Show Notes
Peaceable and Kind host Derek Vreeland dives into just what it means to be peaceable by looking into key verses about peace. He defines peace using the Hebrew word shalom which refers to well-being and human flourishing.
Quotes from Jesus and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. support this important theme in the Bible.
Scripture verses mentioned in this episode:
Psalm 34:14
Matthew 5:3-10
1 Timothy 2:1-3
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Peaceable and Kind, the podcast where we explore the transformative power of living out Jesus’ call to peace and kindness in our everyday lives. Each week your host, Derek Vreeland, will delve into the stories, scriptures, and practical steps that help us embody these essential Christian virtues. Join us as we talk with inspiring guests, reflect on Scripture, and discover ways to bring peace and kindness into our homes, communities, and the world. Whether you’re seeking encouragement, guidance, or a deeper understanding of your faith, Peaceable and Kind is here to support and uplift you on your spiritual journey Let’s embark together on this path of grace, compassion, and love, living out the true essence of our faith. Thank you for tuning in, and may the peace of God be with you always.
Derek Vreeland: Well, the podcast is off and running. Thanks to all of you who have subscribed on Apple or Spotify. I appreciate all the encouragement, all the positive comments. I assume this podcast will evolve over time. So I’m always open to suggestions. I can’t promise I’ll take every suggestion that you give me, but hit me up. at Derek Vreeland on Instagram, Twitter, or if you have to, Facebook Messenger, and let me know what you think about the show. But I do appreciate you subscribing and sharing episode one and maybe this episode with friends who you think might enjoy this kind of content. So, as we get started with this podcast, I want to talk about the dual themes of peaceableness and kindness. I am convinced that right here, right now, in this cultural moment What we need is a deluge of peaceableness and kindness. It’s as if the fighting and the turmoil and the antagonism and the hostility has just dried out our culture. and has made it somewhat like a desert place. And so what we need are those springtime rains of peace and kindness. And that’s what I’ve committed to do here on this podcast, is to produce content that promotes a peaceable and kind life. So if that is what you are looking for, make sure you subscribe and continue to listen. Now on these opening episodes, I want to sort of lay the foundation. for where we are going and to lay the foundations of these two themes of peaceableness and kindness In some sense, I think most people know what we mean when we say peace or peaceableness. I think most people know what we mean when we say kind or kindness, but sometimes it is hard to give it a real definition. It’s a little bit like art, like how do we define what art is or what is the standard by which we uh say that that is good art. Well, it’s hard to define it, but we know what it is when we see it. And I think these Twin themes of peace and kindness are a little bit like that. Like when we see it, we know it. But what I want to do over the next two episodes is lay out a foundation within scripture of how the Bible talks about peace and peaceableness. We’re going to do that on today’s episode. And then on the next episode, we’ll lay a foundation for kindness. But let me go ahead and sort of preview what both of these share, what both of these have in common. Both peaceableness and kindness is something that, yes, it starts within our heart, but it is expressed. So, peaceableness. If we are going to live a peaceable life, we first have to have peace within. And that starts with our relationship with God, having peace with God through Jesus Christ. It starts there But peace, from a biblical point of view, isn’t only internal peace, peace within our hearts Peace that we feel. It starts there. But true peace, as displayed and described throughout the Bible, is a peace through relationships. It’s a peace that is known and seen. It’s a peace that is expressed. And similarly with kindness. Kindness starts within our heart. We have received the kindness of God. God in Jesus has been kind to us. And isn’t that our story? Haven’t you experienced kindness from God? I can think of a number of times where I have experienced in the presence of God, a sense of kindness. And so we want to cultivate that within our hearts. We want that kind of kindness on the inside. But again, kindness, as shown to us in Scripture, is an expression. Kindness is mercy in motion It’s how we demonstrate the mercy and kindness that we have received. So both peaceableness and kindness are seeking expression. So I’m previewing a little bit what we’re going to do next episode, but on this episode, I want to do a bit of a deep dive and look at the scripture on the subject of peace and peaceableness. So, what to say about peace? When I go to the scripture, the first place I want to go to is in the Old Testament in the Psalms, and just look at one verse, Psalm thirty four fourteen. Now I’m a lover of the Psalms. The Psalms have become a part of my daily prayer life I, for a long time, would read the psalms and study the psalms. I have taught on the psalms. I’ve preached entire sermons on various psalms. But it was perhaps seven or eight years ago that I began to incorporate the psalms into my prayer life. Because the Psalms are prayers. The book of Psalms, the collection of psalms, what some traditions call the Psalter. This was the prayer book of Jesus and the very earliest apostolic church And from the beginning, Christians have been incorporating the language and words and verses of the Psalms in their prayer life. It took me a number of years to discover that tradition, but about seven, eight years ago I began a form of morning prayer that included one psalm for the day. And the way that works is we pick, and this is a tradition within my local church here But we choose a psalm for the day that aligns itself with the day of the year. And so you have three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, you only have a hundred and fifty psalms. So what this means is that on day 125, we are praying Psalm 125. And when I say pray the Psalm, I mean read it out loud as a prayer Now on day 151, we start back over with Psalm 1. We do the same thing on day 301 Which is usually I think it’s around November sometime, uh around the season of Advent, before the season of Advent, we start back over with Psalm one on day three oh one. So this has been my tradition for seven, eight years of going through the psalms completely twice every year. And those first 65 Psalms I actually do three times every year. So for seven, eight years I have been invested in praying the Psalms. And so they’ve become a part of my my heart and my life and my thinking. And because I pray the first 65 Psalms three times a year, There’s a lot of lines in those first 65 Psalms that got stuck in my heart and in my mind. And one of them is Psalm 3414. It’s a short Psalm. Here’s what it says. Psalm thirty-four, fourteen Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it Now, isn’t it interesting that this is a instructional line in Psalm 34? This is actually the voice of God speaking to us. Which makes the Psalms interesting. Again, I pray a psalm every day. I read it out loud as prayer. But sometimes it’s words that I’m speaking to God. You know, whether I’m rejoicing in the Lord or I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? So there are often lines in the Psalms that are directed to God, but at times the lines in the Psalms are God speaking to me. I still voice it out as a prayer. But this is a a simple line that has just stuck with me. Depart from evil And in the context of a peaceable and kind life, think of that evil in terms of acrimony and hatred and anger and angst and antagonism. Right? Those are the kind of evils we want to depart from. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it So this psalm is beckoning us to not just wishfully hope for peace. but to actively seek after it, to pursue it. And so this has been an aim of my life, that I want to be one who is seeking and pursuing Peace. Now, the Hebrew word translated in English peace is the word shalom Now, I don’t know how helpful it is for people to memorize ancient Hebrew or ancient Greek. Perhaps there’s some value in that. Uh, but I don’t really advocate for that. In a lot of my teaching, I don’t do deep dives into biblical languages, particularly not Hebrew. All of my training in seminary was in Greek. I did a year of ancient Greek, classical Greek, uh in my undergrad studies, and then I did two years of Koine Greek, New Testament Greek in seminary. And it’s good, it’s helpful, but I don’t think you have to learn these ancient languages. However, there are some words in Hebrew, some words in Greek that are helpful to know. And one is this Hebrew word for peace, shalom. Now, shalom doesn’t mean simply the absence of conflict, though it includes that But shalom is a much more all-encompassing term that means well-being in every part of our lives So that things are well, not only with our soul, but in our relationships, in our families, in our work life. A compatible word to the Hebrew word shalom would be the Greek word eudaimonia. A eudaimonia is not a Bible word, but eudaimonia is a Greek word and a Greek term for happiness, or better translated, human flourishing. So many of the ancient Greek philosophers, I’m thinking of Aristotle in particular, held out eudaimonia as the goal of a good life, a virtuous life. is to experience human flourishing. And it’s not just individual human flourishing, but flourishing as a community So I think the Hebrew word and concept of shalom is very similar to the Greek word, eudaimonia. And that is what we are to seek and to pursue. We are called, as followers of Jesus, to seek after shalom, human flourishing Living together in a way where everything is going good. So that’s Psalm 34, 14. What about Jesus? What does Jesus have to say about peace? Well, peace was one of Jesus’ primary topics Jesus has a lot to say about peace. And on this podcast, we’ll be looking at a lot of what Jesus has to say about peace. But perhaps we could start with Jesus’ most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount begins in Matthew chapter 5. It takes three chapters, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And this Matthew records early in his gospel account because this became a cornerstone of Jesus’ teaching This was Jesus going up onto a mountaintop, much like Moses went up Mount Sinai to get the law Jesus is up on a mountaintop and he is reimagining the Jewish law. And so he opens, this is in Matthew 5, with the beatitudes. this list of blessings. Now Jesus is wrapping all of his teachings around the central theme of his teaching, which was the proclamation of the kingdom of God. And so the Beatitudes, this list of blessings, is describing those who are most blessed in the kingdom of God. These are not so much instructions, but the Beatitudes are kingdom announcements. But what they do for us as followers of Jesus is the Beatitudes give us the rhythms, the values of the kingdom of God. Now one of them is about peace, but I want to read all of them so you can hear the peace part in context. Here’s what Jesus said. This is Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, there have been many books written about these themes, many sermons preached from the Beatitudes. And I would imagine you could build an entire podcast just talking about these blessings. And I want to get to the Peacemaker part, but so that you can see it again in context. Notice how the blessings here are given to those who are normally not the people at the top of the social ladder. These are people who are normally not at the top rung of societal success Right, these aren’t the rich and the powerful. The blessing here is given to the poor, those who are poor in spirit, spiritually poor One translation, the Good News translation, says, Blessed are those who are poor at being spiritual. I hear that as blessed are those who are no good at this spiritual stuff. And as a pastor, I will freely admit I’m not really good at the spiritual stuff. It’s taken years and years of training to really learn practices like prayer and all those spiritual things. So Jesus is saying, hey, if that’s you, if you’re no good at the spiritual stuff, you’re blessed in the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn. Not those who belly laugh and everything is going their way, but there’s a blessedness for those who mourn, for the meek. Meekness is not weakness. Meekness is a power that’s constrained. The meek are often the quiet ones at the table. Jesus says you’re blessed. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Righteousness is a big word, it’s a big Bible word, it’s a big religious word. It might be better to hear that as justice. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, who ache for justice, for things to be made right. Blessed are the merciful, those who are mercy-giving. Blessed are the pure in heart. And then Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers. For they will be called children of God. Another translation says they will be called the sons and daughters of God. Peacemaking is the family business. Jesus came as the Son of the Father, God his Father. sent the Son that we might know what God is like and what God is up to. And we are brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We are a part of God’s family. And so we’re called to the family business. And what is the family business that we as the children of God are called to? Well, Jesus reveals here in the Beatitudes it is peacemaking It is working for the things that make for peace. And again, when I hear Jesus speak of peace here, I think of that Hebrew word shalom. The peacemaking that we are called to as the children of God is the kind of work that promotes social harmony and true human flourishing Blessed are the peace makers. Notice Jesus didn’t say, blessed are the peace keepers. And I think that there is a world of difference between peacekeeping and peacemaking And we’ll spend time on this podcast parsing out all of the details and the differences between those two. But peacekeeping is simply making sure that everyone gets along Like, let’s don’t talk about anything that’s going to upset anybody, right? Let’s don’t have conversations about our disagreements. Let’s just sweep that all under the rug and just play nice. Peacekeepers simply want to play nice. Now, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes, before we got to the Peacemakers, remember. Jesus said, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, that is, rightness, which biblically it’s associated with justness or justice. See, peacemakers are not simply wanting to play nice because peacemakers want to see justice And justice is a huge Bible word that needs a lot of context. But for the sake of this conversation, think of justice as related to God’s work as God’s work of setting right a world gone wrong. Again, when I hear the English word justice, I think of justness. That is things that are fair and that are right So there are a lot of wrongs in our world. For example, you could think of global poverty. I lived for nearly twelve years in Americas, Georgia, which is the home of both Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing. To organizations started by Millard Fuller. And the justice burden that Millard had was to work to eliminate poverty housing. So he was wanting to bring justice. He saw something that wasn’t right. People living in substandard in poverty housing. That’s not right. Not right to try to raise a family i i in a home that’s not not safe, not protected from the elements. And he saw something not right, and this was a a justice burden. He wanted to cooperate with what God was doing to make things right. So, peacemaking and peacekeeping, not the same thing. Peacemaking requires that we call out injustices. Peacemaking requires that we call out bullies, that we call out those who are working against peace. I love the quote from Dr. Martin Luther King. He said, true peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of justice The presence of setting things right. That quote is in stone at the MLK Memorial. in Washington, D. C. And I think that that gets at the heart of what Jesus was talking about when he said, Blessed are the peace makers. Not just those who draw back from tension, but for those who want to live in the presence of justice. And so on this podcast, I’ll share uh ideas, I’ll share my opinions on controversial topics from time to time, and you may not agree with me, and that’s okay. We can disagree and still be kind to one another. Well, on the subject of peaceableness, I got one more passage for you. And it’s 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. And this was Paul’s exhortation to Timothy. He writes. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life In all godliness and dignity, that is right and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour This is the exhortation given to Timothy, a young pastor, and I believe that God, the Holy Spirit, is speaking it to us today. That in this crazy antagonistic and hostile culture, I believe we’re being called to lead a quiet and peaceable life. Again, peaceable here does it mean quietism. Leading a quiet and peaceable life doesn’t mean quietism No, I think we advocate for justice. I think we are a part of national dialogues in the public square about right and wrong a morality. I think the church has a position as followers of Jesus to be somewhat the moral conscience of a community. But we’re going to enter into the public square in a way that looks peaceable, where we are working for the betterment of others Where we are working and living together in such a way that makes our neighborhoods, our communities, our cities, a place of human flourishing Well, that’s it.
Guest: That’s all we have for today. Thank you so much for listening. Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.