Shalom

Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World
Richard J. Foster 


"The vision for wholeness and peace, which shines like a beacon of light through the Old Covenant, gives us important insights into Christian simplicity. This theme is wonderfully gathered up in the Hebrew word shalom, a full-bodied concept that resonated with wholeness, unity, balance. Gathering in (but much broader than) peace, it means a harmonious, caring community with God at its center as the prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant. This great vision of shalom begins and ends our Bible. In the creation narrative, God brought order out of chaos; in the Apocalypse of John, we have glorious wholeness of a new heaven and a new earth. The messianic child to be born is to be the Prince of Peace. Justice and righteousness and peace are to characterize his unending kingdom. Central to the dream of shalom is the wonderful vision of all nations streaming to the mountain of the temple of God to be taught his ways and to walk in his paths; to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Shalom even carries the idea of harmonious unity in the natural order: the cow and the bear become friends, the lion and the lamb lie down together, and a little child leads them. We are in harmony with God-faithfulness and loyalty prevail. We are in harmony with our neighbor- justice and mercy abound. We are in harmony with nature- peace and unity reign. 


Economically and socially, the vision of shalom is captured in what Bishop John Taylor calls "the theology of enough." The greed of the rich is tempered by the need of the poor. Justice, harmony, equilibrium prevail. Shalom's theology means "a dancing kind of inter-relationship, seeking something more free than equality, more generous than equity, the ever-shifting equipoise of a life- system." Excessive extravagance, vaunting ambition, ravaging greed- all are foreign to the complete, contented community of shalom. Under the reign of God's shalom the poor are no longer oppressed, because covetousness no longer rules." 


שָׁלוֹם(Shalom)