The Coming of the Light
Uncle Pastor Ray Minniecon reflects on the celebration, welcome, Joy and Hope we have in the coming of the Light of the World.
SUSY LEE
On the third day of Advent, 2022, Susy Lee reflects on raising a generation of good peacemakers.
Imagining Peace
The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!Isaiah 2:1-5
I never liked Christmas. As a child my divorced parents said we should choose which parent to spend Christmas with – and there are no winners in that game. But when I started following Jesus and had my own children, I got the chance to reimagine a peaceful Christmas.
Legendary Christian Peace Practitioner John Paul Lederach wrote in ‘The Moral Imagination’ that the first step to peacemaking is to imagine it’s even possible. This is the gift Isaiah gives us in this passage. We can imagine a time when there will be no more need of swords and spears because there will be no more war when the Kingdom comes!
Jesus of course fulfils and expands on this promise. We think of the Gospel as ‘Good News’, but when Jesus walked the earth, the good news he talked about was that he’d brought Isaiah’s imagined ‘Kingdom of God’ near. In this new Kingdom, there is forgiveness and reconciliation, and peacemaking is prized.
This is the now-and-not-yet hope that’s driving my life. I’ve chosen to align myself to this Kingdom and imagine a life where ‘no more war’ is possible. Violence is learned behaviour - we’re born to connect in relationship. In fact, in ‘Parenting for a Peaceful World’ Robin Grille says psychologists can predict the peacefulness (or otherwise) of a society based upon the dominant child-rearing practices of the generation earlier. So, if enough of us can imagine a life without violence, and raise our children accordingly, we can help the Kingdom come.
This is non-trivial though. Peacemaking activist Shane Claiborne says: “Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful, arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice.” To raise a generation of children up to this task we’ll need lots of discipleship and the Holy Spirit.
The theories about how to make peace are the same interpersonally and internationally – and they’re all about communication. This Christmas let’s make sure our kids know that Christmas is not just about toys and gifts, and it’s not even just about Jesus! It’s also about joining the Kingdom by learning how to communicate, how to resolve conflict, how to bring peace.
Let’s help our kids have conversations about making friends, about how to cope when we make a mistake, about finding forgiveness and fighting fairly. Let’s reimagine peace on earth by raising a generation of kids who can imagine living in the Christmas Kingdom.
You’ve heard it said that ‘charity begins at home’ … well I say so does peace. This will be my first Christmas as a Grandmother. I’m already reimagining Christmas again, with kids full of faith, hope and love.
Susy Lee is the prize-winning author of ‘Raising Kids Who Care: Practical conversations for exploring stuff that matters, together.’ After studying Psychology and Theology, she gained a Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies. Teaching from Kindergarten to University, she’s also had state and national education and consultancy roles in Aid and Development.
