"Mountains Made Low" - Luke 3:4-6

2nd SUNDAY OF ADVENT – PEACE

“Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.  Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" ~ Luke 3:4-6 quoting Isaiah 40

In the Roman Empire, peace was understood as the absence of war within the Roman empire- pax romana.  This peace was maintained with brute force and many suffered under it.  Jesus, offered a starkly different understanding of peace - not as an absence of war but the result of living in loving relationship together.  Violence and war will cease, not when we manage to build up enough might to destroy our enemies, but when we all manage to put down our tools of war and love one another.

This Sunday, we celebrate the promise of Peace that Jesus brings to the world.  A peace that surpasses all understanding and transforms the world - it makes the crooked roads straight, the mountains low and enables us to live in a chaotic world without despair.  How can we be a community that contributes to the peace in our community?  Where around us can we act with love and mercy, rather than retribution and force?  Let’s imagine together, how our life together can help transform us and the world around us.

God bless the peacemakers,
Pastor Shannon