In my family, growing up, Sundays were religiously kept as a day of Sabbath
rest. As a little person, all I can remember is that we spent a lot of time
in church on Sundays, morning church was followed by Sunday School; late afternoon
youth group was followed by Sunday evening church. In that brief window of
time on Sunday afternoons our house became the napping house. We weren't permitted
to go outside to play with our friends, anything that we did had to be associated
with quiet, like reading…or, like I mentioned, napping.
As a child I didn't always appreciate the forced Sunday Sabbath. In fact,
sometimes it felt like I lived on another planet from most kids my age. But
as I look back, I think I may have begun to learn the value of being still.
One of the things that really drew me to Quakerism 17 years ago was the emphasis
on inward stillness, and the importance of silence in my listening to God.
In recent years, I have been learning to practice Sabbath rest on a regular
basis. And I find that I actually long for it in the busyness of my routine.
I carve out a chunk of time one day a week for quiet. I find that silence
has become vital to keeping me grounded in my life.
As we prepare for our Peace Sabbath this Wednesday; a time we have set aside
to pray for peace and to focus on what it means to be peacemakers as individuals
and as a faith community, I would like for us to reflect this morning on the
SHALOM of God. It is my hope that it will help you enter into your Sabbath with
greater intention and direction.
We will give some thought this morning to what this word; "Shalom"
means, and I will leave you with some scriptures to reflect on. But I am hoping
that if you take just one thing with you this morning, it will be this....
…Peace isn't to be found out there somewhere. The shalom of God is to
be found right here within us. And it is a peace we can enter into moment-
by-moment, in the busyness of our everyday lives.
The Hebrew word SHALOM is commonly understood around the world to mean peace.
But our English word peace doesn't quite do this word justice.
Interestingly, in Israel, where there is little in the way of peace, the
word SHALOM is used as a greeting to say hello and good-bye to someone. But
there is much more to this word than a common greeting of hello and good-bye.
The word SHALOM means…Completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare,
safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony,
and the absence of agitation or discord.
SHALOM comes from the root verb SHALOM meaning to be complete, perfect and
full. Think about it, if you were to greet your family, friends and co-workers
in the morning with "SHALOM" you would actually be giving this blessing
to them. Shalom… may you be experience peace, wholeness, rest, safety,
and harmony with God, yourself, and those around you. Wow!
So SHALOM not only means peace between two entities, like between God and
us… or between two countries…or between two individuals, but it
refers to our own inner peace, calmness and safety. It is about setting things
right. To seek to mend what is broken…To restore what is distorted; or
out of balance, to its proper shape.
As a verb, SHALOM can speak of paying a debt, or fulfilling a vow. It is
often used in the Bible as God establishing justice, setting things right
or repaying evil, as well as repaying good. It points to equity, balance,
and, above all, wholeness.
So this sense of wholeness is very expansive. It is about mending broken
relationships between people, both personal and within community, between
God, and us, and between us, and even nature itself. It is linked to justice,
faithfulness, righteousness, truth and reliability. SHALOM signifies that
things are in right order.
Let's consider some passages in Hebrew Bible that flesh out this idea of
living in the shalom of God…(Borrowing from a study by Howard Macy, who
is a Professor of Religion and Biblical Studies at George Fox University.)
Genesis 1-2 and other creation texts show God's intent for the world as a
place sustained in harmony under the gracious care and rule of God.
Isaiah 2:1-4 shows the nations streaming to Zion to hear God's teaching and
guidance and responding to God's purposes by turning weapons into useful tools
and ending the training for war.
Isaiah 11:1-9 speaks of the "Peaceable Kingdom" (We have a Quaker
painter's perspective of this hanging on our wall here in our meetinghouse.)
Isaiah 9:1-7 speaks of the "Prince of Peace" who not only brings
an end to war, but rules in justice and righteousness.
Psalm 85:8-13 describes what happens when God speaks peace to his people:
"Steadfast love and righteousness will meet; righteousness and peace
will kiss each other.
Isaiah 32:16-17 again connects righteousness, justice and trust to peace.
Ezekiel 34:23-31 describes a covenant of peace that encompasses not only
people but all of nature, as well.
As the stern words of the prophets often point to the absence of peace, they
also remind us what peace is. Here is one example.
Jeremiah 6:14: The prophet says, "They have treated the wound of my
people carelessly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace." The
Hebrew structure of this phrase is fairly ambiguous, at once an indictment
that there is no shalom and, at the same time, a prediction of judgment that
there will be no shalom as long as greed, fraud, and injustice continue.
In NT passages we see a language of peace that is deeply rooted in a God
who has taken and is taking the initiative to bring peace.
Jesus in Luke 4:16-21 announces his mission…which is to bring good news
to the poor, release to captives, freedom from oppression, and healing from
sickness.
Throughout the gospel of Luke we observe numerous scenes of compassion, freedom,
healing, and deliverance, particularly among the ones most neglected and excluded
in ordinary society. This has deep roots in Hebrew Bible of God's deliverance
of Israel, an enslaved people, and God's concern for the most vulnerable of
people: the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger.
In Romans Paul speaks about finding peace with God.
Paul's letters to the early churches often refer to our making peace with
one another in community.
So here you have just a brief overview from our sacred text of the richness
and depth of the Shalom of God.
You might be thinking, "This is all fine and good, but how is it that
you and I actually experience the Shalom of God in the real world of our everyday
life?"
This might seem rather obvious, but I think we first must open ourselves
up to being in a conscious relationship with God. We have so many clever ways
of avoiding God, don't we? But I believe that God is constantly pursuing us,
trying to rouse us from sleep. So we need to wake up and respond with a hearty
"yes" to God.
Then as we remain in a faithful relationship with God, we are empowered to
be in right relationship with each other, and I think, very importantly to
be in right relationship to ourselves. It is my experience that if we are
disconnected from ourselves, the more likely it is that we will be disconnected
from others. And the more divided we are inwardly, the harder it will be to
access the Shalom of God.
How might you and I live our lives more consistently in shalom of God?
During the silence this morning let's start by reflecting on the relationships
in our lives that are in need of some mending? You might also want to carry
these questions into your peace Sabbath on Wednesday.
First, are you at peace with God? What is blocking you in your relationship
with God? Doubt, fear, shame? God is fully present. God loves you and is willing
to receive all that you are, warts and all, and do God's work of peace in
you.
Secondly, are you at peace with others? Is there someone you need
to make peace with? As much as it is in your power, seek to restore what has
been broken between you and that person.
Thirdly, are you at peace with yourself? Are you living a life of
integrity…experiencing harmony between your inner and outer life? Are
you willing to look honestly at problematic issues in your life and take the
necessary steps towards healing and wholeness?
Let me share a recent shalom experience of mine. This past week there were
a number of things stirring in me. It wasn't exactly a peaceful stirring,
either. In fact, I initially felt pretty miserable and agitated. I was noticing
some of the old familiar patterns I get stuck in that have a tendency to drain
the life out of me. I was tempted to just go to sleep, not literally, but
figuratively, and ignore what I was being asked to pay attention to.
Instead, I asked God to hold me in the stillness, to show me somehow that
his love was present. And then the peace came. It was one of those thin places,
they talk about in Celtic spirituality, where God came near to me, and I came
near to God, as we like to say in Godly Play. I heard a familiar Still Small
Voice saying to me, "Fear not. I am nearer to you than your breath."
So I just breathed…In and out…In and out…exhaling some of the
old fearful ways of thinking and being, inhaling the spaciousness of peace
and freedom. I think this is what it means to live in the Shalom of God.
I leave you with some prayerful lyrics from a Sufjan Stevens song:
Oh, God, hold me now. Oh, Lord, hold me now. There's no other man who
could raise the dead, so do what you can to anoint my head. Oh, God where
are you now? Oh, Lord, say somehow. Oh God, hold me now. Oh Lord, touch me
now. There's no other man who could save the dead. There's no other God to
place our hand.
May we each find a place of refuge in the Shalom of God. Amen
1 Strong's Concordance 7965
