A Benediction of Shalom

May God afflict us who are comfortable.

And there are many who are comfortable.

The parking lots of restaurants are full;
full to the brim while we are told that many struggle with “affordability”—
a polite word for survival.
Stores overflow.
Sporting events are packed.
We complain about delays and rising prices.
But we are not afflicted.
We are not truly harmed.
We are merely inconvenienced.

May God disturb the comfort that numbs our compassion,
until our abundance becomes generosity,
our security becomes hospitality,
and our lives become open enough for our neighbors to enter.

May God compel us to look at what we would rather not see.

To see poverty enfleshed.
To see the victim of human trafficking.
To see the addict.
To see the elderly.
To see the unhoused.
To see the victim of domestic violence.
To see the humanity hidden behind abstract ideas and topics and “issues” designed to keep us asleep.
To see our own humanity—
our limitations,
our dependence,
our belonging to one another
and to creation itself.

And in seeing,
may we refuse to look away.
May strangers become neighbors,
neighbors become companions,
and compassion become action.

May God jar us awake with a wake-up call that demands we hear what we would rather ignore.

To hear the voice of the voiceless.
To hear the pain.
To hear the cruelty.
To hear the greed.
To hear the scapegoating.
To hear the absurdity of ideologies that divide,
that elevate some,
and diminish others.
To hear ourselves—
our excuses,
our distractions,
our blaming.

And having heard,
may we answer.
May our words become truthful.
May our silence become listening.
May our listening become standing together.

May God point us toward reality.

Toward the lies we have willingly believed.
Toward the harm born of our addiction to certainty.
Toward the destruction wrought by never-satisfied greed.
Toward the violence of control,
and of imposing our way upon others.
And may we see the cost of it all—
the cost to our neighbors,
the cost to ourselves,
the cost to generations to come.

Then lead us beyond illusion
into the freedom of truth;
beyond fear
into trust;
beyond domination
into mutual thriving;
beyond endless consumption
into enough.

May God set us free
from every belief,
every fear,
every idol,
every certainty,
and every lie
that imprisons us
and imprisons others.

Set us free
to love without condition.
To welcome without fear.
To share without counting the cost.
To forgive without keeping score.
To seek justice without growing weary.
To delight in enough.
To live gently upon the earth.

Set us free
to receive your shalom,
to embody your shalom,
to proclaim your shalom,
and to become people through whom
your shalom enters the world.

Until we know your shalom—
not merely peace,
but wholeness.
Not merely quiet,
but justice.
Not merely comfort,
but beloved community.
Not merely survival,
but abundant life.

And may we become
people of shalom,
builders of shalom,
bearers of shalom,
until your kingdom is seen
on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen.