Faerie's Blurty

Growing up, I was taught the "Great Commission". This is what Jesus said to his discipled as he was being taken up into heaven after his resurrection. "Go ye therefore and make disciples in all the nations, teaching them whatsoever I have commanded you. An lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world"

This of course was why you had missionaries. It was why you were supposed to 'witness' to people.

I've done a lot of heavy duty bible study in my life but the bible is a really big compilation and the 'Great Commission' is not something I've ever studied. Is it part of original manuscripts? Was it added on later? I really don't know. I do know that although it was vigorously taught, it was not something that ever resonated with me.

Oh, I was very much taken with stories of foreign missionaries, especially Lottie Moon. I didn't want to be one. I was taught to witness (even techniques for doing so), and went on youth tours where we went to areas to 'witness' but it was never an active part of my faith.

When I decided in my mid-20's to return to the church after a number of years away, I chose a local Presbyterian church largely because of the work they did in the community. That was when I first learned about 'peacemaking'. It is developed from the hebrew concept of shalom. We interpret shalom as peace which mostly means an absence of conflict. The hebrew concept is much more than that.

Shalom is wholeness. It in part derives from the laws that God gave to the hebrew people. These laws cover a wide range of life: relationships to God, your family, your slaves, your owners, your community; how you live - what you eat and drink, how you construct your dwellings; how you conduct your business in the community, etc. God gave laws to the hebrew people covering a wide range of behaviors and interactions. Therefore, it can be asserted that God cares about how we behave in the various areas of our life - that our relationship with God is more than a closed channel - it includes everything we do.

There is another part to it - thanksgiving. This is a recurring theme throughout the accounts of the hebrew people - they periodically gather to recount all that god has done for them. A counterpoint to this is that more often than not, when they stray from God, they are often chastised for seeing only the difficulties and not remembering the blessings. So shalom or wholeness includes a recognition of the good things.

The Presbyterian Church has developed a program based on these ideas known as Peacemaking. What God has done for you, you therefore take and do for others. Recognizing that wholeness covers a lot of area, there are areas of peacemaking: family, the environment (because our relationship to God includes our relationship to God's creation), social justice, etc. Many churches get involved with organizations like Habitat for Humanity as part of their peacemaking activities.

This is what attracted me to the Presbyterian church and kept me in it for so long. This resonates with me- a verse that has always called to me is in the gospel of John where Jesus says, "Others come as a thief in the night but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." The idea that our faith is not so much about where we spend eternity but how we live now: abundantly. Abundance begets abundance. As I have much, I can give much - and the parable of the talents which was impressed upon me as a child by my father bears witness to that.

Growing up, I often saw my father 'witnessing' to others. He didn't go out looking for people to witness to. It was just part of him. He had tremendous faith. It wasn't a loud or showy faith. It was quiet and solid and totally part of him. My father could no more not talk about God than he could not talk about his family. And he did. Not in any planned or deliberate manner, it just happened. If you spent any time talking to my father, sooner or later, God would come up. My father was absolute in his conviction that there was a God and a savior and a spirit and that centering your life around this was how to have a truly happy life.

So a funny thing has been happening in my life. I find that more and more I am talking to people about God. Not Bible stories or the 'facts' of Christianity but my faith in God. I talk about the resurrection and how powerful it is to know that there is a God that can heal any wound. I talk about my assurance that God will provide even when I don't have a clue how. I talk about praying. I talk about my conviction that my chosen family is there because God has drawn us together for each other. I talk about how God keeps me going even when I'm convinced I can't - that what I need for the next step is there. One step at a time, I keep getting what I need. When I am most discouraged, something sparks the hope.

I remember an old testament prophet that shares the promise of God that faith is inherited by our children to the third generation. In the past, I took that to mean I didn't need to worry about Patricia. She's in on the family plan from my father. She will find the way she needs to find - it's already guaranteed. It really hit me this week - I've started my own family plan.

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