Responding to Criticism

    I recently told a friend that my perfect day off is one where I can hide from people, which isn't exactly true. My perfect day off is drama and surprise free, mostly because so much of the rest of my week and energy are spent attending to people's criticisms.
   Recently, we celebrated communion using a liturgy a dear friend wrote about seeking the Shalom of the City. It is one that means a lot to me, both as a pastor and faith-based community organizer. I had some people come up to me after worship and speak about how much the liturgy meant to them. But this week I received a letter from a woman who was deeply offended by the liturgy and wrote a four pages about how it isn't Biblical and asked me if I even knew who God was and if I am firm in my faith walk? Side note: this was actually not the craziest thing said to me this week, and certainly not the worst of the month.
   As harshly worded as her criticism was it made me go back and explore the liturgy. One thing she kept writing was that "Shalom" is not in her Bible, so its not Biblical. Oh dear. How do we address words like Shalom that are so poorly translated in our English Bibles? Further, as much as the word peace is not necessarily the most accurate translation, the liturgy starts out by explaining that God's shalom is the deep peace for all people.
    As to the liturgy not being Biblical: Peace is mentioned over 340 times in scriptures. The key verse is Jeremiah 29:7 Seek the peace and the prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. But as the story goes on, as told through the prophet Nehemiah, when the people returned to Jerusalem they forgot to seek out peace for their neighbor. When we failed to seek peace for each other, God sent Jesus to show us the way. To be the living embodiment of peace for all people, and even when people tried to use violence to stop him, his peace was victorious and conquered the grave.
    Am I sorry I used the liturgy? Not at all. If it made this woman react in such a visceral way their is a reason. If it touched someones heart, there was a reason. It is also a reminder that God's love for us is throughout all scriptures, woven together, and all speaks of our salvation. (Also the standard liturgy in the Book of Worship also incorporates both poetic imagery and Hebrew Scriptures).
    Along with this, a fellow pastor had a powerful post on facebook this week about how churches complain their aren't any young people, yet they are being driven away because we treat everything new like its blasphemy. It may be different words, but different words make us pause and consider what the words we love, the words that have become rote, truly mean.