Advent Week Three: Like....Peace, Man.

Philippians 4:4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Peace and hippies just go together like bad hair and the smell of patchouli but they hardly have the patent on the concept.  The people of God have been greeting each other with wishes of peace since time began.  In fact in Hebrew there is no translation for the word "Hello".  You can't say "Hi", "Howdy", "Hello" or even "Whazzzap!?" in Hebrew.  You say “shalom aleichem". This means "Peace be with you". The proper response is “aleichem shalom". This means "Unto you, Peace.".

In fact when one fails to respond "Unto you, Peace" it is considered an act of thievery as you have robbed someone of their peace that they offered to you.

Among the ancient (and present day) Jews this is seen as having two stages in this “peace making.” One stage is where the person asking states that he or she is ready to make unity between the two of them. Then the second person needs to respond that he or she agrees and also wants unity.

However, if one were to respond in the same way that the other person asked, “peace unto you,” it could seem that the blessing does not come from a personal desire, but rather it is just an approval of the other’s request for unity. Therefore, the person flips the order, “unto you peace,” to emphasize that, not only does he agree to the other’s desire, but he also wants this peace himself.

The one who is asking says “peace onto you.” Peace is mentioned first, because the first person knows that he wants the peace and is asking the other to agree. The responder says “unto you [plural] peace,” for he is the one to actually create peace and unity in the plural— between the two of them

That is a lot to pack into "hello".
Even more interesting: you say hello in Arabic (among Muslims) by saying as-salām 'alaykum, which means...you guessed it... "peace be with you."  Then you respond by saying, "wa 'alaykum as-salām" which means...of course, "unto you, peace".

So, where is all this peace?  The answer is there in Philippians today.  Paul says "and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ."  Human peace is a fragile thing that often shatters at the least little blow.  We need somewhere safe to put peace because six millennia of Jews and (later) Muslims wishing it to each other seems to have not done the trick.  If anything there is no conflict like the conflict of a broken peace.

So, we need somewhere safe to put our peace. Somewhere more reliable than the human heart.  Something more than our heartfelt, but ultimately limited wishes.  We need a safe. A vault.  An impregnable fortress. We need Christ. Christ keeps our peace safe two ways:

1.  Situation Non-Specific:  When we try to assert peace on our own it often depends on our situation.  I will be at peace/ feel at peace if situation "X" occurs and situation "Y" does not.  Christ tells us that when we trust in him completely it does not matter if situation "X" or "Y" occurs, but that we can trust in him completely to give us the strength to face ""X", "Y" or any other letter you can think of.
2.  Boundaries that are external to us:  So, why should I be at peace with that person over there, they do not fit into the boundaries that I have set for myself as to who I am comfortable with being at peace with. Maybe they are the wrong color, religion, political party...maybe they have done us some unthinkable wrong. We all have those boundaries.  But when we keep our peace locked with our hearts and minds in Christ we must accept his boundaries.  Remember he communed Judas and washed his feet on the night Judas betrayed him.  He prayed for the crowds as they crucified him.  He ate with tax collectors and hookers. When we keep our hearts and minds in the vault of Christ our boundaries evaporate. 

So, peace be with you... and not that wimpy human kind... May the peace of God keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.