,
a hobby, a learned skill, music, art, sports, each always to find rest
for our souls, the fullness of which is found only in the peace of God.
So whether we celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa, we claim by
faith the totality of human peace in which we possess the delight and
favor of God. We may not totally understand it, but we begin to
participate in its glory.
This year as we celebrate our faith, we find ourselves faced with an
infinite number of crises in a society increasingly inundated by useless
information, beset with the constant titillation of consumerism, and
bombarded by images of violence and death.
The other day as I was trimming our tree, I took one of my favorite
ornaments and hung it carefully on the highest bough I could reach. It
is an ornament that is well over 150 years old. It is made out of small
glass beads wired together in the shape of a house. As a little boy, I
can recall Grandma hanging that ornament on our tree each Christmas. She
said that it brought back warm memories of her childhood in Sweden. Her
father always hung it near the top of the tree and reminded the family,
"This is our house . . . may the power from on high bless our home
with peace . . . for if there is peace in our home there will be peace
in the world."
As I placed that ancient ornament on our tree in this year 2006, I
heard Grandma's voice again whispering: "peace, peace, peace
. . . it must begin with me!"
And then I thought of the young people in our high school . . . of
children and teenagers around the world . . . our young men and women in
harm's way. Yes, the world is a mess. Peace is elusive. This is a
chaotic, frightening time. No swift solution is in sight.
SRC="http://www.mvgazette.com/news/2006/12/22/content/christmas_nativity_sm.jpg" But this is not the first time in our history that the human race
has faced a dismaying era. Think of the calamitous era of the American
Revolution, so terrible that many then could perceive nothing but chaos
and tragedy. And yet, a nation was being born. Virginians,
Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, New Englanders began calling themselves
Americans!
Don't tell me that all these years since have been only wasted
motion, getting us nowhere. Doors of opportunity are open that were not
here when I was born. The gifts of science can be turned to peaceful
purposes; the new worldwide proximity which has brought friction and
hostility can be transformed into neighborliness. God is not dead, and,
as for us, don't read the newspaper headlines and listen to the
evening news only . . . read the scriptures of your faith. The future
belongs to those who remember where they came from, who they are, whose
they are and where they are going.
Most of us consider ourselves to be peace lovers. And, in our own
way, we are peace lovers, living in a world where there is no peace.
Fighting, quarreling mobs shove their way up and down the streets of the
world and the whole world threatens to come unhinged. How we wish . . .
pray . . . hope that all of humanity would join in the angelic chorus
and sing: "Glory to God in the highest . . . peace on earth, good
will toward all . . . .
Maybe peace loving is insufficient . . . maybe that's why it
is a seasonal celebration. Peace loving may only be a beginning . . . we
need to become peace makers!
The best gift we can give to others is the gift we first must
receive for ourselves. Above all things we need that peace which
controls the storm from within, when we cannot control it from without.
During these days of celebration in 2006, let us rejoice, not in the
promise of peace, but in the gift of peace.
It has taken me too long to truly understand what Grandma sought to
teach me so many, many years ago . . . that good will comes before peace
and peace comes only if I remember to "love God with all my heart,
soul, mind and strength and my neighbor as myself . . . and . . . do
unto others as I would have them do unto me."
Peace seems like a dream . . . a far-off dream . . . like one of
those stars I gaze at in the night sky to get some personal perspective.
So much darkness . . . but my whole being drawn to that tiny speck of
light and I suddenly feel a sense of hope . . . I feel led . . . I feel
safe.
And you sophomores . . . bless you with a full measure of faith,
hope and love as you seek in your time to shatter the darkness with the
light of peace.
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