Hi Friends,

There’s a word we should get really comfortable with. Shalom.

Shalom is Hebrew for peace. It’s also Hebrew for justice. And reconciliation. And hope. And Health. Wellness. Safety.

Because the idea of peace cannot exist without safety and wellness and health and hope and reconciliation and justice.

I cannot have peace if I do not also have justice.
I cannot have peace if you do not also have justice.
We cannot have peace if we are at war.
We cannot have peace if some of us are hungry and sick and living in poverty.
We cannot have peace if some of us can’t breathe.

There’s a saying in protests that comes from our faith: it goes
No justice, no peace.

And it has a double meaning, doesn’t it?

When there is no justice there can be no peace. It is definitionally impossible.

And the second meaning is a result of the first meaning.

In the presence of injustice, we will not be at peace.

Our brothers and sisters and siblings are crying out in pain because they experience the injustice present all over this country. So the path to peace goes through

Safety for all
Well being for all
Health for all
Hope for all
Reconciliation for all
Justice for all

Every cry for peace that does not bear the marks of total reconciliation, humility, compassion, and indeed financial support, commitment to make jobs in our communities, bringing financial and medical health to our communities, ending not only poverty, but its grotesque cousin, indebtedness in our communities, that do not bear the signs of utter respect and dignity for every living creature on this planet and even to the planet herself, is a cry of something other than peace.

We may not like each other’s methods or messages. We don’t have to agree on much of anything. But Holy Scripture is constant in its call, not for momentary peace, but Shalom. Wholeness, wellness,

Justice and Peace.

Be brave. Be bold. And love more than yesterday.