Perhaps that s why I describe my experience of reading The Chronicles of Narnia , or one of Hal Borland s books on nature, or of the seventh inning stretch, as shalom and why you have ways of describing shalom that only you understand. However we describe them, John tells us that these shalom moments of wholeness and tranquility are gifts from Jesus. Nothing in the world compares to them. They are part of the shalom gift that Jesus promises to leave forever with us. We may not always feel peaceful, but when we don t it s less likely that shalom has departed from us, and more likely that we have departed from the ways of shalom.
Bumper stickers are notoriously lousy when it comes to espousing quality theology.
This morning I invite us to contemplate those things for which we are personally responsible things we have done or failed to do, things of which we are culpable, that have resulted in the reduction of shalom. There will be time at the end of the service, if you desire, to come forward for a laying on of hands as you confess these things and seek the restoration of shalom. Until you confess them, however, they are the abyss between you. When you confess them, they become the bridge. Stepping out onto that bridge is hard, but it is necessary.