One of the readings for summer has been taken from the book of Epesians. The Apostle Paul wriote “God is our peace, breaking down the dividing walls of hostility, making two different people (Jew and Greek) one. … Christ came to preach peace and to teach peace.”
In
Israel today, when people meet each other, they simply say, "shalom", which
means "peace". If you are leaving
someone and you want to say, “Goodbye, see you later, so long,” you again simply
say, "shalom". It is easy, as a
foreigner, to remember one greeting for both occasions, for greeting somebody or
leaving somebody. That word is simply
shalom.
“May the God of peace teach you to walk in
the paths of peace.” Of course, that is
one reason why Jesus came to this earth: to teach us to actually behave and walk
in peaceful ways. Paul concluded the
letter to the Ephesians this way: “May
the peace of God live between you as brothers and sisters in Christ.” Paul then concluded his letter to the
Philippians with a much remembered phrase:
“The shalom of God which passes all understanding, keep and guard your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” we
are reminded that the peace of God is beyond human understanding, even though we
are constantly striving to understand those things which make for peace. Paul then concludes his letter to the church
in Colossae by stating: “May the God of peace rule in your hearts.” That is where peace always begins and ends:
with God ruling in our hearts. … In every place of our lives, we
need and want peace. That is God’s will
for us; for the reality of our everyday lives.
There is a story that illustrates
this, about a county fair, and a contest for the best “peaceful” painting. There were three finalists, three pictures of
peace. The first picture of peace is of a farm in Wisconsin. You can see that farm in your mind, with its
fences along the roadside all painted freshly white. The barn is a bright red and the farmhouse
has been recently painted red as well, with white trim freshly painted on all
the window frames. The grass of the
pasture is luscious green, with well-fed Holstein cows grazing on that tall
grass, and small birds are perfectly chirping their delightful songs as they fly
above the cows, grazing there in peace. Although this picture entered the contest for
peace, it didn’t win. The second
painting of peace was from a scene on Puget Sound at five thirty in the morning,
with the sun slowly rising with its rose hues on the water, with no wind, and no
airplanes and no boats, with only seagulls lazily gliding on the air,
effortless. Though this scene was so perfect, so serene, and so peaceful, it
too did not win. The third picture was
that of a large, tall, waterfall, a cataract splashing its waters down on the
rocks for at least two hundred feet. What a waterfall! It was magnificent. But strangely (or not), at the base of that
waterfall were the yellow arches from McDonald’s, with all their trash wrappers
spilling over from the garbage can. On
the other side of the magnificent waterfall was a freeway, with thousands of
cars endlessly roaring by. On top of that high cliff where the waterfall
originated, was a campground, where people were having a blast at a party and
hundreds of empty beer cans came floating over that waterfall and into the pool
below. Meanwhile, there was jackhammer
blasting away concrete at its base and electric power saws were whining away
with new construction. There was a tree
which had grown very tall through the years, standing near that waterfall. At
the top of the tree a branch reached out towards the water, and in that branch
was a bird’s nest, and in that bird’s nest were three blue eggs and a mother
robin was sitting on those eggs in that nest in the tree limb near the
waterfall, with all the chaos around it.
The picture was entitled, “Peace,” and that picture of peace won the
prize. … And that is our understanding of God’s
peace.
God’s peace is found by running away from
the chaos and the conflict all around us and inside of us. God’s peace is living in a chaotic situation
called life, and in this chaotic situation, we find God’s peace within and God’s
peace between. God's shalom is not
running away from the conflicts of life, but living peacefully in them and
through them.
In His peace,
Brown
