The story of the first family as recorded in Genesis has a sad scenario. Cain killed his brother Abel. Afterward God came to Cain inquiring about the whereabouts of Abel. Cain's response was a sarcastic question. "How do I know? Am I my brother's keeper?" God's reaction and punishment of Cain strongly impressed upon him that he was indeed his brother's keeper. The story becomes a type of parable instructing us as to our responsibility toward one another. God does not permit us to take another life nor treat another life with disrespect. Reverence for human life and our watch-care over it is the essential lesson we get from this ancient tragedy.

Throughout the scriptures we sense a call to "keepership," which we do well to adhere. We cannot neglect a fellow human being with an easy conscience. We are made equally interdependent and our Source of creation makes us accountable to one another. We cannot plead ignorance as though we did not know life's stewardship included our brother. The most ancient Decalogue reviews the many ways we are to care for one another. We keep the commandments by keeping each other. Neglecting another person's need is a form of Biblical heresy just as killing the spirit is another form of murder. If we do not look out for our brother then sooner or later his pain becomes our pain and his hunger becomes our source of starvation.

Our "keepership" does not mean we hover over our neighbor making sure he or she is our kind of Christian. It is not a matter of judging others by making sure they are worthy of whatever attention and care we may give them. Jesus reached out to the unclean leper as well as the neatly dressed bureaucrat. He offered grace to those of ill repute and corrected those who thought they knew it all. He taught us the meaning of our "keepership" in both word and deed. Who would have thought that dying love was an example for all of us to follow? We cannot eliminate our brother without our Lord inquiring as to his whereabouts. Surely we must keep up with one another lest we be kept from the kingdom.