a holy lent--peace

Uncategorized Apr 06, 2022

At the beginning of Lent, I distinguished harmony from unison singing. When I longed for harmony, I wasn’t longing for total agreement, but for a melody of multiple voices in tune with one another. So here, near the end of Lent, I go back to a similar refrain—I am longing for peace.

Peace isn’t simply the absence of discord. Peace involves reconciliation. Biblical peace is called Shalom, and it literally means the reweaving of a worn and tattered garment, for universal justice and welfare. Tim Keller writes that Shalom is “complete reconciliation, a state of the fullest flourishing in every dimension—physical, emotional and spiritual—because all relationships are right, perfect, and filled with joy.” Sounds like heaven, right?

Jesus was the Prince of Shalom (Isaiah 66:12), and he said that we are blessed when we join him in his peacemaking, reweaving, Shalom activities. This work makes us children of God. (Matthew 5:9) Peter exhorted the church to seek Shalom and pursue it. (1 Peter 3:11)

Do we need to agree with every choice or know others are free of all sin to keep loving? Is that the way that God loves us? Does he require perfection from us? Whose perfection, whose atoning work will be our reconciliation, our Shalom? Only Jesus lived the life we could not live and died the death that our selfishness requires. We can wish for peace, we should strive for peace, but only Jesus can BE our peace. We need Christ to stand in the middle of the discord. As the Celtic prayer says: “Be the eye of Christ betwixt me and each eye…the wish of Christ between me and each wish, the will of Christ betwixt me and each will."

For those that we love too-much (inappropriate attractions), for those that we love not-enough, for those we love impatiently and imperfectly, Christ betwixt me and thee.

Karen Mains wrote, “powerful tools of prayer are available to us when we measure all human relationships in the presence of Christ and by the presence of Christ…. [We must ask ourselves] what would Christ say about this relationship?” And then she added this beautiful prayer:

    “Lord, be between child and me today, between myself and friend.
     Hold my hand and the hand of the other also, Christ.
     Walk in the middle as we walk.
Be the word between us as we speak.
Lord, YOU be at the center of my loves.
Let all others be the radiating circumference.
Christ betwixt thee and me, betwixt me and thee, today I pray. Amen”

Pray that prayer two or three times a day for the rest of Lent and see if your peace quotient doesn’t increase.

Shalom, Liz

Photo by Kimberly McFadzean