This morning, Gentle Reader, I am addressing ‘God’s Two Questions’ to ‘The People of the Book’ [Jews, Christians, Muslims]; others might resonate with these questions as well (actually, given all that is unfolding in our global community I wonder how many ‘People of the Book’ find them to be crucial questions to hold and live into).
There are four ‘C’ Words that are the tap roots that are to help nurture, sustain and guide us: Consciousness, Conscience, Character & Conduct. The first three determine the fourth. This morning my desire is to Challenge us to reflect upon the first three so that we might choose to conduct ourselves differently when it comes to the stranger, the other, the outsider, the immigrant, the refugee.
As People of the Book we might recall that after Adam chose to be like God that he became conscious (awake and aware and disturbed) and he hid. God’s first question to him was:
‘Adam, where are you?’
The Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us that today God continues to search for us – Too often we believe that it is God who is ‘hiding from us’ when it is ‘We, The People of the Book’ who are hiding from God.
To put it mildly, Adam had lost his way; he was no longer ‘centered.’ Simply stated: Adam wanted to control everything. God had entrusted Adam (think: We human beings) with being steward (care-taker); Adam, adulterated his charge and re-interpreted his role as ‘controller of all’ not as care-taker (We, ‘The People of the Book’ continue to seek more often than not to control rather than care for). The balance and harmony continues to be lost (to be sure, an understatement for what followed).
One ‘loss of balance and harmony’ involved/involves the loss of harmony and balance in relationships – especially in relationships with the ‘other.’ This loss of harmony and balance continues to exist today.
‘The Other’ is not my brother and sister; people to be loved and cared for. ‘The Other’ is now experienced-viewed as the ‘disturber.’ My comfortable life is disturbed by ‘The Other.’ At minimum, ‘The Other’ is viewed and judged to be a ‘threat’ and at maximum ‘The Other’ is dehumanized and guilt-free harmed.
This reframing of ‘The Other’ leads us to God’s second question:
‘Cain, where is your brother?’
One consequence of our ‘grand illusion’ of being all power-full – of being as great as God (to becoming God) – is that we can ‘guilt-free’ ignore or even overtly harm ‘The Other.’ We can even spill our brother and sister’s blood – and do so in the name of God. [AN ASIDE: Last week I heard a ‘Good Christian’ woman tell a reporter that her brothers and sisters were Christians that were members of her church (literally, her local congregation). She upped the ante when she said that the immigrants knocking on our country’s door were not fully human and certainly were not Christian – once in a while the ‘Good People of the Book’ actually reveal their ‘Satan-Side’ to us.]
‘Where is your brother?’
As it was with Abel’s blood, our brother and sister’s blood cries out to God – the volume of their plaintive voice continues to rise each day. God hears. We, ‘The People of the Book’ choose not to hear.
If WE, ‘The People of the Book’ did choose to hear and respond as God would then the plight of ‘The Other’ would be greatly eased (because we are imperfect beings the plight of ‘The Other’ will not cease to exist). Our ‘Conduct’ judges ‘We, The People of the Book.’
This is not a question addressed to others. This is God’s second question addressed to, first and foremost, ‘The People of the Book.’
‘Where is YOUR brother?’
Searcher-Seeker 