As for us, we have all of these great witnesses a who encircle us like clouds, each affirming faith’s reality. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into… Hebrews 12:1 (TPT)
Shalom – Pilgrimage Series – Part 3
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
In his book “Engaging God’s World,” Cornelius Plantinga defines sin to be the “culpable disturbance of shalom.”
We have reduced “shalom” to meaning peace, which in its most basic unexplained form, it certainly does mean. But in essence, it means so much more. It’s the harmony that God created the world to exist within: It’s peace with yourself, your neighbor, even your enemy, with the earth, with God.
On a recent Podcast by the “Deconstructionists” Alexander Shaia said, “Shalom is a verb about tension. It’s the peace that comes when we enter into a mutual respect with diversity. And every time you have diversity, you’re going to have tension… Tension is the energy that brings forth expansion, and we need expansion to get into wider awareness and great harmony.”
Peace isn’t the absence of darkness or disruption or fear. It’s the embrace of the entirety of life with the confidence of grace, the understanding that this current tension – that within the darkness and pain and fear and sin – lives hope that is resurrected through redemption by Christ. Shalom is the “unexplainable peace” that is not dependent upon circumstance, but unity with God and with others. Presence.
Sin is a culpable disturbance of this peace, of Shalom.
Disturbance meaning the obvious: that things are not exactly as they could or should be. From wars to consumerism, to racism, to the way we treat the earth, to domestic violence, to child abuse… there is a great disturbance of Shalom in the world
Culpable meaning guilt, ownership and responsibility. We have all contributed to the disturbance of Shalom in the world, and we can all take responsibility for it. (in fact, Jesus showed us how.)
Sin is whatever we do that removes us from and/or disturbs the Shalom (peace and harmony) that God desires for you, me and of all of us together.
When we start to see sin within this context, it moves it from being just about breaking the rules resulting in an angry God, to something that we can take responsibility for, apply grace to, and move through and towards greater harmony. It removes the halo of shame, and makes grace and progress an active participant in restoring Shalom in the world.
Sin is not a defining factor in the receiving and giving of God’s love. Divine love reaches beyond, around and through our shortcomings, isolations, and failures. The ‘Cross of Christ’ was never fully about obliterating sin and paying off our sin-debt. As long as we have free will, sin will always be a part of our lives. A part of our pilgrimage and journey. Part of the struggle. The more we focus on sin, the more present it becomes. We try not to sin, but we sin, and we feel guilty for our sin, then we hide our sin… and sin and sin and sin.
The cross is about love. Sin is no match for it. When you fall, you will rise again, just as Jesus did. When you’ve been knocked off your feet, or you find yourself stumbling around in the dark, love puts you back on your feet.
How do we let go of wounds and sins? By focusing on not doing them? By punishing ourselves and others when they or we fall? Or do we look to love? Do we pilgrimage with grace, do we move through our moments of weakness and struggle gripped by shame, or embraced by love?
“Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change. What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change.” Richard Rohr.
Can you make a pilgrimage with grace through your wounds? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Go to Part 4 – Their Lives »
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