Advent- Peace

Welcome to the weekly Doolin Podcast, a ministry of Doolin United Methodist Church in Falls Church, Virginia. Each week, we share a short reflection on faith and life in community, exploring how God's grace moves among us and through us. We're glad you're here.

Hello, Doolin Church. It's me, James, your pastor. It's good to be with you on this, the second week in Advent. Advent, the second week began this past Sunday with the lighting of the peace candle. Now, I've been trying to bring a practical sense to what each one of the themes for the Advent weeks mean for us as we try to live into our lives?

What would it look like to have a practice based Advent peace in our lives. I want you to remember that the grounding of the word peace in our biblical witness in Hebrew would be shalom. In Aramaic, the language of Jesus, shlama, which essentially means wholeness, completeness. It is about right relationships, a sense of holy love, and justice reigning in the world. That's what peace is.

It's not the absence of violence, as so often we think. It's not merely quiet and polite. From a Wesleyan perspective, John Wesley would anticipate us practicing peace in real ways in our lives. And so I wanted to suggest to you some possible ways that you could make peace more real in your life, some practice space. What would it look like to take a five minute peace pause in your day, once a day.

Stop whatever you're doing. You could set a timer. It could be when you first get up in the morning. It could be after breakfast, after your shower, before you get in the car and go to work. If you have small children, it could be after they go to bed at night, if that ever quite happens.

I know that life can feel more chaos and less peace when we're alive, and particularly when there are little people running around us. So I don't know where you find yourself in that place, but what would it look like to have I'm suggesting a five minute peace practice, maybe one minute peace practice is all you can get. But once a day, slow down, sit down, stop what you're doing, all other things, perhaps close your eyes. And as you do, pay attention to your slow breathing, slow your breathing down because that brings calmness to you. It's actually directly a link between the back about 500 neurons in the back of your brain that have to do with your breath.

As you breathe more slowly, any anxiousness can begin to pass as we calm ourselves and our bodies down. And maybe you pray this prayer, Christ, make peace in me and through me. Christ, make peace in me and through me. Christ, make peace in me and through me. If you think about the Saint Francis prayer, you know, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace, but first of all, instrument of peace to myself so that I might bring peace to the places that I go.

And by peace, I mean a sense of wholeness, completeness, healedness, right relationship, connection to God and the earth and all of my neighbors in the world of all sizes, shapes and places. It's an opportunity. So give yourself a five minute peace practice during the day. Maybe a second practice that I'll offer to you is a peaceable conversation. Now, choose one relationship.

It could be a family or coworker, someone else you know in the congregation, a friend, and practice a conversation of peacemaking, take a peacemaking action. You have to say, hey, come have a peacemaking conversation with me. But when you sit with someone and you're listening to them, can you listen without correcting them? Not everyone speaks English the same way you do or whatever language it is, can you listen without correcting them? Or if they say something that you maybe even disagree with without interrupting, pushing back, can you simply listen to what they have to say?

For those who've wronged, can you apologize without being defensive about it? Can you apologize in a way that's truly an apology? I'm sorry for what I did. Not I'm sorry that you feel the way that you do about what I did because you're apologizing that they feel a certain way about what you did. If you can't really apologize without being defensive, then you know maybe that's not the way you want to make peace.

But can you simply open yourself up to say you're sorry, to ask forgiveness? Because that is a way of having a peaceable conversation. Is it possible to compliment instead of critique? Now, you know, all of us have the opportunity in our lives and particularly if we supervise people in our lives to offer critique. But what would it be like instead of offering critique to look for the places and the ways that you might complement the other?

Because that can lead to a peaceable conversation. And if you practice that enough, maybe more and more of your conversations will be peaceable. I'm not asking you to be somebody that you're not. There are going to be moments that you get wound up, But this week, I'm inviting you to practice peaceable conversations. Be intentional when you enter any conversation and let it be peaceful.

Now, what about peace for the world? Peace for the city in which we live, wherever you are watching this? What would it be like on your commute to work or if you're taking a walk, if you're in the city, city sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style, in the air, there's a feeling of Christmas. What would it be like as you walk in the city to bless the people you pass silently, mentally in your heart, Christ's peace be upon you. Christ's peace be upon you.

That's an opportunity to begin to see everyone that passes you in a different kind of way. They don't even know you're doing it necessarily but you know you're doing it. And suddenly the people that you pass on the street aren't just strangers, they're people that you're blessing as they pass you. They may not even believe in Christ but you know that the connective tissue of the universe is Christ. In Christ all things are held together.

And so as you pass someone, it's an opportunity in a practical way to put peace upon everyone you see. Christ's peace be upon you. And you're saying it to yourself, but it allows you to see that person with the eyes of Christ. And you don't know the power of even putting out that into the universe, of letting it be your prayer, how God might blend that space that you are there. Know, in the midst of a season that is chaotic and hectic for most of us, I can feel it.

As your pastor, I'll just tell you right now, lots of things going on in preparation for the season and trying to be prepared to share a good word and an insight with you at this time of year. Carries with it a certain amount of chaos and hectic busyness. And yet in the midst of that, there is a peace that comes. There is a peace that comes. When you gather with us for worship, whether you're watching online or in person with us in the sanctuary, Let yourself be caught up in the space of being with other people who are looking for the same kinds of things.

You're not alone. And perhaps there's a peace in the gathering of God's spirit in the midst of us all. So let our gatherings be a place of sanctuary for you, whether you're in person or online with us. What I pray for you is that the peace of Christ will take root in your heart this week, that it will become a way that you engage in conversation, a way you engage yourself as you wake up in the morning, that you pray for yourself, that you might be, you might have Christ's peace within, and that it might go as well through you into the world, that you might be peaceable in your conversations, that you might be peaceable to those you pass by blessing them silently to yourself. These are some ways perhaps to put peace into practice for you this second week of Advent.

It's been good to be with you. Remember how precious you are, that you are a gift, that this season is for you to celebrate, and I hope for you that you will find in this season the gift of God's presence and the gift of your own presence to be part of whatever celebrations you find yourself to be a part of. Thanks for joining me today. I wish you all the very best in this holiday, the gift of God to us all. Prepare your hearts for the love of God to pour out and the peace of God to pour out in and through you.

Until our next time together, all the best.