This will be two advent reflections in one as all my intentions last week to write for the week of peace have been delayed to now.
peace
I started the week of peace a bit of confusion, trying to distinguish it from the previous week of hope. I remember asking myself on Monday morning,
How is this any different from my previous longings in the midst of all the world conflicts going on?
How will my Advent longing for peace be accented?
Peace sometimes seems like a lofty and distant reality but during this week, I came to realize how close the lack of peace is in my circles. Friends who are separated by severed relationships. Past hurts that are deep enough to keep them from being in the same room. Friends feeling the need to attempt/attend another Blue Christmas service. If we remember that Jesus came to bring peace, am I, as one who desires to be like him, also pursuing peace in these areas? to be an agent of peace in places where peace is lacking? I don’t know if my answer right now is a ‘yes.’ It’s more a ‘yes’ today than it was a year ago, but it’s still in process. I have to admit that peace isn’t even in me yet.
joy
On a positive note, I’ve got to experience a bit of joy as the weeks wind down to our holiday break. I’ve been learning about different cultural expressions for this Christmas season through the seminary’s Bible for Life course. They are very much not my traditions but I really loved hearing about posadas in Mexico and the Three Kings celebrations by the Puerto Rican community in NYC. Their practices of going door to door visiting homes and shops… if that’s not an expression of joy, I don’t know what is. At the holiday party last night we got to do a version of it singing and chanting with hand drums in the street outside our office following it with (ironically) Silent Night outside the seminary’s St Luke’s building. Joy.