‘Peace on earth’ (Luke 2.14) is a well-known Christmas text that is often read with a feeling of slight disbelief.
In what sense did Jesus bring peace on earth? If he did what he claimed he would do, why is it that we still have ‘wars and rumours of wars’ (another biblical text that hints that the first text is not to be understood woodenly)?
For and against globalism
This sort of much-parodied, overly familiar discussion, particularly around Christmas, is becoming ever more relevant as Christian or formerly Christian societies (those influenced by Christian values) seek to find new ways either to project a virtuous globalism or to retreat from global influence. There was Brexit. There is Trump. There was almost a similar kind of vote in the recent elections in France, though in the end the vote went decisively a different way. Where is the hope for ‘peace on earth’, peace on this globe, global justice? When will the lion lie down with the lamb – and what is the place and role of the gospel, the church, in advancing such a movement?
We must all live with this tension of (what theologians call) ‘the now and not yet’. Christ has come; Christ is coming again. In the meantime, we advance the kingdom, seek first the kingdom, and yet also live in a world where there is pain and disease, wars, and much that is very far from peace on earth.
City of God
If you ever need evidence that we live in a fallen world, just look at the keys in your pocket. Boundaries, borders, locked doors and locked cars, barriers all, are not by happenstance: in this world, thieves do break in and steal, and governments and human institutions of authority have the job of providing just protection; while the church has the job of proclaiming Christ and living Christ. We are his hands and feet, his body, in this world.
In fact, the one great hope for global peace is the city of God – the kingdom, the church. Now an embassy representing another country, a kingdom not of this world; then one day revealed fully as the ‘holy city’– ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men’. No other institution will last into eternity; other communities based around humanistic ideals will be shown to be towers of Babel; but as for the church of God, God’s people, one day ‘he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more’.
