Through Stained Glass: Advent Word of the Day-Keeper

Day 3:  keeper

“Am I my sister’s/brother’s keeper?” [Genesis 4.9]

To answer it directly,

yes.

This text comes right after creation, the moment when out of selfless love, God created. That is the truth I continue to come back to:  however the ball of creation got rolling, when there was nothing—there became something.

I find comfort in that something, despite the mystery surrounding it, being God.

We are meant for each other. Together, as a collective community of creatures, we make up the beautiful quilt of God’s imaginative love—humanity.

How are we to keep each other?

At the risk of sounding too simplistic, I can’t help but say—turn to Scripture.

The Bible in its entirety speaks about God and God’s concern for the creation and all creatures, including human creatures; it speaks of God’s involvement with the creation for the benefit and the healing of it. The premise of all Scripture is that without this involvement on God’s part, creation would perish in an abyss of violence.

God asks Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” in the same way God asked the humans in Genesis 3.9. God is asking more than about location. Cain’s flippant answer offends against the Torah’s ethic of responsibility for one’s kinsman and neighbor.

Advent is the season where God extends the promise of healing in the person of Jesus Christ. As Christians we enter into Advent as a people of God, studying the stories of Torah because we have come to believe in the same God who called ancient Israel, who still calls our Jewish neighbors, who also calls gentiles into relationship with this God for the healing of creation. We trust and believe, hope and know, that in life and in death we are kept by God.

So friends, during this season of hope and expectation, what is God asking you? We wait and we listen…but with God, it is never a passive activity.

I leave you with a paraphrase from one of my favorite scholars, Thomas Merton. I think it speaks perfectly to today’s word:

“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.” 

God keeps you close to God’s heart. May we do so with those we share life with. After all, there is but one Love. And yes, that is what keeps us as brothers and sisters.