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Final12-11-07 Peace and Goodwill

Peace on the earth, goodwill to men (or peace to men of good will). Luke 2:14.

The ancient texts, my biblical scholar tells me, leave some ambiguity as to whether God is wishing peace and goodwill to all of us or whether His peace is just for those who have goodwill. I choose to think of this in terms of the inclusiveness of the New Testament. We are charged to reach out with peace and goodwill to everyone and that is what the Christmas spirit really is. But I fear our society is veering otherwise.

Starting with the Reformation this became a sore point as Catholics took one side and Protestants the other but it is ambiguous. If for some strange reason, you should care, it boils down to whether the word for goodwill is in the nominative or genitive case. The ancient texts in Aramaic and Greek are just not clear. If you are really up to date on biblical studies, I can tell you the Anchor Bible also says it is ambiguous.

But I don't really know who took which side nor do I care. It is a fine point of exegesis and the kind of thing that theologians come to blows over, which is ironic since the point is really peace and goodwill, however you parse it. Theologians, like all other professions, have not always been a credit to their subject matter.

Peace and goodwill are what God is talking about here and what we should be thinking, talking, and praying about during this Christmas season. I see peace as an inner quality reflecting that we are right with God and our fellow man. Good will is the extension of that peace, the reaching out, to those around us. This is the peace and goodwill we extend when we voice the Christmas spirit with "Merry Christmas".

The recognized loss of that inner peace is trivialized with the accusation of some kind of War on Christmas. The supposed conflict where religion and the Christ child are fighting with secularism and Santa Claus is a case in point. In one sense, it is true that the commercialization of Christmas into a shopping orgy is anything but peaceful. It can become a gross contradiction of the simplicity, poverty and peace of the newborn Jesus.

In another sense, and the way we should see it, all the Christmas presents constitute peace offerings and the extension of goodwill. Then the spirit of Christmas, even if disguised as Santa Claus, can be recognized in the goodwill of the gift and Christmas becomes what it is supposed to be.

However, the erosion of peace and goodwill in our society is real and reflects a growing lack of trust. The peace of Christmas can only exist where we trust one another. We can't be right with or extend goodwill to those we do not trust.

This lack of trust has many sources. Too many want to exclude all those we disagree with as untrustworthy and therefore unworthy of sharing the peace of Christmas.

Another problem is that there are ever fewer people whom we know well enough to trust. Our society encourages individualism and independence and discourages the community and sharing that build understanding and trust.. That inner peace becomes an ever more rare attribute. There are ever fewer shared communities where we learn and express trust.

Finally, we are daily fed stories of institutional corruption in our business and political communities. There are wars and rumors of war. Or the stories tell us of school or mall shootings and senseless road rage. All of these undermine of peace and goodwill.

Christmas is a family feast, a time when we go to those whom we know and trust in order to renew our stock of peace. Aside from those who have a faith community, the family is about all we have left.

Somehow we have to find a way to trust one another. Extending peace and goodwill will be difficult in a year when political stakes are very high, when our economy is in a precarious state, and when there is talk of a permanent war.

In this Christmas season, we are called to reach out with a greeting of peace to all of those around us and generate the goodwill that will lead to a Happier New Year for all.