“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:14 ESV)
Christmas day is approaching and the end of the year and it occurs to me to indulge in sentimentality and send out some special wishes to those I love. If you are reading this you are one of them. Apologies to Pastor Doug I’m going to piggy-tail a little on his Christmas message and wish all of you shalom, which means peace, but more than you might think. This message is, of course, for the Christmas season, but also for all seasons. You may or may not know that Christians love to argue about things, and whether to celebrate Christmas at all is one of those questions that can cause controversy. So I was asked once if I thought we should celebrate Christmas, and my answer was “Yes. Every day.”
The above passage from the familiar story of the birth of Jesus tells of the appearance of the angels to shepherds near the town of Bethlehem. It tells of their announcement of the miraculous birth and a proclamation of peace. In one way we are familiar with the meaning; the birth of the Messiah was the beginning of the work that would reconcile man and God. It meant mankind’s warfare with God was at an end (Is. 40:2). So we can see this proclamation of peace as an ending of hostilities, and that is something we understand about the word peace.
But there is another sense of the word that we might not be so familiar with. These angels were not singing simply about the absence of conflict. The word used here is the same used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Isaiah 9:6 where Jesus is prophesied to be “Prince of Peace.” This peace is expressed in Hebrew by the word shalom, The word is used as part of the blessing God gave to Moses to sanctify the people: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26 ESV) The word is defined in a number of places as “total well-being.” I think in our modern understanding we could translate it as “contentment” or “bliss” or, perhaps more meaningful to some, “serenity.” These words approach the significance of shalom but do not fully convey its meaning.
In the shared Judeo-Christian heritage shalom is necessary because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve. God created the world in a condition of completeness. The relationship between God and his people was without barrier; God walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. God provided for every need and lived in perfect communion with his creatures. It is way beyond the scope of what I want to write here, but suffice it to say Adam and Eve made a conscious choice to separate themselves from God by desiring to be apart from him in will. That decision created the brokenness in man that according to Christians could not be healed until God himself healed it. I think anyone who is honest with him or herself, whether Christian or not, knows what brokenness looks like.
The world is a confusing and fearful place, with temptations and stumbling blocks at every turn. Our brothers and sisters around the world and in our midst suffer from injustice, poverty, sickness, and violence. Even those of us who avoid the worst of what can happen in the world find that our materialistic “good life” leaves us empty and unsatisfied, constantly yearning for more. We don’t comprehend the concept of shalom because we don’t experience it in our daily lives, nor do we see it when we look around. That’s what makes Jesus’ birth so significant.
The birth of Jesus brings shalom. So when we think of what the word shalom means we are thinking about a state of being where we are totally and completely at peace with God. In such a state we experience no fear, no want, no pain, no sickness, no death. All of our cares are forgotten, and we live in a community of overflowing love and fellowship with each other and with God. My favorite description of this is in Revelation:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:1-4 ESV)
Most of us think of Revelation as a picture of something that is supposed to happen in the future. From God’s point of view Revelation points to a labor that has already been accomplished. It is the completion of the work of reconciliation that was begun on Christmas in Bethlehem when Jesus came to live with us. Emmanuel : God with us. And this is not for the future; it is for now.
I know that some to whom I am writing now are not Christians. I am not going to presume to comment on how God manifests himself to anyone’s soul. And I guess my writing here is a little cerebral and I probably haven’t done a great job of expressing the magnitude of the shalom that Christmas represents. But I want you to try to imagine it, and I want you to know that that is what I wish for you on Christmas and every other day, now and forever. And I want to thank you for making the shalom of God real for me in so many ways. May you have a merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Keith Cox
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