Shalom

Today Roz and I watched a thanksgiving service for the life of a friend. I only knew John for a few years, and was only in the same place and church for just over a year. But he was a wonderful man of seemingly unfailing cheerfulness, enthusiasm and genuine concern for the well being of others. He was a man who packed much into his life. He had been a teacher, and more recently Professor of Christian Education, who worked across Europe encouraging Christian teachers. Our time at the church wasn’t an easy year, but during that year is was in many ways the conversations with John that kept me encouraged and helped to believe, as we left that place that there was still a place for me in God’s mission.

I’ve titled this blog post Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace because in many ways this is a word I will always associate with John. He loved the word, and he loved the deeper meaning that the Hebrew word has. Shalom, you see, is not simply the absence of conflict. Shalom is the existence of wholeness, of right relationships – with God, with others, with ourselves, and with creation. It is this peace that Jesus provides, and it is this peace, this shalom that Jesus came to bring for the whole world.

This concern for the whole world, and therefore for the Christian faith to permeate absolutely all of life is one which I will also always associate with John. His passion for the whole of people’s lives to be part of their discipleship is a vital one when too often our lives are fragmented and divided. One of the people giving a tribute to John at the service remembered how John had even expounded on how there could be a Christian view of mathematics. Because God is over all of life, and absolutely everything should be lived with reference to God.

Jesus came to bring shalom – and to draw us into his mission to bring shalom to this world. We can experience now a foretaste of the perfect shalom Jesus will one day bring – and we can share that through all that we do in life with those who so desperately need wholeness in a world of fragmentation and division.

John now enjoys that shalom. And one day all who trust in Jesus will be part of a world reborn – a world of perfect shalom. And until that day we are to live out our lives, with all our varied callings and contexts in such a way as to point people to that shalom and to share that shalom with them.

I can’t express it better than in the words of a story I’ve almost finished reading to my children. One of the main characters, who has fled for her life when the wolves destroyed her home (the main characters are rabbits), has found shelter and refuge, and as she looks around her place of refuge she is surprised at the care and attention paid to art and cooking and various other skills, and wonders why such things are given attention in a time of war.

This is what she is told:

“There are secret citadels, though only a few, which have kept alive a hope of invading and retaking the Great Wood. I wish them well, and part of my sewing and mending goes to support them. But there’s another kind of mending that must be done. This place is full of farmers, artists, carpenters, midwives, cooks, poets, healers, singers, smiths, weavers— workers of all kinds. We’re all doing our part.”

“But what good will all that do?” Heather asked. “Shouldn’t everyone fight for the Great Wood—for King Jupiter’s cause?”

“Sure we should,” Mrs. Weaver said. “In a sense. Some must bear arms and that is their calling. But this,” she motioned back to the mountain behind her, “this is a place dedicated to the reasons why some must fight. Here we anticipate the Mended Wood, the Great Wood healed. Those painters are seeing what is not yet but we hope will be. They are really seeing, but it’s a different kind of sight. They anticipate the Mended Wood. So do all in this community, in our various ways. We sing about it. We paint it. We make crutches and soups and have gardens and weddings and babies. This is a place out of time. A window into the past and the future world. We are heralds, you see, my dear, saying what will surely come. And we prepare with all our might, to be ready when once again we are free.”

The Green Ember – S D Smith

I’m sure John would have wanted to add teachers to that list of workers, but the vision of wholeness in the mended wood is one he would surely have appreciated. And so I find encouragement in John’s life to living with that wholeness in view. To dedicating my life to tasting and anticipating the shalom that Jesus brings now and one day will bring in all its fulness – and to sharing that shalom as best I can with those around.

If you want a taster of how John’s thought worked you can do no better than this book: Bible Shaped Teaching https://wordery.com/bible-shaped-teaching-john-shortt-9781625645586 – it is aimed at teachers in schools, but I think a lot of what he says about teaching could apply equally to those who seek to teach in a church context – and the way he tackles the subject can be used to work out how other things (including Maths!) can be Bible shaped also.