Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red-wing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and fresh mown
fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.

Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don’t wait another minute.

- Mary Oliver

I love these words from Mary Oliver. It’s mixed with so many different emotions about war, tragedy, nature, perspective, life. We are filled with sadness for what is happening in our world, but she gives us some ideas on how to live in it. We don’t just sit idly by, there are things we can do with the way we feel.

During this second week of Advent we focus our attention on peace, but it sometimes feels difficult to grasp peace amid a reality with so much turmoil and unrest in the world. This season, it might even seem more present with the war between Israel and Hamas. We learned this week that Christian leaders in Bethlehem, which receives so many pilgrims during this time of year, are canceling Christmas events due to the conflict. In a joint letter from church leaders of different traditions, they delivered a letter to President Biden saying, “Siege, violence, and war cannot bring peace and security. A comprehensive and just peace is the only hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike.” They are seeking peace wherever they might find help and hope. 

We long for the peace that Christ brings. We long for a world where things are set right, in harmony in the world that God created through Christ. As we look to the Nativity again this year and remember the difficult circumstances God entered the world in the person of Jesus, we also look forward to Christ’s return and the bringing of peace as all things are restored and brought back to God. 

In these in-between times, how can we bring about peace? There are terrible systems of war and violence that need to be torn down and dismantled, but there are also everyday things we can do to bring about peace in our own lives and communities. Let’s take some cues from Mary Oliver and think about what tools we have at our disposal. Let’s wage some peace together!