December 7, 2025
Advent 25 – Peace
Ryan’s Advent Peace message challenged the idea of peace as sentimental calm or personal comfort and reframed it as a disruptive, justice-oriented calling rooted in the life and work of Jesus. Drawing from memories of Christian “slogan theology,” he contrasted cheap peace with biblical *shalom*—wholeness, restoration, and flourishing—and argued that “comfortable peace is counterfeit peace.” Jesus came not to maintain equilibrium but to disrupt systems of oppression, calling his followers to be *peacemakers*, not peacekeepers. Ryan connected this to real-world examples—immigration injustice, LGBTQ+ rights, food insecurity, BIPOC communities facing harm—and reminded the church that Advent Peace is a protest against domination, scarcity, and injustice. True peace, he said, prioritizes the flourishing of our neighbors over personal ease, asking us to join Christ in rebuilding the world with justice and compassion.