Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Our garage has been in a state of chaos since March.

We emptied out a good chunk of the basement to do renovations and I’m still not done.

I’m getting close though!

For some reason when you buy a house it’s never perfect.

It’s never quite like you would like it.

It’s never quite like it ought to be.

But this is a first world problem.

Why is it that some people in the world are born into homes of total poverty and some are born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouths?

Current Canadian soccer star Alphonso Davies was born in a hut in a refugee camp in Ghana to Liberian parents.

He came to Canada and got the opportunity to thrive.

Now he’s a soccer star in Germany.

Some of his relatives are still living in the same refugee camp which has now become a permanent community.

Why is it that way?

It’s not fair.

Every time we hear of a tragedy somewhere local or elsewhere in the world we all feel that it’s not right.

That’s not the way it should be.

So where did that feeling of “things not being right” come from?

Why, when Russia invaded Ukraine did most of us feel a sense of empathy?

Why when we hear of cancer do we have this feeling inside that things are not as they ought to be?

Where does this sense of “how things ought to be” come from?

Why, when you are treated badly by an employer do you complain?

Where do we get this “ought to be” from?

Why do we hunger for and work for things to be made right in this world?

The short answer is God.

We were originally created in his image and intended to live in a place, Eden, that was perfect in every way.

Lot’s of food, warm, a purpose in life—take care of the garden and perfect relationships with each other and with God.

All the brokenness we experience now is a departure from this ideal world.

Deep within us we know that we were made for more than this brokenness so we long for wholeness.

Eleven years ago I preached through a series in our church called The Peacable Kingdom.

In it I spent six Sundays talking about the Biblical understanding of peace.

I remember being surprised at what the Bible said about peace.

The Biblical understanding of peace is much bigger and more in depth than our basic understanding of peace.

For most of us, the word peace means one of three things; the absence of conflict between nations, a state of harmony between people, and internal sense of tranquility within a person.

The Biblical definition includes this but has much more.

I’m going to quickly review the main things I discovered in 2011.

There are two main words used in the Bible that we translate peace.

Shalom in the FT and Eirene in the NT.

I’ll first look at shalom.

Shalom

Many of us have heard this word before.

(blank) Salem is another spelling and Salaam is the Arabic version.

It is also one of the root words of Jerusalem.

Jeru-salem.

It means “foundation of peace.”

One of the main meanings of shalom is physical well-being.

This is quite different than our understanding of peace.

When you have adequate food, clothing, housing etc. you have shalom, peace.

(blank) So to work to provide for you family or other people is to work for peace.

The work that our Community Ambassadors have been doing with providing support for the clients of Steinbach Community Outreach fits within the Shalom understanding of physical well-being.

In Genesis 37:14 Jacob sends Joseph to find out how his brothers are doing.

(read NIV) The literal translation would read like this, ‘Go, I pray you, see the peace of your brothers, and the peace of the flock, and bring me back word;’ Shalom here has to do with the brothers physical well-being.

In 1 Sam.

17:18 David is sent by his father to check on his brothers.

(read NIV) The literal translation is ‘check on the shalom of your brothers’.

I’ll read a quote from Perry Yoder that will flesh this out a little more.

“From this material meaning of shalom, which dominates in the Hebrew Bible, we need to carefully note two things.

First, since in English we often use peace to refer either to relationships between people or to an inner state of mind, we must underline the fact that contrary to the English meaning of peace, shalom in the Hebrew Bible refers primarily to a physical state of well-being, to things being as they ought to be in the material world.

Shalom is marked by the presence of physical well-being and by the absence of physical threats like war, disease, and famine.

Second, we must stress that shalom is a positive idea.

It points to the presence of something like well-being or health, rather than having mainly a negative focus like English peace which points to the absence of something like war.

This is important because in English we tend to define peace as the absence of something: turmoil, distress, or war; rather than the positive presence of things as they should be.

This can result in a notion that peacemakers are passive, avoiding conflict and struggle.

On the contrary, shalom making is being for something—for a new situation in which people are all right with their material needs being met.

In this light, peacemaking as shalom making is striving so that those who do not now enjoy material shalom and physical well-being can do so.”

The next main idea found within Shalom is shalom as moral or ethical rightness.

A person of shalom is a person who has integrity.

They are truthful and keep their word.

They are blameless.

This idea of integrity, while important is the least commonly used understanding of shalom in the OT so I won’t say anymore about it.

(blank)

Shalom like the English word peace can refer to positive, good relations between people, groups of people and nations.

In English you measure whether or not you have peace by whether or not there is conflict.

If there is conflict, you do not have peace, if there is no conflict you have peace.

While this is true in Hebrew, it is also true that you measure the presence of shalom by whether you have good relationships not just the absence of conflict.

There is however one significant difference between this usage of shalom and the English word peace and that is that in Hebrew you also measure the presence of shalom by whether or not there is justice and righteousness.

This is an important addition to our English understanding of peace.

Isaiah 32:16, 17 – “Justice will dwell in the desert and righteousness live in the fertile field.

The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever.”

In other words, shalom is the result of righteousness.

If people are righteous, live the way they ought to in relation to God, then things will be the way they ought to be with people as well.

This is completely logical and has been shown throughout history both positively and negatively.

(blank)

To sum up the FT meaning of shalom.

It is a state of everything being the way it should be.

Enough food, enough shelter, good health, good relationships with the people around you, living morally the way you should, living righteously in an environment where justice is upheld and yes, no conflict.

Now let’s turn to the NT understanding of peace.

Eirene

The NT was written in Greek, and the word for peace in Greek is Eirene, from which we get the ladies name Irene.

(blank) The way that Eirene is used in the NT has a lot of continuity with shalom.

First there is a similarity of meaning in the Greek language and secondly almost all of the writers of the NT were Jewish believers.

They would have payed attention to the Greek meaning behind the word but would also have imported the Shalom understandings into it.

There is a lot of continuity with the FT shalom.

Material and physical well-being was part of it’s meaning.

Good relationships were included.

Romans 14:19 “Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”

Eirene, like the English word peace meant the absence of conflict – Matthew 10:34 Jesus said; “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.

I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

“ Eirene had a moral component It is a christian Virtue –Galatians 5:22, “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace” This idea of peace appearing in a list of virtues is different than the OT and seems to be closer to the English idea of “peaceable”.

There is one very different way that the NT writers used the word eirene than the way shalom was used in the FT.