Advent Reflections #11: The What of Advent: Peace

The theme of peace at Christmas brings to mind the old hymn, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

The two middle stanzas of that song are so profound, the core of our existence, I think.  This was written before the Civil War, and I don’t think we appreciate the turmoil of that time.  Yet today hate is still strong and still mocks the song of peace on earth. 

The message of Christmas and the Christian faith is one that really takes faith to believe, not a mamby-pamby (I sound like an old codger now), uninformed easy faith.  God is not dead or sleeping or “watching us from a distance” (thank you to that great theologian, Bette Middler) or a “stranger on a bus, a slob like one of us.”  The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. Then there will be peace on earth, because righteousness and sin cannot coexist, not really.