Breath Prayer and Words for the Day: Help me be a shalom bringer today.
The word for peace in Hebrew is shalom. In Arabic and Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke, it's salaam. These words mean more than the absence of conflict. They mean health, wholeness, safety and rest. The common greeting throughout the Middle East where Jesus lived is, "Peace be with you." Yet we know that, as is Jesus time, peace in that portion of the world is a rare commodity. Jesus lived a land occupied by a foreign power, Rome, who maintained a puppet king, Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee where Jesus grew up. Some, like the Sadducees, collaborated with the Romans, willing to do anything as long as their personal wealth and status were maintained. At the other end of the spectrum were the Zealots who supported suicide terrorists called sicarii and fomented revolution against their Roman oppressors. Caught in the middle were the poor and disenfranchised who bore the brunt of the Roman yoke. It was primarily to these that Jesus ministered.
But Jesus knew that, as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "True peace is not merely the absence of conflict; it is the presence of justice and brotherhood." So Jesus did not advocate knuckling under or resisting with violence. He advocated a new way, loving your enemies, showing them compassion and forgiveness (even from the cross), nurturing them with food and healing (even as he did the same for his own people), and trying to liberate them from their greed and selfishness (just as he did for those who pledged to follow him).
The church hasn't always carried on Jesus' tactic. We often hear two excuses. The first says, "He doesn't really expect us to love our enemies; he's only trying to show us how hard it is to live without sin, so that we will cast ourselves on his grace." Funny how Paul in Romans 12 and Peter in 1 Peter 3 also exhort us to love our enemies and repay evil with good. Guess they didn't get the memo.
The second excuse is that it is just not practical. The success of non-violent movements such as Gandhi's in India, King's in the U.S. and now some of the uprisings in the "Arab Spring" give the lie to that rationalization. In fact, current research suggests that non-violent resistance has a better chance of overthrowing a dictatorship than violent revolt. Erica Chenoweth, professor of government at Wesleyan University, tells us that in conflicts from 1906 to 2006 nonviolent campaigns have been twice as effective as violent insurgencies.
But the truth is that the way of peace through justice is hard. It cost Jesus, Gandhi, King and many others their lives. Our excuses for not using it reminds me of the famous quote by G.K. Chesterton, "It is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, it is that Christianity has been found difficult and not tried."
Of course, the courage, patience and love required for Jesus' methods are impossible without the gift of the Holy Spirit -- the gift that God offered us through the life of one born in a stable so long ago -- the gift offered to us, even now, in this time of prayer.
This Christmas let us open our hearts once again to that gift, and honor the Prince of Peace -- not merely in word but in deed.
This Christmas let us open our hearts once again to that gift, and honor the Prince of Peace -- not merely in word but in deed.
