ATSS: Martin Weber, “Ministering Shalom”

Chaplains in hospitals, hospices, the military, and law enforcement all have one goal: to facilitate shalom. Such is God’s purpose for us all. 

This week for Christmas we celebrated the birth on earth of Jesus, heaven’s “Prince of shalom” (Isaiah 9:6). The true spirit of Christmas goes beyond exchanging gifts with friends—shalom loves enemies, feeds the hungry, visits the lonely and seeks social justice. 

Shalom makes us priests on earth—servants of heaven’s sanctuary in collaboration with our great High Priest.

Peace isn’t passive

Shalom is loosely translated “peace” in the Old Testament. Most Christians understand shalom superficially and passively—the absence of negativity, such as strife, guilt, shame, and anger. Actually, its Hebrew meaning has a deeper, richer meaning than peace as we typically envision it. 

Shalom in scripture is positive, energetic, and proactive, fulfilling God’s eternal purpose for this planet (and our churches). The goal of heaven’s sanctuary is God’s final remnant sharing shalom throughout the earth like the fragrant ointment of Mary’s devotion to Jesus.

Reviewing all 236 mentions of shalom in the Old Testament moves us beyond a merely personal relationship with God, reaching ever outward to embrace the whole world—even the inanimate environment of His creation.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus taught. Scripture reveals seven expanding circles of shalom.

1) Personal shalom with God: Shalom begins in the heart of each believer upon discovering peace in God’s forgiveness and acceptance. Without personally experiencing shalom in Christ, even our doctrine is dysfunctional.

2) Shalom at home: Personal peace with God does no good at home when confined to my prayer closet, worshiping Jesus as my “personal” Savior. Shalom facilitates peace with my family, too.

3) Shalom to the church: Shalom extends beyond a peaceful home to our faith family (even if we understand the Sabbath school lesson differently and have opposing convictions on worship styles). 

4) Shalom in the marketplace and classroom: Not satisfied to contain Sabbath blessings within church walls, shalom ripples outward to the marketplace, seeking win-win business dealing. For students, shalom transcends not cheating—perhaps tutoring peers struggling academically.

5) Shalom to the whole world: Shalom reaches out to people unlike ourselves, venturing beyond our affinity groups to strangers of other ethnicities and orientations. Shalom also transcends patriotically singing “God bless America.”

6) Shalom to animals: Shalom in scripture extends beyond humans to the animal world. The patriarch Jacob wished shalom for the flock (see Genesis 37:14). We too should care about God’s nonhuman creatures, not mistreating or exploiting them. 

7) Shalom to the environment: Biblical peace includes inanimate creation: “peace for the seed,” so that the land will yield its produce (Zechariah 8:12, literally translated). Creator God is “green” and expects us to be responsible stewards of this world—even as we anticipate the earth made new. 

Jesus envisioned all of the above—and nothing less—when He pronounced: “Blessed are the shalom-makers, for they shall be called ‘children of God’” (Matthew 5:9).