Dreaming of Peace...

The following is an excerpt from a presentation I've been working on this afternoon for the junior and senior high youth groups at the church I grew up in. Although I will also talk a lot about MCC's work worldwide and specifically what I've done (and will soon be doing) with MCC, their topic this month is peace, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to throw in some of my own thoughts on that. This passage was one that mostly just flowed out of my pen as I tried to express what I mean when I talk about peace and peacemaking.

.

When I think of the word, "peace," the first thing that I think of is the Hebrew word, "shalom," or its Arabic cousin, "salaam." Beyond its basic usage as a greeting, this term has many deep and beautiful meanings. The best way I know how to summarise shalom is to think of how the world would be if everything was right and good. No war. No racism. No domestic abuse. No sexual exploitation. Enough food for everyone. Warm clothes on cold days. Access to education and health care. I think of a world where no child goes to bed hungry or scared, where babies don't die of preventable diseases, where women are valued as much as men, where violence is never used to resolve conflict, and where people care for and protect the earth, rather than ravage and despoil her. I believe this is how our world was originally created, and I believe it is what Jesus called his followers to work for.

Whenever I think about peace, a verse from Matthew 5 often comes to mind. Jesus is describing those people who receive God's blessing, that is, those who act according to God's desires. In verse 9, he says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." Simply put, I think Jesus is telling people: God will delight in you when you work to bring about goodness, peace, shalom in the entire created world. So long as our world does not have shalom -- so long as it does not fit the vision I just suggested above -- it is our responsibility as followers of Jesus (and indeed, simply as human beings) to work to bring about such peace.

.

Dream with me:

What would a perfect and peaceful -- shalom-full -- world look like?

And what can you and I do

-- today --

to make ours resemble that vision more fully?