Read John 1:6-13

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.” (1 John 3:1 NLT)

  There are so many things that tear us human beings a part. There are, unfortunately, far more things that divide and separate us than there are that unite us. I wish that wasn’t the case; however, when we look at the world, at our country, at our regions, at our towns, our churches, our families, and other aspects of human existance, we do not see a decreasing amount of division, but rather more and more of it. 
Rececntly, I was watching the movie “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans”. This film is the third out of five films in the Underworld franchise, and it is a prequel to all of them. It takes place back in the Medieval time period, where Vampires are Lords who rule over the land by night. While they remain hidden from human society, the operate within it. Hence the name “Underground”, there’s human society and then the secret society of vampires who pray upon humanity.

But this film isn’t just about vampires, it is also about Lycans. The name Lycan comes from the word lycanthropy, which is a mental illness in which humans think they are becoming wolves and even begin to take on the characteristics of wolves. Of course, these Lycans are not people with mental illness, but are actually werewolves. Unfortunately for them, the Vampires look at these Lycans as being “mindless beasts” who are beneath them in every way. So, the Vampires enslaved them and forbid any vampire from having romantic and/or sexual relationships with them. To do such was considered an abomination.

This prejudice was produced out of a fear, but it was certainly not grounded on reality. When one watches the Underworld series, one quickly finds out that both vampires and werewolves are from the same bloodline. The vampires descend from Marcus Corvinus and the werewolves descend from William Corvinus. Marcus and William were brothers; they were both the sons of Alexander Corvinus. One was bitten by bat, the other by wolf, but both had the same parents. Lucian, who rises up to be the leader of the werewolf army, said it best to his vampire lover Sonja, “We are both children of Corvinus. Yet my kind are slaves.”

Even if you have never seen the films, I don’t think the metaphor will be lost on you. Clearly, we can look throughout human history and see how human beings have hated each other, enslaved each other, murdered each other, and dehumanized each other as a result of fear. Fear has motivated humanity to do many wicked and evil things. Well fear and greed, both of which are not mutually exclusive. We are all children of God, and yet we look at other human beings who are different than us as if they don’t share that same heritage with us.

The hope of Christianity is comes from Jesus Christ who gave each of us the right, and the responsibility, to reclaim our heritage in God. Each of us have been given the right to be called children of God; however, that right bears some real responsibility with it. Being a child of God does not mean we’re in some sort of elite, underground, secret society. It does not mean that we are more special, loved, or valued than anyone else. It certainly does not mean we are better or above anyone else. It means that we recognize that we were created in God’s image and, through Jesus Christ, are allowing that image to be reflected in our lives. What this means, specifically, is that we will no longer be agents of division and discord, but agents of unity, acceptance, affirmation and unconditional love. We are children of God. Let us point others to the revelation of that reality as well.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“Fear lead to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” – Master Yoda

PRAYER

Lord, help us to lay aside our fear to see all people, no matter how different, as your children. Amen.