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| Edwards Hickes, Peacable Kingdom |
This morning, we lit the Candle of Peace, which reminds us that this is not only the Second Sunday of Advent, it is Peace Sunday. Peace is something we all hope for, but which always seems beyond our grasp. World War I was supposed to be the war that ended all wars. Twenty years later, an even bigger war took place. This year, Peace Sunday falls on December 7th, the day Franklin Roosevelt declared would live in infamy. Having visited the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor on two occasions, I felt the presence of those lives lost that day. But that war didn’t bring an end to human wars. Many more were to come. There were wars in Korea and then Vietnam. I remember in the 1990s, after the fall of the Soviet Union, there was talk of a peace dividend for the American defense budget. But that talk didn’t last long because war came to the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq. For nearly four years, we’ve watched the Russians devastate Ukraine, hoping to gain territory there, while the war in Gaza killed thousands and displaced thousands more. Nevertheless, even if peace seems to lie beyond our grasp, it remains something we should not only hope for but work for.
Perhaps the place to start on the path to peace is the Christian community, which, unfortunately, has too often divided into factions. Down through the centuries, wars of religion were commonplace. But Paul offers us a path forward toward peace that starts within the community of faith.
When Paul wrote his letter to the church in Rome, he was trying to introduce himself to a community that he’d never visited. He wanted to let them know what his message was before he arrived. Apparently, he had heard that problems were brewing in that community that centered around the relationship of Jewish and Gentile Christians. Since Paul had been engaging in a mission to Gentiles, bringing them into what had been a largely Jewish community, he felt the need to address the situation in Rome.
As I read our passage, I hear Paul addressing the Jewish Christians, reminding them what had been written in the Scriptures about God’s desire to bring Jew and Gentile together as one body so that together they might have hope in the God who is steadfast and brings encouragement. So, he offers a prayer for this community, praying that God might grant them the ability to live in harmony with each other in Christ, so that they might glorify the God and Father of Jesus.
When it comes to living together in harmony, especially when we face not only religious, but ethnic and social differences, it’s worth remembering the word Paul shared with the Galatian church regarding their baptism. In Galatians 3, we read:
As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 3:27-29).
Then in Ephesians, which may or may not have been written Paul, we hear this word about how Jesus breaks down the dividing walls that separate us from each other.
For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall that is the hostility between us. 15 abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. 17 So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, 18 for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; 21 in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God. (Eph. 2:14-22).
Did you hear the word about peace that is embedded in this rather lengthy passage?
The message we hear Paul deliver to the church in Rome is a simple one that reflects the message of Galatians and Ephesians, and as we’ve heard this morning, from Isaiah. That message is: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom 15:7). This is a timeless message that is as applicable today as it was when Paul first wrote these words.
As we ponder Paul’s request that the Roman church live together in harmony, we hear this other word from Isaiah 11, which Paul draws on here in Romans 15. He reminds the believers in Rome that Isaiah spoke of the “root of Jesse” who would bring hope to the Gentiles. That reading from Isaiah is beloved by many because it depicts a future where the lion will lie down with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid. It is a world where the righteous one will judge on behalf of the poor and the oppressed, and a child will lead the people. When that day comes, “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD.” That is the future we hope for, but it is also a future that has yet to emerge.
So, we come back to Paul’s word to the Romans, where he reminds the Jewish members of the church of the promise God had made to the ancestors, that the Gentile nations would experience the same hope as the Jewish people, so that Jew and Gentile might experience the glory of God.
When I read Paul’s reminder about the promise God made to the ancestors, I go back to the call of Abraham in Genesis 12. In that passage, God told Abram to pack his family and head out on a journey to an unknown land, so he and his descendants might be a blessing to the nations. When we hear the word Gentile in Romans 15 we should think of the nations Abraham was called to bless so that all Abraham’s descendants, Jew and Gentile, might glorify God.
When it comes to living in harmony, theologian Sarah Lancaster writes:
The ones who worship this God do not bring honor to God by fighting with each other and shutting each other out. Rather they bring glory to God when they imitate the model of Jesus Christ. It is in welcoming that we become like the one we follow. [Belief: Romans, p. 249].
I like the message that “It is in welcoming that we become like the one we follow.”
So, this is our calling as the people of God, whether Jew or Gentile. According to Paul, God is calling on us to bring glory to God by welcoming one another. The best way to do this is in the context of a community. In fact, I believe that if peace emerges in this world, it will have to start within Christian communities who learn to imitate Jesus by welcoming others into our midst. That starts with living in harmony with one another. After all, how can you welcome others into your midst if you spend your time fighting with each other?
This takes us back to the vision that Isaiah offers us. While Isaiah had in mind the Davidic monarchy, the early church applied this word to Jesus, such that he was the root of Jesse, on whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, so that he might judge with righteousness. Then we have this beautiful, almost utopian vision of the future, which has been pictured by numerous artists, perhaps most famously by Edward Hick’s 1834 painting “The Peaceable Kingdom.” We haven’t reached that point in our human journey, but this is our hope. This is our calling. After all, Jesus did say: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9).
As we continue the Advent journey, having lit the candle of peace, let us take hold of this vision of the one who is filled with the Spirit. This is the one who will bring into existence the realm of God, which is a realm of peace, where predator and prey lie together in peace. Let us go to God’s holy mountain where Isaiah promises no one will be hurt or destroyed, but instead will come to the full knowledge of God (Is. 11:9). On that day, Isaiah reveals, the “root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious” (Is. 11:10).
I close with this word from Paul’s letter to the Romans: “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.” (Rom. 15:13). With Paul’s prayer that God would fill us with “joy and peace,” so we might “abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” may we take hold of Jesus’ promise that the peace makers would be blessed and called children of God (Matt 5:9), and welcome one another so we might live in harmony and bring glory to God’s name through our worship.
Preached by:
Dr. Robert D. Cornwall
Pulpit Supply
First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA)
Troy, Michigan
Advent 2A
December 7, 2025
Image attribution: Hicks, Edward, 1780-1849. Peaceable Kingdom, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=53085 [retrieved December 6, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Edward_Hicks_-_Peaceable_Kingdom.jpg.
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