Advent Series: Peace
OT Lesson: Numbers 6:22-27 (KJV)
And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, “Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”
NT Lesson: John 14:27-29 (CEB)
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives. Don’t be troubled or afraid. You have heard me tell you, ‘I’m going away and returning to you.’ If you loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than me. I have told you before it happens so that when it happens you will believe.
Sermon
Introduction
Good morning. Today is the second Sunday of Advent, and is the Peace Sunday. Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Goodnight for lighting the Peace Advent Candle so peacefully. Because today is the Communion Sunday, I did not include the pastoral prayer in the order of service, but please pray for the peace in many places including of course Ukraine but also Iran and China as the protests of the people are going on in very many places, and the government’s suppression of those protests are getting harsher and more violent. We must understand that the protesting there is very different from here. Nearly four hundred people were killed so far in Iran for and during the protesting. China’s persecution is getting harsher and more severe. They have a history of Tienanmen, where the Chinese army brutally massacred the protesting college students. In their constitution, it is declared that the Chinese People’s Army exists to protect the Communist party, not the people. So please keep those protesting people in Iran and China in your prayers. Let us continually seek the peace in Ukraine, Iran, China and other places in our prayers and in our actions.
God’s commandment for pastors: peace
Let’s get into the Bible. You all must be very familiar to the OT Lesson today. That is the benediction that I have been using for every Sunday worship service. That is because it is a command by God. Through Moses God commanded Aaron, the high priest and thus God effectively commanded all the pastors as well to bless God’s people using these words. Let me do this benediction in Hebrew because today is special:
(y’barekh’kha YHWH v’yishm’rekha) יְבָרֶכְךָ יהוה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
The Lord bless you, and keep you.
(yaer YHWH panav eilekha vikhunneka) יָאֵר יהוה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
(yissa YHWH panav eilekha v’yaseim l’kha shalom) יִשָּׂא יהוה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֺם
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Peace in English
This benediction given by God ends with peace. It indicates that God thinks that the peace is the most important thing for God’s people. And today’s NT Lesson is kind of Good-bye Sermon of Jesus. And Jesus also emphasises peace—“Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I give to you not as the world gives.” So, what is the peace and why is it so important?
In English, peace is mostly opposite of war like “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, and it means mainly absence of war and conflicts. This word in Hebrew is, as you all know very well, שָׁלוֺם (shalom), and in Greek is εἰρήνη. Let’s study the OT and Hebrew word first.
Peace in Hebrew Bible
Hebrew Dictionary (BDB) Meaning
In the seminary, they provide Hebrew and Greek classes. And if you want to be a Presbyterian pastor in PCUSA, you must take those classes. If you are not a Presbyterian, you don’t have to because many other denominations do not require of it. As you may know, I did quite well in Hebrew and Greek classes and became the EA for both classes the following years. Some colleges call it TA. Anyway, one day in the seminary, a non-Presbyterian student who did not take Hebrew class was talking to many other students and said that in Hebrew language there is no word for perfect. Being an Asian, I did not stop him on the spot to be polite. Later I showed him the BDB Hebrew lexicon. By the way, in the seminary, a lexicon means a dictionary. And when you say a dictionary, that means an encyclopaedia. The entry that I showed him in the BDB Hebrew lexicon was the famous שָׁלוֺם (shalom).
We all think that Shalom is just peace, but it is a rather minor meaning. According to the BDB Hebrew lexicon, which is considered as the most authoritative Biblical Hebrew lexicon, the meanings of שָׁלוֺם (shalom) are: “completeness, soundness, welfare, wholeness, safety, security, health, prosperity, perfectness, quietness, tranquillity, contentment, friendship, peace, good relationship, reward, and recompense.” In the law of OT, if you damaged your neighbour’s property, you should recompense and pay it back. In Hebrew it says that you should give them shalom, that is make their property whole and complete again. And good relationship means win-win situation. When the Bible says that there was a Shalom between Israel and Aram, that does not mean they just stopped fighting, but further, they built a friendly and good relationship where they both benefited from.
And as you can see, the peace is one of the minor meanings, and the basic meaning is completeness and perfection. Job 5:24 says, “you shall know that your house is Shalom when you inspect and nothing is missing.” Shalom is completeness. Joshua 8:31 says to use “unhewn stones” to make an altar. In Hebrew it is “Shalom stones.” An uncut and unhewn stone is a naturally perfect stone. As you know, the stone is often referred to Jesus. So when we have Jesus in our hearts, who is the shalom stone, the perfect stone, the peace stone, the perfect Prince of peace, then our hearts will be completed as the perfect temple of God where God abides forever and ever. 1 Kings 9 says, when Solomon had the Shalom offering in the temple, “he completed the temple of God.” Jesus is the peace offering, and only when we have this shalom offering in our hearts, then our hearts are completed as God’s perfect temple. Jesus is our shalom, that is, Jesus Christ is our perfection and completion.
Peace in Greek
And that is exactly why Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 2:14 that “Jesus himself is our εἰρήνη.” That εἰρήνη is not merely peace but perfection. εἰρήνη the Greek word which often translated as simply peace has much more meanings. Its fundamental meaning is “harmony in personal relationship.” The minor meanings include concord, peace, well-being, welfare, and health. In the sense of “harmony in personal relationship,” apostle Paul again says in Romans 5:1, “we have εἰρήνη with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through Jesus we have peace with God, that is, we have a good relationship with God. When we have harmony in personal relationship with God, then the other meanings of εἰρήνη follow and come to us—well-being, welfare, and health in body, in mind and in spirit.
God’s Shalom
When God commanded Aaron and thus all the pastors to bless God’s people with שָׁלוֺם (shalom), it is not only about peace and no conflicts. It is more about perfection and completion in life. When Jesus says to us that He gives us εἰρήνη, He does not only mean that we may have some quiet time at home. He means that we will have perfect relationship with God through Him.
Today’s Shalom
So, even if you have no obvious conflicts and fightings with other people right now, if you suffer a lot financially for example, you don’t have the Shalom in your life. If a medical bill is more than you can afford and makes you sigh, then you don’t have the Shalom. If younger generations are suffocating in the huge student loan debt, they don’t have the Shalom. The student loan debt forgiveness by the Biden administration was one of the hot debating topics this year. I don’t know exactly how that works, so I cannot comment on it good or bad. I have some mixed feeling with that. As a pastor, I think whatever forgiveness is good. But at the same time, I don’t have a student loan debt to begin with because I tried so hard not to have one, to the point that I thought ‘Do I really have to live like this?’ But I think the education financing system is not the ideal in this country that so many students had to get such huge loan. In Israel, the tuition from college through Ph.D is about $4,000 per year for the citizens depending on the currency exchange rate. In Germany, it is free. So in that way, those students in Germany have more Shalom that those in America. Our health insurance system also needs to be improved. Those the quality is the best, the price tag is not ideal.
But shalom is not only about money. Even if you have a lot of money, when you are sick, you don’t have the Shalom in your life. Even if you are healthy with a lot of money, if your children make you worry too much—that is burning your heart to the ashes in Korean sayings, then you don’t have the Shalom in your life. Even if your children are all grown up and are doing well out there, if you feel lonely, then you don’t have the shalom in your life. If you regret your life in your death bed, you did not have the Shalom in your life. There are thousands of different pieces that makes life good. When nothing is missing and you have all of those thousands of pieces, then you have the Shalom.
Restoration of Peace
Conclusion
God commanded Aaron, me and all the other pastors to bless God’s people with His שָׁלוֺם (shalom). Jesus promised us that He will give His εἰρήνη to us. That means God wants you to have a perfect, complete, wonderful and beautiful life physically, mentally, earthly, spiritually, bodily, financially, relationally, and in any and every possible aspect we can think of. And God wants you to have it all with Him in Christ Jesus who is the perfect Prince of Peace. Friends, every Sunday and everyday, I sincerely bless you all with God’s peace from the bottom of my true heart in God’s holy name. And again, I bless you in the name of the Triune God:
(y’barekh’kha YHWH v’yishm’rekha) יְבָרֶכְךָ יהוה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ
The Lord bless you, and keep you.
(yaer YHWH panav eilekha vikhunneka) יָאֵר יהוה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ
The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
(yissa YHWH panav eilekha v’yaseim l’kha shalom) יִשָּׂא יהוה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֺם
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.
(Amen) אמן
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