The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong Can Be Made Right

Praise for The Very Good Gospel “Lisa Sharon Harper is so smart and interesting—she’s a wonderful leader.xa0I respect her immensely and am passionatexa0about the message of thisxa0book.” - Jen Hatmaker , speaker and best-selling author of For the Love “For anyone who has ever wondered if we were meant for more, Lisa Sharon Harper’s The Very Good Gospel provides a resounding ‘yes’ revealing God’s eternal vision of shalom for all creation—people, families, genders, races, and the nations. Our gospel has long been presented in a shallow way—and unattractive in its narrowness. The Very Good Gospel declares the breadth of God’s Word, reconciling social justice and personal salvation, and inviting readers to share the rich message of shalom for all people, as it was intended.” —Michael Eric Dyson , political analyst, professor, and best-selling author of The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America “Lisa Sharon Harper has presented the gospel, the good news, as it was meant to be—whole and complete. Our world has compromised so many elements of the good news that we are left with a divided gospel. We need to recover the whole Christian gospel, the wholeness of the church, the wholeness of relationships. Lisa has unleashed the whole-ism of shalom. Her application of the good news for America, for our culture, in the world, reminds us that God is bigger than our problems. My wish is that Christians and non-Christians alike read this book.” — Dr. John Perkins, co-founder of the Christian Community Development Association, founder of the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation in Jackson, Mississippi, and author of Let Justice Roll Down “For many decades, both mainline Christianity and the evangelical church have been captive to competing, shallow, and ‘thin’ understandings of what the good news of the gospel really is. In The Very Good Gospel , Lisa Sharon Harper masterfully presents the case that the very good news God brings to us is about the restoration of shalom—that is to say peace, well-being, wholeness, and abundance—which conquers the false dichotomy between social justice and personal salvation. Lisa shows us that God’s creation is emphatically, even forcefully, good, and it is the duty of every human being to responsibly steward God’s creation. Lisa’s clear, evocative prose blends scholarly theological insights with moving life experiences to show the clear applications of the gospel to our cross-gender relationships, our struggle against racism, how we care for the environment, our relationships with ourselves, and much more. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand God’s true purpose for the world and for our lives.” — Jim Wallis , New York Times best-selling author of America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America , president of Sojourners, and editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine“There are lots of ‘gospels’ out there competing for our affection—the gospel of the Kardashians, of Trump, of American exceptionalism—but Lisa Sharon Harper dives into the one true gospel, God’s very good news. On these pages, the Garden of Eden meets the world we live in. Harper stirs up an ancient, radical vision of shalom, whereby God heals all the wounds that sin has created—in our hearts, in our streets, and in our world.” —Shane Claiborne , activist and author of Executing Grace “To speak of the gospel as good news, it has to be good news for the oppressed, the impoverished, the brokenhearted. To embody God’s shalom is to embrace and restore the image of God in all humanity no matter who or where they are. Chapter by chapter Lisa Sharon Harper builds the case for reading, understanding, and living the gospel as the life-giving, freedom-bringing, shalom-infused reality it really is. There are new, exciting voices coming from a new, younger generation of evangelicals, and they are turning the traditional meaning of that word around. Lisa Sharon Harper is such a voice and well worth hearing.” — Allan Boesak , South African human-rights activist and the Desmond Tutu Chair of Peace, Justice, and Reconciliation Studies at Christian Theological Seminary and Butler University“Lisa Sharon Harper writes in a fresh and personal way, combining rich theology with deep experience working with contemporary issues to inspire us not to settle for a thin gospel but a thick gospel—the fullness of the good news of God’s reconciliation and shalom that touches all aspects of life. The Very Good Gospel is for all of us struggling with how the good news of Jesus should impact not just our own lives but also speak to the injustices in our world. This book brings all the threads together and weaves a glorious picture of God’s redemptive work in creation.” — Ken Wytsma , president of Kilns College and author of Pursuing Justice and Create vs. Copy “Exposing racism, sexism, and exploitation as a direct assault on God, The Very Good Gospel weaves its wisdom around God’s shalom—the blessed web of creation, where the flourishing of one is a flourishing of all. It is beautiful and true. Thank you, Lisa!” — Dr. Mimi Haddad , president of Christians for Biblical Equality, www.cbeinternational.org“Part mountaineer, part miner, Lisa Sharon Harper has somehow ascended the mountain of Scripture to survey its entirety while also digging deep into its core to extract raw truth of immense implication and conviction. Lisa’s revealing stories, scriptural depth, and prophetic voice make The Very Good Gospel a very good read—one you won’t want to miss.” — David Drury , chief of staff for the Wesleyan Church World Headquarters and author of nine books including Transforming Presence “One can scan across the landscape of the church and not find a better articulator of the essence of the gospel in the twenty-first century. Lisa Sharon Harper follows a rich tradition of reformers and iconoclast theological practitioners who deeply love the gospel and God’s people. She has made it her life’s project to challenge lethargic and cynical people to live love and practice justice. Our world is richer and more vibrant because of her compassionate and strong voice.” — Reverend Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ and author of Blue Note Preaching in a Post-Soul World “In a world that has legitimate reasons to question the possibility of a good God, Lisa Sharon Harper reminds us what is in fact not only good but beautiful about the God who loves us more than we want to be loved. Her winsome words wash over the reader with gentleness, while simultaneously striking out with a fierce love that is corrective and healing. The Very Good Gospel is more than just a social activist’s field guide; it is a road map to a better world—one marked by faith, hope, and love.” — Christopher L. Heuertz , author, activist, and founding partner of Gravity: A Center for Contemplative Activism "Christian social activist and public speaker at Sojourners in Washington, D.C., Lisa Sharon Harper ( Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican ... or Democrat ) releases a salient, provocative look at scripture through the lens of her own life. From the shalom offered by God to humanity in Genesis, through the "wreckage of the fall," and forward to Jesus' "very good" gospel, Harper mirrors scripture's long arc with contextual family drama, including information about her "third great-grandmother" who was "the last adult slave in [Harper's] family." In an engaging accessible voice, she interweaves the provocative history of 19th-century evangelical movements, 20th-century social gospel and civil rights movements, and the 21st-century Black Lives Matter movement with her own testimony of coming to Christ and her varied experiences as a progressive evangelical. Harper provides detailed history, statistics, and vibrant stories that reveal the possibility of America's redemption. The willing reader will be restored to a "very good" gospel, which sets free those who are broken, economically poor, abused, ashamed, and oppressed. Built on a foundation of solid biblical study, Harper provides a vital, effective contribution to the narrative theology movement. When systematic theologian James W. McClendon coined the phrase "biography as theology," he was advocating for this book: life stories that remake the way we think about God today. (June)" —Publishers Weekly (starred review) Lisa Sharon Harper is a prolific speaker, activist, playwright, andxa0thexa0author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican...or Democrat andxa0coauthor of Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith .xa0Harper has been recognized by The Huffington Post as one ofxa050 Powerful Women Religious Leaders and is considered one of the nation’s most influential voices on a faith-rooted approach to advocacy.xa0Shexa0lives in Washington, DC. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. FOREWORD Lisa Sharon Harper has written a bracing, generative exposition of the elementalxa0narrative of gospel faith. She has done so by sharing the sequence ofxa0the “very good” of creation, “the wreckage of the Fall,” and the “very good”xa0of the gospel of reconciliation and restoration.xa0The powerful witness of her book is an antidote to a “thin” reading ofxa0the gospel. By thin Harper means a surface reading that settles simply andxa0immediately for what meets the eye and assumes that a quick summary getsxa0it all. Such a reading of the gospel risks reducing it to a package of certitudesxa0without recognition of the depth and mystery of the news. She examines thexa0convenient fundamentalism that has too often given credence to racism andxa0gender violence, and she addresses the progressive church and the flaws ofxa0“thin” theology.xa0Thus, Harper proposes a “thick” reading of the gospel. The notion ofxa0“thick description” has an important pedigree that’s well worth noting. Thexa0phrase was first coined by Gilbert Ryle in his philosophic understanding ofxa0the world that refused simple scientific explanatory positivism. The termxa0was taken up by Clifford Geertz in his cultural anthropology. Geertz insistedxa0that conventional social-scientificxa0observation could not possiblyxa0grasp—letxa0alone explain—thexa0significance of social symbols and practicesxa0in cultures other than our own. George Lindbeck used the term in his resistancexa0to “propositional” or “expressive” theological method as he advocatedxa0a “cultural linguistic” approach.xa0 In her book, Harper takes up the awareness of Ryle, Geertz, and Lindbeckxa0and applies it to our discernment of the gospel. There is more to thexa0gospel than meets the eye, so evangelical thought must be patient in itsxa0recognition of the inscrutable mystery of the God of the gospel who givesxa0gifts and summons to tasks that do not fit our preconceived categories.xa0The capacity that Harper exhibits to move from thin to thick in herxa0exposition of the gospel is empowered by her personal witness of faith andxa0life. She knows firsthand about the racism and gender violence that arisexa0from a thin rendering of the gospel. Indeed, she knows in her own life aboutxa0the “wreckage of the Fall,” whereby violence is inflected on one’s neighbors.xa0It took my breath away when I read of her third great-grandmotherxa0who wasxa0the last adult slave in her family on a plantation in South Carolina. Onexa0cannot overestimate the force of the memory and experience of such violencexa0as a context for rereading the gospel.xa0Her melding of textually informed theology and her experience of violencexa0result in a book that is compellingly thick. Harper addresses the deepxa0wound-producingxa0practices of our society and articulates the costly hope ofxa0healing inherent in the gospel. With acute insight, she details the interfacexa0between gospel faith and lived reality. The Very Good Gospel is a welcomexa0read that invites a rethinking of faith and life that is all too often dumbedxa0down to thin. Thinning our bodies may be good for our physical health,xa0but such thinning of faith is a recipe for chaos and death. Harper bears witnessxa0to the thicker, truer understanding of a saving, transformative, reconcilingxa0faith that is indeed “very good.” Walter Brueggemann Columbia Theological Seminary The Very Good Gospel There must be more to the gospel, I thought.xa0The gospel. Those words are weighed down with images of Bible-thumpingxa0television preachers, white robes, tambourines, street evangelistsxa0damning passersby to hell, and lace-collaredxa0door-knockersxa0intent onxa0spreading what they call the gospel. The Greek word translated as “gospel”xa0in the Bible is euangelion, meaning “good message.” Today we commonlyxa0translate it as “good news.”xa0When we think of good news, we usually think about something thatxa0excites folks. News that makes people want to celebrate. I think of a Facebookxa0post from a good friend who announced that she just got a job. Orxa0the good news that a grant was approved. Or the good news that a nephewxa0was accepted to all three of his top-pickxa0colleges. Woo-hoo!xa0It makes usxa0want to shout, to celebrate. Someone pop the bubbly and turn up thexa0music!xa0Christians are taught to think of the good news of Jesus Christ in thisxa0way:xa0God loves us, but we’re sinful. As a result, we’re separated from God.xa0Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. All we have to do is believexa0that his death was enough and we get to go to heaven.xa0That’s some good news. Seriously, who wants to languish in hellxa0forever?xa0But on this particular day, as I walked away from the King Center inxa0Atlanta, one thought haunted me: The good news of my gospel doesn’t feelxa0good enough.xa0It was the last stop on a pilgrimage taken by select staff from a nationalxa0college ministry. At the time, I served as the ministry’s director of racial reconciliationxa0in Greater Los Angeles. Over four weeks, the pilgrimage took thisxa0diverse group of twenty-fivexa0key staff leaders and family members throughxa0ten states. We investigated two of the most brutal realities of US history: thexa0Cherokee Trail of Tears and the experiences of Africans on American soil,xa0from antebellum slavery to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.xa0I had been to the King Center just a few months before, so when wexa0arrived on the last day of the pilgrimage, I planned to just mill around whilexa0the other group members got their fill. I wandered into the main hall. It allxa0looked like it had when I’d seen it previously until I caught a glimpse ofxa0something unfamiliar. Paintings lined the walls. Between each painting axa0dollar bill was mounted. I was intrigued, so I moved closer. Here was axa0painting of enslaved people, and in the art they were happy.xa0What?xa0I found a plaque on the wall that offered instructions for how to movexa0through the exhibit. It asked the viewer to examine the painting, then try toxa0find that same picture on the dollar bill displayed next to it. I looked closelyxa0at the next painting. It was a different scene showing a different enslavedxa0person. This man was carrying a beautiful basket full of cotton, and he wasxa0happy. And he had shoes. How strange. Most slaves didn’t have shoes.xa0I could hear the line from an old spiritual born from the misery of plantationxa0life. It declares, “All o’ God’s chillun got shoes.xa0For an enslaved person, the differences between being a slave andxa0being a white person were obvious. Whites had freedom of movement andxa0thought, a declaration of their independence, and a Constitution that affirmedxa0their equality. And in addition to all of that, white folk had shoes.xa0Owning shoes represented human dignity. The saying “All o’ God’s chillunxa0got shoes” seemed harmless to outsiders, but it was a statement of resistance.xa0Having shoes served as a reminder to each member of the enslaved communityxa0that you are a child of God. Though the slave master and society doxa0not recognize it, you were born with human dignity. There is a place inxa0God’s Kingdom where you have shoes!xa0So this painting of a happy slave carrying a beautiful basket of cottonxa0while wearing neatly tied shoes struck me as odd. I followed the instructionsxa0of the exhibit and found the painting represented on the dollar bill mountedxa0next to it. I moved to the next painting and viewed a scene of an idyllicxa0countryside bursting with cotton. A straight-backedxa0slave family—mother,xa0father, and two children—pickedxa0cotton together. They were fully garbedxa0with aprons to protect their clothing, and they all wore shoes.xa0I examined the dollar bill next to this painting. There was the samexa0happy slave family in the lower-rightxa0corner of a ten-dollarxa0note from Charleston,xa0South Carolina. I searched for more information about the exhibit andxa0found a plaque reading “Confederate Currency: The Color of Money.”xa0Dozens of these paintings lined the walls, and displayed between thexa0paintings was actual currency used by the Confederacy. The Confederatexa0States of America put pictures of happy, fully clothed slaves wearing shoesxa0on their money because they knew that the currency traveled around thexa0world. It was southern propaganda in the era before television, tweets, andxa0Facebook.xa0The King Center also displayed copies of the secession ordinances. Thexa0state of Mississippi spelled out its reasons for seceding from the Union:xa0“Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery—thexa0greatest material interest of the world. . . . A blow at slavery is a blow at commercexa0and civilization.” This helps explain why member states of the Confederacyxa0put slaves on the money they printed. For them, enslaved peoplexa0equaled money. To lose the people was to lose money—tooxa0much to still bexa0able to maintain their way of life.xa0As I stared at the secession ordinances, I remembered our first stop onxa0the pilgrimage: Dahlonega, Georgia, the site of the first American goldxa0rush. It was Cherokee land and had been for nearly thirteen thousand years.xa0The Cherokee Nation signed a dozen treaties with the United States betweenxa01795 and 1819 in attempts to protect the land and the people. Thexa01820s were a time of great promise for the Cherokee Nation.2 In that decadexa0the Nation developed its own written syllabary, drafted its own constitution,xa0and established its capital city: New Echota, in Georgia.xa0But in 1828, a little Cherokee boy found gold. The same year, Georgiaxa0began passing laws stripping the Cherokees of their lands and rights. Withinxa0years, miners moved in and—withoutxa0permission—setxa0up camps on Cherokeexa0territory. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removalxa0Act, which gave him power to negotiate removal treaties with tribesxa0living east of the Mississippi River. At the same time, the state of Georgiaxa0divided the Cherokee Nation’s land into lots for the miners.xa0 In 1831, the Nation asked the US Supreme Court to grant an injunctionxa0against Georgia’s punitive laws. The court ruled that it lacked thexa0proper jurisdiction to take the case. A group of missionaries, including Samuelxa0Austin Worcester, later exercised civil disobedience by refusing to obtainxa0a state license to occupy Cherokee lands. In essence, they thumbed theirxa0nose at the state’s right to rule over Cherokee land. The missionaries werexa0jailed. Cherokee Chief John Ross took their case to the US Supreme Courtxa0and won. In Worcester v. Georgia, the court ruled that the Cherokee Nationxa0was a sovereign nation. As such, the state of Georgia did not have thexa0right to impose regulations on the Nation; only the federal government hadxa0that authority.3xa0Still, by the end of 1838 and in defiance of the US Supreme Court,xa0President Jackson’s coerced treaties had resulted in the removal of nearlyxa0forty-sixxa0thousand Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, Choctaw, and Seminolexa0men, women, and children. The illegal deportation cleared twenty-fivexa0millionxa0acres of land for white settlement, mining, and ultimately slavery.4 Thexa0US Branch Mint at Dahlonega opened for business and produced its firstxa0gold coins the same year.5xa0As I reflected on Dahlonega while standing in front of the Confederatexa0currency exhibit in the King Center, a thought hit me. This is the Biblexa0Belt. These things happened at the hands of people who claimed to believexa0in Jesus and the power of the Cross for salvation. How could they believexa0the gospel and do this? What Is the Gospel? Two years later I was speaking to a group of college ministry staff. “What isxa0the gospel?” I asked them. This was a particularly provocative question forxa0these staff members, who were expert at communicating the good news ofxa0the gospel as it had been handed down to them. They knew all manner ofxa0frameworks and diagrams to make the message simple. But beneath thexa0surface of their successful frameworks, a void occupied the center of thexa0message.xa0What exactly was Jesus’s “good news”?xa0The group formed four teams to examine the New Testament gospels:xa0one examined Mark, another explored Matthew, another dissected Luke,xa0and the last investigated John. They had twenty minutes to discern eachxa0gospel writer’s understanding of the good news.xa0When time was up, this diverse group of men and women came backxa0together to share what they had discovered. These accomplished ministryxa0staff members were amazed. The good news of the gospel writers was notxa0quite the good news they had been preaching. The gospel writers’ vision wasxa0much bigger.xa0The team members found that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John allxa0cared about an individual’s reconciliation with God, self, and their communities.xa0But the gospel writers also focused on systemic justice, peace betweenxa0people groups, and freedom for the oppressed. The good news wasxa0both about the coming of the Kingdom of God and the character of thatxa0Kingdom. It was about what God’s Kingdom looked like. It was about whatxa0citizenship in God’s Kingdom requires. The biblical gospel writers’ goodxa0news was about the restoration of shalom. The Divided Gospel The Second Great Awakening swept over America at the peak of King Cotton’sxa0reign in the South. Heightened global demand for cotton collided withxa0the invention of the cotton gin and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.xa0Far greater numbers of slaves were needed to pick and process cotton, butxa0Africans were no longer being brought to America. To address the need forxa0more free labor, slave owners began breeding their own slaves.xa0The slave population in the United States exploded from seven hundredxa0thousand in 1790 to nearly four million by 1860. The impact on gospelxa0proclamation? Charles Finney, the leading revivalist of the nineteenth century,xa0created the altar call to give people the chance to stand up and walkxa0forward, proclaiming that they were aligning themselves with the Kingdomxa0of God. But citizenship in the Kingdom of God, Finney insisted, requiredxa0allegiance to God’s governance over and above any human governance, includingxa0the social, legal, and economic institution of slavery. Men andxa0women confessed and repented of their personal sins as well as their complicityxa0with structural evil. And when they wiped away their tears andxa0opened their eyes, Finney thrust a pen into their hands and pointed them toxa0sign-upxa0sheets for the abolitionist movement. This is what it meant to be anxa0evangelical Christian in the 1800s.xa0Church historian David Bebbington has identified four characteristicsxa0common to American evangelicals during the birthing period of thexa0movement:xa0xa01. Conversionism. The belief that all humanity is called by Godxa0to move from a state of darkness into light, to be transformed asxa0we convert from living as subjects of the kingdom of this worldxa0to living as subjects of the Kingdom of God.xa0xa02. Activism. The conviction that it is not enough to believe axa0particular set of principles or doctrines. Rather, principles andxa0doctrines must transform the way we live. Our faith is kinetic,xa0lived out in the world through our hands and feet.xa0 3. Biblicism. The belief that the Bible is the ultimate authority,xa0period.xa04. Crucicentrism. The belief that Jesus’s death on the cross standsxa0at the center of our faith. On the cross Jesus died and becamexa0sin itself. The transformative power of the Cross offers thexa0world the power to be transformed from sin and death intoxa0life.xa0These characteristics marked the common commitments of evangelicalsxa0throughout the nineteenth century. But industrialization in the Northxa0produced a new type of inhumane servitude. Baptist minister Walterxa0Rauschenbusch witnessed the impact of the Industrial Revolution at thexa0turn of the twentieth century. A river of former farmers flowed into poverty-infestedxa0tenements in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City. Men,xa0women, and children—includingxa0members of Rauschenbusch’s Secondxa0German Baptist Church—werexa0forced to work twelve-hourxa0days in horrificxa0conditions. Disease, malnutrition, and death were commonplace.xa0Rauschenbusch realized the early twentieth-centuryxa0church had lost itsxa0focus on the Kingdom of God. He called out the church’s complicity inxa0condoning common rationalizations for the evils of the Industrial Revolution.xa0People were said to be poor because they wanted to be poor or becausexa0they lacked strength of character. Rauschenbusch challenged this thinking:xa0Single cases of unhappiness are inevitable in our frail human life;xa0but when there are millions of them, all running along well-definedxa0grooves, reducible to certain laws, then this misery is not an individual,xa0but a social matter, due to causes in the structure of ourxa0society and curable only by social reconstruction.xa0People didn’t want to live in poverty. Rather, members of Rauschenbusch’sxa0congregation—andxa0millions of others—werexa0caught in well-definedxa0grooves carved out by oppressive systems, not their own character flaws.xa0Workers were moving through a systematic assembly line that led toxa0destitution. To combat such widespread injustice, Rauschenbusch calledxa0the church to return to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are not silent on structuralxa0and systemic sin. The Bible overflows with God’s responses to poverty,xa0oppression, and governance.xa0In response, the small but growing fundamentalist movement rose upxa0in ire, declaring that Rauschenbusch had muddied the gospel message.xa0Fundamentalist Christians argued that the gospel was about one thingxa0only: Christ crucified as payment for our individual sins. Thus began thexa0church’s own civil war, which notably took place within the white Americanxa0church.xa0The white American church split in two from 1908 through the 1920s.xa0Rauschenbusch’s followers were called Modernists (known today as the liberalxa0church). The conservative faction launched the Fundamentalist movement,xa0under the leadership of people such as Cyrus (C. I.) Scofield, whosexa0work is widely known today through the Scofield Bible. The Fundamentalistsxa0also founded seminaries, including Dallas Theological Seminary andxa0Westminster Theological Seminary.xa0In the 1940s, a subset of the Fundamentalist movement became knownxa0as evangelicals, named after the nineteenth-centuryxa0movement. However,xa0they didn’t adopt the early movement’s expansive call for personal andxa0structural repentance. Instead, they maintained a strict Fundamentalistxa0focus on personal repentance from personal imperfection, which led to personalxa0salvation.xa0 Throughout the twentieth century, the liberal church largely distancedxa0itself from calls to personal piety and a passionate, personal relationshipxa0with God. Instead, many historic white Protestant churches fought againstxa0systemic justice. Some partnered with the historic black church. Othersxa0partnered with labor unions to fight the exploitation of labor and were earlyxa0proponents of women’s rights.xa0Meanwhile, twentieth-centuryxa0evangelicals took up the cause of evangelism.xa0They spread the good news of personal salvation. And in the latterxa0part of the century, charismatic evangelicals experienced healing encountersxa0with the Spirit of God. A great chasm opened, splitting the gospel in two.xa0On both sides of the divide, the gospel was thinner than before, containingxa0only a fraction of its power and of God’s purposes for the world. Thin Versus Thick Faith Gospel tracts, simple diagrams, and fill-in-the-blankxa0studies have createdxa0what theologian Miroslav Volf calls “thin faith.”10 Thin religion lacks deepxa0roots in the Scriptures and Christian traditions. It skims the surface of sacredxa0texts, using what seems applicable in the moment without connectingxa0the dots. To overcome thin faith, Christians need to study Scripture in lightxa0of the writers’ historic and cultural contexts, the original meanings of words,xa0and the biblical text in the context of the teachings of church fathers andxa0mothers. It requires serious study and reflection.xa0In contrast, thin faith rests on “what my pastor said” or “what thisxa0Bible passage says to me” (without contextual study), or it doesn’t referencexa0sacred texts at all. Thin faith creates its own collection of Instagram memesxa0that serve as life principles. One’s personal point of view becomes the highestxa0authority. Because thin faith lacks roots, it can be swept away, manipulated, and even marginalized so that it has no bearing on the private orxa0public lives of the faithful. Witness politicians who claim faith when theyxa0are trying to get elected. If they have onlyxa0a vague idea of what the sacred texts actuallyxa0say, their post-electionxa0decisions arexa0likely to bear little resemblance to thickxa0faith.xa0For more than a century now, thinned-outxa0faith has left the divided American church struggling to grasp the significancexa0of the prophetic voices among us. It also has left us without thexa0biblical foundations needed to comprehend Kingdom theology. What wexa0need is a thicker approach to the central question of our faith: what is thexa0good news of the gospel? Shalom The word shalom in all of its forms appears frequently in the Bible. It is usedxa0550 times.xa0The five forms of the word are as follows:xa0• shalom, a Hebrew noun that means peace and wholeness—usedxa0225 times.xa0• shalem, a Hebrew verb that means to make right and toxa0restore—usedxa0117 times.xa0• shelem, a Hebrew noun that means peace offering—usedxa087 times.xa0• shalem, also a Hebrew adjective that means loyal or devoted—usedxa027 times.xa0• eirene, a Greek noun that means peace—usedxa094 times.xa0Thin faith creates itsxa0own collection ofxa0Instagram memes thatxa0serve as life principles.xa0 In Scripture, the word shalom itself meansxa0• well-beingxa0• wholenessxa0• the perfection of God’s creationxa0• abundancexa0• peacexa0It is used as a greeting that wishes right relationships in community forxa0the recipient of the blessing (see Genesis 29:6; 2 Kings 4:26; Jeremiahxa015:5). It also is used to bless the dying with a charge to “go to your ancestors”xa0(Genesis 15:15; see 1 Kings 2:6) and as a promise of safe passage andxa0safe conduct (see Judges 18:6; Psalm 4:8).xa0Shalom describes the absence of conflict (see Deuteronomy 2:26; Isaiahxa033:7) and is used in the context of prophesies of salvation for the vulnerablexa0and condemnation for the unjust (see Jeremiah 6:14; Micah 3:5;xa0Zechariah 9:10). It also is used in the contexts of prayer and politics (seexa0Psalm 72:7; 85:8, 10).xa0In the New Testament, the Greek form of shalom (eirene) is usedxa0ninety-fourxa0times and means restoration of relationship, wholeness, healing,xa0and peace. A word used in Matthew 5:9, eireneopoios, means “those who doxa0peace” or shalom doers.xa0Luke 1:79 speaks of a “way of peace”—anxa0ethic of eirene.xa0John 14:26–27xa0contrasts eirene and fear.xa0Acts 9:31 reveals that eirene is for all people (Judea, Galilee, and Samaria).xa0Shalom living involves the fear of the Lord and the comfort of thexa0Holy Spirit and leads to church growth.xa0Paul uses eirene in all his letters, and the word is used in all but one ofxa0the remainder of the New Testament epistles.xa0 While the word shalom is not used in Genesis 1 or 2, these chapters givexa0us two of the most vivid pictures of shalom in Scripture. In these texts, wexa0see one of the central concepts of shalom—wexa0are all connected—livedxa0out.xa0The peace of self is dependent upon the peace of the other. God createdxa0the world in a web of relationships that overflowed with forceful goodness.xa0These relationships are far-reaching:xa0between humanity and God, betweenxa0humanity and self, between genders, between humanity and the rest ofxa0creation, within families, between ethnic groups or races, and between nations.xa0These relationships were “very good” in the beginning. One wordxa0characterized them all: shalom. Then the story of the Fall (see Genesis 3)xa0explains how the relationships were broken. The rest of Scripture takes usxa0on a journey toward redemption and restoration.xa0Shalom is the stuff of the Kingdom. It’s what the Kingdom of Godxa0looks like in context. It’s what citizenship in the Kingdom of God requiresxa0and what the Kingdom promises to thosexa0who choose God and God’s ways to peace.xa0To live in God’s Kingdom, in the wayxa0of shalom, requires that we discard our thinxa0understanding of the gospel. I had to face axa0hard truth: my limited, evangelical understanding of the gospel had nothingxa0to say about sixteen thousand Cherokees and four other sovereign indigenousxa0nations whose people were forcibly removed from their lands. And itxa0had nothing to say to my own ancestors who were enslaved in Southxa0Carolina.xa0My personal pilgrimage has continued for thirteen years. In that time,xa0I have been working out my understanding of shalom and its implicationsxa0for my life, my practice of the gospel, and my work as a Christian justicexa0advocate. I have preached, trained, and written. I have organized faith communitiesxa0to fight various manifestations of oppression and brokenness. Inxa0previous books and lectures, I have explored the significance of shalomxa0when it is brought to bear on public policy and the common good. I alsoxa0have preached and written on shalom and the problems of shame, familyxa0brokenness, domestic abuse, and global witness. I have come to understandxa0a few things that will be fleshed out in the chapters that follow:xa0xa01. If one’s gospel falls mute when facing people who need goodxa0news the most—thexa0impoverished, the oppressed, and thexa0broken—thenxa0it’s no gospel at all.xa0xa02. Shalom is what the Kingdom of God smells like. It’s what thexa0Kingdom looks like and what Jesus requires of the Kingdom’sxa0citizens. It’s when everyone has enough. It’s when families arexa0healed. It’s when shame is renounced and inner freedom is laidxa0hold of. It’s when human dignity, bestowed by the image ofxa0God in all humanity, is cultivated, protected, and served inxa0families, faith communities, and schools and through publicxa0policy. Shalom is when the capacity to lead is recognized inxa0every human being and when nations join together to protectxa0the environment.xa0xa03. At its heart, the biblical concept of shalom is about God’s visionxa0for the emphatic goodness of all relationships. In his bookxa0Peace, Walter Brueggemann wrote, “The vision of wholeness,xa0which is the supreme will of the biblical God, is the outgrowthxa0of a covenant of shalom (see Ezekiel 34:25), in which personsxa0are bound not only to God but to one another in a caring,xa0sharing, rejoicing community with none to make themxa0afraid.” So what is the vision? What was God’s original intent for our world andxa0all the relationships within it? What did God call good? What is the goodnessxa0that God is working to restore?xa0As we begin this journey to live in the shalom of God’s Kingdom, Ixa0remember the words of my former pastor Dr. Ron Benefiel at the Los Angelesxa0First Church of the Nazarene. He would stand before the congregationxa0on Sunday morning and say, “I’m just a beggar, sharing with other beggarsxa0where I’ve found food.”xa0Well, I’ve found food. Want some? Read more