“Peace is at the heart of the gospel. As followers of Jesus in a divided and violent world, we are committed to finding non-violent alternatives and to learning how to make peace between individuals, within and among churches, in society, and between nations.”1
“Belief that the gospel includes a commitment to the way of peace modeled by the Prince of Peace. Here Anabaptists differ from many other Christians. Anabaptists believe that the peace position is not optional, not marginal, and not related mainly to the military. On the basis of Scripture, Anabaptists renounce violence in human relationships. We see peace and reconciliation — the way of love — as being at the heart of the Christian gospel. God gave his followers this ethic not as a point to ponder, but as a command to obey. It was costly for Jesus and it may also be costly for his followers. The way of peace is a way of life.”2
I didn’t grow up being a part of an Anabaptist church. I grew up in a United Methodist Church. During my elementary school years and throughout Middle and High School, I did attend a Brethren in Christ Church for their Wednesday Night Children’s Ministry (I believe it was called Boy’s Brigade…a weird choice of Children’s Ministry for an Anabaptist Community) as well as being part of their Youth Ministry. Following graduation, I left the United Methodist Church and started attending the Brethren in Christ church during winter and summer Breaks, and for a few years following my graduation from college. I remember one Sunday morning at this Brethren in Christ church, where I was part of the Young Adult Sunday School class, we were having a discussion about peace, nonviolence, war, conscientious objectors to war, and how we, as Anabaptist Christians should respond. I think the “classic” argument against non-violence was one of the topics that we threw around that morning. “What would you do if someone broke into your house and threatened to kill your family?” These weren’t topics that I had done much thinking about previously. I had only a year or two earlier registered with Selective Service as a conscience objector almost more from knowing that I had no interest or ability in picking up a gun and being told to kill someone. At the time I probably would have considered myself somewhat of a pacifist but not nearly to the extent that I am today. Following a few years of helping out with the Youth Ministry at the Brethren in Christ Church, I was called as Part-Time Youth Minister at Spring Creek Church of the Brethren in Hershey, PA.
It was during my first year as Youth Minister at Spring Creek that I attended my first Annual Conference, which honestly felt like I was attending someone else’s family reunion. My wife and I were wrestling throughout that entire conference with how much conversation centered around the peace position. I had grown in my understanding and belief in relation to the peace position, but I wasn’t sure if I could honestly totally 100% agree with the idea that “All war is sin.” I also honestly struggled with, what I considered at the time, from my perspective, what I saw as the reason for the peace position. It seemed to me, at the time, the peace position was more rooted in our Brethren heritage and our life together as “Brethren” instead of being deeply rooted in the way of Jesus and the Kingdom of God.
It wasn’t because I didn’t believe in the peace position of the Church of the Brethren. It wasn’t because I didn’t believe Jesus and the Kingdom of God were at the root of the peace position. But for some reason, I was very uneasy with the way the peace position was framed, at the time. I think a lot has changed since then, both within my own personal theological framework, but also in the denomination as a whole. But as I reflect back on that time, and my uneasiness, I was grasping at words that I didn’t have. I couldn’t fully articulate, at the time, what I have now come to believe. And that is I don’t believe that our peace position, as the Church of the Brethren specifically, and as Anabaptists as a whole, actually goes far enough.
Now, what do I mean that our peace position doesn’t go far enough? It goes back to the two quotes from the beginning of the article. One says, “Peace is at the heart of the gospel.”3 And the other says, “Anabaptists believe that the peace position is not optional, not marginal, and not related mainly to the military.”4 I think our peace position, as the Church of the Brethren, and as Anabaptists, doesn’t go far enough when we just limit it to non-violence and the military. I agree 100% that peace is at the core, foundation, and heart of the gospel. It goes far beyond just our resistance to serving in the military, and our desire to be non-violent.
I think it doesn’t go far enough because the English word that we use for peace actually limits our understanding and stunts our imagination. We need another word that encompasses peace, non-violence, and non-resistance, but also includes things like reconciliation, wholeness, healing, redemption, and renewal. I think instead of a peace position, we should actually hold to a position of shalom.
What is this word shalom? And what does it mean? It is significantly deeper and more profound than a greeting and parting phrase spoken by our Jewish brothers and sisters. According to Lisa Sharon Harper in her book, The Very Good Gospel: How everything wrong can be made right, “In Scripture the word shalom itself means well being, wholeness, the perfection of God’s creation, abundance, and peace.” She continues, “Shalom describes the absence of conflict.” One of the ways that I love to describe what shalom is and how it affects and permeates everything is the phrase “the way things should be.” To me shalom shows up right at the beginning of God’s story, in Genesis 1 and 2. These chapters clearly depict “the way things should be.” True shalom is between God and humanity, within the self, between each other, and between humanity and all of creation. Harper says this about the way things should be, “While the word shalom is not used in Genesis 1 and 2, these chapters give us two of the most vivid pictures of Shalom in Scripture. In these texts, we see one of the central concepts of shalom-we are all connected-lived out.” Shalom is a concept that radiates out from Genesis 1 and 2, is deeply embedded within the entirety of the Scriptures, and comes to completion in Revelation 21 and 22. Shalom gives us handles to understand the story of God, defines what the Gospel is, what the Kingdom of God is all about, and what our role as followers of Jesus should be. Harper shares just how foundational and all-encompassing the concept of shalom is when she says, “The word shalom in all of its forms appears frequently in the Bible. It is used 550 times.” She then lays out 7 five forms of the word, their meanings and how often they appear within the Scriptures, “shalom, a Hebrew noun that means peace and wholeness- used 225 times. shalem, a Hebrew verb that means to make right and to restore- used 117 times. shelem, a Hebrew noun that means peace offering- used 87 times. shalem, also a Hebrew adjective that means loyal and devoted- used 27 times. eirene- a greek noun that means peace-used 94 times.”5
Peace, in terms of war, non-violence, and a position on serving in the military doesn’t go far enough on its own. But when these things are brought under the larger banner of shalom, we begin to see the gospel of the Kingdom becoming tangible. Peace, as I have said before, can be seen as very limiting, but when we view everything through the lens of shalom, peace becomes expansive and deals with all of life. Shalom then deals with our relationship with God, our relationship with ourselves, our relationship with each other, our relationship with the creation itself, and more. Again to Harper, who puts the totality of shalom and what it touches this way, “The peace of self is dependent upon the peace of the other. God created the world in a web of relationships that overflowed with forceful goodness. These relationships are far-reaching: between humanity and God, between humanity and self, between genders, between humanity and the rest of creation, within families, between ethnic groups or races, and between nations.”6
But what does it look like in the everyday spaces of life to live out a position of shalom instead of just having a peace position?
I believe the first place to start when it comes to shalom is in our relationship with God. Shalom comes from God and extends toward us. I mentioned earlier that shalom started in Genesis 1 and 2, but just one chapter later, in Genesis chapter 3 we see the breaking of shalom. We see the divine image bearers, Adam and Eve, choose their own way, instead of the way of shalom. And in that moment of choosing, created a crack between these image bearers, these eikons, and God himself. This crack has run the length of history down from that day until now, and into the future. Many have tried to develop solutions for it, to create their own version of shalom. But all the human solutions to fix and repair the crack of sin that separates God from humanity have come up empty. It took God taking on flesh and blood and becoming human to deal with this crack. It took the death of God himself, on the cross, the creator being killed by the creation, to heal the crack of sin, and bring shalom, real shalom back into the world. Colossians 1:19-22 puts this repairing of the crack of sin between God and humanity this way, “19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” Shalom- peace came again into this world through the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. Any Christian exploration into the concept of shalom has to start and end with Jesus. He is the one that makes shalom, in its widest sense, even possible in the here and now. Harper says this about brokenness and sin, “Humanity’s broken relationship with God is the ultimate cause of all other brokenness. In another sense, there is no way humanity could violate relationship with any other created being and not violate its relationship with God.” So if humanity’s broken relationship with God 10 is the ultimate cause of all other brokenness, then only through the healing, set right relationship with God, can any other brokenness be set right. Only through the cross of Jesus can we experience shalom- not only in our relationship with God, but also within ourselves, with each other, and with all of creation.7
One of the areas in which I believe many of us experience the lack of shalom, the widening crack of sin, and the effects of brokenness is in the area of self. We struggle to see ourselves as image bearers of God- children of God who are loved by the Heavenly Father, not for anything that we have done or haven’t done. We are the beloved of God. We are beloved sons and daughters of God. But because of the crack of sin running down through humanity and history, we believe that we are only loved when we are “successful.” We compare what we know about ourselves with what we don’t know about someone else. We struggle with shame, guilt, and humiliation when we look at ourselves. “Psychologist and researcher John Bradshaw divided shame into two subcategories: healthy shame and toxic shame. Bradshaw places embarrassment, shyness, and recognition of our need for community under the category of healthy shame. He identifies toxic shame as the source of self-isolation and alienation. Toxic shame, according to Bradshaw, ‘is experienced as the all-pervasive sense that I am flawed and defective as a human being.’ It moves from being an emotion to becoming a core identity. Brown simply calls this shame and draws a hard line between it and guilt, humiliation, and embarrassment. The difference, she says, is the question of identity. In each case embarrassment, humiliation, and guilt- the person experiences the emotions based on actions of self or others, but the emotions are not internalized as one’s core identity.” Harper continues, “Shame is insidious. It hits at the core of our being and emanates from there to affect everything else. It has nothing to do with the truth.”8
Many years ago, while taking a class on counseling in seminary, the professor would make us memorize statements. This class was over twenty years ago, but one statement that has stuck with me all of these years later says, “There is nothing you can do to make God love you anymore, and there is nothing you can do to make God love you any less.” This crack of sin, when it comes to the self runs directly into my heart. I truly have a difficult time extending love and grace to myself. And I continue to struggle to see myself as a divine image bearer, and a beloved son of God first and foremost. All too often, when I preach the gospel to myself, I start at Genesis 3- you are a sinner, instead of where the gospel of Jesus and the Kingdom of God actually starts, Genesis 1- you are an image bearer, made in the image of God, and that you have worth because of being created in God’s image. I remember someone telling me that one way to find shalom within myself was to read and meditate on the words found in Psalm 139. Psalm 139:13-16 says, “13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” All of us, including myself, would be wise to not only memorize Psalm 139:13-16 but also memorize and internalize the words from Lisa Sharon Harper when she says, “The voices have driven lies deep into the pits of our souls and drowned out the voice of the One who created us. The voice of the One who says ‘I love you.’” We need to rest deep in the love of 13 the one who created us, and through whom true shalom is possible.9
The crack and brokenness of sin- or put in another way, the breaking of shalom not only runs through our relationship with God and within our relationship with ourselves, but it also runs right through our relationship with each other. It is true when people say, “hurt people hurt people”. All we have to do is to look around our world (as well as our own lives) to see just how the crack of sin and the breaking of shalom has divided us. Even those within the church are divided and are at war with each other. Within the Church of the Brethren, a historic peace church, who at times can be prideful in terms of our peace position, I have found we can be, at times, the most passive-aggressive people. We can hug each other in the front, while stabbing each other in the back. If we really want to be a peace church, we can’t, as I have been arguing here, limit our understanding of our peace position to just being against war and violence. We need our peace position to be transformed into a shalom position and to deal with our interpersonal relationships. The way we transition our peace position into a shalom position in relation to our interpersonal relationships is by simply (simple to say, very hard to live) loving each other. Jesus himself says the two main things we should be about is to love God with all our hearts, mind, soul and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And he calls the community that is to be known by his name, those who claim to follow the way of Jesus, to go first and be known as a community that loves each other. John 13:34-35 puts it this way, “34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” I don’t know about you but as I look at the state of the Church of the Brethren (specifically) and the American church (generally) it is very difficult to say that people would know that we are disciples of Jesus because we are loving each other well. We, in many ways, mirror our culture and the divisions that are evident in the world have made their way into the church, even a church that is supposed to also be known as a peace church. No one will buy what we are selling if we can’t love each other in the midst of our differences. This doesn’t mean that we don’t challenge, speak prophetically, and call people to be about the way of Jesus. But in the midst of all of that, we must not lose sight that we are to love each other. Jesus never lost sight of the fact that everyone he talked to, confronted and challenged, and even those who would nail him to the cross, were people created in the image of God. He also realized that, as the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the church at Ephesus, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Lastly, our shalom position needs to include shalom for all of creation. What Jesus did on the cross not only heals the crack between God and us, in our own lives, and between each other, – Jesus work on the cross has brought redemption to the entire cosmos. And because of this work of redemption, he calls us to the work of the renewal of all things. This work includes the work of shalom between nations- how we work for peace in the wider world, how we steward the environment- the land, the animals, and the creation itself. Followers of Jesus, as bearers of God’s shalom, should be on the forefront of the work of world peace, taking care of the environment, and being good stewards of all that the Lord has placed under our care.
The peace position when only limited to nonviolence and war doesn’t go far enough. And so instead of a peace position, may we have a shalom position that includes nonviolence and working for world peace, but is so much bigger and broader and engages all aspects and spheres of our lives.
Shalom.
Ryan Braught is the Pastor/Church Planter of Veritas. Along with his wife and kids, he founded Veritas in 2009. He is the husband of Kim, and father to Kaiden and Trinity. Ryan has a BS in Telecommunications from Kutztown University and a Master of Arts in Religion from Evangelical Theological Seminary. Besides his work with Veritas, Ryan loves to read, listen to music, snowboard, and spend time with his family.
- The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith. Stuart Murray. Page 54
- 12 Principles of Anabaptism. https://usmb.org/anabaptism/
- Murray. Page 54
- 12 Principles of Anabaptism. https://usmb.org/anabaptism/
- The Very Good Gospel: How everything wrong can be made right. Lisa Sharon Harper. Pages 11-12.
- Ibid., 13
- Ibid., 61
- Ibid., 70
- Ibid., 71