(This sermon is the third in a sermon series based on the Season of Origins and Undoing Conquest by Dr. Kate Common.)
Scripture: Genesis 4:1-16 NRSVUE
This is the first actual Sunday in the season of Origins. Each week has a theme. This week’s theme is “Invite.”
In Undoing Conquest and the season of Origins, I see three distinct threads. The first thread is Academic—Common is responding to the archeological narrative with a scholarly project. At Bible and Book Study this week several folks commented on how they found the book to be dense. I admit I was a little surprised because I find Common’s writing to be refreshingly approachable, but I also spend a lot of time reading academic theology. I recognize now that if you were expecting a book of prose like what you might get from Rob Bell, Brandan Robertson, or others who write like pastors, then Common’s writing is definitely dense. I appreciate everyone who has continued to engage with the text, density aside.
The second thread is Violence. Common looks at the conquest narrative and doesn’t just see violence in the text, she sees how the narrative has been replicated for political and national gain throughout history. We’ve found that narrative in colonial projects across the world and in the “manifest destiny” of the United States. Indeed, we see this narrative still playing out in 2024.
The third and ultimately most important thread for us is Questions. Origins invites us into a deeper engagement with the Bible and with our Christian tradition. Many of us grew up and spent at least some of our adulthood in churches where questions were, at best, suspect, if not taboo. Even basic questions could be met with harsh rebukes. Roman Catholics could question most of the Bible as long as it was done with charity, but one could never question the church or the people literally ordained to lead it. Evangelicals might have been able to question church history, particularly if the question was about what another church body, denomination, or tradition had done, but you could not question the Bible or the local congregation. And, yes, there were (and are) congregations in every tradition where people under a certain age or of a certain gender could never ask questions at all. Unfortunately, I imagine that every one of us has been told that either our questions were unwelcome or that our questions were somehow sinful. Personally, I remember how my questions led to several of my friends being barred from my house. If I could ask the questions I was asking, then my parents must be awful, unsafe people who you couldn’t trust your children with. Questions can get us and our families in trouble. As adults, we hold on to that trauma and we often need someone to invite us into the conversation and give us the permission to question. Origins provides that space and permission.
Today’s scripture is an invitation of sorts. The story is situated just after Adam and Eve have been driven out of the Garden of Eden. They “know” each other—the polite, Biblical way of saying they had sex—and Cain is born followed sometime later by Abel. The Biblical narrative shifts from the first humans to the first humans born on earth. Genesis 5:1-3 notes that Adam and Eve were created by God in the image and likeness of God, but that Seth, Adam and Eve’s third son, was made in the image and likeness of Adam. The Book of Genesis draws a distinction between these generations: the first brought to life by God alone and all the rest brought to life by their parents. Getting back to Cain and Abel, Cain is associated with the ground and things that grow from the ground while Abel is a shepherd and associated with livestock. As they grow up, they bring offerings to God. Cain brings fruit that he has harvested and Abel brings the fat portions from the firstlings of his flock. God accepts Abel’s sacrifice, but not Cain’s sacrifice. The Bible gives no reason for why God accepted one sacrifice but not the other. We can ascribe any number of explanations to the narrative. Could it be that fruit was less desirable than the fat portions? Could it be a misunderstanding? Could something else be involved which the Bible omits? Some Jewish and Islamic traditions posit that the sacrifice was to settle a disagreement between the brothers and other traditions say that while Cain offered SOME of his harvest, Abel offered his ENTIRE flock to God. There are numerous questions we could ask and explanations we could give. What matters is what happens next.
Cain is upset and in his angry he decides to kill his brother. He invites Abel into a field, kills him there, and perhaps buries him. God knows what happened, but they give Cain the opportunity to admit it. Cain not only refuses to confess, he adds a question about whether he is his brother’s keeper. God curses Cain and says that ground is also cursed against him, a glaring problem for a man who farms the ground. Cain will become a wanderer on the earth but will be marked so that no person will kill him.
Later chapters in Genesis connect Cain to people who dwell in cities—people less connected to the ground—to nomads—people who wander the earth—and to iron and bronze smiths—people who use and manipulate the earth. Cain is also linked to criminals, murderers, and generally evil people throughout the Bible and beyond. Scholars throughout Christianity, Judaism, and Islam hold that Cain married his sister—possibly his twin sister—and had children with her who founded some of the oldest cities in the region. Through Christian history it was assumed that Cain never died and still wanders the earth. Islamic theologians said that he lived a very long life, but one day his house collapsed and killed him.
I love the Book of Genesis because it presents us with so many opportunities to ask questions. The murder of Abel by Cain is no exception. We should question the text because its only then than we can find all the truth that’s here whether or not the story is factually accurate. This story is about how humanity began to develop. What do the first humans do when given a very basic prohibition? They want this one thing that they can’t have. What does the first human born on earth do when he gets upset? Commits murder. Even the ground itself gets involved. What does our environment do when we desecrate it? It changes in ways that are rarely helpful for humans and, as we are living through now, pushed far enough our environment will eventually lead us to our own destruction.
The poet and artist, William Blake, reflected on this theme in humanity in his poem “The Human Abstract.”
Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody poor;
And Mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we.
And mutual fear brings peace,
Till the selfish loves increase;
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.
He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears;
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.
Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head;
And the caterpillar and fly
Feed on the Mystery.
And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat;
And the raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.
The Gods of the earth and sea
Sought thro’ Nature to find this tree;
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the Human brain.
Origins not only invites us to ask questions, it gives us the permission to ask those questions. But Origins also compels us to look at ourselves and our own capacities. None of us here at Blue Ocean Columbus are inherently violent people…at least I don’t think so. Yet, I imagine we have all questioned our capacity for violence and evil. We have definitely thought about or wished violence on others. We felt good thinking about our boss, our annoying coworker, or some politician meeting a terrible end. Then we quickly felt the internal shame of having wished harm or death on another human, no matter how awful they are.
I know that our two weeks introducing Origins probably felt less like church messages and more like classroom lectures, but now I hope we can use this season as a way to ask questions and think new thoughts. I want us to feel the freedom to consider options and explanations we never thought we could in church or while reading the Bible. Let us not just consider our origins with church and the Bible, let’s engage with the church and the Bible in our lives.
Let us pray: God, as we look at our world, the blood of broken bodies and lives ended too soon seem to call out from all around us. Strengthen us as we resist the temptation of violence. Cultivate a peace in us and among us that can only come when we recognize the dignity and the humanity of every person, even our enemies and those that do us harm. For the sake of Jesus who though one with you did not respond with violence when he was led to his death, give us the courage to see you in every person. Amen.