God Cares About Shalom

Matthew 5:43-48; 1 Peter 2:11-17; Jeremiah 29:4-14

Coming to a head in the 1950’s, some would say sooner, resurgent mainline churches in America, at their denominational leadership and seminary teaching levels, tried to use their influence to advocate for scriptural values of peace and justice, of help for the poor and the discriminated against. But entering the political arena, they soon supported causes more closely linked to higher education and the Democratic Party than to scriptural values, especially in throwing their weight behind the revolution in sexual ethics in the past fifty years. They not only lost their influence, but also lost many of the people sitting in their pews. The downward trend has continued steadily ever since.

In the 1970’s and following, surging evangelical churches, through megachurch pastors, leaders of parachurch organizations, and media personalities tried to use their influence to advocate in line with scriptural values for the sanctity of life, marriage, and family. But entering the political arena, they soon supported causes more closely linked to big business and of the Republican Party than to scriptural values. Their churches have stalled and have begun to decline. Their own offspring view them as too political, too self-righteous, too hypocritical, too hostile, and not sufficiently Christ-like. The downward trend is not likely to reverse itself.

I was already convinced of all this when our daughter insistently and persistently told me that I had to read a book, To Change the World, by University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter. When our daughter was small, she did what I told her to do. Now I do what she tells me to do. I suppose that is fair. She earned her influence.

Hunter analyzes the problems of both Christian Left and Christian Right as idolatry of the power of the state. He is not anti-government and is not opposed to Christians voting their convictions and involving themselves in government, but he is opposed to idolatry of politics and of any attempts by Christians to use government to dominate the culture. It sends a false message about what we think is powerful. The false God of political influence has not been good for the church of Left or Right. Indeed, it has not been good for the church to be divided into Left and Right. Political combat does not meld well with Christian mission.

Although the majority of Americans have generally identified themselves as Christian, Hunter says that America has never in any spiritually serious way been Christian. The fact is that we do not live in a Christian culture and are not likely to do so any time in the near future. We live in an ever-shifting, pluralist culture, and it is likely that we will do so for the remainder of the lifetimes of everyone present this morning. The question is not, “How can we make this culture Christian?” but, “How can we rightly represent Christ while living in this constantly changing pluralist culture?” This is not a reason to despair. Indeed, our position is rather like that of the first century church representing the gospel to the Greek culture of the Roman Empire.

Let me mention three scriptural points that Hunter makes.

Scriptural Point 1: Our Great Commission is to make disciples, not just people who believe a certain doctrine and attend church, but people who are coming under the discipline of Jesus Christ, who are being conformed to the image of Christ. He says that Christians in our culture largely believe the doctrines of Christian faith, but that we have not, Left or Right, been formed to live distinctively, creatively, with Christ-like character, in our varied social environments. That is what we can do that will make a real and positive difference.

So our primary mission must be rooted in a strategy of forming Christians who can live faithfully in their cultural circumstances, in their various fields of endeavor. What counts is that we bring distinctive Christian contributions to the overall well-being of our various social environments, to home, to work, to school, to community activities, to the arts, to benevolent activities, and so forth—yes, in limited ways even in politics—not throwing our churches behind particular legislative, electoral, or partisan causes, but quietly expressing our Christian character and values in our varied ways.

Scriptural Point 2. Hunter suggests that the Hebrew word shalom covers the valid value concerns of Christians of all stripes and that we need to let this word govern our efforts to work for the common good.

Shalom means far more than its most frequent translation as peace. Combining what Hunter says with what my Bible reference materials say, I came up with this list of synonyms for shalom:

Peace

Order

Harmony

Fruitfulness

Abundance

Wholeness

Beauty

Joy

Well-Being

Completeness

Fulfillment

Rest

Blessing

Provision

Prosperity

Welfare

Health

Goodness

and more!

One word of caution: While God’s desire to see shalom embodied in our lives includes prosperity, we must understand that greed and selfishness are forms of idolatry that lead to devastating social consequences, undermining shalom itself. So, those who desire to pursue true shalom must be spiritually formed, spiritually discerning, and spiritually mature.

Shalom is rooted in the goodness of creation and in the endtimes hope of new creation. But the Old Testament prophets saw shalom as relevant to present day social patterns, of how we arrange our daily lives and business. Hunter correctly asserts that Jesus’ central proclamation that the kingdom of God is at hand points to the present realization of shalom in daily experience. Jesus demonstrated that God’s reigning power is available to enable his faithful disciples to experience and embody shalom in all dimensions of life even to the point of enabling us to love our enemies.

Scriptural Point 3. We must accept that we Christians operate in this culture as aliens, sojourners, and exiles, but that we must constantly be seeking the resources of our faith that can be exercised for the common good. He suggests that, if we learn to practice faithful presence in all areas of our culture, we will gain influence that does not depend on our dominating government or on our using government to dominate culture. Others will begin to look to spiritually formed Christians as people who know how to make life better.

Our path for doing that here at First Christian Church is, “The 9 Ways of Spiritual Growth”: In order to maintain a process of ongoing transformation into greater and greater degrees of likeness to Jesus Christ, we seek to: 1. Pray Daily; 2. Study the Bible Daily; 3. Worship Weekly; 4. Fellowship Regularly; 5. Serve Regularly; 6. Give Honorably; 7. Share Your Faith Intentionally; 8. Show Compassion Regularly; 9. Be Spiritually Honest

Hunter goes to two scripture passages for examples of living as exiles. The NIV rendering of Jeremiah 29:11 seems to be one of the most widely quoted verses in the Bible: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Certainly, this verse is the true and reliable promise of God, but we need to read it in context.

The extension of the Babylonian Empire’s power into the area of the Holy Land can be dated from 609 through 539 B.C., roughly 70 years. There were three exiles of citizens of Judah to Babylon during this period, a small one in 605 that included Daniel and his friends, a medium sized one in 597, and a massive one in 586, at which time Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and its temple. Jeremiah is writing from Jerusalem after the middle exile in 597 B. C. He is writing to the 597 B.C. exiles in Babylon where they were receiving encouragement from false prophets that they would soon be returned to Jerusalem. Jeremiah knew that the destruction of Jerusalem with its much worse exile was yet coming, and that no exiles would return until the seventy year period was over in 539 B.C.

Jeremiah is assuring the exiles that God does indeed have good plans for them, but that the good plans will be in Babylon, not in Jerusalem. Indeed, if the return will not happen until after 539 B.C., then Jeremiah and the vast majority of the people to whom he is writing will no longer be living at the time of the return. Jeremiah urges the refugees to devote themselves to the well-being of the Babylonian empire where they will be raising their children, grandchildren, and perhaps great grandchildren. Even though the return will not come soon, even though they will be living in an alien culture not friendly to the ways of faith, God has plans to prosper them in that situation.

The key phrase in Jeremiah 29:11 is plans to prosper you Other translations have, plans for welfare, plans for wholeness, plans for peace, plans for good, plans to take care of you. In the Hebrew original, the key word in the phrase is none other than shalom. Jeremiah was saying to the exiles that, as they live for shalom in this alien empire, they will themselves receive shalom.

Jeremiah is not counseling them to compromise their faith or their moral values, far from it! As Daniel and his friends who had been exiled in 605 had shown, there is a time to stand uncompromisingly for the requirements of one’s faith. But one may not impose those requirements on others. Jeremiah is simply urging these exiles to become known as people who work for the common good while observing the personal disciplines of their faith. As they show shalom to others, they will receive it from God.

Hunter invites us to hear this passage as guidance for how the church might live faithfully and winningly in our pluralist culture: 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare(shalom) of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare (shalom) you will find your welfare (shalom). 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord. 10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare (shalom) and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

This is not just an Old Testament perspective. Hunter rightly sees its carry-over in 1 Peter. Peter’s audience are probably Christian Jews exiled by the Emperor Claudius from Rome to the remote and very pagan provinces of what is now Northern Turkey where the exiles receive a hostile response. Peter is urging them to live distinctively holy Christian lives, but to do so in ways that are not hostile. Rather, they are to devote themselves insofar as possible consistent with their faith to the good (the shalom) of all, thereby winning respect for their faith.

They need to accept that, “I will bring you back,” may well refer not to themselves individually, but to their great grandchildren; nevertheless, even in their own time, they will be blessed.

Hunter believes that we can win respect for Christian faith by living in our various places of influence, even as in exile, with the value of shalom, seeking the common good. He believes that Christ is our master teacher as we seek to do this. This is a call to discipleship, to the discipline of Jesus. Who will take a new step on the journey of following Jesus?