Christians are not likely to think of themselves as people called to create a disturbance. We are to be peacemakers and to care for those who suffer… but to cause a disturbance?  Yet, Jesus of Nazareth and his followers said and did things that made certain people uneasy, and even angry. Jesus and his disciples were disruptive. In the book of Acts, the disciples were described as the “people who have been turning the world upside down…” (Acts 17:6).  Luke also tells us about how the owners of a slave girl in Philippi (16:16-24) attacked Paul and Silas when they realized they could no longer make easy money from exploiting her. The pig owners rejected Jesus when they lost their animals because of Jesus’ actions liberating a young man (Luke 8: 34-37). Like Demetrius (Acts 19:23-24), they were too focused on securing their material gain to see God’s acts of liberation taking place among them.  While we are not called to create unnecessary disturbance to have things go our way or to elevate our own position, we must discern when God is inspiring us to disturb others nonviolently for the cause of human dignity, justice, and compassion, in other words, to build peace by confronting injustice.                

Two months ago, I found myself sitting out back of the simple adobe brick home that was clinging to the steep hillsides that rise up around the city of Huánuco, in the beautiful Central Andes of Peru. I was captivated by Ana (name changed for security reasons), a member of our Peace and Hope local team, as she was sharing her story. Once in a place of utter despair, caught in a vicious cycle of violence and extreme poverty, there seemed to be no end to her suffering. Now, years later, this brave Quechua woman shares the details of her role in disturbing the community in her efforts to mobilize people against impunity in cases of sexual abuse against children and teens. As a survivor herself, she is also involved in actively preventing violence against children, and helping youth who have suffered sexual abuse to begin their healing journey.  When I asked Ana about how she became involved in this challenging work, she told me how she had prayed to God for direction as she was looking for liberation. She had heard of the work of Peace and Hope in her town.  One day she gathered all the courage she could and walked towards the door of the Peace and Hope office. She started knocking on the office door and through tears, she was received with open arms by Doris, one of the psychologists on the team.

How shall we pursue peace in a context of brokenness and widespread abuse? Peace is not the absence of conflict. How could we avoid conflict in the face of injustice, exclusion, and the exploitation of human beings who bear our Creator’s image? Non-violent resistance is essential to pursue transformation and liberation.  

The beautiful Hebrew voice shalom in the Old Testament means “completeness,” “soundness,” and “well-being.” While these terms may sound familiar to those coming from individualistic cultures, Christians must be careful not to miss the collective implications of this biblical term. Shalom describes the ideal state in which the community should function.

Shalom is equivalent to the Greek term eirene in the New Testament. Derived from the Greek term eiro (“to join”), eirene has the emphasis on joining what has previously been severed or broken. Eirene is a powerful biblical term that emphasizes the restoration of relationships previously broken, shalom has strong associations with truth, justice, and mercy. This suggests that the biblical conception of peace is much more than just a passive state of mind, or an escape from the real world. Rather, pursuing peace means to receive from God an active and dynamic attitude towards life that cannot remain silent in the face of cruelty and abuse.  In consequence, the blessing of shalom/eirene is not only about maintaining our inner peace with God—which, of course, is quite important as the foundation of who we are and what we want to do—but it is a notion that can only be fully understood in community, as a blessing meant to be enjoyed collectively.

Our hope in Christ’s peace is what carries us when it seems like there is no way forward. This hope is big enough to encompass our individual and collective longings for justice as the foundation of true peace. As we celebrate this Christmas the truth that God is with us, I hope that we all join Ana, and all our sisters and brothers around the world, in the ministry of confronting abuse of power and building peace with courageous love.