Bible and Mission

  The second week of Advent focusses on peace.   I suppose that the first week’s focus on hope hits us first in a more personal way.   I say, ‘I hope’.   But when we speak of peace, we often have grander notions in mind, like peace in the Middle East or in Ukraine.   In today’s lesson, we will start with the idea of peace on earth but end up with a focus on the peace of the Church, in our families, and in our own lives. Governments We have heard the phrase, ‘Peace through strength’.   It is perhaps most associated with policies of governments during the Cold War, but ‘peace through strength’ was the heart of imperial Rome, the pax Romana .   The first emperor, Augustus Caesar, boasted that he had brought piracy under control and fought numerous wars to establish peace in the empire. Yet we have learned to fear governmental power.   An article just yesterday, entitled ‘Slipping through our fingers: How democracy is being eroded’, mentions mul...