Brothers Keeper

Introduction:

“We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.” (the song book of The Salvation Army, 352). This is the second doctrine of The Salvation Army, and it tells us a few very important things about what we believe as Officers, Soldiers, and Adherents of The Salvation Army. First, it tells us that there is only one God. Not multiple Gods, only one who is the only proper object of worship. We do not worship other things, or other people. We only worship Yahweh. And it is Yahweh who is infinitely perfect, and as such is the creator, preserver and governor of all things. He has created all things.

Have you ever looked at a sunset or sunrise and genuinely thought, “God created that.” Have you ever looked at the mountains, or the prairies and thought, “God created that.” Or perhaps flying high over the oceans, seeing the vastness of the earth and thinking, “God created that.” Have you ever looked at a child, or a spouse and thought, God created them. Have you ever looked at a stranger and been reminded of God’s creating power? Have you ever looked at an enemy, as the good Samaritan did, and thought of God’s creation?

The book of Genesis tells us of God’s creative history and purpose. It also tells us of two brothers, Cain and Abel, one who honored God, and one who murdered God’s creation. You might think now, how are these two things related? It’s quite simple really. God created Abel, just as he had created Cain. Yet, Cain thought it within his own power and authority to take the life of his brother. You may recall the familiar interaction between God and Cain, as God asks Cain, “where is Abel your brother?” Cain’s reaction is one of outright arrogance and indifference to the sufferings of his brother, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

This question rings throughout the ages, “am I my brother’s keeper?”

Spoken as a synonym brother could be used for neighbor. We know that even the concept of neighbor is difficult, even the teachers of the law in Jesus day wanted him to clarify who their neighbor was. They wanted to know, in essence, who do we actually need to care about! They were not interested in caring about everyone, really, just Jews. Just those of their own racial group. And really, we know from scripture, not even that. They really only wanted to care about those who were, in essence, the same as them. Same skin color, same gender, same theology, same likes and dislikes, same politics. Hmm, sound familiar?

We could go a number of different ways with this, honestly. The path I want to take this morning though is one that may be difficult to hear. I want to talk about human trafficking. Human trafficking is the act in which one person decides that they can purchase and sell another person, same as any other good or service. That they are somehow in a position of power over another human, in such a dehumanizing way that they have the literal right to buy and sell that human. This can happen for labor, for sex, even for organs. And did you know that the Twin cities, that’s right, the metro area we live in, has one of the highest rates of sex trafficking in the country!