Advent Episode 11: Peace with Others

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."  

Transcript

Finding Peace With Others

Speaker 1 0:05

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 0:21

Shalom y'all .

Speaker 2 0:23

Oh , that needs to be printed on a t-shirt and we are definitely doing that Wait , Shalom and y'all together .

Speaker 3 0:32

Sounds good .

Speaker 1 0:32

Mind blown .

Speaker 3 0:34

Seriously Church finances are solved .

Speaker 1 0:36

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 0:48

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 1:29

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 1:41

That's right .

Speaker 1 1:42

First you started with the facet of peace , with .

Speaker 2 1:45

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 1:52

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 2:05

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 2:14

Just occasionally .

Speaker 2 2:15

Are you ?

Speaker 1 2:16

staring at me when you say that . I think I'm not an overly cranky fellow .

Speaker 2 2:20

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 2:43

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 2:52

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 3:08

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 3:16

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 3:25

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 3:55

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 4:13

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 4:44

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 5:06

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 5:26

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 5:48

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 6:37

Who is he saying that to ? Is that the cantankerous grandmother I ?

Speaker 3 6:40

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 6:52

That's pretty bad yeah that does not sound peaceful in a variety of levels .

Speaker 2 6:58

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 7:15

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 7:46

Now do you remember what he gets Pastor ?

Speaker 3 7:48

It's like some yearly yeah to a country club or something .

Speaker 1 7:51

Jellies of the month club or jellies , yeah , and he says that's a gift , that keeps on giving all year .

Speaker 3 8:00

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 8:23

They have a common purpose . Would that be fair to say ?

Speaker 3 8:25

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 8:51

And then there's this just peace amongst the family and enjoyment of one another .

Speaker 2 8:55

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 9:46

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 9:51

Right .

Speaker 1 9:52

And that relational peace is maybe elusive because of the other person .

The Power of Forgiveness in Christianity

Speaker 2 9:58

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 10:36

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 11:15

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 11:24

Shalom y'all , shalom y'all .

Speaker 1 11:25

Merry Christmas , merry Christmas .

Speaker 3 11:27

Merry Christmas , merry Christmas , merry Christmas .