In this 11th Advent episode, Chris, Matthew, and Tyler point out the progressive nature of Shalom (peace): Peace with God leads to peace with self, and peace with self leads to peace with others. Learn how to make your family gatherings a little more people, even if you have your own version of "cousin Eddie."
In this 11th Advent episode, Chris, Matthew, and Tyler point out the progressive nature of Shalom (peace): Peace with God leads to peace with self, and peace with self leads to peace with others. Learn how to make your family gatherings a little more people, even if you have your own version of "cousin Eddie."
Hello and welcome back to the Real Friends podcast, our Advent series. We are in week number two, where the theme is peace and pasture. You have been talking with people like Tyler and a variety of other guests. Hi, tyler, hello, or more specifically, shalom everybody. Shalom.
Speaker 3:Shalom y'all.
Speaker 2:Oh, that needs to be printed on a t-shirt and we are definitely doing that Wait, Shalom and y'all together.
Speaker 3:Sounds good.
Speaker 1:Mind blown.
Speaker 3:Seriously Church finances are solved.
Speaker 1:That's going nationwide and international. That's going to be epic. Well, thank you for joining us everyone. We're not going to say anything. No, we will say some better things, even than Shalom y'all.
Speaker 2:So we've been talking about peace, pastor review with us, real briefly, shalom and peace, what these things mean, yeah, so our word peace does not confate the weight of the Hebrew word for peace, the main Hebrew word for peace, which is the word Shalom, and Shalom means, I guess we could summarize it, as we've said, as wholeness. It includes, you know, not just tranquility, but it includes prosperity and health and all of these different things. And so what we've been talking about is that the, you know, as we think about the Christmas story, isaiah nine kind of prophesized this Messiah coming and says that he shall be called Prince of peace or Prince of Shalom.
Speaker 1:Y'all. That's not as cool when I say it, tyler, you've got that real bass in your voice. Prince of Shalom, shalom. It almost sounds like he's singing it. So there are various facets that you all have been talking about.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:First you started with the facet of peace, with.
Speaker 2:God, Peace with God, and that's obviously the most important. We cannot have any other facet of peace if we do not first have peace with God.
Speaker 1:And then there's a progressive nature to some of these facets there's. Once you have that, then you can have peace with yeah, peace with self, internal peace. And now, tyler, this week we're going to talk about peace with Both others.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I think one of the reasons that people are so antagonistic towards others. Have you noticed that being the case?
Speaker 1:Just occasionally.
Speaker 2:Are you?
Speaker 1:staring at me when you say that. I think I'm not an overly cranky fellow.
Speaker 2:No, you're one of the most magnanimous people that I know. I think one of the reasons, honestly, that people are so hateful and antagonistic towards others is that they do not have inner peace, and you can't have inner peace again if you don't have peace with God. But when you do have peace with God and you have inner peace, then then you can actually be at peace with others, which is a beautiful thing, and that's what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:Peace with others sounds and is divine. And, pastor, I know you've got a particular Bible, bible verse that is going to speak to this.
Speaker 2:Indeed John 13, 34, a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. These are Jesus words Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. Does anything strike either of you about that verse?
Speaker 3:Well, to me it seems like maybe before you didn't have to love. Now he's giving you a new commandment to love.
Speaker 1:Is it really new? I mean, that seems like a word that's almost out of place it does it's like well, could you hate people under the old covenant?
Speaker 2:I hope not. I don't think so. I think the key is you know, jesus says a new commandment I give to you that you love one another. But then he qualifies that, just as I have loved you, so in the Old Testament they were to love neighbor as theirself. Right, that's not a new command, but the way in which we're able to love people changes with Jesus, because God is love and Jesus transforms us so that we are able to love in, you might say, a fuller way.
Speaker 1:Sure a fuller way, and I think you know when we talk about God the Son versus God the Father in a sacrificial way, would that be? Fair to say that there's more of it. Not that you couldn't love one another in that particular way in Old Testament times, but I think it's safe to say that there's more in emphasis. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I believe so, and you know that I think part of this again, this progressive nature of peace, that because of Christ, we have a peace that really they couldn't even experience in the Old Testament. And if you are not at peace with God, and if you are not at peace with yourself, you just absolutely cannot be at peace with others. It's one of those. You know, you've heard the old adage hurt people, hurt people. The reason that people act so miserably towards others is because they are miserable themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you want to keep in mind the progressive nature of this. I mean, always do your best to be nice to other people. But you know, if you're out there on an overall search for peace, you really need to start at the beginning peace with God. Only then can you have peace with self and then peace with others, and that is a hard thing to have peace with others here in the Christmas season. It is.
Speaker 2:You know, I think about the. You know family gatherings now, and it's a glorious thing to get together with families, but that's actually not true in some families, and maybe we all have a crazy uncle, I don't know. I'm the crazy uncle, don't you think that these relational issues are exasperated in holiday seasons?
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely, because you're thinking about people more. You're trying to, you know, find and think of gift ideas as a super on a superficial level, but then when you actually physically get everybody all together in a space that isn't quite as big as you might always hope, then those tensions that could rise to the surface do rise to the surface.
Speaker 3:Yeah, whenever I think about it I think of a movie that I'm sure everybody knows, the Christmas Vacation National Amplification Edition. Love it, and there's nothing but chaos through the whole thing and until the end. But just to you know, give some reference in the spoolert if you've never seen it. But a couple quotes from Clark Griswold. He starts out he loves Christmas and he is happy that he's going to have this Christmas gathering. But then he realizes all the people is coming and just like you know, you have those family members that you know you got a tip told around or they just get on your nerves to know in. But one of the quotes that he says is can I really feel your eggnog for you? Get something to eat for you drive you out in the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead.
Speaker 1:Who is he saying that to? Is that the cantankerous grandmother I?
Speaker 3:think it's his or his wife's cousin Eddie. Oh, cousin Eddie. Yeah, cousin Eddie, he's wild. And then another one is how can things get worse? Take a look around here, alan. We're at the threshold of hell.
Speaker 1:That's pretty bad yeah that does not sound peaceful in a variety of levels.
Speaker 2:And I just wonder how many families you know experience, you know, maybe they don't say it quite like that, but they feel like these family gatherings are something of that nature they might not actually say it, but they're probably definitely thanking it. Tyler, things get better at the end of that movie.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So you know, toward the end of the movie you know all this crazy stuff happens and Clark doesn't necessarily let. He tells everybody he's getting this bonus and that's what he's looking for this whole time and no matter what happens with the family, he just keeps thinking about that. He's thinking about how much better he's going to make his family's life. You know, to give them, you know, something to be able to do together. And then you know all the family stuff happens. And then at the end you know when he finally gets his bonus in the mail and it's not at all what he was looking for.
Speaker 1:Now do you remember what he gets Pastor?
Speaker 3:It's like some yearly yeah to a country club or something.
Speaker 1:Jellies of the month club or jellies, yeah, and he says that's a gift, that keeps on giving all year.
Speaker 3:Not the gift he was wanting, you know, but uh, no. So you have this horrible thing like this is just absolutely bracing. He's had enough and he tells everybody you know, what I want is I want my boss right here, right now, so I can tell him exactly what I think of him. And that brings the family together. It one negative brings the whole rest of the negative.
Speaker 2:They have a common purpose. Would that be fair to say?
Speaker 3:Right. And so they, they all are like well, you know, let's help him. So his cousin goes out and find his boss asleep in his house, brings him to his house and they all find out what he done. And then they all take all their craziness and put it towards the boss and they all come together. They're there now to support Clark and what he's wanting, and they all come together.
Speaker 2:And then there's this just peace amongst the family and enjoyment of one another.
Speaker 2:And they can enjoy Christmas together. Yeah, and so you do need common ground to have peace, and you know it's not a bonus that brings us together, but it is Christ. And when we have Christ, there is this, there's just this peace. And now, when we think about that, you know, to have true peace and relationships it takes two people. And Paul says that, you know. He says be peaceful with others as much as it depends on you, but even when maybe you know, in your family there's perhaps non-Christians who are contankerists, and you're trying to be peaceful, but even then you can enjoy your Christmas gatherings and you can be kind even if others are not, because you are at peace with God.
Speaker 1:Yes, you've already got your peace with God and yours in your peace with self, to be able to fall back on.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And that relational peace is maybe elusive because of the other person.
Speaker 2:And you know, one of the main ways to have peace with others is to be forgiving. You've got to be able to forgive and that's one of the beauties of Christianity no matter what has been done to us. You know, we, as Christians, should, we're compelled, implored, commanded in the Bible, to forgive others, as Christ has forgiven us. So we, you know, anytime that we're tempted not to forgive cousin Eddie or, you know, whomever it's like. Well, cousin Eddie hasn't done nearly as much to us as we've done to Christ, and yet we have forgiveness with Jesus, and you know.
Speaker 2:So Christ has forgiven us and we too are able no, we're commanded to forgive others, but by God's spirit, he actually enables us to forgive others. You know, when we go back to the Garden of Eden and we see that sin certainly we talk about all the time separated us from God. It actually caused great, you know, not just a chasm between us and God, but it caused a chasm between us and other people. So when we come to Christ, yes, he bridges that chasm between us and God, but also he gives us that ability to bridge the chasm between us and other people. That's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 1:It is, so I don't think we have a chasm between any of us. Shall we end the way we started, tyler pastor.
Speaker 3:Shalom y'all, shalom y'all.
Speaker 1:Merry Christmas, merry Christmas.
Speaker 3:Merry Christmas, merry Christmas, merry Christmas.