I'm not afraid of refugees from the middle east. I'm not afraid of white men. I'm not afraid of the homeless. I'm not afraid of Muslims.
They are all people.
And, generally, if you treat them with love, then they'll be kind to you in return. Sure, there are always the exceptions, but who wants to live afraid that this one person might be the exception to the rule?
I don't because if I live out of fear of the exceptions, the violent, the thief, the liar
then I lose out on the chance to love.
There are two ways to make the world more secure: Be kind. Build community. Nothing else really works.
Without exception, everyone has done wrong before God and become offensive
to Him. But we all have been given the
opportunity to be right before God through the deliverance from the slavery to
sin and death which can be found in the Messiah Jesus. When the Father raised Jesus from an official
execution, he showed him to be the path to be forgiven of our sins and to have
a relationship with God. God proved his
justice—which was called into question by him overlooking sins in the past and
because of his patience—by making acceptable the one who enters into the
devotion of Jesus, and so He proved his actions just….Jesus was given to the authorities to be punished because
of our wrongs before God and Jesus was raised from his execution so that we
could be made acceptable before God.
Therefore, since we have been made acceptable by committed devotion, we
have the shalom of God through our King, Messiah Jesus. It is because of Him that we have the right
to speak to God and receive the blessings of God, on which we depend on for our
very well-being. We boast in our
confidence in being a part of God’s glory.
You see, we can boast in the sufferings we receive—even as Jesus
did—because we know that our suffering gives us the opportunity to stick with
God. And sticking with God in the midst
of suffering—even as Jesus did— is the test of our true devotion to God. And if our devotion is tested, then we have
confidence—because if Jesus was raised by His enduring devotion, so will
we. And this confidence will never be
dashed because God’s love fills us through the Holy Spirit, given by God, to
help us endure in the midst of our struggles. (Romans 3:23-26; 4:25-5:5)
Got World Peace?
Peace, according to the Bible
is not just an absence of violence or a peaceful, easy feeling, but it is
well-being in a community. When the
Bible promises “peace on earth to those obtaining grace”, it is not speaking of
a lack of war, but of a ruling principle and nation who would provide for all
in need and offer justice and peace to everyone, without exclusion. This well-being and justice is called
“shalom” in the Bible.
Stuck With Whirled Peas?
If there is one thing the
world lacks, it is peace, meaning shalom.
If shalom is a world-wide community in which everyone experiences
well-being, acceptance, mutual assistance, and equal justice for all, then we
have never experienced it. In every
nation, in every era, the poor have been oppressed. The outcast have been
thrown out because of arbitrary cultural mores.
The religious have judged and rejected all people who did not accept
their narrow guidelines. The
non-religious have judged and rejected the religious because of their devotion
to God. And all people purpose to harm
all people who stand in the way of their culture controlling and manipulating
all others.
Life on earth is not
shalom. It is anti-peace.
Everyone wants peace. Most of us in the world recognize that we are
all in trouble, that we don’t have peace, and all of us want to obtain it. Or create it.
Or force it on others. To create
shalom where there is no shalom is what the Bible calls “salvation.” Frankly, it is a utopian ideal, just like
democracy is, just like capitalism is, just like communism. The difference is that the Bible claims that
salvation—the creation of shalom in the world—is something that only God can
do. Peace and justice cannot come simply
from human effort or from anarchy. It
must be a work of God that humans join with.
But it is initiated by God.
Getting Better All The Time
The first step of God’s
shalom-making was creation. God saw the
chaos, the pointlessness of the world and made it again. And, according to Scripture, after God’s
peace-making, He established humanity to rule over His creation and to keep it
in shalom. This plan failed when
humanity chose rebellion and chaos instead of God’s shalom.
Another step in God’s
shalom-making was choosing Abraham.
Abraham was not a perfect man, but he was a person who sought God alone,
being faithful to Him, and trusting in Him when all else seemed chaotic. God chose Abraham because of his trust in God
and said that whoever would obtain shalom, in all the world, they must be like
Abraham and choose his path of trust.
This plan failed because people thought that following the ritual of
Abraham or being born into the family of Abraham obtained this shalom.
Another step in God’s
shalom-making was to create a community of shalom with very specific
rules. He chose for His people a nation
in slavery—the outcast—so they would know how to treat those who were
outcast. And He taught them His ways of
love and shalom for all his people. This
experiment failed in different ways, over the years. First, the people didn’t believe that God
could really give them shalom. Then,
they sought out other spiritual powers to grant them shalom. Then, they oppressed the poor, forgetting
that they were once poor themselves. And
finally, they took God’s rules and make them so burdensome that it became
impossible to live them out.
Love Reign O’er Me
Finally, after all of these
temporary experiments, God began his final plan for shalom. He sent his Son to be emperor of the world,
ruler of his people. First, Jesus
displayed shalom by setting people free from spiritual judgment, offering them
freedom from diseases and mental illnesses and offering them a new life in
God. Then he told the people the life of
shalom in God, living by the principles of shalom. Then, finally, he allowed the rulers of God’s
people—the priests and elders—to kill him, treating him as an outcast of God’s
people. But God vindicated his Son as
the only way to God’s shalom, the great Truth-teller. And a new people was created under Jesus,
living Jesus’ shalom-principles and testing the world with their message of
destruction of the anti-shalom and the establishment of God’s shalom.
Underground Revolution
Through Jesus, God is
continually creating communities of shalom—some big and some small. These communities are made up of those who
were rejected by the world and who are baptized in Jesus—namely, those who have
committed themselves to being citizens of Jesus’ new nation of shalom. These baptized are committed to Jesus’ principles
of peace and justice. But these
principles are not enough in and of themselves, because we all are too weak, as
humans, to maintain shalom. So the
Emperor has allowed us to receive the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weakness
to maintain shalom, even when we do not have the strength to live it out.
Then God sent these Jesus communities out into the
world. They preached the kingdom— the
nation of shalom—and displayed the power of the Spirit. Communities were in this way tested—would
they accept the good proclamation of shalom through Jesus, or would they reject
God’s shalom? Would they practice shalom
with the needy of Jesus, or would they reject them?
This time of testing
continues on even today. Many
communities of the world—even many who claim Jesus to be Lord—reject Jesus’
principles of shalom. Many in Jesus’
name harm and kill others. Many in
Jesus’ name refuse to help the needy.
Many in Jesus’ name even reject the true God and seek a distant Spirit
who is unobtrusive and will never give anything, let alone shalom.
When you host a feast this Thanksgiving or Christmas, don't
invite your friends or family. They will expect to do the dishes, or to bring
something, or invite you back to their place next year. Instead, invite the
homeless, the refugees, those in nursing homes, the mentally ill, because the
only reward you could expect then would be from God.
And when you go to a feast, don't boast about all the things
you did this last year, your great accomplishments, and don't expect to be
honored. If you insist upon yourself, you will be a boor, and everyone will
ignore you and try to interrupt you. Instead, sit in the corner and say
nothing. Then your host will note your silence and ask you, "What do you
have to be thankful for this year?" and you will be given honor.
Don't demand respect, or else you will be rejected. Be
humble and you will be given greater respect.
Because of God’s tremendous compassion for everyone, I beg you, my dear
family, to put your congregations on the altar, as a still living but holy
sacrifice to God. This is what is
acceptable to God, your sincere act of loving devotion among your congregation. Don’t be formed by the thinking of this
era—that of stereotypes and judgment— but be re-created, having your minds
rebooted to the will of God, and so proving by your actions what the good and
pleasing and complete will of God is. I
was given a message from the Lord to share with all of you: Don’t consider
yourself to be better than others in everything. Be sensible, and admit that each one of you
has granted each one of you a measure of faith, even if that faith looks
differently….Our congregations are to be characterized by sincere love for one
another. We are all to be rid of the
evil in our congregations, but to grasp onto the good. We are to have affectionate love for each
other. We are to be diligent without
procrastination. We are to be enthusiastic
in character. We serve the Lord. We rejoice in hope. We endure in suffering. We persist in prayer. We are to give to the needs of the
saints. We are to practice
hospitality. As the representatives of
Jesus, you know already that we are to bless those who persecute us—we speak
well of them and do not verbally destroy them.
As Jesus, we rejoice with the joyful and mourn with the weeping. Well, this is how we should behave to other
groups of Christians, as well as those outside the faith. We aren’t to be arrogant over other
Christians, but we are to associate with the lowly and the weak among us. Don’t be self-important. Just because you’ve got the money, don’t
think that you can tell the others what to do.
Just because you’ve got the word of God, that doesn’t mean that you can
order others around. Just because you’ve
proven your faith, it doesn’t mean that everyone has to listen to your
opinions. Nor does it give anyone the
right to attack others, no matter what they’ve done to you. If someone does something evil to you, don’t
act immorally back to them. Instead,
spend time thinking ahead of time about how you can do good to everyone. With all of your ability, live in peace and
community with ALL people—even fellow Christians who disagree with you.
We Got to Start Somewhere, But There’s Just So Far To
Go
What can we do? We live in a world rejecting shalom, pursuing
materialism, sexual gratification and false philosophies and calling it
happiness. In the midst of their self-
authentication, self-actualization and self-gratification, the people of the
world has destroyed well-being for others around them. The world ignores the needs of those around
them, they avoid thinking of the harm they have caused others and they do all
they can to shore up their hope that someday, somehow, their lives will be
okay.
This
wouldn’t be so bad if the church was really any different. Instead, we live in a church that has bought
what the world had to say about truth and joy for 1800 years. The church flies on a pendulum which swings
from a drive to punish all those irresponsible and filled with self-interest to
being wholly accepting and supporting people even in their drive to destroy
themselves and others.
The
answer to this is the shalom of Jesus.
Jesus calls us to communities of shalom—a disciplined grace which leads
to peace on earth. But how can we—when
all the governments and churches and non-profits in the world have
failed—succeed in creating peace where only chaos and hatred has reigned?
Creating Shalom
Understand
our baptism
First, we must understand
what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
To be baptized is to die, to have our old life, with its philosophies
and materialism cast aside, no longer living in it. And we must live the principles of
Jesus. Jesus is faithful, and we can
live in that faithfulness. We must
realize that being a follower of Jesus isn’t a matter of belief, but of
lifestyle. So we must pursue Jesus—the
real Jesus as presented in the gospels—surrender our lives and live for Him.
Live
the principles of shalom
Then, as Jesus teaches us, we
understand more and more the principles of peace that he taught us. We will learn his principles of purity, of
faithfulness, of devotion to God and love of others. In all this, we will become more like the
people who can create shalom in the world because we will embody shalom.
Accept
the Anawim
As we learn Jesus’ way, we
find that so many of the world’s categories no longer apply. Those which the world rejects—even for good reason!—we
will welcome and offer God’s love and peace.
Those who are blamed because of their poverty we will receive and share
with. Those who are hated we will love
and offer hope and community through Jesus.
Join a
community of shalom
It is not enough for us to
enact shalom as individuals, we must be in a community of shalom. This means participating in a group of
baptized faithful in Jesus who are allowing God to transform them into
shalom-makers. This must be a community
welcoming to the outcast and a community ready to participate in koinonia.
Speak
prophetically
As we live out Jesus’ life
and community of shalom, then we must share with others the principles of
shalom as we live them out. We cannot
speak them if we do not live them, but we must share what Jesus has taught us
and we do live out. We do not speak this
in order to judge others, but in reality to warn them of Jesus’ judgment
against those who oppose shalom.
Live in
trust and patience
It is easy to get
discouraged. We can look at the world
and see what a big task it is to transform it.
We can look at the church and see how faithless and fear-peddling it
is. We can look at our failures to live
out shalom, and throw up our hands in despair.
But this is where the faith of Abraham (and of Jesus) comes in. Abraham, despite his own failures and
weaknesses, despite the impossibilities of the promise God gave him, Abraham
trusted that God could and would do it.
He never forsook God, but continued in patience, even as he suffered for
those who suffered due to their rejection of shalom. Even so, when it looks like all has failed
and God is no where to be found, we need to be patient, and give room for God
to work in His own time.
Pray
for God’s shalom
Finally, Jesus tells us to
pray for God’s kingdom to come, for the shalom to happen on earth. Ultimately, if peace and justice are to rule
the earth, if shalom is to break into anyone’s life, it must be done by God’s
work. If that is the case, then our main
task is that of asking God to cause shalom to come. Pray for others, that they may experience
God’s full shalom. Pray for the church,
that they may understand and live out God’s full shalom. And pray for the world that it might be
transformed into God’s kingdom.
So if there’s anyone listening, let me say this to you: Have compassion on the bad guys of your
life. Be nice to the mean ones. Answer well those who cuss you out. Pray blessings on those who insult and abuse
you. If a cop pushes you, give him the
opportunity to beat you up. If a
creditor steals money from you, offer him the rest of your account. If the government demands something from you,
give it freely. And if a cop steals what
is yours, don’t demand it back. In
whatever good way you want people to treat you, treat them that way, no matter
how badly treat you.
Look, if you only feel
good about those who feel good about you, do you think God will bless you for
that? Everyone, no matter how bad they
are, love those who love them. If you do
good things only to those who do good to you, do you think God will bless you
for that? Everyone, no matter how evil,
does the same. If you loan out money
only to people who will pay you back, do you think God will bless you for
that? Evil people loan out money for a
return, plus interest.
You can do better than
that. Love the people you find most
unlovable. Act with compassion toward
them and lend them money—yes, I know you won’t get the money back. Just do it, knowing that you won’t get
anything back for it, not even a thanks.
But you will get more back than you would ever expect, but that from
God. If you do this, you will be acting
like God, the Lord of the Universe—because He, too, does compassionate acts for
those who never thank Him and who do the very worst acts on earth. So be compassionate to the same extent God
is.
Don’t condemn others and
you won’t be condemned by God. Don’t
punish for punishment’s sake and you won’t be punished by God, either. If you release someone from a grudge, God
will release you. Give freely to those
in need—no matter who they are—and God will give freely to you. It’s kinda like a keg party. Take, let’s say a third of keg of beer and
give it to your friends. They will take
it, shake it up until it fills the keg and then pour it all over you—much more
than you gave them! Even so, the amount
of compassion you give to those who don’t deserve it will be poured right back
on you!
Luke 6:25-38, SKV
Jesus is the Prince of shalom, the emperor through which
peace and justice comes. Not only does
he bring it physically, among his people, but Jesus also has given some
principles upon which shalom can be built among his people.
Community
Jesus didn’t come to deliver individuals into shalom, but to
create a nation of shalom. We cannot see
the grace of God as only visiting individuals, but God is creating a community
through Jesus who will be able to make a community of peace and justice among
themselves.
Be ready
The people of God are to keep one eye on this world and one
eye on the world that is to come. The
meeting point between these two worlds is the judgment of God. Those who showed themselves faithful to Jesus
and God will be delivered into God’s kingdom of shalom. So to be ready, we must follow the other principles
of shalom to show that we are ready to be a part of God’s shalom.
Faithfulness
The first principle of life is faithfulness to God. If we live with our eyes on God, always
concerned with our faithfulness and devotion to Him in all aspects of our lives,
then we will be ready to experience God’s shalom, instead of the shalom of the
world. We also maintain faithfulness to
others—our spouses, friends, family and all others. Whatever promises or commitments we have made
to them, in our relationship with them, we keep.
Do not harm
We make a point not to do anything hateful to another, with
a purpose to harm them. No matter what
they have done to us, we do not do harm in return. This may put us in a position of
vulnerability, but we must trust that God will care for us and avenge us when
necessary, not taking such actions on ourselves.
Treating others with
respect
Some we are obligated to respect—our betters, our
leaders. But we are also to respect
those whom the world does not respect, the outcast and shamed. If we provide respect to all, then all will
receive welcome and hope and shalom.
Meeting other’s needs
We are not just to not give harm, but to offer respect to
others, but we must also give compassion to others when they are in need. We need to feel their pain and seek to do
what we can to help. Then, we should
share what resources we have to help others.
This empathy and open handedness is summarized in the Greek word, koinonia.
Equality of justice
Finally, Jesus emphasizes that these community
principles—faithfulness, no harm, respect and koinonia—are not just for those like us, but for everyone, even if
some fail, even if some are irritating, act hatefully occasionally and are
occasionally faithless. Respect and
assistance is to be granted to everyone without exception.
If we are in Jesus, we are to live out these principles,
create communities that live these principles out and teach it to others. In this way, we are to accomplish God’s
shalom for ourselves, our communities and, eventually, the entire world
Why do terrorists keep terrorizing? Because it works.
The 9/11 attack was utterly successful. It horrified the world to such a degree that they were ready to attack innocent parties to sate their lust of vengeance. This caused many to shift their ideals, to become more revolutionary, and so more suicide bombers were recruited. The ideal revolutionary act is to create a world in which violent revolution thrives.
If we want peace, we need to create peaceful solutions to terrorists acts, because violence only breeds violence.
This is, in the end, spiritual warfare.
Satan is a liar and a murderer. The evil spirits tell lies to humans so that they would fear the innocent and kill them. As many as participate in the system of violence and judgment are judged by that same system. Thus does Satan kill all humanity. By our own hands.
Muslims are not the enemy. Nor are immigrants or refugees.
The enemy is the violence we force down the throat of other nations.
It is not enough for us to stop
bringing violence against the good guys. All violence must stop.
It is not enough to give human
rights to those who deserve it. We must give human rights to everyone, without
exception.
It is not enough to give peace to
the peaceful. We must give peace to everyone to teach them how to live in
peace.
At the birth of Jesus, the angels sang this to the shepherds:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.
This sounds like a promise to me, especially at the coming
of Jesus. A promise we can expect to
unfold and be revealed by God, and soon at that. A peace that the poor will be given what they
need, oppression is not known, conflict is resolved in hope, and we all live in
communities that comfort our sorrows.
But if there is one thing we can be guaranteed: there is no
peace on earth. And we have no real hope
that there will be peace.
Billions live with hunger every day
In the wealthiest nation on earth, one percent of their population live on the
street.
War will never end, and with it the famine and horrors that the oppressed live
with daily.
Even those who have riches live with sorrow and dissatisfaction daily.
Why no shalom?
Why is the greatest desire of humanity thwarted? Why can we
not find peace?
The common Christian answer is sin. Sin has so warped the
world that we cannot even recognize the peace that God originally created. If that is the case, which sin? The “Pat Robertson” sins of homosexuality and
public lust? Are they the sins that cause wars and hatred? What about the sins of not going to church or
tithing? Are they the causes of poverty
and homelessness?
It is interesting that there is a book in the Bible whose
main subject is just this: why is there no peace on earth, why can we not
achieve shalom? It is the little-read book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes is a short book, full of pithy, but depressing
wisdom. It’s main theme is the
pointlessness of existence on earth, how it achieves nothing. In the middle of a canon of scripture which
has as its main theme the salvation of God, this seems like a strange inclusion.
On the other hand, those who preach the Bible seem strangely optimistic in the
midst of a world that does not reach its goals.
There should be a firm text in this huge variety of books that explains
exactly why the salvation we seek is so far from our grasp.
There are many smaller lessons, but I want to expound on
four in particular that explain why we do not have peace on earth:
1.We seek the wrong answers
The teacher of Ecclesiastes said that he tested himself,
giving himself over to the extremes of different pursuits of humanity. For a time, he pursued drink to overcome his
depression. The gave himself over to sex and lust. He worked and toiled hard. He sought entertainment and pleasures. And in none of these things did he find any
hope or peace. Drunkenness leads to
depression, lust leads to heartache, work ultimately leads to futility, and a
life of laughter is just empty. All the
things we do to fill our lives, to make them less pointless, to bring us peace
in our hearts, all end up causing no peace.
And which of these things brings peace to the world, assists the hungry
and homeless? The common ways of seeking
a life of joy ends up with us on our heads.
2.Society works against peace
In considering the plight of the poor, the teacher tells us:
“If you see the poor oppressed, the rights of the needy denied, don’t be shocked. Every minor leader has their supervisor and a
lord is over them. And the man at top will demand his profit, and everyone in
between.” Every person wants to profit
from what they do, and if they can’t profit from their own work, they will take
advantage of those under them.
Our whole society is a pyramid scheme, and the poor are at
the bottom, whom everyone takes advantage of. And even when the poor do something amazing… “There
was a poor man who delivered the city with his wisdom. But when the task was
finished, no one remembered him.” The poor and needy, even when they could help
society, because of the nature of their position, they will not be
remembered. While the powerful and
foolish will be remembered and listened to for centuries, despite their idiocy.
3.Greed
Yes, says the teacher, sin is the cause of our lack of
peace. But is sexual lust our main problem?
It might be a personal difficulty.
But the sin that destroys societies is greed. “The one who loves wealth never has enough.” Those who accumulate possessions or wealth
finds themselves addicted to a lifestyle of collecting. However, when God established the world, he
set an ample of items that would be shared with all creation—but not enough for
all to have too much. Even as God
provided food in the wilderness, everyone had just enough, but no one had
extra. So those who collect excess wealth
are actually stealing from those who do not have enough. If some have excess, others have less.
And excess wealth doesn’t even help the one who collects
it. The greater number of possessions,
the more one has to spend caring for and securing them. This creates more labor. But the teacher lets us know that the one who
spends all their time collecting and caring for their wealth, then no longer
has time to care for others. He ends up
asking himself, “For whom am I depriving myself pleasure for all this toil?” He
obtains nothing for himself, because he spends so much time on obtaining, and
he has no relationships to give his reward to.
4.We place all our eggs in the future
One of the main points of the teacher of Ecclesiastes is
that we all work for a future that we do not obtain. A person works for a good life, but that life
is passed onto his children, not for him.
Another works hard all her life for justice, but never has peace
herself. In the end, life is full of
striving and it ends in death, which is the end of all we have and accomplished. Death is a sudden, solid, solitary end,
beyond which no one really knows.
We like to think there is justice after death, some measure
of peace, but in reality we don’t know.
All we know for certain is that there is no justice on earth. “The good
receive what the wicked deserve, and the greedy receive what the merciful
deserve.”
If you thought the idea of no peace on earth was hard to
hear, the teacher has a lot of fun facts like these.
He does make some suggestions about how to live in a world
lacking hope or peace. First of all, obey
the government, because that just makes your life easier. Also, serve God, because he has the only hope
for a future beyond this world. But he
also says, take time in your relationships.
Take joy in the people around you—your spouse, your children, your
friends. Enjoy them, appreciate them. Because that is the closest we will ever come
to having peace on earth. Take time with
them now, because we do not know if any other peace will be afforded us.
