Of Peace

This is the second in a series of candle lighting liturgies focusing on the Advent themes of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 (NRSV)

One Advent, someone said to me, “I’m looking forward to finding out what peace is because I don’t really understand it.” I doubt I cleared it up for her. Like each of Advent’s themes, peace is difficult to describe. We cannot quantify it or point to it and say, “There it is!”

In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Maybe this is what peace is: abounding in hope.

As we light this candle of peace, we proclaim that Jesus’ power — calming storms, feeding the multitudes, raising the dead — is power that still lives today. It is the power to set our souls at peace.

And this peace has a fullness and weight that our circumstances do not warrant, and we cannot explain. But it is as real and true as the fact that we sit here together tonight. And embraced by this unknowable, unexplainable, indescribable peace, we can indeed say, “It is well with my soul.”