You better not shop around

Members of our church were studying the Hebrew word shalom one night when someone asked: “Where are the places in our community that seemed to be governed by fear, division, doubt and death?”

“That’s easy,” said another member. “It’s happening in my neighborhood. We’re afraid of the people who are moving here. I tried to get some of my old neighbors to make bread for a new neighbor, and they all refused. There was a day when we made bread for every new neighbor.”

A long and important silence followed because we realized that our members had been among the first to move out of that neighborhood.