Connect

We’re talking about being together for our city today. Start off by thinking about where we live in progressively smaller areas: PNW, your city, your neighborhood. What is one thing you love about each section?

View The Bible Project Video on Shalom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLYORLZOaZE
Feel free to share this link with your Life Group to watch ahead of time or watch together as a group.

Engage

Shalom is a Hebrew word that is both common and complex. It is common in the sense that it shows up in the Bible ~ 551 times (for references the words for love come up 550 times). From a numeric standpoint it is as ubiquitous as the love of God.

In English we typically translate shalom as the word peace, but it can be translated as welfare, wholeness, completeness, perfection, health, prosperity, security, tranquility, contentment, and many other ideas. Shalom is this all-encompassing word that contains a myriad of ideas at once. Here are some definitions that people have used to describe the idea of shalom in English:

“Shalom is the webbing together of God, humans, and creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight.”

“Shalom is the inner-connected harmony in a way that brings flourishing and blessing to every aspect of creation.”

Let’s read some verses that contain the idea of shalom in them. Where you see the word peace substitute in one of the larger definitions.

Read Isaiah 9:6-7
What does it mean for Jesus to be a prince of shalom? What will it look like for his shalom to have no end? How is this bigger than just the idea of peace?

Read Isaiah 53:5
This verse prophecies how Jesus’ suffering will bring us shalom and healing. With these bigger definitions in mind, what does that mean Jesus is bringing to you in a practical life changing sense?

Read Luke 2:9-14
The angels announce (think gospel announcement or evangelism) that shalom is on earth through Jesus to those with whom God is pleased. With these bigger definitions, what are they telling people has arrived?

Apply

Let’s go a little deeper and personal while we think how to practice this. Jeremiah 29:11 is often a favorite passage for Christians. In Jeremiah 29:7, God tells the people in exile to:

“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare”

The italicized words are the word shalom. God tells his people in exile to seek the shalom of their city and others to find their own shalom. Take the English words that can be used to translate shalom (peace, welfare, wholeness, completeness, perfection, health, prosperity, security, tranquility, contentment) and substitute those into the phrase “seek the shalom of the city.” What does that mean for the city or what does it look like in the city that we are in?

Look at the phrase “you will find your shalom” and substitute those English words in. What does those words mean for you as an individual? What does your peace, welfare, wholeness, etc.… look like?

When the New Testament tells us to live as exiles this is the passage it has in mind. It wants us to think about our city and how we can seek its shalom, but in seeking the city’s shalom we will find our own shalom. How do we normally we seek our shalom? How is this logic counterintuitive? What does God want us to see about our relationship to others?

Pray

Gracious Father, thank you for loving us and our world so much that you did not abandon us but came to rescue, redeem, and restore us and our world. Help us to take our eyes off ourselves and put them onto others. Help us to know how to seek the shalom of what’s around us and we ask that you fulfill your promise to give us shalom through that. Give us eyes to see what you see, and hands willing to be where you want to be. Amen.

Bonus Ways to Explore Shalom

Lecture: Here is a really great (but long) lecture on shalom if you want to explore a deeper understanding of the concept: https://youtu.be/5MGc5VEI5ds

Bible- 1 Peter is a book all about being an exile and learning how to live with that identity. One of the core verses is 2:11 and everything that follows is application of that idea.

Practice- Practice focus on serving the needs of others as a way of taking your eyes off yourself. See how serving the needs of others brings the shalom that we want to see in ourselves.