Shalom Aleichem

 

Matthew 9:35-10:15

Proper 6 / Year A

As you enter a house, greet it.  If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it.  ^{Matthew 10:13}

When I say “shalom aleichem”, you say “wa alaykumu as-salaam.”  Shalom aleichem!  Wa alaykumu as-salaam.  Not bad.  Maybe this will feel more natural: Peace be with you… and also with you.  “Shalom aleichem” is an ancient Middle East greeting dating back several millennia.  It means “Peace be with you.”  The response, “wa alaykumu as-salaam”, equally ancient, translates as “and peace be upon you as well.”  You may recall every time Jesus appears to his disciples after the Resurrection he greets them by saying, “Peace be with you”… Shalom Aleichem.

In biblical times it was more than a polite social salutation; more than a fancier version of “What’s happening” or “How you doing?”   Shalom Aleichem and its response was a deep, meaningful spiritual transaction which made manifest very tangible commitments.  We see this clearly expressed in today’s reading from Genesis.  Abraham goes to extraordinary lengths to extend hospitality to his guests because, at the time, visitors are understood to be sent by God.  They, in turn, extend the gift of fertility, promising the barren Sarah will be with child before they return again.  At the time, a host’s generosity and welcome are considered to be sacred duties and the blessing of peace is offered in return for the kindness shown.

The biblical word translated here as peace has its roots in Greek mythology and relates to three sisters: Eirene, which means peace, Eunomia, which means good ordering as in a fair distribution of possessions, and Dike, which means justice.   Thus, to extend peace, was to concern yourself with the needs and rights of the person you bless.  It was not a passive wish, but an obligation to be fair and just in your dealings with another.

You may recall how the Genesis story goes on from the end of today’s reading.  Abraham’s visitors travel to Sodom where they are welcomed by his nephew Lot.  The residents of the city, however, want to submit them to domination through violent acts, the exact opposite of shalom, and are condemned for failing to receive the visitors gracefully.  They violate the sacred duty of hospitality.  They care not at all for the needs nor the rights of their guests.

Because I find his social analysis of our times to be compelling, I am reading David Brook’s book How to Know Another Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.  He contends…

…the quality of our lives and the health of our society depend, to a large degree, on how well we treat each other…  There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society – to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.  That is at the heart of being a good person, the ultimate gift you can give to others and to yourself.

And while we are enmeshed in all manner of relationships from casual to intimate and from broad to specific, it is becoming more and more difficult for us to “see” another person as he or she truly is.  The number of Americans who report feeling lonely has been on the rise for some time and Brooks notes since the pandemic the average person spends less than three hours a week with friends.  Loneliness, he says, gives birth to sadness and sadness, unattended, morphs into meanness.  This leads to distrust and low-trust societies, Brooks notes, tend to fall apart because it lacks the basic social fabric required to hold it together.  Given all of this, is it any wonder the biblical concept of shalom falls on deaf ears in today’s world.

Brooks holds our primary challenge is a moral one.  For centuries, he says, the main goal of formation was to “turn out people of character, people who would be honest, gentle, and respectful toward those around them.”  He identifies three concepts we used to hold as central:

·    Helping people to learn how to restrain their selfishness in order to incline their hearts to care more about others.

·    Helping people to find a purpose so their life has stability, direction, and meaning.

·    Teaching the basic social and emotional skills so you can be kind and considerate to the people around you. 

So, selflessness, purpose, and kindness.

Since World War II, however, there has been a steady shift away from the emphasis on moral formation toward individual achievement.  Our schools, for example, care less about character and more about SOL scores.  Brooks cites a 1966 study which found 90% of college students where strongly motivated to develop a meaningful philosophy of life.  In 2015, 82% of students indicated their most important goal in life was being well-off financially.  “In short,” Brooks says, “several generations, including my own, have not been taught the skills they would need in order to see, understand, and respect other people with depth and dignity.”  This, he says, has produced “disconnection, alienation, and a culture in which cruelty is permitted.”

All of this is to say we live in a time now, perhaps more than ever, when our society desperately needs people of faith who pray sincerely God will make them an instrument of peace, sowing love where there is hatred, pardon where there is injury, union where there is discord, faith where there is doubt, hope where there is despair.  The world needs people of faith who will seek to console rather than to be consoled, to understand more than to be understood, to love more than to be loved.  As St. Francis said, it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. 

Just as Jesus sent out his first followers to impart peace wherever they went, so too Jesus sends you and Jesus sends me.  If you want to live your faith once you leave this place, let it be manifested as peace; the kind of peace which offers fairness and justice.  Shalom Aleichem!  Wa alaykumu as-salaam.