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For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. (Ephesians 2:14-16)
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I was once at an ecumenical gathering where one of the giants in leadership among the group, a learned Reverend Doctor, declared that Christians have no business talking about peace. \\xa0\\u201cWe Christians are the problem!\\u201d he said. \\xa0\\u201cFrom the crusades, to colonial campaigns, to bloody religious wars during the reformation, to residential schools\\u2014Christians have little track record to draw on when it comes to peace.\\u201d

He's not wrong. \\xa0Christians haven\\u2019t often been agents of peace and reconciliation. \\xa0Not even in our own lives. \\xa0How many times haven\\u2019t you or I added bricks to the walls of hostility that divide us from others? \\xa0Even our efforts at good produce unintended harms more often than we\\u2019d like. \\xa0So maybe this Christian leader is right and we don\\u2019t have anything to say when it comes to peace. \\xa0We\\u2019re just as much part of the problem as the next person.

And yet, the statement of this Christian leader also somehow rings hollow. \\xa0If followers of the Prince of Peace can\\u2019t talk about peace, who can? \\xa0

It is an urgent question. \\xa0Violence continues to erupt all around us, most recently embodied in the war in Gaza. \\xa0Can we speak peace into this situation, tainted though our actions have been? \\xa0Closer to home, there are relationships that are broken and breaking. \\xa0Can we speak a word of reconciliation\\u2014of forgiveness or confession\\u2014despite the fact that we ourselves have helped fortify walls of hostility?

When it comes to these questions, Paul sets us back on the right foot. \\xa0He affirms that yes, left to ourselves, we are indeed dead in our transgressions. \\xa0Our history is littered with sin, discord, and division. \\xa0Thankfully however, peace was never about our action. \\xa0It is about the action of Christ. \\xa0

He is our peace. \\xa0He is the one who tears down the dividing walls of hostility and destroys the barriers. \\xa0He is the one who unites deeply divided ethnic groups into one new humanity within his church. \\xa0And he does it through his cross where all the hostilities we can muster are put to death\\u2014whether the hostilities of our past, present, or future. \\xa0All of them die in the death of Christ on the cross. \\xa0His victory over human hostility is total. \\xa0None of it survives, such that what remains, is peace. \\xa0The peace he gives to us all as a gift in this new resurrection life.

This is the reality in Christ which will be made fully manifest at his second coming. \\xa0For now though, amidst the continuing hostilities of our lives and world, take heart that we Christians can still speak of peace. \\xa0The way we do it is not by pointing to ourselves, but to Jesus\\u2014reminding ourselves and others that \\u201che is our peace.\\u201d \\xa0And, where Jesus is present among us and his cross evident through us, glimpses of that peace still come.

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