I wonder who landed the first
human kiss and why?
Kissing is a universal sign of
affection between humans.
In British society kissing is an
activity largely reserved for
showing intimacy amongst
family and friends, but
elsewhere in the world social
kissing is a part of everyday
life even amongst those less
well acquainted. I must
confess rather prudishly that I
have always been slightly
uncomfortable with social
kissing and remember
assaulting a Commanding
Officer’s wife by clashing
heads accidentally whilst
brandishing a bottle of wine
as she proffered her cheek for
a social kiss on arrival at the
COs house for a party. I also
remember declining the offer
of a social kiss from an
Egyptian gentleman in Cairo
after having played my guitar
at a Christian Pilgrimage. In
his culture it was a perfectly
normal, but my British
reservedness got the better
of me.
The author of Psalm 85 uses
the powerful image of kissing
to describe the intimate
relationship between
righteousness and peace in
verse 10 of the Psalm when
he writes:
“Love and faithfulness meet
together;
righteousness and peace
kiss each other.”
It conjures up a powerful
mental image, but why are
the two so intimately
connected?
The Bible Gateway
encyclopaedia defines
“Righteousness” as being “In
its general use, it represents
any conformity to a standard
whether that standard has to
do with the inner character of
a person, or the objective
standard of accepted law.”
“righteousness has to do with
the fulfilment of the demands
of relationships, whether with
men or with God.” “In the
gospels; it is used to mean a
“pious” person, or a
“religious” person, someone,
it might be said to have lived
a “good” life. Joseph was
called a “righteous” man in
that he refused to turn Mary
over to the authorities when
she was found to be
pregnant.” (Matt 1:19). The
Pharisees, however, would
have restricted the term to a
“Pius person who kept the
meticulous requirements of
the Jewish law.”
In simple terms, perhaps we
might define righteousness
as a perfect state of
acceptance before God and
human society in keeping
both the laws of God and of
the society in which we live.
In our own strength
something which is an
impossibility, but something
for which we should strive.
The same encyclopaedia
offers the following synonyms
for Peace in scripture as
being: “soundness,
completeness, security,
welfare, harmony, concord,
safety and assurance.” In the
the human sense it can range
from anything between: “the
cessation of hostilities
between nations, the absence
of civil or ecclesiastical
disorder, freedom from
dissension between
individuals, material
prosperity, health, tranquility,
freedom from mental or
spiritual perturbation, to
simply conditions where there
is a minimum of noise or
activity.” In scripture,
however, the Hebrew word
“Shalom” is never used
without implicit, religious
content.
True Shalom is peace in every
aspect of life both in heaven
and on earth.
We can see that
Righteousness and Peace are
closely connected, but I
would argue that Peace
differs from Righteousness in
that it is a fruit (Gal 5:22)
resulting from a right
relationship between
humanity and between
humanity and God.
We pray for Peace in our
world, but I would contend
that what we should be
praying for is
“Righteousness” for without
such right relationships and
conformity to the will and
ways of God there can never
be Peace. Jesus encouraged
his listeners to strive for such
righteousness as though
starving for it: “Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness,
for they will be filled.” (Matt
5:6)
Praying for Peace is an
impossibility without first
praying for righteousness on
earth.
In Romans 1:29-32, the
Apostle Paul provides a
comprehensive list of the
kinds of things that destroy or
inhibit Peace between
humanity and Peace with
God: “greed, depravity, envy,
murder, strife, deceit and
malice. Gossips, slander,
hatred of God, insolence,
arrogance, boastfulness,
creativity in doing evil,
disobedience to parents, lack
of understanding, lack of
fidelity, lack of love and lack
of mercy.” Our news is full of
such examples of human
depravity. When we pray for
Peace are we are tantamount
to expecting God to enforce
his will upon humanity in
order to bring about the
conditions that lead to Peace.
He is love and he will not do
that. He lets us fight with the
heartfelt desire that at last we
will learn to love and forgive.
In praying for Peace we have
a huge job before us. We
should pray first for
righteousness, starting with
ourselves and then the world
about us.
If we want Peace in our
homes, relationships or at
work we should pray for and
work for right relationships
with each other and with
God. Are any of Paul’s list of
unrighteous behaviour true of
us: “greed, depravity, envy,
strife, deceit and malice.
Gossip, slander, hatred of
God, insolence, arrogance,
boastfulness, creativity in
doing evil, disobedience to
parents, lack of
understanding, lack of fidelity,
lack of love and lack of
mercy.” If so, there will never
be Peace in our families,
relationships and places of
work.
I want us to consider targeted
prayer of “righteousness” in
our world. What a different
world it would be if there was
no, “greed”, no , “depravity,”
no “envy”, no “strife” no ,
“deceit” no “malice”, no.
“gossip or slander”,no
“hatred of God” no ,
“insolence, arrogance or
boastfulness”, no delight in
creating ways of doing evil.”
How different the world
would be if there was “greater
understanding”, complete
“fidelity”, “universal love and
mercy?”
These are the conditions in
which “Righteousness” and
its perfect partner “Peace”
will kiss each other. Without
them them will always remain
apart.
There has only ever been one
perfect human in whose life
Righteousness and Peace
have kissed and that is of
course Jesus. This was
evidenced throughout his
earthly ministry, but most
particularly on the Cross,
when the righteous anger of
God was satisfied and Peace
with God realised and
harmonised.
So do you feel discouraged
by the news today and want
Peace? Let us pray first for
universal righteousness and
then and only then the kiss
for which we have long
waited between
Righteousness and Peace will
come.
Amen.