This Advent season of waiting, watching, and hoping took on new meaning for me this year, as I underwent knee replacement surgery the day before Thanksgiving. I have been waiting and watching and hoping that my knee would strengthen and I would soon be able to resume my normal activities. Of course, this was not a passive waiting, as I had exercises to do and therapy sessions to attend, and I needed to pay attention to my body as I slowly became more and more mobile.
Whatever it is that we may be waiting and watching and hoping for this season, I invite us to remember that God wants to partner with us in the restoration of creation, and that the peace on earth promised by the angels will only come if we roll up our sleeves and get to work.
I was recently invited to participate in a podcast that highlighted the themes of peace and justice and hope in various Christmas carols. We concluded the conversation with the carol “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” which is an arrangement of a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the midst of the Civil War. In the midst of a string of personal tragedies and the death and destruction of the war, he recalled hearing church bells ringing on Christmas day. As he reflected on the central message of Christmas of peace on earth, good will to all, he wrote:
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.”
I am mindful of one of my favorite quotes from the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that “the moral arc of the universe bends toward justice.” I have come to believe that, while this is true, it doesn’t bend by itself. We all need to participate in the hard and holy work of building the relationships and networks that help bend the arc of the universe toward the vision of peace and justice and mercy that God has always intended for creation.
Perhaps another way to understand this is to recall that, while peace on earth, good will to all is a gift from God, we have to unwrap this gift, open it, and make use of what God has given us. Just as God needed Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and the magi to do their part in making the first Christmas come alive, God needs all of us to roll up our sleeves, use our gifts, and do what we can, actively waiting for the reign of God to break into our world.
In Christ,
Bishop Paul Erickson
