A Recipe for Peace

The lectionary passages from Isaiah for last Sunday and this Sunday (Isaiah 2:1-5 and 11:1-10) both speak of a coming reality we can only dream of right now – nations taking their weapons and turning them into tools to cultivate the land, and wild animals living in peace with children and those animals they normally would attack.

I particularly love the word ploughshares as it gives me a rich visual image of tilling soil to prepare it for growth that will nourish, and of those who previously were in conflict being able to share. How amazing! It is an image that can apply not only to international relationships and relations within differing cultures and groups in countries, but also to our communities and our personal relationships with family and friends, at church and work.

With the current political climate, not only in the US but around the world, we need this Sunday of Advent with its focus on peace. I am currently haunted by the pictures and stories from Standing Rock (that are few and far between in the media) of peaceful protestors protecting their water and land while being pepper-sprayed and water cannoned in freezing temperatures, with many being taken to hospital. If our kids and youth are seeing these images, their personal sense of peace and security is likely rocked. How do we help them to believe in the possibility of the images from Isaiah as a real hope for the future? Consider some of the following ideas:

1. Share the above Isaiah passages with them, or selected verses, and encourage them to savour the images and imagine these things happening. Explain any words that they don’t understand. Encourage your learners to draw pictures of what they think this time will look like when it comes. Talk about how many believe that the one referred to in Isaiah 11 is Jesus Himself. How does Jesus help us in conflict?

2. Make two lists, either individually or as a group. One is a list of places and people where your learners currently feel at peace. The other is a list of places and people that are stressful, scary or otherwise not peaceful. Talk about the differences between the two lists – why do they think certain places/people feel safe and others not? What is going on to make them feel that way? What would make them feel safe? It is possible that a place that feels safe to some does not for others, and this is a good conversation to have.

3. Find a copy of Dr. Seuss’ The Butter Battle Book (I recommend not showing the video) and read it to your group. What do they think of the butter side up vs. the butter side down debate? How are some of the things that we disagree with others about just as silly? Why does the story escalate so much? What would have made a different outcome to the story? What might change and resolve our own conflicts? What does it mean to agree to disagree?

4. Find or create something that can be a stump, even if it is just a 2D picture on the wall. Talk about how trees grow, and how amazing it is that a shoot could come out of an old stump. Talk about who Jesse is and how the shoot is likely Jesus. Did Jesus do the things listed in Isaiah 11:2-5? Is He still doing them? As part of Jesus’ church and His followers, can we do any of these things to help achieve God’s vision of peace? Cover your stump with ideas of how we can be peacemakers in the world.

5. Give your learners some situations of conflict to role play. Talk together about good ways to handle these as peacemakers and not so good ways. Some ideas to get you started: your sibling takes your bike without asking, someone tries to copy off you on a test, your lunch gets smushed on the way to school, you hear your neighbours fighting, kids in your class won’t let someone play with them, your teacher yells a lot

Ultimately, regardless of how great a lesson we offer on being a peacemaker, our learners will remember much more how we model it in our own interactions and living. Do we show patience? Do we complain about others when things don’t go our way? Do we help people in conflict to take a breath and listen to each other? Do we get on a bandwagon of gossip about someone? Our learners are watching us. No one is perfect, but admitting that it can be hard to always be a peacemaker is healthy and truthful.

Take time this week and on Sunday to pray alone and with others for peace in our troubled world. Pray that we all will light our own candles of peace in our lives so that we can be a beacon of safety and calm in the storm.