At the time of Jesus' birth, the Roman Empire ruled most of the Mediterranean Region. Their wars of conquest had been won and there was an era of general stability. This absence of conflict came to be known as Pax Romana.
But there is a stark contrast between how empires achieve "peace" and how Advent says peace will come. Whereas Rome achieved peace as a result of brutal conquest and domineering power, the Kingdom of God promises peace through nonviolent love.
Before Jesus was born, his mother Mary sang about this contrast. In the ways of kingdoms and empires, the rich and powerful had their way - at the expense of everyone else. But Mary said that the Kingdom of God would both liberate the oppressed and free the oppressor from the dehumanizing cruelty necessary to achieve and maintain their position.
In doing so, she echoed centuries of Jewish prophecy about God's Kingdom. Similarly, the angels announcing Jesus' birth declared, "Peace on earth and good will to ALL." Jesus' cousin John the Baptist preached that this Kingdom of God was at hand.
Jesus' teachings furthered revealed this entirely different theological and political worldview. He said that those who fancy themselves powerful and holy will be corrected while those who are trampled by the self-exalting will be blessed.
This message of nonviolent love delegitimizes the power structures of empire. Accordingly, it was viewed as a threat. Herod massacred a generation of Jewish boys in the effort to stop it. The teachers of the law, who collaborated with the occupying Romans in order to maintain their elite level in Jewish society, begged for the empire to crucify Jesus because his message was so subversive. Ultimately, he was executed on the empire's tool of capital punishment, the cross.
Fast forward 2,000 years and we see that, though the context and parties involved differ, the same struggle persists. Much like Pax Romana required brutal conquest, so does our current imperial force; Consumerism.
This imperial power has gained it's preeminent status through conquest, utilizing both hard and soft power. Consumerism's victory and ongoing dominance requires the brutal conquest of ecosystems, nature, indigenous ways of life, spiritual mysticism, the inborn, hard-wiring of human beings to cooperate and bond in community, our sense of place and integral belonging to the world around us - the list could go on endlessly.
In contrast, the Kingdom of God teaches that all things will be renewed and restored. It says that it is better to give than to receive. It teaches that it is more important to help the weak and lowly than to trample whomever gets in your way while looking out for #1.
So this year, let's try to cut through the glossy layers of sentimentality and materialism that have been caked on top of the radical, subversive message of Advent's Peace. Let's try to read it with fresh eyes and listen to it with fresh ears. What might the implications be of such a revolutionary message?
