Phillip Brooks was the Episcopalian priest who wrote the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem in 1868. This hymn reminds us of the salvation that first appears to us in the birth of Christ, who was named Jesus. God is now with us in this child called Immanuel, meeting our hopes and fears with peace.
Peace, however, can mean a lot of things these days. No more wars, no more fighting, and “Smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.”1 Or it’s just another word that means very little at all.
For Israel, the word “peace,” shälōm in Hebrew, has in mind a well-lived life. To have shälōm is not just to have a life free of violence and conflict but also a healthy and prosperous life. And unless I’m woefully mistaken, we all want this kind of peace. I’ve never met anyone who wants their life to turn out terrible.
In the United States, we stress the importance of doing well in school and eventually getting a good job. Ideally, a good education lead will lead to a good-paying job with all the necessary benefits for living a prosperous life—shälōm—until it doesn’t. What I mean is that most of us have had the privilege to obtain whatever education we sought and land a decent-paying job. Beyond our education and careers, we have more restaurants than we could ever eat at in a week and streaming apps that can deliver more music and cinematic entertainment than we could ever consume. If we’re honest, most of us live in bigger homes than we need and drive nicer vehicles than we need. Yet a Gallup poll released last February found that only 38 percent of Americans are satisfied; before the pandemic, that percentage was only 48 percent.2
The Incarnation is a new beginning because the redemption of God is now at hand in Christ. God’s peace is coming upon us because God’s peace is dwelling among us in Jesus Christ.
There are many reasons for such dissatisfaction, so we can’t blame the pandemic entirely. Also, I’m not trying to be critical of people who are struggling, but I think we need to remember that the peace we seek is found in Christ. It’s easy to forget this and seek peace elsewhere, in other entities—for example, the pursuit of education and jobs. Neither education nor a job is inherently wrong, but when we think they will bring a prosperous life, it becomes idolatry.
Idolatry, at its root, elevates creation above the creator.3 Micah knows that idolatry is a hopeless endeavor. Whether the idol has the form of a golden statue or just a portrait of Benjamin Franklin on a hundred-dollar bill, Micah knows idolatry is dire. So Micah wants to remind us from whom we find peace. According to the prophet, there is a ruler to come. So Micah says, “And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace” (Mic 5:4-5).4
As Christians, we believe this ruler is Jesus Christ. In Advent, we remember, as we sing in the hymn Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, “Glory to the Newborn King, peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.”
In his book Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller defines idolatry as “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”5 Now, if we’re honest, we all, at various times, make something other than God more important, allowing our hearts to be absorbed by that something because we think it will make life more enjoyable. Yet that peace comes only from God through his Son, who is born among us in the person of Jesus.
The Gospel of Matthew says that Jesus will also be called Immanuel, which means “God with us” (Matt 1:23). The Advent story does not say, “Come get right with God if you want peace.” It’s quite the opposite. The Advent story says that God comes to us in Jesus Christ. God is making the move in this story, and his move is made to dwell among us so that we can receive this peace, this shälōm, ourselves.
We’re less than a week away from Christmas, a day when we remember the birth of Jesus. The birth of a child is, in a sense, the beginning of new life. And so it is with Jesus for all of us. The Incarnation is a new beginning because the redemption of God is now at hand in Christ. God’s peace is coming upon us because God’s peace is dwelling among us in Jesus Christ.
So this Christmas and into the new year of 2023, if we feel like we’ve lost sight of God and placed something else above God, let God restore our vision. Let God refocus our attention on Jesus. Let Advent be an invitation to start following Jesus again and walk with Jesus into his peaceable kingdom.
Glory be to God the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, world without end. Amen!
“Get Together,” Music and Lyrics by Chet Powers, Performed by the Youngbloods, 1966.
Harry Enten, “American happiness hits record lows,” CNN, February 2, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/02/politics/unhappiness-americans-gallup-analysis/index.html (accessed on Friday, December 16, 2020).
Vinoth Ramachandra, Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission, rev. ed., Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2016, 104.
All scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition Bible, copyright © 1989, 2021 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.
Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters, New York City: Penguin Books, 2009, xix.