We sit together, eating and laughing, sharing and disagreeing, nodding and exchanging, we preacher folk – and it is good. Tonight we speak of peace. One among us opines that it’s not a quality he pursues much and I being to wonder at what we each mean when we speak of peace.
Is it the absence of war? That would be a nice start, but even better would be an end to the reasons for war.
Is it the absence of conflict? I don’t think so – peace and conflict can exist together, at least so I think.
Is it that marvelous state of being that surpasses human understanding? Maybe.
At the other end of the spectrum, I am beginning to think that it is chaos rather than the usual suspects which is the opposite of peace – the more-than-disorder absolute tyranny and terror of the not-knowing, not-known, not-knowable of that which is so much more than anarchy – that primordial before-there-was-even-nothingness thing –
In Genesis chaos is the very opposite of creating – structureless, orderless – and it is there, in the non-peace, that God acts.
But if chaos is not-peace, then what is peace?
Maybe it’s no more than strangers who might be friends sharing a meal, dipping invited into each other’s dishes, with a little bit of conversation thrown in.
It sure felt like it.
