The Sixth Sunday of Easter, 22 May 2022, Austwick
Shalom aleichem: Peace be upon you
Aleichem shalom: Upon you be peace
How often in the Gospels do we hear Jesus greeting people with "Peace be with you”, this Hebrew ‘hello’, Shalom. He does it in today's Gospel reading where he is preparing his disciples for his departure from them: ”Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid."
Jesus is promising his followers that when he is gone, he will have left them the gift of his peace, a peace that will free them from fear, empowering and enabling them to keep living in Christ, filled with God's Spirit with a foot in the kingdoms both of heaven and of earth.
Jesus uses the word ‘Peace’ five times in the Gospel of John. Twice here in John 16; and then in John 20, three times during his resurrection appearances he blesses his followers with the words, "Peace be with you". But what does Jesus mean by "peace"? What is he promising his disciples they will have once he has been "taken away" from them?
Let's think for a minute or two about what is meant by peace.........
Shalom aleichem: Peace be upon you
Aleichem shalom: Upon you be peace
Shalom extends our understanding of what we in English mean by ‘peace’. It’s more than just describing the absence of something - like when we say we are at peace when there is no war; or we feel peaceful where there is no noise or busyness; or we are at peace when our minds aren't troubled. For if peace is just something that exists when there is no conflict it feels a bit of an empty, lifeless expression. Shalom goes far beyond that.
Shalom has many subtle meanings in Hebrew and Greek. And so in the Old Testament Shalom is translated with the English words weal, welfare, and completeness; it is defined as being at rest, at ease, secure and safe; it is to do with prospering, being whole, being made perfect, and being victorious. It’s an active word about causing peace, making peace, giving a peace-offering, finishing well. Likewise in the New Testament, the Greek equivalent eirene is translated as unity, concord, and desiring peace, as well as simply peace itself. [2]
Shalom can be used simply as a greeting or a wish to a friend or loved one ("Shalom to you, my friend"). But at its fullest, Shalom captures the Hebrew vision of human society, the non-human world, the whole environment in a completeness - where "the wolf and the lamb shall feed together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox" as Isaiah puts it. [3]
So when Jesus used the word Shalom, he was capturing the hope of Israel in describing the world as God intends it to be. He was describing the Kingdom of God on earth and the way in which God's kingdom people - empowered by the Holy Spirit - would live.
Jesus' Shalom evokes the Kingdom of God where people live justly; as in the book of the prophet Micah who said,
He has told you, O mortal, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? [4]
Jesus' Shalom elicits the Kingdom of God where wealth is fairly distributed and poverty is eliminated, as in the laws laid down by God in Deuteronomy:
If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. [5]
Jesus' Shalom calls forth the Kingdom of God whose people share what they have together as in the early church described in the book of Acts:
[Where] the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. [6]
This is a peace unlike the peace the world gives, says Jesus, for in this world people’s ideas of peace focus around self-preservation: storing up our own wealth, and defending ourselves against the demands of those who are needier than we are. In the world, for these reasons, there are many needy persons among us, and because of that our peace is at best a very uneasy peace. To repeat a phrase I used last week, the poor cannot be well unless we are well. And we won’t be well - in our hearts and spirits - whilst we know our way of life contributes towards other people’s poverty. But we can be well when - with the help of God and each other - we take steps to reach out to others in compassion and neighbourly love. [7]
This can be hard work. As George Bernard Shaw said, ‘Peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more arduous.’ Yes, it is hard to break out of our modes of self-defence particularly when times are troubled and conflicts increasingly close to home. [8]
But Jesus promises the Spirit will give us all we need to capture in our own lives his vision of the world that God intends it to be. The Spirit among us gives us the power to translate that vision into action; and that power will not depart from the church!
Being in the kingdom of God makes us ‘peacemakers’, creators of Shalom, with the immense power of Jesus at our disposal to play our part in transforming the world into a world of Shalom, wholeness, completeness. We can invite God into our life each day, with simple prayers such as ‘Peace on this house, peace to my neighbours, peace in my life’. The Holy Spirit is ever-present waiting to inspire us and willing us along our walk in the joyful Way of the Kingdom of Christ.
Shalom aleichem: Peace be upon you
Aleichem shalom: Upon you be peace
Notes
[1] A rewrite of John 14 - Shalom for beginners, preached in Croxteth in 2007. That talk was based on lectionary study notes from Partners in Urban Transformation: a link no longer available online in 2022, but which draws on the work of Robert C. Linthicum, Transforming Power: Biblical Strategies for Making a Difference in Your Community p.36ff
[2] Wikipedia: Shalom.
[3] Isaiah 65:25
[4] Micah 6:8
[5] Deuteronomy 15:4-11
[6] Acts 4:32-35
[7] My talk for 15 May 2022, Seeking well-being with Zimbabwe’s dry and dusty soil which draws from ‘You cannot be well if we are not well. And we are not well.’ James W. Perkinson, ‘Coronavirus Cacophony’, in Jione Havea (ed), Doing Theology in the New Normal: Global Perspectives, p.225. Quoting Kristin Flyntz, ‘An Imagined Letter from COVID-19 to Humans’ [Text] [YouTube].
[8] Cited on www.libquotes.com as sourced from Shaw: Plays, Novels, Articles, Lectures, Letters and Essays (ed. e-artnow, 2015, ISBN 9788026833895).
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