The first time I heard that question, all of the participants in the conversation were under the age of twelve. We all looked from one face to another. Then came laughter. Many years later, the question was posed in a college classroom, and the budding philosophers in the room looked from one face to another, but we choked back the laughter, convinced that the professor was preparing to make a point. It was too early in the semester to know if and how he did that. It seemed a little risky to be “wrong” just by laughing because we didn’t know.
Reading God’s Word for this Second Sunday of Advent, we might ask,
“What comes first: justice or peace?”
Philosophers, theologians, politicians and any one of us could answer either way. One could make a fair argument that we must work tirelessly to establish genuine justice if we are to hope sincerely for peace. Another might also make the argument that without the context and a true spirit of peace the human heart is unlikely to be moved to work toward justice that will be sustained and will sustain each and all.
On this day in this season, the Scriptures seem to tell us that it is God’s gift of peace that makes it possible for us to work to achieve justice. Of course, it is very easy for us to think of true justice as residing only in God, not in us, and not in this finite, broken world of ours. True. But, what has God chosen to tell us? What has God chosen to accomplish in us and through us? What has God chosen to promise us? We are invited to see and hear what God gives as pure gift, and what God calls forth in us as the otherwise impossible.