PEACE SUNDAY–FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Luke 21:25-36 (and Luke 17:20-21)
Advent is a time of waiting and preparation at the same time that it is a time of active assurance. We proclaim that we look forward to the coming of the Prince of Peace while acknowledging that he has already arrived. We must hold these two ideas in creative tension. Too much “it’s not here yet,” and we might give in to despair, and fail to act as agents of peace in the world around us. An overabundance of “it’s here already” could lead to complacency and cause us to accept the worlds systems and structures as they are. Advent requires us to acknowledge and see the world God intends for all, while actively living in that world now as a faith community. As in Stuart Kauffman’s notion of the “adjacent possible,” peace happens through our next thoughts and actions. Our Advent proclamations remind us that we are called to faithfully live out of and into what, by the grace of God, already is.