Getting Ready for Something More- Peace on Earth


By Rev. Rob Corum, Director of Prison Ministries for the Nebraska Synod
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to all.  For many people, that is what Christmas is about, what makes it worthwhile, even for those who don’t follow Jesus.  It’s what the world needs, and a Christmas refrain often seems to be the lament that we can’t live like that all year. 

There is a famous painting by Edward Hicks called “The Peaceable Kingdom.”  It is his vision of the future God promises in Isaiah 11 after a child comes and judges the world with righteousness.  In the promise, the wolf lives with the lamb, the calf and lion are led together by a little child, and so on.  None shall hurt or destroy, because the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord! 

Hicks lived in a time of westward expansion by European settlers in the “New World,” which resulted in a lot of conflict with the people who lived here already.  His painting not only shows all these animals – predators and prey, even baby animals and baby humans – but also adult humans, European and Native Americans, sitting together and talking peaceably. 

Sin in all of us (not just European settlers of the 1800s) makes us want to protect what we think is “ours” or feel a need to gain at the expense of others, especially others who are not “like us.”  That is our way, the way of conflict. 

And then there is Jesus’ way, to give up a cushy throne and take on the life of powerless people who are not like him, live that life out to its natural conclusion (death at the hands of the powerful), and then overcome, peaceably. 

I know most of our society is focused on Christmas right now, the approaching remembrance of the birth of Jesus as one of us, a helpless baby even, in a world of selfishness and “might makes right.”  It is good that we can stop once a year and remember what Jesus already did. 

But in the Church at this time of year (Advent), we are getting ready for something more.  We look at the darkness and remember Paul’s words, “You know what time it is” because we see a light in the darkness.  We are reminded of what Jesus’ kingdom looks like, and we get ready for it, especially at Advent (not just Christmas), by seeking to live in that peace, even on this earth, with goodwill to all.



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