This sermon begins our summer series "People Like Us." I discovered this interesting title when looking at preaching series preached at Village Presbyterian Church. I enjoy preaching narrative, so this should be a fun summer of sermon preparation. As I worked on this sermon, I realized that I had never preached on the Cain and Abel story. The hope is that as we reflect on the stories of some of the Bible characters, we will discover some truths about ourselves.
“Yes” June 21, 2020; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton; Genesis 4: 1-16; I Corinthians 1: 15-22 Richard B. Culp
Genesis 4: 1-16 Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced[a] a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. 3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel for his part brought of the firstlings of his flock, their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
8 Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.”[b]And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. 9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” 13 Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! 14 Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.” 15 Then the Lord said to him, “Not so![c] Whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.” And the Lord put a mark on Cain, so that no one who came upon him would kill him. 16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod,[d] east of Eden.
Introduction: Today we begin our summer preaching series, “People like us.” We will spend this summer reflecting on some of the fascinating people in the Bible.
Our hope is that you see in these biblical characters something of our selves.
maybe you see what you are not and need to change; or maybe make sure you are not like the character; or maybe the story of one of the characters will lead you so exciting reflections on what God is calling you to do.
Move 1: Background to Cain and Abel, mostly Cain.
a. By Chapter 4 in Genesis, we might say that humans have already flunked the God/humanity relationship test.
1. Adam and Eve had failed in a big way, and now their sons are in the mix.
2. If their parents reveal the failure in the relationship between God and humanity, Cain and Abel die us a glimpse at the human to human relationship test.
3. Two brothers. Brothers give us lots of stories in the bible. Next week, we meet Esau, the big brother to Jacob. If we were just tracking brothers, we would move to Ishmael, the big brother to Isaac.
6. Ironic that in biblical times when the oldest son is the highest valued child, the firstborn son does not fair so well in these stories. Or, maybe God is telling us something about how the patterns of living together the world designs maybe not be the way God has in mind (but that’s another sermon!).
b. Abel and Cain have different vocations.
1. Abel the keeper of sheep; Cain the tiller of the ground.
2. As I read this part of the story, a song from the musical Oklahoma flashes through my memory: “O the farmer and the cowman should be friends”
3. A reminder that the story of Cain and Abel is a human story repeated through the generations.
Move 2: Cain has a problem, but he also has control over this behavior.
a. God seems to cause his problem.
1. Abel and Cain both make an offering to God, and God expresses regard for Abel’s offering but makes no mention of Cain’s.
2. Nothing negative about Cain, but Cain sees how God reacts to Abel’s offering and gets jealous and angry.
3. We know that cycle. How often do we look at others and judge ourselves and our situation by how someone else is doing?
4. Not secure in his own relationship with God, Cain figures if he does something to Abel, then he can get from God what Abel got from God.
4. Cain makes being a brother about competition. Who does God love more?
b. Easy to blame Cain.
1. Historically, some people, even John Calvin, a Reformed theologian, blame Cain for not having a very good offering.
2. but be careful, I bet most of us can change a few facts and tell that story from our own context!
3. And we might also note, the text does not blame Cain for having a sub-par offering.
4. If anything, the text makes this story part of the mystery of who God is and how God acts.
b. Cain cannot control how God acts, but he is left with the question about how he is going to act.
1. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
2. Cain has a choice - he can respond in ways that will keep him in right relationship with God and his brother.
3. Or, Cain can turn away from the person whom God has called him to be and act out of his jealousy and anger, with disregard for his brother.
4. We know what Cain does - he gives into to the tug of sin and kills his brother.
Move 3: Immediately after Cain lures his brother to the fields and kills him, God asks Cain - “Where is your brother Abel?”
a. In other words, “what choice did you make, Cain, in your relationship with your brother?”
1. It would be a mistake to read this story only in the context of a blood brother. Just as Adam and Eve speak to all of humanity, Cain and Abel speak to our connectedness as humans.
2. When we read God asking where is your brother Abel, we might hear it in our context not as “where is your literal brother, but
Where is your brother who is suffering racial injustice?
Where is your brother against whom you are at war?
Where is your sister who is unemployed and without health care benefits?
Where is your sister who sees no hope in the world and gives up?
3. Likewise, when Cain responds, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” we should hear it as,
Am I responsible for my brothers who suffer, who are oppressed, who I see as my enemies?
Am I my responsible for my sister who is crying out for help?
b. To Cain’s question, to our questions, God has a clear answer - Yes.
1. Cain will be held accountable for how we cared for his brother.
2. We will be held accountable for how we treat our brothers and sisters in the world.
2. I cannot find a tricky, little play on the biblical text to avoid the daunting answer God has for us; we may debate how we live out the answer, but we cannot walk away from the fact that we are responsible for our brothers and sisters, all our brothers and sisters.
3. The ground cries out with the voices of those who suffer, who are oppressed, who go hungry, who need justice.
4. we may turn a deaf ear, but God does not.
c. About three years ago, Reverend Fred Cassell, former pastor of St. Andrew and now one of our Pastor Emeriti, planned on filling the pulpit one Sunday preaching this passage from Genesis.
1. he even wrote the sermon, and he graciously gave me his sermon notes this week.
2. Don’t blame him for the faults you find in this morning’s sermon, but know that his desire at the time, and his wish now, is that he could stand in the pulpit and not only ask the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” but answer it with a resounding “Yes,” and then charge us to go into the world to take care of our brothers and sisters.
d. his forceful “Yes” in answer to the question reminded me of Karl Barth’s theology of Christ being God’s yes.
1. We hear Paul’s words in his letter to the Corinthians that were the basis for Barth’s: For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes.” 20 For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.”
2. aS I read this story in Genesis, I hear God’s Yes in Christ as God’s answer to the question Cain asks.
e. As the body of Christ, then, our calling is to live out Christ’s intentions.
1. Christ who brings a gracious “yes” to the world, sends us into the world to be God’s “Yes.”
2. Yes to not only freeing people from injustice, but working to change the systems that allow injustice to exist.
Yes to not only feeding the hungry but working to change the system to
yes to not only peace and reconciliation, but working to change the way we connect with others so that peace and reconciliation is not the rare exception, but the way in which we engage others in all circumstances.
Move 4: the final word - God’s grace.
a. The God who says “yes,” in Jesus Christ says yes to Cain in all his sinfulness.
1. Cain goes through the rest of his life marked as a guilty man.
2. But also marked with God’s life-giving protection (Walter Brueggeman, 60)
b. Cain cannot escape his sinfulness.
Cain cannot escape God’s grace.
Conclusion: late in his life, Karl Barth wrote a letter to Emil Brunner, another theologian with whom he had a huge disagreement on how to interpret the revelation of Jesus Christ.
To Brunner’s deathbed, Barth sent a short letter that contained these words: “we all live only by the fact that a great and merciful God speaks hi gracious Yes to all of us.” https://postbarthian.com/2014/06/20/yes-us-karl-barths-final-words-emil-brunner/
In all our humanity and sinfulness, God says Yes to us.
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