Easter 2 Shalom, my friends

 

Shalom, my friends

“Peace be with you.” In the Hebrew/Aramaic Jesus spoke, “Shalom lehkhem.” In John 20:19-31 he says it three times. It could simply be a common greeting, yet, even at that it is more than a casual, “Hi, how are you!” It is meant as a blessing and a wish of well-being for the other. Shalom. Shalom is at the very heart of everything Jesus says and does.

 

Shalom, writes Walter Brueggemann, embodies the central vision of world history in the Bible that all of creation is one, every creature in community with every other, living in harmony and security for the joy and well-being of every other creature and creation itself. It goes even further than that: the most staggering expression of the vision of shalom is that all persons are children of a single family, members of a single tribe, heirs of a single hope and bearers of a single destiny, namely, the care and management of all God’s creation. [Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom, Walter Breuggemann; United Church Press, 1982, New York: p.15]

 

Earlier in the Fourth Gospel, at the Last Supper, Jesus self-identifies as shalom. It is the one single word that embodies his vision of the Reign or Kingdom of God, when he says, “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.” [John 14:27] Shalom is his parting word to his friends at supper the night before he is to be killed by state-sanctioned execution. Now it is the first word with which he greets them the evening of the day of his Resurrection. Shalom. The word that embodies the Bible’s vision “of personal wholeness in a community of justice and caring that addresses itself to the needs of all humanity and all creation.” [Ibid p 185]

 

A community of shalom is a unique triadic, or trinitarian, notion based upon righteousness, compassion and worship – worship of the One true God from whom our life together in community arises solely as a gift of a loving God – a God who creates out of nothing, delivers the enslaved to freedom, defends the vulnerable, nurtures the weak, and enlists in a universal purpose of shalom all those who respond to the divine call. The final unity of the community that answers this call to shalom is focused in our worship, from which we derive our understanding of what is true, just and good along with the courage and power to stand on the side of truth and justice, whatever the cost.

 

Jesus embodies the cost of shalom, and at supper with his friends, and three times after he returns from the dead, he gifts “his shalom” to those who will accept it. As he does so, he breathes on them. Just as the opening words of John recall Genesis 1, “In the beginning…”, so does his breathing on them now recall Genesis 2 when God breathes his ruach, his spirit, his breath, into the first human fashioned out of a handful of dust and water. This also recalls that night he tried to explain to Nicodemus that he comes to give one and all new life, new spirit, and new courage to continue his work of shalom for all. Breath is life, and we are to note that this risen Christ is still breathing! This is no ghost! He is alive! The Dead One is on the loose! And now he breathes resurrection breath that gives them a new sort of life that goes beyond the life they had before.

 

Embracing Christ’s shalom, Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus, “He [Jesus] is our Shalom!” [Ephesians 2:14] And to the Galatians he breaks it down even further, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are One in Christ Jesus...” [3:28-29] We can rest assured that were he still writing today, Paul would go on to say there is to be neither white nor black nor brown, neither straight nor LGBTQ, neither rich nor poor, neither Democrat nor Republican, neither you nor me, but only we – a community of Shalom for the common good and the well-being of all – not some, not many, not a few, but All. As such, shalom “bears enormous freight—the freight of a dream of God that resists all our tendencies to division, hostility, fear, drivenness, and misery. Shalom is the substance of the biblical vision [and Paul’s understanding] of one community embracing all creation.” [Brueggemann, Peace. St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 2001- p14]

 

After all, Brueggemann concludes, he got the lepers and the Pharisees together again, the sons of Isaac and the heirs of Hagar – or so the vision lets us hope. He is known in the breaking of bread, he is crucified and risen; he is coming again – he who draws all people to himself who rose from the dead and defied the governor, but who could not save himself. We say he embodies our vision and empowers it. [Ibid LTV p. 24] This is the vision of the Shalom Jesus breathes upon those folks hiding behind locked doors – well-being, economic justice, and freedom for all.

 

A week later, Jesus returns for Thomas who missed the moment of Shalom his companions experienced. It is tragic and ironic that we call this Doubting Thomas Sunday since the word “doubt” does not even occur in the Greek text! It is the Greek word for “unbelief” that sadly gets translated as “doubt.” Thomas remembers the torture and violence of just a few days ago. Thomas wants to believe and insists on seeing the wounds, or else all talk of resurrection will be meaningless. Thomas does not doubt, he remembers. He is to be commended for his memory and for his integrity. For any resurrection, any resolution, any rescue or recovery that moves forward by forgetting the past will be insubstantial. Any moving forward that forgets the victims of torture, abuse and discrimination will be ill-prepared to the task of Shalom when dealing with the ongoing reality of violence and abuse in this world. Which is the task Jesus hands over to them, and to us, and to all who would live by his name, “Christian.” When he greets us, “Shalom be with you…my shalom I leave with you,” he calls us to be the community of “his shalom.”  Thomas remembers, he asks, he sees, he believes, and is the first person recorded by John to declare, “My Lord and my God!”

 

Those who answer Jesus’s call to a life of Shalom join ourselves as a community of worship so as to deepen our understanding of what is true, just and good along with the courage and power to stand on the side of truth and justice, whatever the cost. Like the God, in whose image we have been created, we are to be those people who seek to free those who are enslaved, defend the vulnerable, nurture the weak, tend to and heal creation, all while we enlist others into the joyful life of Shalom Jesus gives us as his last and final gift of life – true life, real life. Life as Shalom for all people and all of creation itself. For our joy, security and well-being, our personal sense of shalom, depends on the well-being of every other creature, and that of the health of creation itself.

Amen. It is truth. It is so. Shalom, my friends, shalom.