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THE CAIN IN US Genesis 4:1-15 & Hebrews 11:14 1 John 3:12 April 9, 2005 University United Methodist Church I greet you in the name of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who upon entering Jerusalem one day remarks to the public, “You knew the things that made for peace; now they are hid from your eyes.” Not only does our Lord indicate that we know about peace, that we know to nurture it; God seems to imply that his children prefer battle. Such human preferences evoke daily and heartfelt cries from a modern psalmist who chanted, “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” In the last century, I saw a political cartoon entitled A Short History of the Balkans. Two pre-historic men were pictured. They were dressed in animal skins. One man stood on a pile of rocks with a club in his hand. The caption read 20,000 B. C. (Before Christ) Like the first, the second man held a club in his hand, but he stood inside a modern tank. His caption read 2000 A.D. (In the year of our Lord or the present time) Lots of messages can be read from that cartoon. One image came home to me most powerfully. Humankind has not changed. In the 21st Century, we have found it no easier to beat our swords into ploughshares or our spears into pruning books –to study war no more – than the persons who first heard those prophetic words centuries ago. Diplomacy aside, hurting and / or killing those who disagree with us remains the preferred strategy in the world, literally and figuratively. Here then is a picture of the Cain in Us. Without exception, no individual, group or nation escapes its influence. The Cain in Us is a function the oldest law in the world, the law of Lex Talionis. See scripture references Exodus. 21:23, Leviticus. 24:20 and Matthew. 5:38ff. Lex Talionis is the law of retaliation, pure and simple. Payback, getting even and revenge describe Lex Talionix as does “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Commentators say Lex Talionis is not a warrant for unrestrained vengeance. Nevertheless, it justifies vengeance “life for life, foot for foot, wound for wound and stripe for stripe.” As long as Lex Talionis functions as the preferred strategy in conflict resolution, peace will not have a chance. Revenge will always threaten shalom. Do not despair. All is not lost. Our scripture for today intimates that the Cain in us begets shalom. Preceding the birth of shalom, factors like introspection and retribution come into play. To discover how these two factors lead us to shalom, let us take a closer look at them through the eyes of the text. THE CAIN IN US BEGETS INTROSPECTION In the beginning, Cain is a good term, name and/or label. As the first born to Adam and Eve, he brings joy into the family. When Cain’s little brother comes into the world, good things continue to happen. Cain and Abel grow up and become successful in their vocations. Cain prefers farming. Abel likes raising sheep. Until Cain and Abel bring their gifts to God one day, life is hunky-dory. Then, the day arrives. God accepts the offering of the younger brother Abel and rejects that of the older brother. To say the least, Cain is livid. Cain’s anger and the time he spends brooding over this incident eventually leads him down a path of no return. Clearly, Cain resents the action of God and is extremely unhappy. Why would God discriminate against him? Does he not deserve a blessing on the same level as his younger brother Abel? On its face, Cain and Abel do the same thing. Each brother gives back to God a portion of what they receive from God. However, Abel returns the best portions of his flock to God. Possibly, Cain offers a quality gift to God but not his choicest produce. If the quality of Cain’s gift is not at issue; it may be the attitude the elder sibling brings into the presence of God. The writer of Hebrews weighs in with another perspective. “It was what he believed not what he brought that made a difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous.” (Heb. 11:4) In any case, God makes God’s negative response to Cain known in direct discourse. In the discourse that follows, God questions the reason for Cain’s anger. God’s conversation leads one to believe that the rejection of Cain’s gift has nothing to do with Abel. “If you do well, says Yahweh, “Will you not be accepted?” Here, God confronts Abel about some issue which has him estranged from God. Neither the bounty of Cain’s harvest nor the kindred spirit with which Cain presents it to God wipes away the gulf between them. Only repentance can do that. And Cain is of the opinion that he has nothing for which to repent. For all God’s careful explanation and challenge, Cain never says a word to God. Hence, God and Cain arrive at a point of irreconcilable difference. For God, the rebuff of Cain’s gift has to do with an act for which Cain has not repented. For Cain, rejection of his gift has to do with the fact that God plays favorites. God lifts up Abel and puts him down. Hence, the Negro Spiritual “It’s Me, It’s Me, It’s Me O Lord standing in the need of prayer, has no standing with Cain. A November 12th, 2004 e-mail from one of the persons I shepherd in the Michigan Area reminded this bishop of an irreconcilable difference that is historic. The e-mail read thusly, “Many non-Native people ask why so many of us (American Indians) do not celebrate Thanksgiving. We have another perspective on Thanksgiving history,” the e-mail said. The three page e-mail described relations between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. War not peace defined relations between the parties before, during and after the first Thanksgiving. Our American Indian brothers and sisters have insisted that the Pilgrims were after their land not a potluck supper. One telling quoted said it best, “The Pilgrims, like the other European people that followed them to America, would use any excuse, any method conceivable to take the land they desired…methods like war, massacres, slavery, laws preventing the speaking of native languages plus learning to read and write were invoked. Violators of the latter prohibition were subject to the death penalty. The Pilgrims understood that the Native People stood in the way of their appropriation of land needed for expanding the growing Pilgrim community. Nearly three hundred years later, all of us live on their land while many of them live in places we decided they should stay. When our American Indian brothers and sister cogitate on this fact Thanksgiving Day nay everyday, what do they do with such reality? When Native Americans hear us celebrate Thanksgiving with skewed knowledge of this holiday, why would they celebrate? They know the rest of the story. Yet , in their rage and dismay over land taken 369 years ago, they have mastered the ability to preserve their own traditions, keep on keeping on and fight mostly with the pen no the sword. In brooding over their perspective of Thanksgiving, Native Americans are utilizing new ways to get the message out. And so the bishop receives in the mail, and e-mail from a Native American colleague in the Michigan Area fed by the hope that I would read it, take it seriously and share their perspective on Thanksgiving in the presence of others. God has a similar hope for Cain. God desires for Cain to look inward versus outward regarding his failure to win divine affirmation of his gift. Even God knows that most of our lessons learned come from persistent introspection about our behavior, attitudes and motivation. As we already know, God fails in his attempt to have Cain look at himself. Cain believes that he has been treated unfairly. He thinks that God is wrong. Somebody should pay for the “cruel and unusual punishment” to which he has been subjected. Hence, the words of the Son of God ring true in Cain’s dismissal of God’s perspective. “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye.” (Mt. 7:3) At the greatest point where Cain has opportunity to keep making peace; he turns off the introspective. What happens at the altar during worship is the fault of someone outside himself. Now, Cain only has to determine who. THE CAIN IN US BEGETS RETRIBUTION Brooding over revenge and subsequently engaging in payback is alive and well among us. The examples are legion. An Italian journalist gains her freedom from the Iraquis only to face deadly gunfire from American Troops in Baghdad. Italy is mad. Uncle Sam still wants to get his hands on Bin Laden. In Chicago, Bart Ross kills the mother and husband of a Federal Judge. Ross says the judge is guilty of dismissing his malpractice suit seeking damages for facial deformation. Brian Nichols slays three persons in an Atlanta courtroom adding another later because he feared his second trial would not result in a mistrial. And just when John Q. Public breathes a sigh of relief over his peaceful capture, Terry Ratzmann kills seven of his church friends in a hotel worship service over the contents of a sermon. Then, teenager John Weise, aged 16, murders nine people and injures seven in Minnesota because he was alone, unappreciated and/or overmedicated. These are current realities are less than three months old. They represent the “Cain in Us.” People keep arguing about Uncle Sam’s rationale for making war on Iraq. Is the war about bringing democracy to Saddam’s old and/or murderous dictatorship? Shall we conclude that the invasion had to with the suspicion that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or, was the invasion simply about Uncle’s Sam’s need for oil to run our factories, fuel our cars and heat our churches? Certainly, gas prices are spiraling out of sight currently. Some prognosticators might reach for a biblical reason and say the war in Iraq fits the rationale called “the love of money.” Whatever the rationale for the invasion; a failed conversation and thought process contributed to our present state of affairs, personally and corporately. Just like God and Cain, Saddam and Uncle Sam had irreconcilable differences. Because of the animus between them, Uncle Sam decided Saddam should pay for his indiscretions. No matter what we say, our personal and corporate actions suggest that revenge or payback has a great hold upon us regardless of how much we talk peace. In the text, Cain invites his unsuspecting younger brother on a field trip. Then, he rises up and kills Abel, his younger brother. Because Can cannot control his anger, he commits the first act of fratricide in the world. In killing Abel, Cain opens a Pandora’s Box of horrors. A host of relationships are negatively affected, namely his parents, future generations, John Q. Public, God and himself. To be more specific, Cain’s parents are devastated. Abel is dead. Suddenly, there is a funeral to plan. And the gulf between Cain and God grows wider. On top of their previous issues now is murder. Wherever Cain settles down, his reputation follows him. He cannot live down the taking of his brother’s life. One would think that Cain’s act would end all acts of that kind in the family. Yet, six or seven generations later, Cain’s type of retaliation shows up in the song of a relative. Lamech serenades his two wives, Adah and Zillah, thusly, “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-seven fold.” Lamech skews Lex Talionis even further. He warns everybody that the penalty for messing with him will be paid back seventy-times seven. How could the need for revenge or payback override brotherly, familial or love for the neighbor? It happens all the time. That is why the bishop keeps emphasizing the Cain in Us. To keep making peace, to give peace a chance, we must take time to face this Cain within. Try this introspective exercise. What if God asked you to preach to your enemies instead of Jonah? Would you be easily persuaded to take on such a difficult ministry because God wanted it? That said, I am reminded that Jonah brought salvation to Nineveh despite his ill will toward non-Jews. Would you have acted differently than the brothers of Joseph? They hated him. He was their father’s favorite child. And Jacob codified that fact by presenting Joseph with a coat of many colors. To make matters worse, Joseph rarely tired of telling his elder brothers that his dreams meant he would rule over them one day. Dealing with the favored status of their little brother at home was one thing. Anticipating that their spoiled brat of a brother would rule over them one day was too much. So his brothers conspired to kill him so they would not have to hear Joseph or see him anymore. But through an act of prevenient grace by elder brother Reuben, they decided to sell Joseph into slavery instead of taking his life. Are we liberated from this kind of Cain in our families, group and/or national life? Just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for juveniles citing that it violated the 8th amendment against “cruel and unusual punishment.” If you served as member of that same court, how would you have ruled and on what basis? Or, had the teenaged killers at Columbine and Red Lake High School lived, would you have condemned them to death? Harder still, if you ran Rwanda In 1994, would you act any differently than the leaders who chose to eliminate 1 million Tutsis using the Hutu militia? Would tribal heritage as a Hutu or Tutsis direct your thoughts, feelings and actions? Or, would you be that hotel manager captured in the movie Hotel Rwanda risking life and limb to save 1000 helpless refugees? More pointedly, have we strengthened racial unity between whites and blacks in America or poured gas on the divide? As you have listened to the foregoing caricatures of man’s inhumanity to man, are you convinced nothing can be done? What story shook the foundations more than others? Have some of those tragedies occurred in your family? What other atrocities have been recalled far worse than anything mentioned? If some of you answered in the affirmative to at least one question, this exercise has moved your consciousness a step closer to realizing how the Cain in Us begets shalom. To borrow a tagline from the movie Hotel Rwanda, “When the world closed its eyes, Paul Rusesabagina opened his arm.” In other words, Paul Rusesabagina was so repulsed by the Hutu atrocities toward the Tutsis that it moved him into embracing shalom in unimaginable ways. Here then is how the Cain in us begets shalom. Our vile behavior and the destructive behavior of others move us into redemptive action. An oft ridiculed lay theologian provided some prophetic insight for church and society. As he viewed L.A. going up in smoke spawned by what many claimed was an unjust verdict, Rodney King’s soul force cried out, “Can’t we all just get along.” Rodney King pleaded for God’s shalom out of the following realization. If violence became the order of the day and injustice triumphed, Rodney King saw no end to violent protests. King realized that bridging gaps between opposing camps called for risk-taking in human relationships. Peace and its continuance move from the probable to the possible when such risk-taking occurs. And God, the great lawgiver-the great lover of humankind shows us the way. THE CAIN IN US BEGETS SHALOM First and foremost, God reminds us that we are our brother’s keeper. No difference of opinion, whose the favorite child, God’s chosen people, color of skin, content of character, national origin blunts God’s declaration of whose we are nor the family to which we belong. From the command of God to love God and neighbor to Jesus’ declaration about who to love-enemies as well as friends; to who is my neighbor to Paul’s statement that all belong to the body of Christ leaving no possibility that we can do without one another, one factor emerges with great clarity. To really make peace in this world, all must recognize that we are all in the family. Why, because we are the children of God. With this given, prejudicial thoughts, attitudes, motives and behavior cannot be allowed to govern how we relate to one another. If they do, swords, spears, death by gunfire, nuclear warheads, clubs, character assassination and most of the evil ”isms” of our world will always prevail. Acceptance of this truth does not occur without struggle. In the text, God reminds Cain that Abel is his brother. Instead of providing a truthful answer to God’s question regarding his brother’s whereabouts, Cain perjures himself. It gets worse. Cain complicates the lie with an insensitive and irresponsible counter-question, “Am I My brother’s keeper? Ignoring Cain’s attempt to put him on the defensive, God charges Cain with fratricide of Abel. Then God nails Cain with a reality that his consciousness cannot deny. Listen to the blood,” says God. “Your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.” Loving and caring for Abel, his younger brother should have been one of the easiest tasks to accomplish. They were of the same blood, the same parents and had the same up bringing. In so far as religious beliefs, they were on same page. How could we view their family situation as anything else but close knit? Yet, kinship did not create an adequate firewall against premeditated murder. If only Cain could have put more value and emphasis on their family bonds, on understanding the true basis of his anger, versus assuaging his hurt feelings, things would have been different. What God posits for Cain runs true for each of us. “Sin is always lurking at our door; our test is its mastery.” Time and again, policemen tell us that family members must be considered when a crime occurs of someone is missing. Where one might expect peace to reign in abundance; one may find just the opposite. On a lighter note, I am reminded of the times when my brothers, sisters and I had our vociferous arguments and differences growing up. If we provoked mother enough, she would say, “Stop raising Cain.” That meant find a better way to settle our differences. Allowing us to continue arguing might lead to places no one intended. The Schiavo family might not ever recover from the hostilities engendered by years of hospitalization, the removal of her feeding tube, and the protracted battle over what to do with Terri’s ashes or who should be in control of her estate. Before Terri died, Michael rejected a million dollar offer from her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, to relinquish control over their daughter. Strife, anger, Ill will and what was alleged to be Terri’s will for her own end has torn this family apart. And if the church, some friend, agency or family members themselves cannot help them find peace, the potential for violence between them remains a real and present danger. To make peace, we must always function as our brothers and sister’s keepers. Second, God’s shalom involves restorative justice. A modern definition of peace mirrors this very concept. “Peace is more than the absence of war; it is the presence of justice.” Hence, shalom requires the risky enterprise of addressing the sin or sins which keep human relationships messy and all too violent. We see it in the Cain saga. No longer will Cain enjoy vocational success as a farmer. God sees to that. Other penalties include going through life as a fugitive and a wanderer. Proximity to home and parents, the land, his brother’s burial site will no longer be an option. Plus, Cain will have to live with the fact that he took his brother’s life over something inane. He cannot wipe it out of his mind. If that were not enough, these penalties throw Cain into a state of absolute fear. First, Cain feels that God will abandon him. Second, Cain believes that anyone he meets may kill him. Some may argue that the penalty is too severe-that said punishment will never produce shalom. They may be. But this bishop believes that Cain’s penalty could well end up like that of Joseph’s. Observers may say God intended to do harm to Cain. Cain might rejoin like Joseph. “You may think that God intended to harm me, but I know God meant it for good-the kind of good that preserves both soul and body-that restores a community to shalom. The journey toward shalom hurts. More than ever, Cain knows that the journey toward shalom involves restorative justice. It involves sacrifice and suffering. To get to God’s shalom, redemptive suffering appears to be a prerequisite. Few of us would ever anticipate having the experiences of the late Johnie Coochran, Ashley Smith and the late John Paul II. Yet, in order to participate in God’s shalom, we may find ourselves bearing witness critical points and unexpected points of life’s journey. In one case involving restorative justice that brought him the greatest satisfaction, Johnie Cochran helped bring freedom and shalom to the household of Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt. Cochran lost a murder case when he defended Pratt in 1972. But Mr. Cochran never gave up. Twenty-seven years later, Cochran helped free Elmer “Geronimo Pratt, who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.” Murder suspect Brian Nichols held Ashley Smith hostage with the promise not to hurt her if she remained calm. In the midst of their conversation about the killings, their families and God, Ashley spoke to her captor about restorative justice. As the two sat in her kitchen, Ashley recalled saying to Brian: “You’re here in my apartment for some reason…you might be destined to be caught and to spread the word of God to fellow prisoners.” A Turkish gunman shot the late Pope John II in 1981. Two years later, the Pope visited him in prison and forgave him. All of the above reveal signs of God’s emerging shalom. Last but certainly not least, God’s shalom rejects Lex Talionis or the law of retaliation. For all the affirmation of the ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., some of his followers never really understood his love affair with non-violence. Allowing crowds to beat them up, batter them with fire hoses, release attack dogs and bomb their houses seemed an ineffective way to win a battle against racism much less a war. Nevertheless, Martin refused to retaliate against those who despitefully used them. In King’s mind, non-violence which produced redemptive suffering paved the way for God’s shalom. Look at God in this story of Cain and Abel. In judging Cain, God does not subject Cain to capital punishment. Instead God is so intent on preserving the life of Cain that god promises to avenge sevenfold anyone who would slay Cain. For some folk, that is not justice. Today, Cain would most likely get the chair or lethal injection. Is God soft on crime after so brutal a murder? I think not? Abel’s death does not go unpunished. God chooses a non-violent route. By not employing the law of tit for tat, God puts the cycle of violence on hold. Peace has a chance. Those of us who argue that Christ is the way have no choice but to abandon our Cain mentality. God’s way breaks the cycle of retaliation as did his death on the cross. In his mercy, God offers a fearful Cain extra protection from those who might harm Cain for his indiscretions. The Cain in Cain evokes a great blessing from God. According to The New Oxford annotated Bible, the mark of Cain was a protective mark, perhaps a tattoo, signifying divine mercy. Here, God promises to be with Cain all the days of his life just as Emmanuel promises to be with us. Were it not in the text, I would not have believed it The RSV reads thusly, “And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any man who came upon him should kill him” Then and only then does Cain leave the presence of God and take up residence in the land of Nod with his wife. I believe that Cain departs with “a peace that passeth all understanding.” Plus, I can see him making his way to the land of Nod singing “when nothing else could help, love lifted me.” And I believe Cain departs from God with a renewed faith determined to live in the context of God’s shalom. Finally my brothers and sisters, I charge you to keep making peace. Love God’s children. Do restorative justice. Forget retaliation. Never exclude yourself, your group, your nation or the church from the circle of blame or responsibility. Mastering the Cain in us is a priority of a lifetime. One of our deceased Republican Presidents, who served as an Army General in World War II, dispatching his men to fight and die said as much in a stunning critique of war time retaliation. The late General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote the following to America and the world in a speech delivered in1953. “Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron”
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