prince of peace

Sometimes I think I am a bit of a grinch. I do love Christmas, but in a very temperamental and unpredictable way. Even though I look forward to all of our fabulous Christmas traditions, such as traipsing through feet of snow to cut down a Christmas tree, celebrating Christmas as an immediate family one day early, and many other top-secret traditions, I can't handle Christmas music on the radio. Radio Christmas music makes me grumpy, a fact which has led to a week or so of profound silence in my life.

During one of these profound silences, I picked up my Bible that I have had all my life. As I have read through that Bible, I have underlined, circled, and starred some favorite verses. For really special verses I do all three. Some carefully marked verses about peace really caught my eye, especially because they relate to Christmas. Allow me to share.

Isaiah 9:6
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

When I learned rhetoric ages ago, the fact that the most powerful argument comes last in any persuasive speech was firmly ingrained into my very brain. Someday, when I have open brain surgery (hmmmm...) the surgeon will find a curious thing. He will look at my brain and see a few permanent physical impressions. "Norman conquest: 1066" will be the most noticeable imprint, closely followed by "delivery is the most important part of rhetoric" and "second strongest argument, other arguments, strongest argument." I don't know if that principle is at work here, but it is an interesting thought. Perhaps the title "Prince of Peace" comes last in the sequence because it is the most important name of Jesus? Perhaps the concept of peace is the most fundamental aspect of Christ? This suspicion is confirmed in II Corinthians 5:17-19.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."

The word reconciliation is obviously important here. Is this passage saying that the incarnation was a move of reconciliation on God's part? Jesus came to reconcile man to God? I think... yes. Not only does this passage provide insight into the incarnation, it also provides us with a charge. We are ambassadors with the message of reconciliation. We are to be reconciled not only to God, but to our fellow man. The message of Christmas, and indeed of the entire incarnation, is one of peace. When we are at peace with God and with others, we are living out the spirit of the incarnation--we are living the spirit of Christmas. I will take a spirit of peace over radio Christmas songs any day!