angels, peace, and yoko ono

four days ago, as friday night turned into saturday morning, more people were gathered in churches around the world than any other time, except, perhaps, pascha.  and most of us heard the reading from the gospel according to luke, about shepherds "abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  and, lo, the angel of the lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.  and the angel said unto them, fear not, for i bring you tidings of good news which shall be to all people.   and suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising god and singing, glory to god in the highest, and peace on earth to  . . ."

and then we heard a sermon which probably pitched us the hope of peace, or the need to work for peace, or some such thing that is several notches below peace.  and now it's the following monday, and we go back to watching our sheep.

and we do not have peace.  more often than not, we are sore afraid.  we do not really believe the tidings of good news brought by the angel.  we rather look at peace as a promise, as a hope, something that perhaps will be helped along by a new arms treaty with russia, or killing pakistanis with bombs from drones rather than bullets from soldiers.

we do not take seriously the message of the angels:  "fear not . . . peace on earth . . . ."   bernard of clairveaux said as much in one of his sermons:  "notice that peace is not promised  but sent to us; it is no longer deferred, it is given; peace is not prophesied but achieved."  bernard goes on to say "it is as if god the father sent upon the earth a purse of his mercy . . . .  it was quite a small purse, but ti was very full.  as the scripture tells us, 'a little child has been given to us, but in him dwells all the fulness of [the holy one].'"

but we are sore afraid.  we do not open the purse.  rather than grow the fullness of the holy one in each of us, we teach one another the things of which we should be afraid.  when people ask us to join their war, we are more afraid of being called a coward than we are to follow the angels to the manger.

do you remember a famous photograph from a few decades ago now, with john lennon and yoko ono holding a sign that says, "war is over?"

it is easy to make fun of it, but it is the same message the angels brought.  we who would not want to listen to music that is "over," or watch a television show that is "over," or wear a coat that is "over," nevertheless continue to live in war rather than in peace.

how does one do that? one may ask.  the answer was the first thing the angels said, a thing that is said 366 times in the christian bible:  fear not.