Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: D'everybody doing this morning?
Good. Good to see you guys.
I'm going to talk about something that may seem a little weird at first, okay? We'll see how it goes. But let me ask you this question starts out here. Have you ever worn the wrong outfit to the wrong event?
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:00:38] Speaker A: Let me give you an example.
You get all dressed up for this costume party.
You drive to the event, they open the door, and nobody's dressed up but you.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:00:54] Speaker A: That's a little awkward. Right?
Here's another situation that happens quite a bit in Messianic Synagogues.
You show up for your first Yom Kippur wearing a bright red shirt.
No one has told you that it's traditional to wear white on Yom Kippur.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:01:15] Speaker A: That happens quite a bit. So if you didn't know, now, you know, maybe that won't happen to you. It's happened to all of us.
What about have you ever run out the door without realizing what you're wearing?
No. Yes. So, yeah, exactly. Two shoes. So I had this photo on my Facebook page from like, I don't know, 15 years ago or so, where maybe longer than that. But I took a picture of my shoes at work at a brown shoe and a black shoe. And I was in a hurry, evidently, and I was leaving the house early in the dark, and I did not really turn lights on and stuff, so I didn't really get a good look at my shoes, and so I ran off without the right matching pair.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:02:03] Speaker A: But even worse, and this may not be a big thing for other people, it's mortifying to me, but one day, this was three years ago or so, I showed up at my new job. I'd just been working there probably a few months. I was so frazzled and trying to get there and trying to make sure everything got done, learning my new job and all that kind of stuff.
It was wintertime, and I'd gone out, and before I completely got dressed, I just had my pants and my T shirt on and of course my shoes. And then I put a jacket on real quick, ran out, started my car to heat up, and then came back inside, finished up, did whatever I needed to do, and then jumped back in the car and took off in my T shirt. And not a shirt shirt, just my undershirt.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:02:54] Speaker A: But I had my jacket on, so I didn't notice it. So I got to work, and I was like, there working in my jacket for about an hour or so before I realized that I got hot and took off my jacket. I was like, I don't have a shirt shirt on.
So I was in my undershirt, but at least I wasn't in my underpants, right?
We have dreams about those things. We have nightmares about those things, right? About having going out in public and you're wearing your underclothes or maybe nothing At All. Maybe your birthday suit or whatever. Right. We have dreams. We have nightmares about this kind of thing. So clothing is an important thing.
In the summer, we wear certain types of clothes to try to beat the heat. In the winter. We wear other types of clothes to try to keep warm. When we go to work, we wear one type of clothing. When we hang out with our at home or with friends, we wear another type of clothing. And hopefully when we come to the synagogue, we wear another type of clothing. We change our clothes based on context and necessity. And whether we realize it or not or not. Most of us spend a lot of time focused on our outward appearance, particularly what we are wearing. We all want to look our best, and to some degree, we want to fit into the crowd that we have identified with.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: As children grow and grow into their teen years, they are trying to develop their own style. Right. They're trying to figure out what looks good, what looks good for them, what they like, what they don't like. And sometimes we can have hit this. Blake sometimes they have some awkward moments, and some of them just stay in those awkward moments. And here's some of them of trying to find out who they are. To next one.
And you guys may think, well, that's just cool. That's the thing.
We all try to find our style. We try to find what looks good on and who we are to the world and how to express that to the world. We all get dressed every single day.
Do you get dressed every day, Cody, or do you just work in your you don't have to answer that, okay?
It's Routine. And for some of us, it's easier than others. I mean, for me personally, I would just rather just wear one thing all the time.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: But for some, it's the most difficult decision of the day. And if you're married, I'm sure you've heard it at least once or twice. Guys. Your wife says, how does this look? Or does this work look good on me? Or does this kind of stuff Why do we feel these ways? Because what we wear says something about us.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: It reflects our personality. It tells others what we like, what we value, and it can even tell people what mood we're in. Right. If you're wearing something maybe dark or whatever all the time or if you're wearing something bright colors or whatever.
Some people really enjoy wearing new outfits, getting new outfits, trying to make new outfits out of what they have and make matches and all that kind of stuff.
And so outfits and clothing and all that kind of stuff. They say a lot about us.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:06:19] Speaker A: And this is going to be pretty obvious, but I'm going to show you an example. So I'm Going To Put Up Some pictures, and you guys tell me what these guys do based on what they're wearing. Hit that first one. What's this guy doing? Fireman. Got his uniform, right? Next.
Football. Plays football, right? He's got his uniform on. He's got his outfit on for football. Next.
Police officer.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: He is prepared to do his duty. Next.
This guy doesn't know what he's doing. No, I'm joking.
Paul Cave knows this one, right?
This is what he would say, the real football, right?
[00:07:03] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:03] Speaker A: This is soccer. Next.
Okay, that's it.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: But you guys could tell when you looked at these pictures, you immediately knew what purpose they had, right? From their job to their sport or whatever. You knew what they had. And so what we wear tells people a lot about us. Here's a quote from SV Freeman from Chabad. He says, Your clothes become you, and you, too, become them much the same way that you identify with a character in a story and thereby live that story vicariously. So you identify with your clothes. Dress as an officer of the law, you become the law. Dress as a clown, and you begin to feel and act silly. Dress in a business suit, your demeanor becomes orderly and formal. Dress in track pants and a T shirt, and you begin to chill. The bottom line is, whatever we wear affects us and how we interact with the world around us.
So if you were paying attention, you also realize that the garments played an important role in last week's Torah portion. Anybody remember this? Last week's Torah portion was vayishev. First we learn about Jacob making a special garment for Joseph. What was that?
It was his coat.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Right?
[00:08:39] Speaker A: And it invokes envy among his brothers. So we have this initial garment. Next.
Joseph's brothers use this garment to deceive his father into thinking Joseph's dead, right? They tear it. They put goat's blood on it and all that kind of stuff. And they don't actually say the words. They put it up to the father, and something happened.
And his father's like, oh, he was killed. He's like, you said it, not me.
And then we have this really bizarre incident with Judah and Tamar, right? And Judah. And Tamar. I'm not going to go into the whole story. There really seemingly strange, especially to us in the west, how does she end up proving that Judah is the father of her children?
Stignet, ring, staff and cloak. There we go. Okay, so another garment involved with identity.
And then we have last Joseph in this week's parshah potiphar's. Wife tries to seduce him, right? And he's like, I don't got time for that. And he know. He's basically saying, I want to honor God. I don't want to dishonor my master or God. And you're married. And so he takes off, and what does she do? She grabs a hold of his garment and holds onto it. He runs off without it, and she uses this as quote quote proof, sort of like Hamas uses right, proof to say that he tried to force himself on her, and he, because of that, is thrown into prison.
But the last thing in this portion is that when Joseph is finally redeemed and brought out of prison, what is he given? He's given new clothes by the pharaoh. He has a new name even given to him because of this. Okay, so each of these incidents involves a garment that has a significant impact on the storyline. You might be thinking, well, where are you going with this, Darren? Are you about to introduce us to a new dress code at Shalom Macon? Well, the truth no, I'm joking.
No, you don't have to run out screaming. Hang with me.
So in the apostolic scriptures, Yeshua told a parable, I'm sure you guys are familiar with it, but I'm going to read the whole parable so we can get the context.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: And we can get the details that we may lack from a synopsis.
And this parable emphasizes how a person is dressed and the consequences thereof. You guys may be figuring out where I'm going. Matthew 22 and again, yeshua spoke to them in parables saying the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son and sent servants to call those who are invited to the wedding feast. But they wouldn't come.
Again he sent other servants saying, those who are invited tell those who are invited, see, I've prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast. But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
The king was angry. I would be too. And he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burnt their city. Now, that's a little extreme. Then he said to his servants, the wedding feast is ready, but those invited are not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find. And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. Here's the weird part about this. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. Now, I haven't done any research into this to know exactly what that was, but evidently it was a certain specific type of garment that you were supposed to wear at an event like this. And he said to them, he said to him, friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?
And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, bind him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are cold, but few are frozen. I'm sorry. That's for here not this many are called, but fewer chosen. That was Matthew 22, one through 14. That's for you ladies and get cold in here.
So my question is what garments?
What were the garments? This man was supposed to be wedding wearing freudian slip there spoonerism. Okay, so he was supposed to be wearing wedding garments. What are those? It's a good question. Let's hold on to that thought and lay some groundwork. This is really the concept that I want to introduce about this whole thing. So so far we've just been talking about physical garments. Just sort of the very surface level of things.
Clothes that we put on and take off day after day. So we have these clothes we take on, take off every day. We wash them, we launder them, so forth. But let's get into something more spiritual. What about spiritual garments?
What is that? Have you ever thought about these in Jewish thought? Especially when we get into the more mystical aspects of Judaism there are spiritual garments that we put on every single day.
We understand them from a physical perspective but most of us aren't fully aware of their influence on how we interact with the world around us.
What are these?
These are called the garments of the soul. That's what I want to introduce you today.
This is a very rudimentary introduction to this concept and hopefully I won't do it disservice. But this has really been on my heart the last several weeks. Been studying different things on this and it's not really even intentional. It's just things that God has put in my path. And so I thought this is something I need to share with the congregation.
So these garments of the soul, what are they? There are three garments by the way. I entitled this teaching this sermon soul threads. If you're from my generation, threads means garments, clothes, but you may not be from my generation. I'm going, what in the world's the connection there? So anyway, soul threads, garments of the soul. So the three garments that we have as human beings that are these soul garments, the garments of the soul are thought, speech and deeds or actions.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:16:04] Speaker A: And when you first hear this you might be thinking, well, how are these garments? Because they're simply who I am.
I mean, garments you take on and you put on and you take off. What about these things? Thought? I mean, we're always thinking speech. How does this even relate? Well, the problem is that most of us think of ourselves as the person we see staring back at us in the mirror when we look into it.
But really that's not who we are.
That's this outer sort of shell and representative of who we are. Have you ever seen the movie Avatar? Not the last airbender, but the avatar, the blue men. Not the Blue Men Band either, but the Blue Men. Anyway, every time I think of these concepts and things like this and actually the first time I saw the movie, when it came out, I thought immediately, judaism, we have this connection there. But anyway, it's similar to that.
I'm not saying this Middle Eastern hocus pocus, whatever of these avatars, but in a symbolic sense, we here on this Earth are in this fleshly earth suit, you might say.
But our true nature is our soul. And they're not inseparable. They're only inseparable at the time of death and before birth. But this is sort of a way we can sort of conceptualize it when we look in the mirror. When I look at myself in the mirror, I see this guy, this handsome looking guy. I mean, this short guy with brown hair, brown eyes, salt and pepper beard, et cetera. But is this really who I am?
Or is it simply how I interface with the physical world?
You see, unless we're highly spiritually aware and attuned, we forget that our true identity is composed, is not comprised of these complex carbon chains or molecules or whatever. But our true identity, like I said, is found hidden away in this elusive part. We can't touch it, we can't feel it, we can't see it, we can't put it under a microscope, whatever, something in us called a soul.
And in a large percentage of Christianity, the soul is simply something that needs saving so it doesn't go to hell.
But within Judaism and Jewish thought, however, the soul is our very identity and our connection to God.
While in this physical world, especially in Judaism, there are actually five parts of the soul, and we were talking about this a few weeks back, the Nephesh, the Ruach, the Nishama, the chaya, and the Yehida.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:18:54] Speaker A: But that's a deep dive that we don't have time to go into. So we're going to just continue just saying the soul, okay?
The point is, most of us live the majority of our existence trying to figure out how to connect with our souls. And that's why we attend synagogue, that's why we study, that's why we pray and all that kind of stuff.
But really that's sort of reverse of what we need to be doing. Rather than trying to connect and find our souls, we need to allow our souls to drive our physical existence.
So if we can figure out how to flip this around, then our connection to God can be really powerful. Let's talk about soul threads and how they are important. Okay, so these garments, what are they again? Can anybody name them? The three.
Number one, thought. Number two, speech. And number three, deed. Right. Or action. Okay, these are you can also look at them like the tools of our soul. They're what our soul uses to interface with the world around us. Just like our clothing, it helps us to interact and be a part of our society and do different things and be different things. These tools function similarly with our soul. These three actions pretty much encompass our lives and affect everything connected to us. Okay, but why are they called garments? Once again, going back to this question, why are they called garments? That's sort of a hard concept to grasp.
They're called garments because each of them can be taken off and put back on at any time. Well, you're thinking already. You're thinking. Well, thoughts. How can you take that off and put that back on?
I can see some of the others. Well, we'll get there in just a second, so let's give a clarification. So, deeds. How can this be stopped or started or changed or whatever? So here's an example. We can be driving toward our home and simply stop and go in a different direction.
[00:21:02] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:21:03] Speaker A: That's a deed. We can change our deed. Our deed can be doing one thing, and then we can immediately change it to something else. We can be in the middle of eating breakfast and jump up and head to work.
We've traded one action for another.
What about speech? Well, we can be talking about one thing and then immediately change the subject. If you ever talked to Wesley Jones, you know that's a fact. Love you, Wes. Although much harder for many of us, we can also keep silent when tempted to talk or to speak.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:21:35] Speaker A: That's how we can change. We can put on and put off. Now, thought, if you've ever struggled with Add, then you know, thoughts can change, often at the drop of a hat.
Squirrel. Right?
But the question many of you may be thinking is, do we really have the power over our thoughts?
Aren't our thoughts simply just baked into our core? Well, let me see if I can convince you. Okay, elvis.
Why are you all you guys thinking about Elvis and how it relates?
I mean, I just said something about Elvis. Good grief. Okay, so that was a setup. I got you. But now you're sitting here with your brain in a middle train wreck, trying to figure out how in the world Elvis is involved with what I'm talking about. The answer truly is nothing. He doesn't have anything to do with this. But just to show you that our brains can get derailed and they can jump track from one thing to another, especially if there's some kind of suggestion.
Some of our thoughts are changed by external forces, but the power is when we're able to do as Paul told the congregation at Corinth. He said, take every thought into captivity. Right.
And so is this easy?
How many thinks it's easy? I don't.
It is extremely hard, because when we're working on as men, we're working on Musar. There's a big Musar group on the Shalom home group. And Musar is about transforming our actions. Right, but it really goes deeper than that, but really we're seeing that. And so each of these levels, thought speech indeed, we think about in terms of how we can have self control in a sense. Okay, like the first step, let's just take, say, a smoker. The first step is to stop smoking. That's controlling the deed.
The next step is don't ask for a cigarette, that's sort of speech. The next one is stop thinking about cigarettes. That's the hardest part, right? And there are other things in your life that you can apply equally. I just happen to think of that real quick, randomly. But it's sort of an outward working in type thing where these things are progressively difficult, especially when we get to the thought action.
This concept that we talked about, taking every thought captive is from two Corinthians, chapter ten where Paul says for though we walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Messiah, being ready to punish every disobedient when your obedience is complete.
So now that we know what these three garments are and we actually have the ability to change them, let's talk about how they are connected to our soul.
Well, first, these gifts we've been given, they've been given to us by the Creator. These garments are our soul were intended not to be used to bring attention to ourselves, but to bring Godliness into the world. And we can only do this really through Torah and mitzvot. Some examples are deed giving tzadaka, which is charity, or eating matzah on pesach.
Those are connected to deed praying, praying Shakrit, Michael, whatever or making a baraka, making a blessing for your food that's related to speech or encouraging someone or whatever, holding your tongue when we need to lashant hara against lashan hara.
Studying Torah or giving someone the benefit of the doubt is thought. We studying Torah, we are absorbing the word of God, putting it into our mind, putting it into our heart, changing the way we think. Right, but what about love?
Didn't Yeshua say love was the greatest commandment? He said, love the Lord your God with all your heart. And then he said, love your neighbor as yourself. Where does that come into play?
Isn't love more important than all this?
Well, the problem is that love, it really doesn't mean anything till it's expressed.
It really doesn't. You can feel love for someone or something all day long, but until it's given to the recipient in some tangible manner, it has no consequence. It only is hidden within you.
And if we truly love someone, our actions in thought, speech and deed should reflect it. If we feel love for someone but yet our actions say otherwise, our speech says otherwise. We have these negative thoughts and driving us to do these things that our love is simply a selfish compulsion rather than what we would call true love.
Pardon me. So let's go back to what I mentioned at the beginning. Sometimes we wear the wrong garments to the events that we attend.
So think about this when we think negative or lustful thoughts or something of that nature that is wearing the wrong garments.
When we spend an inordinate time amount of time thinking about ourselves and what will gratify our flesh, that is, putting the wrong garment on. When we use harsh words, when we should be using kind words, words that uplift encourage, words that speak truth, that speak life, that are the word of God, et cetera. This is our speech, the garment of speech. Clothing ourselves with the garment of speech or putting on the wrong garment when we talk to fill the uncomfortable silence rather than to communicate something meaningful. This is wearing the wrong garment.
When we do things we know we shouldn't be doing, we call that sin, right?
Or we're busy simply to be busy.
Or we avoid acting simply because of fear. These are all wearing the wrong garments.
And here's the important rule that I want you to remember.
Garments should not be based or chosen based on how we feel, okay? That's how we usually wear stuff. It's based on how we're feeling at that particular moment. We may wear one set of clothes one day and next week or whatever when we pull that same outfit out or whatever, we're like, I'm just not in the mood for that, right? It's the same thing with a lot of spiritual stuff, too. I'm not in the mood for that. I don't feel like that.
So garments shouldn't be chosen based on how we feel. They should be chosen based on the goal of our task. And the problem is, most of us have forgotten our task.
In the Torah, we have a dress code for the kohanim. The Kohenim or the priests.
So in order to serve in the Holy Temple, they have to wear specific garments, right? I mean, they can't go in there wearing their pajamas like they're going into Walmart.
They can't go in wearing blue jeans or whatever, right? They have to go in they have to show up wearing their white linen garments, nothing else, right? They don't go in there wearing their bling.
They have to go in wearing their uniform for service.
This is what Hashem requires of them. This is why they have to do that. But the question is, what does he require of us? What garments does he want us to wear? And I'm not talking right now about physical garments. I'm talking about spiritual garments.
Most people engage in spiritual matters only when they feel some sort of excitement about them.
For example, Passover, Sukkot and Hanukah are normally the most well attended events in a Messianic synagogue okay? Now, why? Because there are a lot of food and a lot of fun, but most holidays like this are attended. Well, but you say this is a workday or this is Yom Kippur or whatever, and the tenants just goes. Now, fortunately, we're blessed that our synagogue is not that way. I mean, we struggle with some work days, but like Yom Kippur, we have a really good attendance. And it's amazing, to use Rabbi Damien's phrase, most people are content to be bystanders rather than builders. That's our whole theme for probably this whole year. This coming year is that we are content to be bystanders instead of builders. But at Shalom Macon, we're working to change the culture of our community where everyone is a participant. We're blessed to have an amazing turnout at these times. At Shalom Macon, we have some amazing people that are spiritually hungry. We have a lot of online folks that are joining us online for events as well. And we have a lot of people that are willing to roll up their sleeves when necessary. And a lot of you guys have stepped up to the plate recently, and we're so thankful. But still, the 80 20 rule still hasn't quite been broken. So I want to encourage you guys, especially our locals, to step up to the plate and find out what you can do to help rather than simply enjoy the work of others.
Now, let me go back to this main topic here. Earlier, I read the parable that Yeshua told of the wedding feast, right? Remember that? The guy was thrown out because he didn't have his wedding garments on.
This may sound harsh, but I think what Yeshua was trying to communicate is that we have to take our responsibilities as disciples seriously.
If God says, this is what I expect of you, then we have to say, okay. And we can't do we can't be we can't be put on these garments based on how we feel.
These garments of the soul I've been talking about allow our soul to come alive in this world.
Our most worn garments should be meditating on the word. This is thought prayer. This is speech. And doing the mitzvah, the commandments. This is our actions. And these things reveal our soul and help us to connect with it rather than filling our heads, our mouth, and our time with entertainment or simply making money or satisfying the flesh we're put on this planet for something other than to be entertained or simply make money.
One of the primary purposes we've been put here, not just me, every single one of you, not just Rabbi Damon Damien, every single one of you. And you guys watching online, the primary reason you were put on this earth was to serve Him and to do his will. And one of those primary purposes is to reconnect people to Him, help people reconnect with God.
So here's an example. What if. Someone come, and this is purely hypothetical, okay? What if someone comes to visit the synagogue and they see us dress like we don't care physically, right? They hear us speaking, lashan, hara. This is slander, gossip, so forth. And they notice that we really aren't interested or paying attention to anything that's going on in the service.
Fortunately, we don't have that problem. But let's say we did. Would our guests come back? No.
Why?
Bad representation.
Right. Bad representation. But now let's relocate the same scenario to our work. In our home are the garments. Now, I'm talking about spiritual garments. Are the garments that we wear to our work, our job situation, even to our home?
Are these soul garments our thought speech, indeed, connecting people to God or pushing them away?
So every single day we dress our souls, so to speak. We decide what we're going to put on. We choose what we're going to fill our minds with, what we're going to communicate and what we are going to do. The mistake that we made as humans is to think these garments have something to do with us, how we clothe ourselves.
And let me rephrase this. We make the mistake of thinking that these garments are for the sole purpose of feeding our flesh. I think that's a better way to say it, right? So we do what we think about, what we speak about, what we do.
Too many times we use them just to feed our flesh instead of our soul. We put on whatever thought, speech or deed that makes us look good or feel good from a fleshly perspective. But these garments, the garments of the soul, they are the tools our soul is supposed to use to serve God in this world.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:36:10] Speaker A: So if we want to become the person God has put us in this world to be, then we have to do something. And so I want this phrase to stay with you. Everybody repeat it after me. Change your clothes may seem sort of weird, but maybe you'll remember it that way, okay? So when you are in a rut, when you're going down a path or maybe your spouse or you don't want to say, it too bad with them, but anyway, help one another, say, change your clothes. Now, this is not a condemnation. It's a reminder that we need to change our clothes. Sometimes we have the wrong clothes on, and it's just a fact. We all do it. We've all been there, okay?
They have to be changed in order to reflect our true nature rather than the persona we've created. We have to develop new ways of thinking, new ways of speaking, and new ways of acting that reflect our true nature, the person that God has created and our true purpose in the world. This is why we're continually teaching and creating classes at Shalom Macon. We're creating opportunities to reconnect your soul to you. And so that you can dress appropriately to reflect the one who made you. In order to benefit from these opportunities, you have to participate.
You have to put on the right clothes and show up right. Will this be easy? No. You'll have to rearrange your schedule and probably your priorities as well. You may even have to wash your hair another night. At least that's what the answer for all the dates that I asked in high school. But as Per Kevote says, according to the effort is the reward. If changing your garments is difficult for you, then the enjoyment then the reward is going to be that much greater.
Because when we strive to make changes in our life that increase our connection to God, we will have a greater reward than someone to whom it comes naturally. And it begins once again by what?
Changing our clothes. Shabbat. Shalom.
[00:38:21] Speaker C: Thank you for connecting with Shalom Macon. If your connection here has been meaningful and Shalom Macon has enriched your life, please consider a generous yearend gift to help us accomplish greater things in the year ahead. Visit. Shalommaken.org give to contribute. And thank you for being a builder, not a bystander.
