Magyar Egyház, 2007 (86. évfolyam, 1-4. szám)
2007-10-01 / 3-4. szám
2. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ And on earth, peace. His authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace. (Isaiah) Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace. (Luke) On this wondrous day, when our Advent anticipation culminates in the awaited birth of Jesus, we find ourselves still waiting for the fulfillment of the promises of Christmas, we are still waiting for peace. What has happened to the hopes of Isaiah and the shining promise of the angels quoted above? For the people of the world, this season brings much stress; we know this from observation and sometimes also from personal experience. It may be because of all that shopping (when we know in our heart that this is not the purpose of the season); from the cooking and decorations which make us tired and irritable when they don’t turn out the way we envision them; from trying to satisfy everyone on a mythical gift list when we know that giving presents does offer its own pleasure, but we also know that this is not what Christmas Day was meant for. For the people of the world something even stranger has developed as a custom of the season - giving and attending parties where there is an excess of food and alcohol, something that makes us cringe in retrospect, as excess always does; despite all the false gaiety we do remember whose anniversary this is. Consequently, all of us know people who suffer depression because of this season; we also know many church people who don’t really want to participate in parties that have nothing to do with Christ’s birth, people who nonetheless find themselves unable to refuse to attend for a variety of reasons. Every year we ask: How can we manage to go against the prevailing attitudes and customs? How do we say no to something that is distasteful but “everybody does it,” so we don’t want to appear to be standoffish and unfriendly? This is something that we should start thinking about today; we should practice through this season and beyond - saying no to what displeases us because we feel in our heart of hearts that it displeases our God. But this may be the easiest spiritual exercise that we will face this year. Instead of focusing on the people of this world, let us now focus on ourselves as children of God. What is it that makes us morose and dissatisfied during this season? We are dissatisfied because, despite all the singing and the sermonizing, we confess that the hopes of Isaiah and the promises of the angels have not been fulfilled. So where does that leave us? The long history of Christianity - with very few exceptions, with lamentably limited examples - shows more love for war than for the peace of Christ. This is the cold, painful fact. On this Christmas let us ask these questions: Why have we not taken the incarnation seriously? The Gospel of John, (John 1:1-14), says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. What if we really acted and lived as if the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity, the Logos of God, was really born in Bethlehem in the time of Augustus; what if we acknowledged with our lives that he dwelt and dwells among us as the Prince of Peace? What if the church throughout these bloody 20 centuries had said “No” to war? Starting with Constantine and continuing through the Crusades and the Reformation and the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean, the Vietnam, and now the tragic war in Iraq - what if the church, the whole universal Christian church, had said “No” to war ? What would this world of ours look like? These are enough questions to ponder for this Christmas Day, for the rest of the holiday season and for the year to come: What if we had taken Jesus seriously? What if we take Jesus seriously? Search the Scriptures: See how Jesus always, always greets his disciples with - Peace be with you. Search the great prophets: justice and peace are their themes. Do we think they were just playing with words? Do we think that Jesus was kidding his disciples and us? Search and see how many times apostle Paul writes and urges his readers toward peace. Do you think that apostle Paul had a sense of humor on the issue of peace? These are the themes of life and death. We have to take them seriously. There are no ready answers today that all of us can agree upon. But the words of Isaiah and the promises of the angels stand before us unaltered, inexorable. ‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” “And on earth, peace!” Oh, if we would only heed them today. What a world we would leave to our children and grandchildren. May God forgive us, may Christ have mercy upon us. Amen MAGYAR EGYHÁZ - MAGYAR CHURCH JULY — DECEMBER 2007. VOL. 86, NO. 3. 4. ISSN 0360-5760 EDITOR IN CHIEF AND BUSINESS MANAGER The Right Rev. Sándor Szabó, Bishop 1053 East Sixth Street #32 ONTARIO, CALIFORNIA 91764 Phone: 909-981-9601, E-mail: revsand@aol.com EDITORIAL BOARD The Right Rev. Stephan M. Török, General Secretary 68 Cherrywood Dr. Sommerset, NJ 08873 Very Rev. Ferenc Varga, Dean 73432 Stacey Dr. Brownstown, MI 48183 Very Rev. Bálint Nagy 751 Crenshaw Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90005 OFFICE OF PRINTING "Ontario Printing Center” 1235 Francis St.#D. Ontario, CA 91761 YEARLY SUBSCRIPTION: Group $5.00 Personal $6.00 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ - MAGYAR CHURCH is published quarterly (March, June, September and December) by THE HUNGARIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA Address manuscripts and editorial correspondents Address all subscription orders, renewals, payments, and change of address notifications to MAGYAR EGYHÁZ - MAGYAR CHURCH. 1053 East Sixth Street. #32 Ontario. CA 91764 Tel: (909) 981-9601. E-mail: revsand@aol.com.
