A couple of months ago I wrote a post: How Inclusive Should We Be in which I asked the question How did Jesus practice inclusiveness. I find myself grappling with the same question as I consider all the dimensions of shalom and God’s desire to see all people and all creation flourish and thrive in the way it was created to.
Part of what I realize is that our embracing of God’s shalom depends on our ability to accept ourselves and others as unique reflections of the image of God. So often we exclude those who look, think or act differently from us. Our image of God looks very much like us – like the white blond haired images of Jesus we see. We struggle to think that someone of a different ethnicity, sexual orientation, social position or skill set is just as acceptable to God.
Wear Your Differences Proudly.
Recently ago I met a woman who suffers from a Crohn’s disease a chronic illness that means she can’t eat the foods that most of us do. As a child she struggled with being different and resented her disease. Then one day she told herself “I am not diseased I am different”. It the beginning of a whole new approach to life for her which made it possible for her to accept herself and way God had made her.
I understand her struggle because I have often resented the way I am made too. As a young physician practicing in New Zealand I was made to believe it was wrong for me as a single woman to earn more than a married man. I was told I thought more like a man than a woman and was made to feel guilty for my gifts of leadership and organization as well as my photographic memory. Today I wear these gifts proudly, recognizing that this is who God has made me to be. I am a unique individual designed by God to reflect a unique aspect of who God is.
Learn to Understand and Accept the Differences in Others.
My stepson is schizophrenic. For years we tried to get him to take the usual medications for his symptoms. We wanted him to become like us. He hated them because they made him feel unlike himself. A few years ago however, he discovered a therapist who, rather than trying to get rid of the voices has helped him to listen to those that are good and disregard those that are destructive. There are many aspects of who he is that I am proud of and at times in awe of. In some ways he is a St Francis type of person with a deep love for animals, a generous spirit and little desire to accumulate the stuff that holds so many of us captive.
Learning to accept the differences in others means being willing to sit with them, ask questions and listen to them without judging. It is about trusting that the Holy Spirit is at work in other lives just as powerfully as in ours.
Learning what differences are acceptable to God
The image above is one I created to help me visualize God’s shalom relationships. I am sorry it is difficult to read in parts. We are so easily corrupted by our own arrogance that tells us who we think is acceptable to God. We want to exclude. God wants to include. We want people to become like us, God wants people to express their individual uniqueness. God says variety and diversity is the way I create. God will do everything possible to embrace all humankind into a loving family.
I am not a theologian so I am sure that some of you will think that I do not have any authority to answer this question. Like many of us I shied away from accepting many who looked, acted and believed differently because I was afraid that my acceptance of them would make me unacceptable to God. Then I spent some time studying the 10 commandments and realized God gave the Israelites a very few categorical statements on who is unacceptable – murderers, adulterers, those that covert their neighbours property, those that worship other gods… and that’s about all. Most of the commandments are about the good things we should be doing to live as God’s children.
Or as Jesus expresses it:
Love the Eternal One your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.”This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is nearly as important, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The rest of the law, and all the teachings of the prophets, are but variations on these themes. (Matthew 22:37-40)
Building bridges, not walls, loving not hating or fearing, reaching out with compassion, generosity and mutual care, that is what shalom living is all about. I think that 2,000 years of Christian history has shown us much about how not to practice our faith and follow Jesus. We have excluded women, children, slaves, gentiles, Jews, black people, native peoples, refugees, muslims, and many others, not because God tells us to but often unfortunately because it strengthens our positions of power and prestige. God’s heart aches for wholeness and unity and it is time ours did too.
Q&A with Leroy Barber
What inspired you to write Embrace: God’s Radical Shalom for a Divided World?
Leroy Barber: I wrote this book because we are in some trying times, and I think we need to make a push toward deepening our relationships as a way to move us closer to seeing God’s kingdom break through in powerful ways during times of chaos like these.
We don’t know each other, and that is causing us to hurt each other. Our lack of relational context is allowing injustice to continue, political systems to break down and violence to run rampant around the world. The greatest power we have available to us—relationships—is not being used to change the world as much as it could. It’s my belief that relationships move the world forward in positive ways.
When we witness some great good, there are without a doubt friendships behind the scenes that made the difference. Large donations, peace processes between nations and even bipartisan advances in politics usually mean there is a good relationship in the background. If this is the case, then it is vital that we begin to relate to others in our lives. This will move the world forward in peace.
Describe some of the “Babylons” in people’s lives.
Barber: “Babylons” are anything different that you may identify as bad, less than or other. There are places and people in our lives that challenge us. The majority of us avoid these places because they are usually complicated and call for us to look beyond ourselves. The “Babylons” of our lives may be the very places we are called to love.
What do our “Babylons” look like collectively?
Barber: We are still very divided in the church and in life. Our country and world still allow us to stay close to our own “tribes,” and this often leads to hurt and misunderstandings as we encounter a diverse world. The hard places become things to avoid rather than something to embrace as a pursuit of peace. Our obsession with comfort bleeds over into our social lives and into our ability to speak truth in love, and we become isolated from people who are different. The “other” then becomes the outsider or enemy.
What would happen if more of us reached out to the “other” and went into those hard places you write about?
Barber: I hope to inspire people to explore this book together to not only love the people close to them better but to take a chance on loving someone they would rather avoid. I have found the deepest places of learning in the unexpected relationships with the “other” in my life. When I have embraced the people farthest from me, when I have loved beyond my circle, it has opened space for others and myself.
You say that Embrace is a personal call to “embrace the hard places God calls us to, both physically and relationally, as his strategy for pursuing reconciliation between vastly differing people.” How can we begin to do that?
Barber: If we go through the awkward process of learning about the “other” or entering the hard place, I think we gain the ability to solve problems better. I think we make peace an option because we begin to see the humanity in everyone, and, ultimately, we look like the God we serve. He created us all as an expression of his image. We look more like him when we are together.
This post is part of our October Living into the Shalom of God series and was sponsored by InterVarsity Press.
photo from IVP
Leroy Barber has spent decades pursuing reconciliation and justice among groups of vastly diverse people. He knows the challenge of embracing those who are difficult to embrace, yet he advocates that the way to radical shalom on earth is through pursuing these relationships. We have the opportunity as the people of God to bring true peace and unity to a world that desperately needs it. Embrace the challenge to show a divided world the bridge-building power of God’s love.
Hurricane Matthews destruction in Haiti. Photo by Rene Lako.
Last night Tom and I talked to his niece and family who has been evacuated from there home in Florida as a result of Hurricane Matthews. At the same time I am watching the posts of friends in Haiti, Dominican Republic and Florida who are already dealing with the devastation.
I was reminded of these two prayers I wrote after the Haiti earthquake and have been praying them again this morning. I thought that some of you might appreciate them too.
Merciful God,
Compassionate Christ,
Transforming Spirit,
Have mercy on all those who suffer.
Protect the weak and the vulnerable,
Provide for the homeless and the destitute,
Comfort the grieving and the dying,
Have mercy on all who are helping.
God who loves,
Christ who cares,
Spirit who comforts,
Grant peace in the midst of devastation.
—————————————————————-
God grieve with us,
Christ grieve in us,
Spirit grieve through us.
Use our prayers to embrace and comfort all who are in harm’s way.
God care with us,
Christ care in us,
Spirit care through us,
Use our hearts and hands to heal and renew those who are broken.
God love with us,
Christ love in us,
Spirit love through us,
Use our lives to transform death into eternal life.
Image courtesy of Unsplash, photo by Biegun Wschodni Click photo for original.
Very recently we held our annual NZDF Chaplains’ Conference. Such a busy time of preparation for me as an administrator for chaplaincy, and a feat of logistics to ensure the week ran smoothly as we hosted 30+ chaplains at our base. As I went into the week I carried a degree of anxiety. There were some burdens weighing me down and fears I was giving too much attention.
I recall God saying to me clearly as I went into the week, ‘walk in my footsteps. Just stay in my footsteps and you’ll be okay’. ‘Walk in his footsteps?’ I thought, ‘this seems too hard, what big steps to fill, plus his feet are righteous and stick to the right path. My feet are wilful and tend to go astray.’
Our facilitator, Pastor Alan Jamieson arrived to lead some of our sessions. The first picture he gave us was God as our shepherd. He took us gently through the 23rd Psalm in his slow, calm voice. As he showed us the picture of Jesus carrying a small sheep on his shoulders my eyes welled up. And when he gave us 10 minutes to find a quiet spot and let the Holy Spirit speak, I realised what God had been meaning to teach me. Alan asked us to select one of the verses in Psalm 23 for reflection. I choose, ‘…he guides me in right paths for his name’s sake’. And in my 10 minutes alone I penned the following poem:
In the Right Paths
At my beginning
At my end
which is not an end, only ever a beginning.At my front
At my rear
Fortified, and held secure.At my feet
Leading my steps
Placing them, one after the next.Guiding me in righteous paths
for your own sake,
that I won’t misstep.For I know your glory
is greater than my own
ends which I might prefer to seek.And you would lift me
on your shoulders,
so that my walk
is in your steps.
At our conference we reflected on God being our shepherd and we talked about all the characteristics of a shepherd. We considered how, just as God is our shepherd, we are called to be shepherds ourselves. Some profound and memorable nuggets of truth settled down within me. Here was the word for which I thirsted, here was the comfort for which I longed.
But most of all I recall the picture of Jesus with the lamb on his shoulders and how I realised I don’t need to trace his large footsteps with my own when he carries me.
Today I pray for you the comfort of the shepherd, who knows his sheep, just as we are the sheep who listen for and know his voice.
Think for a moment of the qualities and the responsibilities of a shepherd. God our shepherd protects, tends, feeds and waters us. He nurtures, heals, guides, and leads us. He searches for us. The list is endless. You might have your own thoughts to add.
Read the many bible verses on this theme. Isaiah 40, Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23, Matthew 18, John 10. The theme of God as a shepherd runs through the new and old testaments like a living stream of truth.
As you consider his shepherding you, let God remind you of his constant commitment to your welfare. He would leave the 99, and carry you joyfully home on his shoulders.
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs and carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
Isaiah 40:11
If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.
Luke 15:4
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
This post is part of our October Living into the Shalom of God series.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
I love this passage. God is so much bigger than my puny plans and imagination. The Apostle Paul isn’t mincing words here. In the Greek he says God is able to do “abundantly [hyperekperissou]” “beyond [hyper]”, what we dare ask or even imagine. Talk about hypertext!
October’s theme is “Living into the radical shalom of God”, and this text is a great way to set the context. No, shalom is not explicitly mentioned in the passage, not even in the whole third chapter of Ephesians. What is mentioned in this chapter, summed up in the above quote, is the mystery of Christ, the love and grace of God available to everyone, and the fullness of God.
Shalom. We desperately need to embrace this word. In English we most often translate it as “peace”. But understanding shalom by that narrow and variously interpreted word would be like saying “God is able to do far less than you can ask or even imagine”. Shalom is huge! In fact, it’s such an expansive word, we wanted to devote an entire month to stories of shalom as it’s lived out in lives and communities around the world.
Here are just a handful of the ways shalom is expressed in scripture:
- Completeness
- Flourishing
- Soundness
- Peace (to be at peace or to make peace)
- Welfare
- Restoration
- Making amends
- Living in harmony
My goal in this post is not to completely unpack this word (as if I could even begin to accomplish that) but to set the stage for posts coming up this month. My hope is that this month will be filled with stories of shalom – shalom unfolding through lives in communities around the world.
For some these stories may come in the form of peacemaking between warring factions or creating space for new relationships between groups who previously didn’t cross paths. For others is may be working at healing in our politically, ethnically, and economically divided world. Still for others it may look like caring for people by protecting all of God’s creation. It’s a really big word!
Shalom is at the heart of the cross. When Jesus prays that we all may be one, he’s praying shalom. When the Apostle Paul writes, “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross,” (Colossians 1:19-20) he’s speaking words of shalom. When Jesus commands, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he’s calling us to live into the promise and hope of shalom.
Randy Woodley, in his book Shalom and the Community of Creation, writes “The Creator has ingeniously designed a world in which shalom is the foundational stuff that God uses to create proper order to the world. Put simply, shalom is originally located in God. Shalom is what we are to utilize each day as God lives through us.” (p.14)
The African term ubuntu (variations in many languages) basically means “our humanity is wrapped up together”. This is a wonderful term that I believe also captures the spirit of shalom. Shalom does not happen in a vacuum. We are created in relationship, for relationship, with God, with one another, and with the whole creation. Everything is connected, even as all things are being reconciled to God through Jesus.
I invite you to join us on a month-long journey of shalom. Read, comment, and share the stories as they unfold on our Godspace Community Blog. Write your own shalom story and share it with the world; we like having new writers join our community. And then, as the Spirit leads, go into the world to live and speak shalom wherever it’s missing. In doing so you will discover shalom spilling out into your life and that God can, indeed, do much more than we could ever possibly ask or imagine.
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
Of communion, Jesus says I will not take this drink again until
I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.
In brief, Australia’s approach to border control and refugee/asylum seeker resettlement has both onshore and offshore solutions. In particular, the offshore response sees to it that “boat people” never reach the safety they set out in hope of. The UN has found Australia in breach of protecting the human rights of asylum seekers and leaked files from Nauru paint a harrowing picture of the sexual, physical and emotional abuse received by those seeking our protection.
The intention of the picnic was to physically create the space we would like to live in, that kingdom where Jesus might join us for a drink, even if only for an hour. How can we make that grass verge feel like space of celebration and welcome?
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
With yarn bombing, banners, different flags, welcome in different languages, families and friends… At each picnic blanket, a spare place set at the table – a visual demonstration that there is room at the table for the ‘other’ and enough food to share. In the face of the continued and indefinite detention of refugees and asylum seekers including children – we sought to respond with an act of hospitality, an act of welcome, and act of love – witnessing there is room at THIS communion table.
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
We acknowledge that we gather on the land of which the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation have gathered since time immemorial to tell stories, sing songs and share food together. We gather to do these things ourselves around this idea of showing welcome to refugees and asylum seekers and we have chosen a specific place, time and context in which to do that.
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
Place: We host our picnic on what was the site of an Explosives Factory during WW2, then converted to accommodation for migrants and is now the current site of the Immigration Detention Centre. We are gathered where refugees and migrants have been arriving for the last 50 years.
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
Time: We host our picnic on the first Sunday of Lent, Sunday 14 February (also Valentines Day). This date would often have a focus theme of a continued call to conversion and seemed fitting for a demonstration of love. The intention of this picnic is to physically create the loving kingdom space we would like to live in – demonstrating the kind of welcome and abundant hospitality we as Christians believe Jesus might extend and asking of our own discipleship how we feel called to respond.
Context: We host our picnic as state leaders dispute federally legislated law, medical practitioners refuse to sign off of returning patients to off-shore detention and the UN has condemned Australia’s treatment of refugees as breaching human rights… the government, media, society are all sending strong messages – in an environment that seems more focused on reacting out of fear than love, how might we respond with clarity and compassion?
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
There is an invitation to stand – in this place, at this time, in this context and sing. This is not a new idea… we sing in the tradition of so many justice movements: civil rights, suffragettes, apartheid, slavery…in the words of Ched Myers to “Sing about it, until it can be realised”.
This first one is from the Ngatiawa River Monastry, up the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand, a contemporary contemplative community retreat centre.
This is my body given for you
Remember me.
This is my blood of forgiveness,
Remember me.
Tricia Watts is an Australian singer, composer. From her resource ‘Sanctuary’, we want to offer Sanctuary, we want to link hand in hand, we want to hear the voice of justice cry.
Hear the voice of justice cry,
Moving through our land,
Ringing out o’er hills and plains,
Linking hand in hand.
Written for the Love Makes A Way movement. I wrote this trying to find words for a situation I don’t have words to explain.
There is Room
There is room at the table (x3)
Bring them here, let them stay.
There is room at the border…
There is room in our hearts… (playgrounds, classrooms, etc…)
There is hope for a new tomorrow…
We say love makes a way…
As well as poet and cartoonist, Michael Leunig is a bit of a prophet, speaking out of hope and darkness, on behalf of many voices reminding us love is born
Love is Born The recorded version by Nathan Brailey: https://soundcloud.com/nathan-brailey/love-is-born ]
Love is born with a dark and troubled face
When hope is dead and in a most unlikely place
Love is born,
Love is always born.
Love is born,
Love is always born.
And from the civil rights “Sing for Freedom” workshops, African-Americans in the 60s in the South were singing “We’re gonna sit at the welcome table”, today we have to acknowledge that we’re already sitting at the welcome table (or the welcome picnic blanket). We sing “they’re” as we aspirationally hold space and hope that those inside our detention centres will one day come outside and join us at this table.
They’re gonna sit at the welcome table
They’re gonna sit at the welcome table
They’re gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days (hallelujah)
They’re gonna sit at the welcome table
Sit at the welcome table one of these days (one of these days)
They’re gonna feast on milk and honey…
A-ll God’s chil-dren gonna sit to-ge–ther…
They’re gonna sit at the welcome table…
We’re gonna share our songs and stories
by Talitha Fraser. All Rights Reserved
This post is part of our October Living Into the Shalom of God series.
Our Top Ten recent books dealing with shalom and reconciliation:
- Embrace, Leroy Barber (October featured author)
- Prophetic Lament, Sooong-Chan Rah (October featured author)
- Roadmap to Reconciliation, Brenda Salter-McNeil (October featured author)
- Shalom and the Community of Creation, Randy Woodley
- Sabbath as Resistance, Walter Bruggemann
- A New Heaven and a New Earth, Richard Middleton
- Ambassadors of Reconciliation: Volume 1, Volume 2, Ched Myers & Elaine Enns
- Reconciling All Things, Emmanuel Katongole & Chris Rice
- Friendship at the Margins, Christopher Heuertz & Christine Pohl
- The Book of Forgiving, Desmond Tutu & Mpho Tutu (We used this last month but the stories and concepts are central to this month’s themes as well)
What are your favorite books about shalom and reconciliation? Please comment below.
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