Christmas in November, and Always

On that very first Christmas, the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus,

Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men! (*1)

Isn’t peace and good will the very thing we need as an antidote to our Donkey Elephant war?

Our culture has been preaching tolerance for decades. How’s that working out? I, for one, don’t aspire to be tolerated.

“Honey, how was your day?”
“It was a great day, dear. I felt thoroughly and consistently tolerated.”

nativity.jpg

Peace, especially the Biblical kind, is what we need far more than tolerance. The Hebrew word for “peace” is shalom, and it implies wholeness and justice, that wrongs have been righted. Shalom peace is far more than a temporary ceasefire. As a friend suggested over lunch yesterday, perhaps one of the reasons our calls for tolerance have led us to even greater hostility is that they’ve just buried the conflicts deeper. If I believe I must tolerate something or someone that I’m inclined to react negatively toward, I most likely simply suppress my thoughts and feelings. Like tamping down gunpowder, that simply makes the future explosion bigger.

In his final thoughts before giving his life, Jesus didn’t pray for greater tolerance. He prayed for deeper love. Not only did Jesus address the culture’s deepest conflicts, He absorbed them in his body on a cross. From birth to death, Jesus was the Prince of Peace, and exactly the influence we need in our day. Ironically, that exact title was spoken prophetically of Jesus some 700 years earlier by the prophet Isaiah. Tell me if this doesn’t sound like Good News, not just on December 25 but all year round:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,
And the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called Wonderful Counselor
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace
There will be no end. (*2)


Dave Drum