A Christmas message from co-owner David Elwell
“Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men.”
It’s a message that has been quoted and repeated across the vast majority of the world’s spoken languages for literally thousands of years. For many people, that kind sentiment merely falls into the generic season’s greetings category. It’s not something we normally call out over the fence to our neighbors. It’s a nice statement, but it is not exactly conversational. It doesn’t take a major thought exercise to determine it would make for an awkward farewell shoutout when leaving the brewery. Still, we’re probably all familiar with it, and if we’re honest, we find something about the idea comforting.
“Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men” is not an original phrase. If you track with the record of its origin, it’s what a multitude of angels were heard loudly singing over a small band of shepherds about a special baby being born nearby in the middle-of-nowhere-Bethlehem. But even that first instance of it being shared with the shepherds wasn’t an original thought.
I suppose it is possible that the angels were freestyling in an open jam session together. Maybe they were all tapped into the hive-mind to track the lyrics and used some divine auto-tune harmonizer to make it sound intelligible. Not likely. It makes more sense that they had a specific message – a special song- which they were all prepared to sing in chorus when their moment on the sky’s stage had come. That song had been arranged for an intended meaning. Heralding the new baby this way with unrestrained enthusiasm was due to the prospect of God’s very best intentions being made available to humanity, both on the whole and to each of us individually. This is the idea God intends for us to understand about the One He sent.
Some might malign the idea, relegating it to naïve religiosity and uninspired well-wishing, especially when it seems there isn’t a whole lot of peace in our world. Someone once rightfully predicted about future days that there would be “wars and rumors of wars,” how “nation will rise up against nation” and how there will be “famines and earthquakes in various places.” The guy that was recorded saying those things was the same guy (the grown man version) whom the angels sang about a few decades prior. And yet, this same guy would insert statements like “but don’t be alarmed” and “I’m leaving you with peace; I’m giving you My peace… don’t let your hearts be upset or afraid.” As if genuine peace is not the way the world advertises security. As if peace was available in the midst of conflict, disappointment, grief, and challenge.
In my limited time on this “3rd rock from the sun”, I have come to appreciate that genuine peace and contentment often have little to do with circumstance. Life is full of contradictions. One of those is that it sometimes takes the bad to appreciate the good. Many of us have been blessed to experience peace in our lowest moments. For me, comfort in my hardship or despair has nearly always come from someone walking through it with me. It makes a little more sense, then, why that special baby would be described as a “Man of Sorrows” and yet still the “Prince of Peace.” That baby was also called Emanuel - “God with us.” It is not about removing the obstacles, but rather joining with us to bear up under it and to find something more valuable than ease and comfort.
If you’ve endured my mini sermon up to this point, you’re likely wondering about the point I’m trying to make. Well, here it is: Peace and favor are available to you and me regardless of what we are walking through. This is my wish for you and our world, not just during the holiday season, but for all time. I do not take credit for the sentiment. This is God’s heart for us and that is why He sent His Son to show us the way.
It’s no wonder the baby was so jubilantly welcomed into our world those 2,000+ years ago. He came to do life with us, to show us how to do life as it was intended: for God’s glory and our good. The events of our day, whether personal or global, do not limit His accessibility to us. For those of us who subscribe to this Promised One -the One who came that people can have full, vibrant, and authentic life- then we ought to continue singing this song. God is with us! Peace is intended for you. God’s very best is available!
“Glory to God in the Highest! And on Earth, Peace and favor to all humankind!”
~David Elwell, co-owner, brewmaster