Seeking Peace

In my home there are icons of several great believers, and one of them is the Desert Father Moses the Strong. Moses was an Ethiopian who was born into slavery, and before embracing Christianity he lived a ruthless life. Upon getting his freedom he started a gang of seventy thieves who robbed, raped, killed, and built an awful reputation. In fact, they came to be called the, “Terror of the Nile”, and authorities across Egypt set great bounties for their capture.

Peace is not the absence of trouble.

One day as Moses was on the run from a failed robbery, he hopped the wall of a monastery and hid within a cell. When the monk who lived there found him he welcomed him with blessings, and showed the notorious bandit an open hospitality. Overtime, Moses was touched by the life of the monastery, where everyone seemed to have a purpose and belonged. The monks possessed something that he had been longing and searching for. They had peace, which is more than the absence of trouble.

Finding Peace

Some Christians define peace as the presence of God, but I have learned through my own trials that it is something more earthly. For example, with the loss of my daughter Hope, which I mentioned in the first reflection, God’s presence alone brought little comfort to my wife and I. Don’t get me wrong, the truth of God being with us was a great aid, but it did not take away our feelings of being lost and alone. What took these things away was what Moses saw in the monastery; community and fellowship with the people of God.

Peace is no longer feeling lost and alone.

Community and fellowship gave us a sense of purpose and belonging, and, with the truth of God’s presence, calmed our fears and moved us forward. They also reminded us that trouble doesn’t last always, and that our pain was not permanent and perpetually unbearable. Through community we met fellow believers who had experienced our suffering, and showed us by example that there is life after loss. And through fellowship we experienced tangible support, or works of compassion by fellow believers who wept and mourned with us. Like Moses, we found peace among the people of God, and were able to weather the storm and come out on the other side.

Giving Peace

Along with “Emmanuel”, the presence of God through Jesus, peace is an integral theme at the heart of Advent. Its fingerprints are all over the moments just before Christ’ birth, and moments centuries before it in the days of ancient prophets. Mary and Joseph found community through a family in Bethlehem, who offered them the warmest room, the stable, in their home. Then Isaiah spoke of broken fellowship restored, and people having communion with one another and God.

Indeed, the fingerprints of peace cover the moments leading to Jesus’ birth, and during Advent we are invited by God to let them cover our lives. We are joyfully beckoned to offer community and fellowship to all people, and this includes those that we dislike and deem unworthy. Looking back to the story of Moses, who rightly deserved punishment, the monk saw his need for peace and did not hesitate to meet it. He did not push the robber out and close the door of his cell. Instead, he opened the door of community and with compassion pushed him into fellowship.

What people need and long for the most in our world is peace, and Advent calls us to meet this need whenever we see it. I pray that we would give it to all people as best we can, and in so doing reveal to them the One Whom we await. The One heralded by the Heavenly host that sang,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace…

The images featured in this post are by Scotty J. Williams.