The high calling of God in Christ

There is one word that is the key to understanding the good news about God found in the Bible. It is a word that is misunderstood. The Hebrew word is “shalom.” The most popular translation of the word is “peace.” Peace is indeed included in the meaning of shalom, but shalom is much more than peace.

Among our Jewish friends and among many Christians, shalom is a sensitive and delightful greeting, usually accompanied with a firm handshake or a tender embrace. Shalom is also used as a farewell. A strong shalom and a vigorous wave of the hand sends a beloved friend on his way. But shalom is much more than a synonym for peace, a warm greeting or a fond farewell, or even some sort of combination of the three. It is the word around which the entire Old Testament and New Testament message is built.

Google the word shalom, and long articles about the word appear. It has no synonym; no sentence or paragraph can adequately explain the word’s meaning.

I once asked an Old Testament professor friend about the meaning of the word. The pause was more than hesitancy. I had asked him a question that has no definitive answer.

He made a disclaimer and then said, “Shalom occurs when everything is the way it ought to be.” He went no further. He left the rest to my imagination.

John Wesley was an itinerate preacher. As he traveled, he preached the same sermons over and over again. Possibly his most famous sermon was titled, “Let Us Go on to Perfection.” It was built on the words of Jesus: “You should be perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.” The words of Jesus and John Wesley’s sermon were in the best of the Bible tradition of shalom. My Old Testament professor friend refused to define shalom; Wesley always refused to define perfection; Jesus never defined perfection. Jesus simply told another story. We would quickly go astray if we call perfection a synonym of shalom. Getting a handle on shalom is a lifelong adventure. Further, if a person ever claims to understand the word completely or claims to have achieved shalom, failure has arrived.

There is a beautiful side to the Bible tradition of shalom. Every time we use the word, we make a witness that there is such a state as “everything the way it ought to be.” When I greet someone with “shalom,” I am greeting that person with a statement — “I trust that everything in your life is the way it ought to be.” When we depart with another “shalom,” it is a prayer — “May everything in your life be the way they ought to be.”

I love shalom because it carries high expectations, but leaves the definition of the good life to the seeker. Shalom carries with it the message that things cannot be the way they ought to be for me unless everything is the way it ought to be for all those around me. Shalom is the ultimate ideal toward which communities can strive. Shalom has a demand that we seek the same good for everyone that we seek for ourselves.

Shalom opportunities and understandings pop up in unexpected places and call for action. I have made no secret of my admiration for Rick Warren, the pastor of Saddleback Community Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch in southern California. I have admired him because he walks what he talks. He recently baptized 800 people into membership of the church. He noticed that many were significantly overweight. This was not what ought to be. He looked at himself and saw 90 pounds of excess weight. This was not what ought to be. He proposed that the whole church get serious about losing weight, and 15,000 people participated. Collectively, they lost 260,000 pounds. A lot of people are now looking more like they ought to look.

I would never suggest that the people of Saddleback Church have achieved shalom because they have lost 260,000 pounds of fat. However, trim, healthy figures would certainly be included in the ever-growing definition of shalom. Shalom invades every area of life. There is no forbidden territory.

When I read and reread the story of Jesus, study the stories that he told and digest the actions that he took, I try to do so from the shalom perspective. Shalom was an active part of Jesus’ vocabulary and his mind-set. I would argue that the mind-set of Jesus is what makes him so important in history. There is no comparable standard for life quite like shalom.

In the Philippian letter, Paul put out his most profound challenge to believers: “Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Later in the same letter, Paul encourages his readers to pursue “the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” It is the call to shalom.

The world is not lost. The world is not beyond redemption. We need more people who are committed to living out the call of shalom.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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