A Lectionary of Shalom

Last fall in considering a missional order, I did some writing on the topic of shalom. This is a significant theme in the Bible — its basic meaning is “well-being,” but it has a wide semantic range that can stress particular nuances, including totality or completeness, fulfillment, maturity, soundness, wholeness, community, harmony, tranquility, security, friendship, agreement, and prosperity. Theologically, it is one of the most significant terms in Scripture — in translating it as “peace,” we refer not merely to time between wars nor happy thoughts of contentment. In thinking of “peace” as we often consider it, we short-change this word of much of its meaning.

Shalom is far deeper, with eschatalogical significance. For the prophets, peace was a central concept associated with the messianic hope — Isaiah 9:6 where term “Prince of Peace” is used for the Messiah is just one example of the proclamation of shalom being connected with Messianic realization, with the Kingdom of God. Jesus greeted his disciples for the first time as the Risen Christ in John 20 with the words, “Peace be with you,” and in this joyous reunion, we begin to understand more of the kind of Kingdom that Jesus is establishing. We have shalom, but not yet in its complete fashion. The writer to the Hebrews says,

So God’s rest is there for people to enter, but those who first heard this good news failed to enter because they disobeyed God. So God set another time for entering his rest, and that time is today.

There is in all of us an inherent longing for peace, for shalom, whether or not we recognize the longing or the depth from which it springs. It is common to all of us, even those who have not yet connected it with the rest promised by God.

As we enter the season of Advent, we turn our thoughts to the coming of Messiah, to the establishment of his Kingdom, and to our entry into a greater experience of his Shalom. Of course, Advent begins the church year, and we shift to a new set of lectionary readings. When I was doing some reading on the theme last year, I naturally consulted Walter Brueggemann’s book, Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom, which includes an appendix titled “A Lectionary of Shalom” — a year’s worth of readings on the topic. This strikes me as the makings of a rich immersion in a grand theme, so I am reproducing his Lectionary of Shalom here for anyone who might wish to follow it or to review some of the major texts on the subject.