|
Getting to Heaven Somehow
 Religion is in us, surrounds us like our weapon, or shakes us beauty as it is beyond everything. It is not praying the right words, singing the right songs, reading the Bible daily or the Kora. What about a walk through God’s nature? What better joy or way to remember the creation? Isn’t that similar to knowing God, saluting God, loving God and sharing him with maybe someone not so confident about faith and the heavens? And what may or may not happen to us when our bodies and souls close up down here on earth? None of us can escape death, even those who wrap themselves in some sort of frozen tube thinking they will come back alive in a few decades.
We all have a chance on earth and when the end time comes in our itinerary, we are promised by faith, in faith and with faith that we will see God. We will be in the heavens somehow or other and there God will adjust what and where we can step into the heavens, and maybe, I pray, some of us might be angels to hover the earth or universe and take care of humans and animals so they know love, the love of the one God. Our souls will be saved and shared. Our bodies (probably better for a bunch of us with physical problems) will no longer be our burden. I surmise there are Christians, Jews, Islam, and of course Buddhist, Hinduism, Bahai Faith and a handful of others as well as those who don’t believe in anything. The Mormons do a lot of walking around on earth, and the Macumba (witchcraft) and things like that do exist to scare and draw in the faithless, using extreme mumbo-jumbo to scare people into believing in things really not worth believing. There are branches of these and inventions that really spin off not believing in anything about any God. And these break my heart. We need to have a purpose and a chance to be in a heavenly kingdom where love and joy abound. And we should have a good taste of that while we are still upright human beings on earth.
I often think how amazing are the Jews. How could there be any doubt that they would be first in line entering heaven? They are extremely holy, have suffered more than any other faith, they follow the rules, they observe a rest day and they enjoy the beauty of shalom. I’ve been searching through all kinds of history books to find out who birthed the Jews. There is no proof of who really birthed mankind and how many seasons that took back into the first shout out on this scorching earth. Human ancestors, called Homo Sapiens, were birthed 195,000 BCE in the marvelous mountains of Africa, actually right in Olduvai Gorge, in what is now Tanzania, not too far where I conceived my first child in the Ngorongoro area.
To be honest, it seems to me, we of true faith have come from Abraham - whether the Islamic side or the Jewish side. As far as I know, there was no other type squeezed in until the Jewish family of Mary and Joseph, with the help of God’s angel, conceived the Son of God 2020 years ago in Jerusalem. And that was the birth of Christianity. All the faiths depend on documents handed down over centuries to hold them together. We have Christianity’s Bible - the Old and New Testament recording the relationship between God and Mankind. Judaism depends on the Tanakh and the Talmud. Islam treasures the sayings of Muhammad in the Quran and the Hadiths. And, of course, the Buddhist and Hindus also have holy documents that keep them alert to the reality of their faith.
Probably the faith which has struggled the most has been the Jewish faith. It breaks one’s heart to know their suffering, all the persecution thrown on them, the disrespect even today as they fight for a place in the very territory where their history happened. It is horrific how they have been treated by supposedly decent human beings, who hang on the Christian faith, but abuse these very special original men and women who were at the beginning of even our faith. And yet the Jews practically won WW II for us. The Ritchie boys were Jews who fled from Germany to the United States, signed up for a special project with our military, and in many ways, defeated Hitler for us through a military intelligence undercover project and are the real heroes of that war. Also the Ashkenazi jews. 75 per cent of the Jewish population were persecuted in France and the Rhineland. Sephardic Jews of Iberia and North Africa were persecuted under Visigoth rule. And the Jews survive from Russia to the Igbo Jews in Nigeria, to Zionists to Jews of the Ukraine to the Iberian peninsula. Samaritans are treated as Jews though only about 700 left of them. Orthodox Jews are the norm, only their rabbis may become chief Rabbis and have the right to conduct Jewish marriages. The Jews then wrote the Bible, founded early Christianity and had a deep influence on Islam.
The shalom of God - what is it for those who are not of the Jewish faith? Shalom is about keeping peace and embracing each other with a kind of love that costs nothing, but lifts up the whole arm of God so that we are all together without a doubt, no matter what our color, our race, our smile or our tear, as we balance our beings so that there is no race division, no domination of power over someone’s physical appearance. Love is the same in all creatures because love comes from God. Think of dogs. Think of how many different breeds of dogs, and colors, and skills. Some dogs race, some fight, some are trained to guide the blind, or be beside the frightened, or who entertain with funny skills, or, like my Attila, who walks in circles until he gets the right bent and curls up under my legs to sleep the night away. There is such a warmth in that love that a dog has even though he doesn’t know it is love and how needy it is for the owner. All God’s creature are part of the shalom. Alone as I am often, I talk to my dogs, and I’m sure everyone else does too. They just listen, smile, and wonder if there is some food goodie about to be offered to them as we talk with such gentleness and joy that our dogs wonder what the moment is about, as long as it ends up with a goodie. And of course one goodie isn’t sufficient.
When I can walk into a crowd of all sorts of people, all sorts of politics, all sorts of outfits and hair styles and every kind of face possible, since none of us is alike, not even twins, then I am comfortable with the “shalom” moment - there is no hostility, or hatred, or envy, or fear, but pure peace, that peace that passes all understanding, but is present in each of us if we just open the doors of our hearts. It doesn’t mean that those in the peace moment don’t suffer, aren’t having a tough day or life, have just restored from racist attacks or being shot by some loose gang busters or robber or found your spouse in bed with another. It doesn’t mean that things haven’t been awful. But when one can step into the blue sky of “shalom”, which God spread across his kingdom for a kind of peace available to all of us, that can shoot out a love that we all have within us because we are all children of God, and from that we can share in that peace that even wars and thoughts of wars have never been able to crush, because it is what God has given each one of us, no matter our race, our skin, our language, our eyes, our hearts.
So I’m wondering why was there any doubt about Jews entering heaven? They are extremely holy and follow the rules of their faith, and enjoy the beauty of shalom. it will happen - we will win the prize, past the test, take a step into the universe, fly up in a hot air balloon to get closer, like an astronaut. Why has there been any doubt about a jew entering heaven? They are the most faithful of all faiths, along with the Muslims. Why do they have to be enemies? There need to be all sorts of ways we can get into the hands of God when it is our time. We live who we are. We create who we are. We try to do it right, and blend in with our faith and take care of it regularly. But to me, from the beginning, when I studied religion, it seemed to me religion are the Jews. My gosh. No other faith has ever suffered in such a disgusting, horrific manner than the Jews have had to suffer over and over again, although the worst was Hitler’s abuse, which to this day, has had no equal. And they survive. They are beautiful survivors. Sometimes some Jews get violent and fight the wars in the Holy Land. But they are trying to keep their faith on top of the mountain and against that wailing wall where one can go and weep before God, and from my own experience, their markets are the most fun ones I’ve shopped in my entire life. The salesmen, of course quick to get your attention, make you laugh and enjoy all the samples - which become a meal in itself.
Most Jews, likewise the Muslims, really know the reasons, the histories, the order, the problems, the regularities, the biblical history of their faiths. I can’t say Christians agree on much. We have basics, but after that, it gets wild and extreme and can go from deep tradition without a single word being let loose, or to a more contemporary joy that doesn’t always hit the right bell at the right time. What I love about African- American worship, it’s from the heart. It’s joyful. It’s never the same. It can be based on the fancy hats that give women the priority, or the guttural or high scream of a joyful person who really feels God is present in their room or better, in their souls. It’s ironic that the bulk of Anglicans today live on the continent of Africa. That is the result of what happened way back in the days when probably frightened and simple monks or priests sailed down the waters surrounding Africa to risk their lives - lives they had no idea what was available in the different undiscovered, unknown African nations - and yet they had faith. Be they Catholics or Anglicans, they were trying to open doors to their souls, when really the Africans, no matter what nation, were already walking with a God that guided their lives. Somehow, I believe, they all came together through thick or thin, in spite of abuse and slavery and powers that didn’t work. But God was there and left His mark so that all mankind has met Him and His love and hope.
~ Rev
---------------------------------
audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
|
