{"id":602,"date":"2020-11-29T09:20:54","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T09:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jointpublicissues.org.uk\/?p=8980"},"modified":"2020-11-29T09:20:54","modified_gmt":"2020-11-29T09:20:54","slug":"advent-1-prince-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/?p=602","title":{"rendered":"Advent 1: Prince of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

I felt like it was a dream, I told myself \u2018you are not seeing this, this is not happening.\u2019
When I was coming back there was a confrontation between the armed people and the military and I saw eight people lying dead by the side of the road, and I had to stay there for about an hour to wait for a ceasefire before I could go.
As the days went by I started seeing more of those things. And it is very common to see corpses on the streets. You are somewhere, and before you know it, somebody is shot. So these days it is commonplace to see killings, even in the streets. You don\u2019t even feel it anymore, you just tell yourself, \u2018okay, let me run from here before it becomes my turn. Let me run from here before what is happening to others comes to me.\u2019 It\u2019s becoming the normal lifestyle for us to see things like that.
We are so confused, so full of uncertainty. Day-to-day life in Cameroon is a nightmare.<\/em><\/p>\n

–    A member on the staff of the Presbyterian
\nChurch in Cameroon<\/p>\n

As Christmas approaches, the nativity story promises a
\nfamiliar message of peace. Nativity scenes depict a company of angels appearing
\nto shepherds praising God and proclaiming \u2018Glory to God in the highest heaven,
\nand on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.\u2019 It\u2019s hard to move
\nthrough the Christmas season without encountering a card or Facebook post with
\n\u2018Peace on earth and goodwill to all men\u2019 splashed across it. <\/p>\n

This message isn\u2019t without good reason. In Isaiah 9:6, God\u2019s people are promised a \u2018Prince of Peace\u2019<\/strong>: not merely a peace-bringer but the royalty of peace. In the Christmas story we witness the incarnation of such a promise: the prince of peace not found in an army general, national leader or world diplomat, but in a baby, born to bring unity to a world at war.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to forget that Jesus was born to such a world,
\namidst turmoil and persecution. Our nativity iconography often fails to depict
\nJesus\u2019 family fleeing hostile forces and living under a colonial power. And
\nyet, in Jesus we find a beacon of hope for a lasting and just peace \u2013 through
\nhis birth, his teaching, his death and resurrection. Throughout the teaching of
\nthe Bible, Jesus places a huge emphasis on peace: he warns against anger (Matt
\n5), puts peace at the centre of the beatitudes (Matt 5), and shows that human
\nneed overtakes conflict, such as in the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10).
\nHe even brings peace to the waves and the wind (Matt 8).<\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s death and resurrection serves as a fix to every
\nbroken relationship and every source of conflict, should we choose to engage
\nwith it, and his whole life lead up to this. Killed by a colonial power and yet
\nforever resisting violence, when Jesus bids farewell to the disciples, the
\nmessage he chooses to leave with them is one of peace:<\/p>\n

\n

\u2018Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.\u2019 (John 14:27) <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This message of peace can be a difficult one to carry in a
\ntime when war and violence are so normalised. Two thousand years down the line,
\nwe might still find it hard to locate this peace in the world today. We live
\namidst conflict \u2013 some seeming endless, some normalised for communities who
\nhave known nothing else. <\/p>\n

In Cameroon, conflict has become a more present reality in
\n2020. Stories such as this from the Presbyterian Church are disturbingly
\ncommonplace. So, for people like the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, what hope
\nmight we find in the Prince of Peace?<\/p>\n

If Jesus is the Prince of Peace<\/strong>, then are we, as followers of Christ, subjects of peace? If we are, it\u2019s important not to interpret that as something passive. In this difficult and violent world, we aren\u2019t just called to bask in the light of the peace which Christ brings, but to actively work to show it to more people around the world \u2013 just like Jesus did so many years ago.<\/p>\n

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon certainly treats the
\npeace-making theme of the Bible as a mandate for actively seeking change.
\nCameroon is a country that\u2019s grappled with colonialism and war, violence and
\noppression. The message of peace which the Church aims to bring to the
\nAnglophone region is not an easy or popular one. But the Church is working
\ntirelessly to pursue peace in their area, however difficult a mission that
\nmight be.<\/p>\n

They have coordinated ecumenical work on dialogue, calling
\nfor a ceasefire, including
\na call from the women of Cameroon for peace in the region.<\/a> On International
\nDay of Peace, the sermon given in the service they held was based around Psalm
\n34:14:<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cTurn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is more than a wish for peace: it is a call to action.
\nAnd it\u2019s what Jesus did, bringing a challenging message to a place which had
\ngrown accustomed to the day-to-day violence of colonialism and oppression.<\/p>\n

A God of Peace is a God of Justice. Justice can never be
\nobtained without the space for dialogue created by peace, and peace will not be
\ntrue and lasting without a just foundation. As God\u2019s people, we are called to
\nfollow that commandment from Psalm 34: seek peace and pursue it. In Cameroon,
\nthe Church is active calling for a ceasefire and a dialogue. Even from
\noverseas, we can fully support that call, through prayer and through advocacy.
\nBut peace comes in many forms. We can start in our local communities, our
\nfamilies, and our lives. Where would you like to see peace this Christmas? How
\ncan you recognise the Prince of Peace in the God that you worship?1<\/p>\n

Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n

How could you create peace in your community this Christmas?<\/p>\n

How can we build space for prayers for peace into our
\nroutines?<\/p>\n

How can the church support those living in conflict
\nworldwide?<\/p>\n

Prayer <\/strong><\/p>\n

God of Justice and Prince of Peace
You ask us to seek after peace and pursue it.
We thank you that you are the source of all peace,
And that you bring peace where there is conflict, safety where there is danger.
Help us to create space for peace in our own lives,
And comfort those who have lost loved ones to violence.
We pray for the churches in Cameroon,
That you might bring your peace and justice to that place.
Remind us that we must be active in our search for peace.
Amen<\/p>\n

Find all of our Advent 2020 Sunday reflections here.<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Advent 1: Prince of Peace<\/a> appeared first on Joint Public Issues Team<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I felt like it was a dream, I told myself \u2018you are not seeing this, this is not happening.\u2019 When I was coming back there was a confrontation between the armed people and the military and I saw eight people lying dead by the side of the road, and I had to stay there for […]
\nThe post Advent 1: Prince of Peace appeared first on Joint Public Issues Team. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-urc-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/standrewsurcrustington.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}