A Place of Shalom.

Psalm 122.

I.

            I think the high point of our trip to the Holy Land for me was when, after walking through the crowded, busy, narrow streets of Jerusalem, we came out onto this open patio to be suddenly surprised to see the Dome of the Rock gleaming in the sunshine, with the Western Wall just below.

            We had just visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (which I prefer to call the Church of the Resurrection), which includes both Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified, and the tomb in which he was buried and from which he was resurrected. 

            We had walked through parts of the different “quarters” of Jerusalem, noticing the coexistence of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim people and merchants.  We had seen tour groups from all over the world.

            Then we emerged into the daylight to see these two powerful and beautiful places, one an ancient wall that literally supports the other, commemorating events from Mohammad back to Abraham. 

            And I got this sense of the “tribes of the Lord,” these three faiths, who look to this place for inspiration; perhaps one-third of the humans on this planet, praying, and thinking, and hoping, and dreaming, and remembering, with all that energy focused on this small piece of real estate, with so many people wishing to someday stand where I was standing, “within your gates, O Jerusalem.”

            The name Jerusalem means “teaching of peace,” which is more than a little ironic since there is so much conflict there.  And there has been for most of its history.  This city named for peace has been destroyed 26 times.

            But this Psalm is about the joy of “going up,” which was a technical term for making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  It celebrates the unity and togetherness shared by pilgrims.  The Psalm probably comes from the time of King Josiah, when worship was centralized in Jerusalem, and the local, tribal shrines were at least discouraged, if not closed down.  The Psalm basically says, “See?  Isn’t this better than just going to sacrifice at your local shrine with just your own family and friends?  Isn’t it better to be with other believers from all over?”

            I find that there is always this balance and tension in the Scriptures between wanting that central, common, united focus, and cultivating different, local, situational expressions.  By the time of Jesus the balance was that the people went up to Jerusalem periodically to sacrifice on the major feasts, while at the same time each village had a synagogue for prayer and learning. 

II.

            Christians do not inherit the focus on Jerusalem as our sign of unity.  We are instructed by the Lord Jesus, who said worship is something that happens in spirit and truth; it is not limited to this or that mountain or shrine or Temple.  The Christians took the Jewish system they inherited, and then reimagined it, in light of Jesus’ teaching.  We were originally dispersed in small communities all over the Roman Empire, and even beyond into places like Armenia and Ethiopia.  While at the same time, all of these gatherings were focused on the one Lord and the one Spirit, sharing in the Lord’s Supper weekly on the Lord’s Day.  Our approach was to combine the Temple and the synagogue, Sacrament and Word.

            We do not have any one single holy place like the Temple, not even the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem functions in this way for us.  We have no Mecca that we face when we pray; we have no land that is inherently Christian that we have to preserve or acquire.

            Ever since many of the Jesus-followers got thrown out of Jerusalem, an event recounted at the beginning of Acts 8, Christianity has been a portable faith with many different expressions depending on the local context.  We have held to One Lord, One Faith, and One Baptism… expressed in many small gatherings scattered all over the world.

            So for us, this Psalm is not about “going up” to a common Temple in a certain geographical place.  It is about the joy of gathering together and welcoming each other in many different places.  It is about how we gather even right here in this place, around the Lord’s Table, to hear the Lord’s Word.

            But there is that.  I mean, we do have to gather.  We may not have to make a pilgrimage to one place, every year or even once in our lives, but we do have to gather as a community weekly on the Lord’s Day.  This persistent habit of ours is in contrast to the growing tendency in our culture not to gather at all. 

            Public opinion polls over the last 50 years have shown a consistent trend in which increasing numbers of people, especially young people, when asked about their religion, choose to check the box that says “None”.  We hardly need polls to tell us this.  The vast majority of congregations see it happening in their daily experience.  People are choosing to disaffiliate with religious institutions.  They are choosing not to “go up to the house of the Lord.”

III.

            Why is this?  While there have been countess studies trying to answer this question, the final answer is that people don’t think it is the best use of their time.  They cannot imagine deriving any benefit from gathering weekly with other people for worship.  So rather than being glad when someone suggests, “let us go to the house of the Lord,” these folks ask, “Why?” 

            They argue that there are many, many other things they can do on Sunday mornings that are more entertaining, educational, healthy, enjoyable, relaxing, meaningful, and important, than to come here to sing, pray, and listen to me talk.  Go figure.

            And maybe they’re right.  I am not going to dismiss these folks as lazy, selfish, greedy, careless, secularized, pagan, or whatever epithet some church people want to use.  I mean, they have a point.  Why should anyone be expected to do something from which they receive no benefit? 

            Even old-fashioned values like duty, responsibility, or tradition, people did them because they were perceived as beneficial things to do, even if the benefit was for society as a whole.  But frankly many of our neighbors are having a hard time understanding what good coming to church does for anyone.

            Plus, Americans don’t get that much time off to begin with.  Sunday morning is valuable time.  It is not time anyone wants to waste.  As we know, increasing numbers of community events get scheduled for Sunday mornings.  It turns out that just because your mother-in-law or your grandmother think it is important is not enough reason for people to do something these days.

            What has to happen so that the invitation with which this Psalm begins, “Let us go to the house of the Lord,” is something that people will actually want to do?  What has to happen so that if you invite a 28-year-old to come to church with you, they will not look at you like you are out of your mind?

IV.

            What we learn from this Psalm in this regard is found in the last 4 verses.  As we can tell by the city’s name, Jerusalem is about peace.  Shalom.  It is a place of peace, where peace is taught and lived.  And while this has only rarely been true of the actual, historical city, it is what is supposed to be going on in the house of the Lord.

            For us that means that a gathering of Jesus-followers should be a place of peace.  And peace is not just a lack of war or conflict.  But God’s shalom refers to well-being, balance, prosperity, justice, security, completion, and wholeness, extended through a whole society, even through all creation.  Shalom is God’s intent for creation and society; it is the kind of community that the Torah was supposed to bring about.

            Shalom is also what Jesus Christ establishes by his life, death, and resurrection.  He gives his peace to his church, the gathering of his followers.  And this peace is what his community is designed to witness to and proclaim in all the world.

            First of all, he brings healing and wholeness into people’s lives, and he trains his disciples in non-violence and inclusion.  Secondly, he sheds his blood as a demonstration of the violence and anti-shalom inherent in the domination system of Roman rule.  And finally, he establishes peace in his resurrection by showing that the worst thing the powers can do to us is ultimately ineffective against the prevailing and pervasive truth of God’s love.  His resurrection basically says that God’s shalom is the ultimate truth of creation, and that peace will rise up and triumph over all injustice.

            We who follow Jesus continue to witness to God’s peace, revealed in Jesus, not just by merely getting along with each other, but by working together to see the truth of God’s peace – which means justice, equality, health, prosperity, and blessing – established in the world.  We witness to God’s peace by welcoming, accepting, inviting, forgiving, and including people in our circle. 

            The church follows Jesus by organizing, advocating, and embodying peace – God’s shalom – in every dimension of life.  This begins with our own relationship to each other, and extends into “our relatives and friends,” as the Psalm says, and then on to our economic and political relationships.  We should be a place of training in peace and peacemaking. 

            If Christian congregations were primarily about this, then I suspect we would not have enough space to hold all the people who would want to participate.  The work of peace and peacemaking, is something that people know makes a difference in the life of individuals and the whole community. 

            Here is something that will get people out of bed on a Sunday morning.  Here is something more important than soccer or wrestling for our children to learn.  Here is something with those tangible benefits that add value to people’s lives.

+++++++