While I do not plan on posting every one of my sermons on this blog, worship at my congregation was cancelled this last Sunday due to the weather. This inspired me to share this sermon online so my effort in writing it was not wasted!
Thomas E. Jacobson
Second Sunday of Easter
April 8, 2018
Dear congregation, shalom. That might sound like an odd greeting, but you heard it this morning whether you know it or not. Shalom. You didn’t hear that exact word, but a translation of that word was in the gospel reading for this morning. Shalom.
What does shalom mean? We should take a few moments and explore that word. It’s a Hebrew word. Hebrew of course is the language of the Old Testament. The Israelite people in the Bible used the Hebrew language. And when they wrote down what we call the Old Testament part of the Bible, that’s the language they used. Jesus himself would have spoken Hebrew, at least a form of it called Aramaic. So that’s how the word shalom has come down to us.
Shalom. What does it mean? A lot of times, that word gets translated as “peace.” Well, it can mean that. But shalom is a much bigger word than simply our notion of “peace.” It has a much deeper meaning. One of the best ways to think about shalom is by thinking about an engine on a car or tractor or truck. I am certainly no expert mechanic, but if you have a four cylinder engine, and all of the pistons are firing, the engine is working the way it’s supposed to, that’s shalom.
Shalom is probably best translated as “harmony.” Everything is working the way it’s supposed to. And, when you have harmony, when everything is working the way it’s supposed to, one of the things you have is the absence of war. And that’s why shalom is sometimes translated a “peace.” But it really is a much bigger concept than simply “peace.”
You know, we are very fortunate in our part of the world. In our lifetimes, we have never had to live through a war on our home soil. But we know, of course, that other parts of the world most definitely have, and how easy it is for us to forget those parts of the world where shalom is lacking. Every day I get an email in my inbox that reminds me of important events that took place in history on this particular day. And just yesterday, one of the events was about the horrific genocide that took place in the African country of Rwanda in 1994.
We are fortunate to be sheltered from violence on a massive scale on this continent of North America. And because we are, we might think that we don’t need to worry about shalom. We seem to be surrounded by peace, and so we’re just fine. But as I said, shalom is about a lot more than simply not fighting with guns or swords, missiles or arrows or bombs, and everything in between. More about that later.
In the readings we have from the Bible this morning, we get glimpses of shalom. In Psalm 148 that we read together, we get a vision of the whole creation praising God. In the Bible, that is shalom. All creation has as its purpose to live out its calling to praise the Lord in whatever it is we are called to do. In the book of Acts in the New Testament, we also get a glimpse of shalom. The book of Acts tells the story of the earliest years of the Christian Church, after Jesus was raised from the dead and had ascended to heaven. In the brief report from chapter four this morning, we get a picture of shalom with the early Christian community. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. That is an image of shalom.
But how well did things end up working out? How long did that shalom last? You don’t have to keep reading the book of Acts very long to realize that the shalom that the early Christians had shortly after Jesus was raised from the dead was only temporary. It didn’t take long for that shalom to be broken. Conflict arises. People take sides. People argue and fight. And the shalom is gone.
Which brings us to the second reading for this morning, from 1 John in the New Testament: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
In other words, if we say we have shalom, we deceive ourselves. If we say we don’t sin, we fool ourselves. Sin is anything that separates us from God, and that’s what brings the absence of shalom. It might be something we do that isn’t morally good. It might be something we should’ve done that we didn’t do.
We might not even know what our sin is. But we know that we’re not perfect, we’re not without sin. So to say that we’re sinless makes us foolish, and we make God a liar. We’re not perfect. We’re not without sin. The Bible itself is filled with stories of people who came to realize this, one of them being the mighty King David, as one example. And Christian history is filled with such stories too, of people whose eyes were opened to the absence of shalom in their lives.
John Newton is most famous for being the author of the hymn we just sang, Amazing Grace. He was nurtured by a Christian mother, who taught him the Bible at a young age. But he was soon raised by his father when his mother died of tuberculosis. John Newton was only seven years old. At age eleven, Newton went on his first of six sea-voyages with the merchant navy captain.
He was a slave trader. You know what that meant. Ships would make the first leg of their voyage from England nearly empty until they would anchor off the African coast. There, tribal chiefs would deliver to the Europeans stockades full of men and women, captured in raids and wars against other tribes.
Buyers would select the “best” slaves, which would be bartered for weapons, ammunition, metal, liquor, trinkets, and cloth. Then the slaves would be loaded aboard, packed for sailing. They were chained below decks to prevent suicides, laid side by side to save space, row after row, one after another, until the vessel was packed with as many as 600 slaves.
Captains looked for a quick voyage across the Atlantic's "middle passage," hoping to preserve as much of their cargo as possible, but a lot of slaves died during the trip—as many as twenty percent. When the slaves got sick with small pox or some other disease, they were thrown overboard.
Once they arrived in the New World, blacks were traded for sugar and molasses to manufacture rum, which the ships would carry to England for the final leg of their "triangle trade." Then it was back to Africa for another round. John Newton transported more than a few shiploads of the six million African slaves brought to the Americas in the 18th century.
By the time Newton was in his teenage years, he’d become rebellious against the discipline of the Royal Navy. He disappeared, but he was found and punished for his bad behavior. Newton was traded over to the crew of a slave ship bound for Africa. He found a book on board, a work by the medieval Christian mystic Thomas à Kempis. It was called “The Imitation of Christ.”
That book planted the seeds of his conversion. When a ship nearly perished in a storm, John Newton’s heart was opened to Jesus. Later he was promoted to captain of a slave ship. That might seem strange—a new Christian commanding of a slave ship. But the cruel features of the job began to wear on Newton, and he left.
While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At 82, Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior." No wonder he understood so well grace—the completely undeserved mercy and favor of God. John Newton saw firsthand the lack of shalom in the world and in his own soul. And in the process, he discovered that God had the power to heal his broken soul and bring about shalom in His own way.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.”
John Newton came to realize that he wasn’t without sin—he was a wretch, in need of God’s grace, of shalom. If we claim that we’re perfect, without sin, we only fool ourselves. We mislead ourselves. And we’re left in darkness.
In the words of 1 John, if we say we’re without sin, we make God a liar, because if we had shalom in our world and lives, then why did Jesus come into the world? God offered Jesus Christ on the cross, to make up for our sins and the sins of the whole world. But if we admit that we’re sinful and we confess our sins, God will forgive them. Through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God begins the process of bringing shalom to the world. And whenever hearts are opened to Him, we get glimpses of shalom in the here and now that will be completed in eternity.
In the gospel reading from John chapter 20, we get an example of this. Unlike Psalm 148 and Acts chapter four, what we see in John 20 is the absence of shalom. We hear of the disciple of Jesus named Thomas, who wasn’t with the other disciples in the morning when they heard the news that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Thomas is unbelieving, or doubting, as he is sometimes called. And that means that Thomas does not have shalom. All of the pistons are not firing in Thomas’ life. Thomas needs shalom.
But Jesus comes for the purpose of restoring shalom, and it begins with his own disciples on that first Easter evening. In fact, that’s what Jesus says, three different times: “Peace be with you.” He shows his hands and side to the disciples. And in their lives, shalom is restored. Thomas was the one hold out. But Jesus came back to him. Jesus saw that there wasn’t shalom, and Jesus wanted to fix it, for all of the pistons to be firing. And Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” And shalom is restored.
The need for shalom is great all around our world, in our nation, our communities, our homes. And that’s why God’s Word is still living and active. The letter of 1 John stands as a reminder that this world is indeed sinful, filled with a lack of shalom, of harmony, is out of sync with the will of God. But 1 John also points us to the message of God’s amazing grace, to where we can go to receive new shalom, to be convicted of our sin and renewed by Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life. Amen.
Thomas E. Jacobson
Second Sunday of Easter
April 8, 2018
Dear congregation, shalom. That might sound like an odd greeting, but you heard it this morning whether you know it or not. Shalom. You didn’t hear that exact word, but a translation of that word was in the gospel reading for this morning. Shalom.
What does shalom mean? We should take a few moments and explore that word. It’s a Hebrew word. Hebrew of course is the language of the Old Testament. The Israelite people in the Bible used the Hebrew language. And when they wrote down what we call the Old Testament part of the Bible, that’s the language they used. Jesus himself would have spoken Hebrew, at least a form of it called Aramaic. So that’s how the word shalom has come down to us.
Shalom. What does it mean? A lot of times, that word gets translated as “peace.” Well, it can mean that. But shalom is a much bigger word than simply our notion of “peace.” It has a much deeper meaning. One of the best ways to think about shalom is by thinking about an engine on a car or tractor or truck. I am certainly no expert mechanic, but if you have a four cylinder engine, and all of the pistons are firing, the engine is working the way it’s supposed to, that’s shalom.
Shalom is probably best translated as “harmony.” Everything is working the way it’s supposed to. And, when you have harmony, when everything is working the way it’s supposed to, one of the things you have is the absence of war. And that’s why shalom is sometimes translated a “peace.” But it really is a much bigger concept than simply “peace.”
You know, we are very fortunate in our part of the world. In our lifetimes, we have never had to live through a war on our home soil. But we know, of course, that other parts of the world most definitely have, and how easy it is for us to forget those parts of the world where shalom is lacking. Every day I get an email in my inbox that reminds me of important events that took place in history on this particular day. And just yesterday, one of the events was about the horrific genocide that took place in the African country of Rwanda in 1994.
We are fortunate to be sheltered from violence on a massive scale on this continent of North America. And because we are, we might think that we don’t need to worry about shalom. We seem to be surrounded by peace, and so we’re just fine. But as I said, shalom is about a lot more than simply not fighting with guns or swords, missiles or arrows or bombs, and everything in between. More about that later.
In the readings we have from the Bible this morning, we get glimpses of shalom. In Psalm 148 that we read together, we get a vision of the whole creation praising God. In the Bible, that is shalom. All creation has as its purpose to live out its calling to praise the Lord in whatever it is we are called to do. In the book of Acts in the New Testament, we also get a glimpse of shalom. The book of Acts tells the story of the earliest years of the Christian Church, after Jesus was raised from the dead and had ascended to heaven. In the brief report from chapter four this morning, we get a picture of shalom with the early Christian community. Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 33 And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. That is an image of shalom.
But how well did things end up working out? How long did that shalom last? You don’t have to keep reading the book of Acts very long to realize that the shalom that the early Christians had shortly after Jesus was raised from the dead was only temporary. It didn’t take long for that shalom to be broken. Conflict arises. People take sides. People argue and fight. And the shalom is gone.
Which brings us to the second reading for this morning, from 1 John in the New Testament: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
In other words, if we say we have shalom, we deceive ourselves. If we say we don’t sin, we fool ourselves. Sin is anything that separates us from God, and that’s what brings the absence of shalom. It might be something we do that isn’t morally good. It might be something we should’ve done that we didn’t do.
We might not even know what our sin is. But we know that we’re not perfect, we’re not without sin. So to say that we’re sinless makes us foolish, and we make God a liar. We’re not perfect. We’re not without sin. The Bible itself is filled with stories of people who came to realize this, one of them being the mighty King David, as one example. And Christian history is filled with such stories too, of people whose eyes were opened to the absence of shalom in their lives.
John Newton is most famous for being the author of the hymn we just sang, Amazing Grace. He was nurtured by a Christian mother, who taught him the Bible at a young age. But he was soon raised by his father when his mother died of tuberculosis. John Newton was only seven years old. At age eleven, Newton went on his first of six sea-voyages with the merchant navy captain.
He was a slave trader. You know what that meant. Ships would make the first leg of their voyage from England nearly empty until they would anchor off the African coast. There, tribal chiefs would deliver to the Europeans stockades full of men and women, captured in raids and wars against other tribes.
Buyers would select the “best” slaves, which would be bartered for weapons, ammunition, metal, liquor, trinkets, and cloth. Then the slaves would be loaded aboard, packed for sailing. They were chained below decks to prevent suicides, laid side by side to save space, row after row, one after another, until the vessel was packed with as many as 600 slaves.
Captains looked for a quick voyage across the Atlantic's "middle passage," hoping to preserve as much of their cargo as possible, but a lot of slaves died during the trip—as many as twenty percent. When the slaves got sick with small pox or some other disease, they were thrown overboard.
Once they arrived in the New World, blacks were traded for sugar and molasses to manufacture rum, which the ships would carry to England for the final leg of their "triangle trade." Then it was back to Africa for another round. John Newton transported more than a few shiploads of the six million African slaves brought to the Americas in the 18th century.
By the time Newton was in his teenage years, he’d become rebellious against the discipline of the Royal Navy. He disappeared, but he was found and punished for his bad behavior. Newton was traded over to the crew of a slave ship bound for Africa. He found a book on board, a work by the medieval Christian mystic Thomas à Kempis. It was called “The Imitation of Christ.”
That book planted the seeds of his conversion. When a ship nearly perished in a storm, John Newton’s heart was opened to Jesus. Later he was promoted to captain of a slave ship. That might seem strange—a new Christian commanding of a slave ship. But the cruel features of the job began to wear on Newton, and he left.
While working as a tide surveyor he studied for the ministry, and for the last 43 years of his life preached the gospel in Olney and London. At 82, Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior." No wonder he understood so well grace—the completely undeserved mercy and favor of God. John Newton saw firsthand the lack of shalom in the world and in his own soul. And in the process, he discovered that God had the power to heal his broken soul and bring about shalom in His own way.
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see. 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed.”
John Newton came to realize that he wasn’t without sin—he was a wretch, in need of God’s grace, of shalom. If we claim that we’re perfect, without sin, we only fool ourselves. We mislead ourselves. And we’re left in darkness.
In the words of 1 John, if we say we’re without sin, we make God a liar, because if we had shalom in our world and lives, then why did Jesus come into the world? God offered Jesus Christ on the cross, to make up for our sins and the sins of the whole world. But if we admit that we’re sinful and we confess our sins, God will forgive them. Through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God begins the process of bringing shalom to the world. And whenever hearts are opened to Him, we get glimpses of shalom in the here and now that will be completed in eternity.
In the gospel reading from John chapter 20, we get an example of this. Unlike Psalm 148 and Acts chapter four, what we see in John 20 is the absence of shalom. We hear of the disciple of Jesus named Thomas, who wasn’t with the other disciples in the morning when they heard the news that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Thomas is unbelieving, or doubting, as he is sometimes called. And that means that Thomas does not have shalom. All of the pistons are not firing in Thomas’ life. Thomas needs shalom.
But Jesus comes for the purpose of restoring shalom, and it begins with his own disciples on that first Easter evening. In fact, that’s what Jesus says, three different times: “Peace be with you.” He shows his hands and side to the disciples. And in their lives, shalom is restored. Thomas was the one hold out. But Jesus came back to him. Jesus saw that there wasn’t shalom, and Jesus wanted to fix it, for all of the pistons to be firing. And Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” And shalom is restored.
The need for shalom is great all around our world, in our nation, our communities, our homes. And that’s why God’s Word is still living and active. The letter of 1 John stands as a reminder that this world is indeed sinful, filled with a lack of shalom, of harmony, is out of sync with the will of God. But 1 John also points us to the message of God’s amazing grace, to where we can go to receive new shalom, to be convicted of our sin and renewed by Jesus Christ, the resurrection and the life. Amen.