We will soon be singing Christmas songs full of joy and goodwill and love and peace. Someone asked some little children what love is and one said, "Love is what you hear in the house at Christmas time if you stop opening presents and listen for a while" (from PreachingToday.com, May 15, 2002). That is important to us, isn't it? That is really the way we want it to be.

But that is not always the way it is. There are estrangement and againstness and hostility in our world and it is especially painful to us at Christmastime. Maybe there is some tension between some people you love, some friends getting a divorce, some members of your family who are in conflict with one another - or maybe one who has separated from the family for some reason. That is always painful but it is especially painful at Christmastime when we want everyone we know to be part of one happy circle of love. It is really painful when you are one of those who are in conflict with someone who is important to you. Are there people or groups in your circle who are set against each other at your office, in your club, or in your church? Don't you wish that everyone could get along?

And what about your community? Are there tensions between racial groups or economic groups in your community? Some conflicts can be really dangerous as well as painful. There always seems to be a war going on somewhere in the world, and recently it seems that our country is always involved in it in one way or another. The whole world is grieving because war is raging in the part of the world that we are accustomed to calling the "Holy Land." Not long ago, the Church of The Nativity, the place where tradition tells us Jesus was born, was occupied by one group of combatants and besieged by another group. Do things like that break your heart, as they do mine? Especially at Christmastime, we wish that everyone could learn to get along and to live in peace with one another. We wish there really could be peace on earth and good will among all people.

But that is more than just a Christmas wish. It is a part of the Christmas promise. It is a part of what we are invited actually to hope for, especially in this season of expectancy.

It was a part of Paul's vision of the saving work of God that God is working to overcome all of the divisions between the peoples of the earth and to gather them into one harmonious whole. The letter to the Ephesians speaks of God's "plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). Paul was especially concerned about the hostility that existed between Jews and Greeks in his society. It was a bitter division that could turn violent. It was probably that hostility that eventually caused Paul's death. But Paul found that conflict very painful because he loved both his own people, the Jews, and the people to whom he was a missionary, the Gentiles. He yearned for their reconciliation and he believed that it had been accomplished, or at least made a real possibility and as a part of God's promise, through Jesus. Again in Ephesians, we read, "He is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us" (Ephesians 2:14). And in the letter to the Galatians, Paul shares his vision for something that God was causing to be true, first in the church and then in the world. "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).

In our scripture lesson for today, we are coming near the end of Paul's greatest letter. He has witnessed to the good news of God's saving work with great power and clarity. Then he moved into several chapters having to do with the practical matters of living out that faith in the real world. As he approaches the end of that section, he quotes three lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures that point forward to a reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles. He makes this a part of the hope he is leaving with his readers. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). He also makes it a part of the faith they are called to live out in their lives in the real world. "May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 15:5). Paul sees the reconciliation of humankind as a part of the vision of the good future toward which God is moving us and also a part of the hope that should already be shaping our lives.

But what does that offer us in our real world today? What can it have to do with those real conflicts that are making our hearts hurt right now? And what can we do about it?

First, believe the promise and claim the hope that there can be peace. When we talk about the conflict in the Holy Land, we often hear people say, "Those people have been fighting over there for thousands of years and they always will." We can't let ourselves give up to that. Peace is still a real possibility for those people and for all people because of something that happened in that very land. You have heard that the Bible says, "There will be wars and rumors of wars." Look that up in Matthew 13:7 and you will find that Jesus did not say that wars are parts of the plan of God but rather that, when we hear of wars, that does not mean the world is coming to an end. God is at work in the world to bring peace. Believe that peace can happen in this real world. Believe that it can happen in your community and your church and your family and in your life, too. If we don't believe that peace is possible, it won't be. It is part of the promise of God. Trust the promise and live expectantly.

Paul believed that, in the church, all kinds of people could and should be reconciled and live together in mutual love. He spent a lot of time talking about that because he thought it was important. Paul believed that the church should live in the world in a way that would be both an example and an agent of the new possibility God offers to the whole world. Yes, there will be problems. But they can be worked out. Paul gives lots of practical guidance about how to do that in this last half of the letter to the Romans. Sometime, read Romans 12 and see how much practical help it offers. Yes, there will be differences within the church; differences of "gifts," differences of disposition, differences of opinion. Paul believed that there is room for difference within the church. When different people live together in love, the differences become sources of enrichment and creativity. Loving harmony in the church is important. It is worth working for because the church is called to live in the world as a "beach head" of God's new age.

It is important for us to take seriously the possibility of reconciliation and love in our own personal lives and relationships. The place to start is with being reconciled to God. The problem behind the problem in many of our conflicts is some incompleteness in ourselves, some bitterness, some anxiety, some lack of self-esteem that makes us defensive. As we move into a trusting relationship with the living God, we will find God healing our hurts and taking away our bitterness, replacing our anxiety with the ability to trust, affirming our personhood with God's love, and, in more ways than we can list, moving us toward wholeness. With wholeness will come the freedom to take the risk of venturing out into relationship. A healthy self-love will tell us that we should not allow ourselves to be abused or exploited, but the possibility of a better relationship is worth the vulnerability that comes with reaching out to others. The others to whom you reach out may not be ready for peace, but, as Paul said, "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all" (Romans 12:18).

The next step is actually to become a peacemaker. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9). Reach out to work for reconciliation every chance you get. Most of us think, "How could I be a peacemaker?" Let's think about that.

We could start by trying to be reconciled to those people with whom we are in conflict in our personal lives and relationships. You know who those people are, don't you? They are the people who once did something hurtful to you and whom you have not forgiven. They are the friends or relatives from whom you have grown away. They are the people with whom you are in conflict over some significant issue whom you have allowed yourself to think of as enemies. That is the place where peacemaking can be most difficult because you will have to overcome bad feelings, not only in yourself, but in the other. And reaching out to try to be reconciled may result in your being hurt again. We really feel the things that go wrong in this area of our relatedness. We are tempted just to leave those relationships broken so that we won't risk being hurt again. But it is reconciliation at this level that brings the most immediate reward. And if we can't make peace in our own relationships, how can we hope to make peace in our world? How would it be if we each made a list of the people with whom we need to be reconciled and made some effort to offer a hand of friendship to each of them during this happy season? How would it be if we each sent a Christmas card to each of the people on our lists with some message of genuine warm wishes written in it? Maybe nothing would come of it. Maybe it would get an unpleasant response. But maybe it would be the beginning of a reconciliation that could make both your life and theirs better.

Then we should look for ways to move out into the community in which we live and do the work of a peacemaker. What would happen if every time you hear someone "bad mouthing" someone with whom they are in conflict, you would say something like, "You know, you folks need to get over this and work things out"? What would happen if every time you hear someone depersonalizing and berating members of another race or group, you would say something like, "They are people just like we are"? Or "Have you tried to see things from their point of view?" You might take some flack for doing that, but then, you might do some good, too. Look for every opportunity to help people work out their conflicts.

Christian people and Christian churches ought to be actively involved in working for peace in communities and in the world.

There are lots of things a church can do to help bring reconciliation between groups in a community, from helping to establish a climate of opinion that wants peace and justice, to facilitating conversations between conflicting groups and sometimes actually acting as mediator. If there is anything the church can do, we ought to do it. It is part of our mission.

Is there anything we can do to help to bring about peace between nations in conflict in our world? We can teach the way of love that Jesus taught us. It actually can become a strategy for moving toward peace. There was a time when we might have thought that the solution to the world's problems would be to convert everyone to the Christian faith. Every Christian will want to share the faith that has brought him or her to fullness of life with every person he or she can. But in today's world, massive attempts to convert people of other religions to ours could be a source of greater conflict, not less. And, sadly, the situation in Northern Ireland and in some other places leads us to know that having everyone professing the Christian faith may not be the same as having everyone living the life of love. We should, however, do all that we can to teach all nations, beginning with our own, the way of respect for others, commitment to justice for all, and willingness to dare to trust and to work toward reconciliation. A certain Hindu by the name of Gandhi once took the principles taught by Jesus and used them to change the course of the history of his nation. We could also use them to change the history of the world. It may be necessary for us to become involved in the politics of peace. Sadly, it is necessary for nations to be ready to go to war. But war never accomplishes peace. We can do all we can to influence our nation not to believe that military might and economic intimidation can solve the problems of the world and then go on to discover and then do the things that actually can.

Peace is a real possibility in our lives and in our world. God is working to accomplish it. And there are things that we can do to participate in what God is doing. There is a church building, actually, it is a German army base chapel in Landsberg, Germany, that preaches an architectural sermon on reconciliation. As people enter the courtyard through the steeple, they pass a display of massive wooden plaques hung on the wall, each saying in one of the many languages of the world, "Be reconciled to God." The building preaches other symbolic sermons as worshipers are led finally to the altar behind which is a banner with an abstract representation of Christ on the cross with the hands of people of all colors reaching out to him and the words that say, in German, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). The chapel itself is a witness to the possibility of reconciliation.

In a few weeks, when we again hear the scriptures read in which the angel spoke of peace on earth and good will among people, we may still experience sadness because we know that the peace we wish for has not yet come to our world or to our families or to our lives. But sadness will not have to lead to despair. God is at work in our lives and in our world, and that gives us reason for hope. "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13).