We Are All One

I’m not holier than thou.
I’m not on the straight and narrow path.
Yet God’s point was we must all be one and how hard, excruciating hard, that would be. Do we want to be like anyone else? Someone rich or poor, TV star or comedian, magnate of millions or prisoner, cartel peon or jefe, beautiful or not so striking, serious, or full of laughter, fat or thin, positive or negative, cautious or daring, full of faith or hanging on the edges about to lose one’s grip to fall in the pits below.

Oh, I envy lots of hers or hims, but why over there like a god, why not here in my heart - soul. I am equal to them because I have the same amount of God in me that anyone else. There is no half-filled glass with God. That is all, period. In fact, there is no “none” because whomever we are or whatever one’s appearance, birth situation, thoughts, faith, sin or no sin we are all equal in, with and for God. He doesn’t love one of us more than another - even though some might be funnier, tougher, or a quarterback that wins all his games, a super car salesman who doesn’t hoard money for self but turns profit into charity to help and save others in contrast to a car high-jacker or a murderer. God doesn’t love the fireman more than the policeman, the criminal more than the priest. 

Sadly, we found out too many “Holy” ones who had snuck into the secret field of abuser making them worse than criminals for abusing kids - how does God deal with that? He does it His way - maybe not my way or your way because God is so huge of heart that his arms surround us all and pick us up out of the mire of sin and violence and evil somewhere along the way when the doer wakes up and admits his sin.

It is interesting that in Exodus the story says God banished Adam from the Garden of Eden so he would not be able to reach out and take some fruit from the tree of life and eat and live forever. That’s a detail we often overlook. Therefore, God banished Adam from the Garden to work the ground. To prevent him from re-entering the Garden, he placed a cherub and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. 

On the outside, Eve was able to give birth first to Cain and then to Abel. Abel kept flocks. Cain worked the soil like his father had to do. Cain offered the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. Abel also brought an offering - fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.  We are told that the Lord “looked with favor” on Abel’s offering, but not that of Cain. Somewhere in there Cain did not do what was right. The details are sort of hidden, so it seems a bit tough for Cain. And so, Cain was very angry and invited his brother to go out to the field, where he killed Abel. That’s when evil began to grow because Lamech, the last in Cain’s line, commits murder to be avenged 11 times more than his ancestor Cain.  It became a family trait. 

Abel had offered the best part of his animals from the firstborn while Cain offers “some of the fruits of the soil” with no reference to their quality. and then Cain played innocent, that he didn’t know where Abel was when Adam searched for him. Of course, God was furious and put a curse on Cain so that when he labored in the ground, it would not yield crops no matter how hard he worked. Out of that, Cain became a restless wanderer on the earth.  Of course, he was devastated. So, God added that anyone who killed Cain would suffer vengeance seven times over. And God put a mark on him so no one would kill him when God exiled him out to the land of Nod, east of Eden. Then Cain’s family began to grow and multiply. Meanwhile Adam was not left alone, and Eve gave birth to Seth, and Seth had a son named Enosh. and that is when people began to call on the name of the Lord because Seth’s heirs pleased the Lord. 

And we wonder why families have so much trouble today. There were two descendants of Adam and Eve, Cain and Seth, one negative, one positive, one associated with violence which links to the reason for the flood. The other leads to Noah who survived the flood. And Adam lived 930 years, Seth lived 807 years, Enosh lived 905 years. I doubt that those years passed rapidly. 

Eventually, God saw how wicked the human race had become on earth, and man’s thoughts were evil all the time. He was distressed that he had made human beings so that’s when he decided to wipe the slate clean of humans and animals and birds and creatures. He said sadly, “I regret that I have made them.”  But Noah, favored by God, came to our rescue. His three sons were straight and righteous. and walked faithfully with God. And God dictated to him how to build the Ark and how to collect and settle the pairs of animals and people in it before the rains came. We know this story so well.

What scares me is that this earth has become so evil and corrupt and political that faith is squeezed under the door. Men make themselves gods and think they can take over the world - from a recent US president to evil ones in Brazil, Argentina, Haiti, Russia, China, all over the world. Greed and power. Greed and power. And racism has raised its nasty head far too high.           

Another example is the favored, beloved son of patriarch Jacob sold into slavery by his older, smarter brothers to get him out of the way. I love this story. God intervenes in so many wonderful ways. Joseph was sold into slavery and though he started out in prison, he ended up as a slave and then a servant to Pharaoh Potiphar, who had tossed him into prison, but then Joseph began to interpreted dreams for the Pharaoh and became his right-hand man, so to speak, and prospered.  Then when selling grain to his brothers, they not knowing who he was, he arranged for his father and brothers to be brought to Egypt, not knowing Joseph was master minding it, and had prospered in his life in Egypt. It was a redemption story and Joseph loved his family and took care of them.

Truly, those who are humble in victory probably make God smile and not give up. We see in soccer players, and stars of football, baseball, tennis, ice hockey - kissing their jerseys, raising a finger to the sky to thank God for the goal, their victory. How often or do we remember to thank the God in us who helped us bring victory to make happy millions of fans in a stadium - give them a moment of joy, relief, hope, reason to cheer? It is God in us who diverts us from greed, tragedy, a red light, a close call, a surprise, a scam at the door.

God and his teams of angels see it all and acknowledge it all in us. We are Him; you know. We are of Him by Him and with Him whatever we do, wherever we are and how ever we behave. So, we need to recycle our evil and toss it in the tank of fire. We need to think of others and encourage them somehow - even if it is giving our last dollar bill to the poor guy on the street claiming to be a veteran, where he probably will just take it to get a bottle of whiskey or a terrifying drug to keep him out of his destructive mind. When there are screams in one’s heart and soul - when life is beyond do-able - God can manages to calm him down, give him courage and hope to keep on keeping on even in the toughest of lifestyles, homeless, hungry, addicted, because still every human being is the child of God. We are all one in Him. Alleluia. 

 ~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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