Blog # 440 Creator of All

Blog # 440  Creator of  All

              Did  you ever consider what the differences would be if you believed in more than one God?  We sort of take the notion of God as Unique, Creator of  All, Ever Present,  All knowing, All Powerful, All Good, etc. for granted. There was a time in  human history,  however, when the notion of a single God would be like thinking the world was round at the time of Galileo.

                  One significant insight that comes to me when I consider what might the difference be if there were several gods rather than one is this: with the notion of a single Creator of all that exists, everything that exists is related.  There are no exceptions here.  Frost and warmth, light and darkness, youth and old age, flowers and insects, mountains and rivers, men and women, you and I are all connected if we believe there is but one God, one Creator of all that exists. In fact, this relationship is so profound and all pervasive that all other relationships are subsequent to it and based upon it. 
                  The relationship we have to one another as brothers and sisters in a family is not as deep as the relationship we have to all creation in God our common Creator. Our parents gave us much of what and who we are, but God gives us all that we are. This consideration gives us insight into the significance of God's command given us in  Jesus  (Emmanuel - God-Among-Us):"Love one another as I have loved you."  To have commanded us to love one another as brothers and sisters would have been less strong.

                   Days and years are connected.  Moses is connected to Abraham and Adam and Eve. Nehemiah is connected to Luke. All of creation is related to Jesus the Word of God.  We discover something of the full identity of  Jesus in identifying the identity of Moses, Abraham, Adam and Eve, and ourselves. These connections in creation did not merely happen, as it were, by chance, but were built into creation according to a plan we call God's love.  The birth of Moses did not surprise God.  God loved Moses into being.  So for Abraham, Adam and Eve, for you and for me.
             
                  In Jesus something altogether special and  unique occurs.  In Jesus God is related to all creation not from some unimaginable place with some unimaginable degree of power wisdom goodness and love, but in Bethlehem, at a given moment, in a given hour of time, as an ordinary infant, like us in all but sin.  Jesus is connected to Moses, Abraham, Adam and Eve, and to you and me through His birth from Mary. Yet Jesus is also related to the Father and the Holy Spirit in a unique way that could never be ours unless it were through Jesus. But that, we believe, is God's plan.  That is the good news of salvation. We are to be branches on  a vine as it is expressed  by Jesus, and  members of His Body as given by Paul: "See what love the Father has bestowed on us in letting us be called children of God!  Yet that is what we are." (1 Cor. 12 :12-30.  We are brothers and sisters in Adam and Eve.   We are children of God in Jesus.

             Jesus was sent not merely to teach about God, as others had been sent before Him, but to be God among us, God Incarnate, that is, in human flesh, walking, talking,  sleeping, eating, yet divine. He was not merely to be a good example to us, but the power to make us good. The message of the Prophets sent before Jesus was the same as the message Jesus brought. Their message and His had to be the same since it was an authentic expression of the wisdom and goodness of the one eternal Creator of all.

              Though sent and anointed by the same Spirit to bring the same message of God's wisdom and goodness, there was an essential difference between the prophets who had come and gone before Jesus and Himself. The difference was not in the message, but in the messenger. Jesus claimed that difference for Himself at the beginning of His public ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth.(Luke 1: 1-4, 4:14 - 21).  Other Prophets had announced and proclaimed the message and promises of God. Jesus claimed He  IS the message and the fulfillment of the promises.(Jn. 14: 5).

           In Jesus all God's promises are fulfilled, from Adam and Eve, through Abraham, Moses and all the Prophets.  Limited in His humanity but infinite in His love, Jesus is the perfect expression on earth of the Father's will. He was sent by the Father for this. But it was not for His sake that Jesus was sent. It was for the sake of others. "Come follow me.", Andrew, Peter, John,  Frank, Mary, Tony, Annie, Mae. Down through the ages until the end of time the invitation continues to be given.  "Come join with me in fulfilling God's plan for you, bringing peace justice light freedom love." 

              Through Baptism into His death we were buried with Jesus so that, just as  Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so too we might have a new life in Him. (Col. 3: 10)  "What you have done is...put on a new person, one who grows in knowledge as he is formed anew in the image of His Creator".  For this to be, we do not need any special talent but rather faith and love.  It is a gift to be received rather than a task to be achieved.   Thank You, Jesus !