Peace

To be at peace with others, we must seek peace within ourselves. To be at peace within ourselves, we must seek peace with others.  This is a mutual effort.  In seeking peace with others, they will (eventually) seek peace with us.  To welcome peace from others is to grant peace to both them and ourselves.  Caring peace is the reduction of negative stress in our relationships.  If we begin to listen to others, to resolve conflicts with all parties in mind, then the goal of peace can possibly be achieved.

Opposite: Harsh conflict, resolving conflict with only personal goals in mind.

Conflicts and relational stresses are inevitable.  Do we try to ignore conflicts, allowing them to fester, or do we approach them gently?  Do we manipulate people to try to get them to do what we want, or directly speak to issues?  Do we blow up at others and then hope they don’t bring it up again?  Or do we firmly but gently speak to the issues in our relationships, listening to others’ needs and then seeking to resolve them with both parties’ needs met?

World Peace or Whirled Peas?

Got World Peace?
Peace, according to the Bible is not just an absence of violence or a peaceful, easy feeling, but it is well-being in a community. When the Bible promises “peace on earth to those obtaining grace”, it is not speaking of a lack of war, but of a ruling principle and nation who would provide for all in need and offer justice and peace to everyone, without exclusion. This well-being and justice is called “shalom” in the Bible.

Stuck with Whirled Peas?
If there is one thing the world lacks, it is peace, meaning shalom. If shalom is a world-wide community in which everyone experiences well-being, acceptance, mutual assistance, and equal justice for all, then we have never experienced it. In every nation, in every era, the poor have been oppressed. The outcast have been thrown out because of arbitrary cultural mores. The religious have judged and rejected all people who did not accept their narrow guidelines. The non-religious have judged and rejected the religious because of their devotion to God. And all people purpose to harm all people who stand in the way of their culture controlling and manipulating all others.

Life on earth is not shalom. It is anti-peace.

Everyone wants peace. Most of us in the world recognize that we are all in trouble, that we don’t have peace, and all of us want to obtain it. Or create it. Or force it on others. To create shalom where there is no shalom is what the Bible calls “salvation.” Frankly, it is a utopian ideal, just like democracy is, just like capitalism is, just like communism. The difference is that the Bible claims that salvation—the creation of shalom in the world—is something that only God can do. Peace and justice cannot come simply from human effort or from anarchy. It must be a work of God that humans join with. But it is initiated by God.

Getting Better All The Time
The first step of God’s shalom-making was creation. God saw the chaos, the pointlessness of the world and made it again. And, according to Scripture, after God’s peace-making, He established humanity to rule over His creation and to keep it in shalom. This plan failed when humanity chose rebellion and chaos instead of God’s shalom.

Another step in God’s shalom-making was choosing Abraham. Abraham was not a perfect man, but he was a person who sought God alone, being faithful to Him, and trusting in Him when all else seemed chaotic. God chose Abraham because of his trust in God and said that whoever would obtain shalom, in all the world, they must be like Abraham and choose his path of trust. This plan failed because people thought that following the ritual of Abraham or being born into the family of Abraham obtained this shalom.

Another step in God’s shalom-making was to create a community of shalom with very specific rules. He chose for His people a nation in slavery—the outcast—so they would know how to treat those who were outcast. And He taught them His ways of love and shalom for all his people. This experiment failed in different ways, over the years. First, the people didn’t believe that God could really give them shalom. Then, they sought out other spiritual powers to grant them shalom. Then, they oppressed the poor, forgetting that they were once poor themselves. And finally, they took God’s rules and make them so burdensome that it became impossible to live them out.

Without exception, everyone has done wrong before God and become offensive to Him. But we all have been given the opportunity to be right before God through the deliverance from the slavery to sin and death which can be found in the Messiah Jesus. When the Father raised Jesus from an official execution, he showed him to be the path to be forgiven of our sins and to have a relationship with God. God proved his justice—which was called into question by him overlooking sins in the past and because of his patience—by making acceptable the one who enters into the devotion of Jesus, and so He proved his actions just….Jesus was given to the authorities to be punished because of our wrongs before God and Jesus was raised from his execution so that we could be made acceptable before God. Therefore, since we have been made acceptable by committed devotion, we have the shalom of God through our King, Messiah Jesus. It is because of Him that we have the right to speak to God and receive the blessings of God, on which we depend on for our very well-being. We boast in our confidence in being a part of God’s glory. You see, we can boast in the sufferings we receive—even as Jesus did—because we know that our suffering gives us the opportunity to stick with God. And sticking with God in the midst of suffering—even as Jesus did— is the test of our true devotion to God. And if our devotion is tested, then we have confidence—because if Jesus was raised by His enduring devotion, so will we. And this confidence will never be dashed because God’s love fills us through the Holy Spirit, given by God, to help us endure in the midst of our struggles. (Romans 3:23-26; 4:25-5:5 SKV)

Love Reign O’er Me
Finally, after all of these temporary experiments, God began his final plan for shalom. He sent his Son to be emperor of the world, ruler of his people. First, Jesus displayed shalom by setting people free from spiritual judgment, offering them freedom from diseases and mental illnesses and offering them a new life in God. Then he told the people the life of shalom in God, living by the principles of shalom. Then, finally, he allowed the rulers of God’s people—the priests and elders—to kill him, treating him as an outcast of God’s people. But God vindicated his Son as the only way to God’s shalom, the great Truth-teller. And a new people was created under Jesus, living Jesus’ shalom-principles and testing the world with their message of destruction of the anti-shalom and the establishment of God’s shalom.

The Underground Revolution
Through Jesus, God is continually creating communities of shalom—some big and some small. These communities are made up of those who were rejected by the world and who are baptized in Jesus—namely, those who have committed themselves to being citizens of Jesus’ new nation of shalom. These baptized are committed to Jesus’ principles of peace and justice. But these principles are not enough in and of themselves, because we all are too weak, as humans, to maintain shalom. So the Emperor has allowed us to receive the Holy Spirit, who helps us in our weakness to maintain shalom, even when we do not have the strength to live it out.

Would you like to be a part of this process of creating shalom, or peace and justice on earth? The first step is to commit yourself to Jesus by being baptized. And then you live out Jesus’ principles of peace. Begin now by praying this: “Jesus, I have messed my life up. Rule over my life and make me a new person. Teach me how to being peace and justice to the world and give me the Holy Spirit to remain in that peace myself.”

Why Do We Need A Christ?

What is Christ?
“Christ” isn’t the last name of Jesus, but it is a title. It means “anointed one”, just the same as the Hebrew word Messiah. But having some guy with oil on his head isn’t what the world needs. Instead, the “Christ” is actually the emperor of God, the ruler of the world. The Christ is like a Roman Caesar or a Napoleon. Someone who takes over the world by force and then rules over a central part of the world, and, by extension and treaty, provides peace to the rest of the world. Other terms that are used both in the Bible and in the pagan world for an Emperor are: Son of God, Alpha and Omega, Father (or Pope), and Lord.

The New Testament claims that Jesus is the fulfillment of this role, appointed by God at his baptism and approved by God through his resurrection. But the promise becomes crystallized at Jesus’ birth, where the promise of the Son of God, the Christ, is displayed to the poor and lowly of Bethlehem

For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:6-7

Why do we need a Christ?
This concept of the kingdom of God is exactly what Jesus was speaking about. But why do we need a ruler like this? Hasn’t it been proven that dictators are a bad idea? Shouldn’t we learn to rule ourselves? Well, anarchy has been attempted and all it does is lead to injustice and chaos. But why a Christ? According to the Old Testament, there are some very good reasons why we should have an Emperor of God:

So the world can acknowledge God as the true ruler
God is the Creator of the world, the King of the universe. Yet most of the world did not acknowledge him as God or properly give God his due. Instead, they saw other gods, who assisted them with their petty lives, as being more worthy of their devotion and sacrifice. But with the Christ ruling the world, then God will be given his proper due and praise and thanks will be offered to Him by all the world.
And He will delight in the fear of the LORD… For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:3,9

To destroy the injustices of secular empires
The rulership of the world has passed on from one empire to another from the ancient days to today. And not a single empire has ruled with justice or with equity. There is always an elite, who reap the benefits of the empire, and a servant class on whose backs the empire is built. The rulers always ignore the rule of God and establish their own rule according to their own principles. But the new kingdom will be built upon justice and righteousness, and set aside the old empires with their injustices.

In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. Daniel 2:44 And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist. Isaiah 11:5

To take us out of the system of judgment
For all governments of the world, if you do wrong, there is a penalty. Do the crime, pay the time. This is a system of judgment, and it was established by God. However, this is not the only system of dealing with lawbreakers that God had established. Jesus’ system is that of repentance and release. In other words, give a person the opportunity to make their crime right and to turn from their ways and then just welcome them back. Jesus as the Christ does not do away with the system of judgment, but he gives us an opportunity to escape it. This is done through his death, where his new system of dealing with crime is the judicial basis of his kingdom, established by his death and resurrection.
As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Isaiah 53:11

For the poor to be heard
In every system of government that has ever existed there is a lower class for whom there is no justice. This group is always assumed to be the criminals, they are feared and hated and accused of the most terrible crimes. Should one of this group do something wrong, then they are all punished. But the Christ will listen to the poor and acknowledge their actions. He will not judge them according to their class, but according to their deeds. And he will love the poor and draw them up to rule with the elite.
With righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. Isaiah 11:4

For there to be shalom
Only through God’s righteousness and justice will there be an opportunity for the world to run as it should, not only for people, but for all creation. “Shalom” is usually translated “peace”, but it really means a community of well-being, a society where everyone is benefited. The Christ brings this peace to all who can enter into his kingdom.
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them… And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, Isaiah 11:6-9

This is the promise of Christmas, “Peace on earth for those favored.” Christmas isn’t just about the incarnation—God coming to earth—as important as that is. It is about the fulfillment of the hope of the Christ that God’s people have been waiting for. It is the coming of the Emperor of God, who rules today from heaven and will rule on earth when he returns.

Got Christ?
We can participate in his kingdom today. We don’t need to wait until he returns. In fact, he doesn’t want us to. Jesus is ruling at the right hand of God and wants us to turn our lives over to him so we can live in his justice and peace right now. If we commit our lives to his rule and get baptized in his name then we will begin living in a different kingdom, under the best ruler of the world that has ever existed, free from our wrongs and living in peace.

A Third Way on Homosexuality

This is one of the best statements I have read on the issue of discussing homosexuality in the church. It is by Scot McKnight, an anabaptist evangelical. You can find it here:
http://blog.beliefnet.com/jesuscreed/2009/04/a-letter-my-response.html



Every discussion about homosexuality is fraught with a singular challenge. It is the challenge of civility. I believe civility is the Third Way in this moral debate. On this blog last week we published "A Letter" and then Andrew Marin, a Christian friend and advocate for Christian civility, posted a response (we will be posting about his new book Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community soon). Today I'd like to post my own challenge to all of us.

How can we learn to be more civil with each other in this discussion/debate? What can each ask of the other?

I want to begin with something I read in Richard Mouw's book, Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World : referring to something said by Martin Marty, Mouw says "one of the real problems in modern life is that the people who are good at being civil often lack strong convictions and people who have strong convictions often lack civility."

Right here is where we need to begin: I cannot understand why strong-convicted Christians, on either side of this debate by the way, refuse to act with civility. Perhaps it is because they are so passionate about this issue, so convinced it is a matter of ultimate justice or ultimate fidelity, that they think they must become strident and fight this issue to the ground until it gives up the ghost. Perhaps it is because they think they are called to play the role of prophet, and that means for some the use of prophetic, denunciatory rhetoric. Plenty of examples are available; I see no need to point fingers. We need to move on.

Mouw is right, civil folks often lack conviction and conviction folks often lack civility. He's right about something else:




What we are in most need of today is "convicted civility" (p. 12) or what we might call compassionate conviction or principled passion. It is the rare combination of civility and conviction, tempered as it must be by anyone who lives the Jesus Creed, by faithful compassion. This is the Third Way and we need it today. One who is fully dedicated to this today is Andrew Marin, and his new book from IVP is an exceptional attempt to foster civility with a traditionalist viewpoint on homosexuality. His book is just now available. Buy it now because we'll be discussing it in the month of May (Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community ).

Today I'd like to speak to two issues: the bottom line in civility and the intent of our convictions.

The bottom line in civility issue is this: For pro-gay-as-Christian or pro-gay marriage/civil union folks: Christians who differ from you are entitled to take their stand on what they think the Bible says and say they think such views are contrary to God's order as revealed in the Bible and as taught in the history of the Church. They deserve, even must, be respected for that view. If you label such persons as dinosaurs or bigots in order to brand them and exclude them, you fail in love and you fail our society.

For anti-gay-as-Christian or anti-gay marriage/civil union folks: Those who affirm civil unions, gay marriage, etc, are entitled to form their own viewpoint in believing that they think these relations are justifiable for Christians and they must be respected for their viewpoint. If you label such persons as morally bankrupt in order to brand and exclude them, you fail in love and you fail our society.

The issue here is entitlement. I contend that folks must be given the freedom to believe what they want. When we refuse to let others think what they want, we break down a civil society. This has nothing to do with whether we think the other person is right. We may well think they are not.

Until we get to positions of mutual respect, we cannot have a conversation and cannot make progress. Until we get let the other person say "I think you are wrong and I have legitimate grounds for thinking so" we cannot genuinely sit at the table. When the other person's viewpoint is grounds for exclusion -- and I see this from both sides of this debate -- we haven't even achieved a tolerant society. In fact, we strain the tethers of a tolerant society. And this doesn't even bring up the Christian virtue of charity or love: those who love others will never exclude from the table those who differ from them simply because they have a view that they think wrong.

And, yes, this must be done while holding to what Mouw calls convicted civility or what can be called principled passion. Hold your views with clarity and with conviction, but we dare not let ourselves become so committed to our views that we cannot engage the person as a person. It is too easy to convert the Bible into a lawbook or into irrelevant antiquity. We hope for a Third Way in reading the Bible, too (see my The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible ).

This leads me to the issue of intent in conviction. What is the intent, I want to ask, of declaring -- and again this is about both sides of this issue -- the other person wrong? Is the decision of what is "right" vs. what is "wrong" the final goal? I sense for many it is. Once one has determined one's views and then declared that view, some folks think the job is done. "There," they might say as they wash their hands with the conviction of fidelity and purity, "I've held my own and taken my stand."

No, I would argue: the ultimate aim is not to declare one's view but to live a life of love of God and love of others, with convicted civility, and to live with others in the hope of bringing all to the goal God has in his redemptive designs. Love and convicted civility can co-exist for the Third Way. For one side, this will mean living with those who are gay or lesbian with a view toward transformation. My contention: those persons are entitled to believe that and to hope for that and to work for that. For the other side, this will mean living with those who think gay marriage/civil unions are "contrary to God's order" with a view to their transformation. Those persons can believe that and hope for that and work for their view, too.

This is hardly compromise; this is convicted civility at work. May God's grace be at work.