Cain, Abel, the beginning and the end

I appreciate the public proclamation of theology and scripture immensely as it is expressed on the side of this building in the lower ninth ward in New Orleans. And the image above captures a pain that is unknowable for someone who has not lived in one of the most violent cities in the United States. But in fairness to the scripture, it needs to be noted that there are two chapters of Genesis that proceed the story of Cain and Abel. Two chapters of scripture that tell us that what God created was 'good' and 'very good' before the distrusting actions of Adam and Eve in chapter 3 and the murder over religion that we find in chapter 4.

And on the last page of most Bibles, just before we reach the final 'amen' at the conclusion of the the book of Revelation, we are again brought back to a garden-like vision of goodness and light where a river of life flows clear and clean and the leaves on the tree of life are for the healing of the peoples.

In a world living in the now and the not yet, where killing over religion, ethnicity, and disrespect seems to be out of control; in a world where the waters rage killing hundreds of thousands through a single tsunami, millions through its dirtiness that brings disease, and hundreds via breeched levees...

we keep our eyes on the beginning and the end

and we live our lives as those shaped by the one who calls us to action

in the middle

of

it

all