What If God Was One Of Us?

In the 1990’s the famous singer, Joan Osbourne, wrote a song called One of Us. In the song, she wrote, “If God had a name, what would it be? And if God had a face what would it look like? What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on the bus. Tryin’ to make his way home…”

What is God’s name? And what does God’s face look like for you?

In the first reading from Leviticus, we get a version of the “10 Commandments” that are offered earlier in the bible. The book of Leviticus is filled with God telling the people the rules for just about everything, and it’s quite a list! 

But in this section we hear some of the standards like, “You shall not steal,” or “You shall not rob or defraud your neighbor.” 

Ok, basic stuff if we don’t dig too deep into what those words really mean, eh?

But God goes a little further and says, “Don’t withhold the wages of laborers…Don’t curse the deaf of make it hard for the blind…and don’t show partiality for wealthy people.”

Whoa, hold on a second! Is God suddenly identifying herself with justice for workers, equity for people with disabilities and not catering to the wealthy?

If we took just those 3 things right there, what would need to change in our economic systems? Our political systems? Our society?

Just in case we didn’t read Leviticus carefully enough, Jesus tells a story in Matthew 25 about the final judgment. The “righteous” are gathered up and told that they had found favor with God for “When I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’” Of course the righteous ask, “When did we see you this way, God?” And God utters the classic line, “When you did it for the least, you did it for me.”

In a similar way, the unrighteous are gathered and get the same exhortation – but this time in the negative. They failed to give food, water, shelter and clothing to God. They failed to welcome God or visit God. And they protest, “Wait, when did we see you this way?” And God utters the classic line, “When you did it for the least, you did it for me.”

If God had a face, what would it look like?

If God had a name, what would it be?

In today’s readings, the name and face of God would be day laborers, the marginalized, the hungry, the ill, the imprisoned and the stranger. And how we treat them is how we treat God.

I often think of what Fr. Jim says right before we receive eucharist about “God coming to us in a humble disguise.”

That is how God works. In humble disguises. God will visit us all today and offer us a chance to attend to her somehow. It may be in the form of advocating for someone or their rights. It may be interrupting harm somehow. It may be in providing direct aid to someone who needs it. It may be welcoming someone who is new. It may be our being present to someone who needs us by their side.

But God will visit us. Guaranteed.