This is a long post, but it won't work doing it in parts so I'll just post the whole thing.
I began this discussion last week with a quote from the book Engaging God’s World. I recommend before you continue with this post that you take a minute and read the first part of this discussion. You can find it here.
When I am in a fight with my wife (verbal, not physical; she would win) it’s usually because I’ve done something to upset her. I’ve not washed the dishes, loaded the dishwasher, vacuumed the house, folded and/or put away the laundry, bathed the child, changed the litter, made the beds, mowed the lawn, straightened up the house, picked up my dirty clothes, or any combination of the aforementioned. My wife is not a totalitarian, Castro-esque dictator. Any of you that know her know that she is so much like Jesus in how she lives that she makes St. Francis and St. Benedict look like rank amateurs and pagans. She’ll tell you that’s an exaggeration, but only because she is really, really humble (whereas I am really, really not). But I digress…
As I was saying, our disagreements are usually caused by me, but it isn’t just because I didn’t do what she wanted me to do. You see, for her, those things being accomplished maintain a sense of shalom in her soul. A simple definition of shalom, as stated in the first part of the discussion, is “everything in its proper place.” In Biblical language, shalom is a wholeness and completeness in our being and in our world; it is everything being as God intended it to be. So let’s apply that to the situation at hand.
When I fail to do the “assigned” tasks, the tasks that when accomplished give her a sense of shalom, I am breaking her shalom. I am fracturing the inner quiet and rest and wholeness of her person, because things aren’t as they should be. I haven’t lived up to my end of our covenant. I promised to love her and care for her. When I honor that covenant then there is shalom, all things are as God intended them.
Here’s what I’m saying: that I think we need to redefine what sin is and is not. What if we defined sin as any disruption of shalom? The shalom broken can be between man and God, man and his fellow man, man and creation, or man and his own self.
The Greek word for sin literally means “to miss the mark.” Shalom, again, is everything existing and functioning according to how God’s intention and design. To miss the mark, to sin, is to disrupt that natural order, that natural relationship between Creator and creation, man and man, etc. I may be going out on a limb here, but after talking with people about this and thinking about it, I’m not so sure that this isn’t close to the mark. There are some things that are “sin” for some people that aren’t for other people. Now, I know what you are going to say: sin is sin; what is wrong for one person is wrong for everyone. Well…sort of. Obviously, murder is wrong for everyone. Adultery, theft, and the rest of The Big Ten (the commands, not the conference), these are wrong for all humanity. But redefining sin as a disruption of shalom instead of simply our opinions on what is wrong changes things a bit. Paul, in Romans 14, talks extensively about this very idea. I’ll quote extensively to present the whole picture. Any bold emphasis is mine.
1Accept those whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2One person’s faith allows them to eat everything, but another person, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted that person…. 5Some consider one day more sacred than another; others consider every day alike. Everyone should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6Those who regard one day as special do so to the Lord. Those who eat meat do so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and those who abstain do so to the Lord and give thanks to God. 7For we do not live to ourselves alone and we do not die to ourselves alone. 8If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living…. 13Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put a stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother or sister for whom Christ died…. 19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.
You see, there are some activities that are historically and unjustly labeled controversial and “taboo” for Christians, though never explicitly stated as such in Scripture. Take the issue of alcohol, for instance. This is a big ticket item in most churches with both camps—the “drink-it-ups” and the “don’t-touch-its”—equally divided against each other, both clamoring for a fight with Bible-guns in hand ready to slay the other. If we take Paul’s words here as guide then the argument solves itself. For some people their conscience will allow them to drink alcohol. They have no history of addiction or alcoholism in the family; they do it responsibly and moderately, not giving themselves over to drunkenness (a definite disruption of shalom), using it as a means of sacrament, consecration, celebration, and communion with other brothers and sisters in Christ and their fellow man. If a person is fully convinced in their own mind and do everything to the Lord then there is no disruption of shalom. If, on the other hand, a person has decided that drinking alcohol is “unclean,” to use Paul’s term, then for that person it has become unclean. For a person to drink in front of someone who is convinced that it is unclean, or to try and convince them to regard it as clean, is a disruption of that abstainer’s shalom and it is wrong. You have become a stumbling block to that person. You can take the situation and reverse it as well. To condemn a person for drinking because you simply disagree with it is a disruption of that person’s shalom and you are equally in the wrong. Drinking in front of a recovering alcoholic is not only a disruption of shalom but it is also tempting that person and leading them into a place where their shalom with God is disrupted as well. Note what Paul, “a Hebrew of Hebrews,” a zealous Jew and follower of Jesus, says in verse 19: “do what leads to peace,” and as we’ve seen the Hebrew word for “peace” is shalom. Do what leads to shalom.
This has far-reaching implications for how we relate to God, to each other, to ourselves and to creation.
We live our life in Christ in freedom and joy, instead of out of a sense of duty and legalistic observance of commands. We focus on maintaining and deepening the shalom between ourselves and our Maker, because it is the way that Jesus showed us. Jesus did not come to start a new religion, or to hold one religion up against another; he came to bring show us the Way to live in shalom—in wholeness, completeness and oneness—with the Father, with all things as they should be.
Our relationships with each other are forever altered. We live our lives in love and respect for one another and for the opinions that we all hold, those that are the same and those that are drastically different. Paul is instructive here. If we are distressing a brother or sister then we are no longer acting in love. Jesus’ command on his final night: “Love one another.” There is no greater love then someone laying down their life for their friend. It’s time for us to lay down our lives to preserve the shalom of another.
We do so many things that disrupt the inner harmony and rhythm of our own souls, the core of who we are, the part that only God sees and knows intimately. The guilt associated with the disruption of shalom, the weight of our own problems, depression, struggles, addictions and abuses of freedom, and the deep longing for release and rescue that presses down on our souls: all of these add up to an overwhelming break-down of the reality we find in the mirror each morning. We aren’t who we really are. We know that something isn’t right, never quite able to put our finger on “it,” but wishing that the “monster lurking” would find a fast elevator down into the bowls of Hell. Until we understand that “it” is shalom that has gone missing, we will continue to fill our lives with fruitless endeavors, get-happy-quick schemes, and so many material possessions that we have to keep building bigger houses to hold it all. And all the while that “ol’ feeling” never quite goes away. Shalom cannot be bought or sold. It must be cultivated by following the way of Jesus.
Finally, our relationship with creation is altered and seen in a different light. We love creation like God loves creation. We care for it, tend it, recreate it and redeem it. We recycle, not because we are tree-hugging environmentalist (because they are so evil!), but because we want to make good use of resources and materials. Nothing disrupts the shalom of creation more than humanity knowingly and willfully pillaging, abusing, over-using and destroying the earth for personal, self-centered gain and economic greed. Instead as Christ followers we find ways to conserve energy, we take fewer napkins from Taco Bell, reuse plastic butter containers and instead of using paper plates out of convenience we take the extra time to use dishes and wash them. As Jack Johnson sings on the Curious George soundtrack, we “reduce, reuse, recycle.” Our love for God must extend to everything that God loves and cares for, and how we love what God loves speaks volumes about how seriously we take our call to follow Jesus.
There is a hunger in my own soul for shalom: in my home, in my work, in my soul, in each relationship, with the created order, and with my God. I get the sense that there is a hunger in a great many souls for shalom, for a rhythm and order to life. They are dying to live, full and free, in love and compassion, in justice and mercy, and in the powerful presence of the Almighty.
shalom, matt
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