It is fascinating how the readings for today, the Fourth of July, challenge us to think about peace. In a letter to his wife, dated July 3, 1776, the day before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams admitted that he was inclined to believe, as bleak as the times were, that “posterity will triumph” and suggested how succeeding generations would celebrate the Fourth of July festively. In more than 600 words, Adams did not once mention “peace.”
By the time fighting ceased on July 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, both sides had suffered terrible casualties. In his stirring address of fewer than 300 words the following November, Abraham Lincoln did not identify “peace” in the task before us or as a feature of the new birth of freedom he asked us to envision. Certainly, both Adams and Lincoln and all of us hope for peace, but we are well aware that democracy, for all its benefits, does not provide lasting peace.
Scripture reminds us today that lasting peace only comes from God. The prophet instructs those Jews struggling to re-create a civilization in the land around Jerusalem that peace is a goal that God provides. St. Paul encourages us through the Christians of Philippi that God sends a powerful peace mysteriously into our hearts and minds to protect us from anxiety and to enlighten us to live as Christ lived. Lastly, reliving the scene in John’s Gospel of Jesus imparting his peace, which he says is not the peace as the world gives. We ponder his words so that we may continue to believe.
