“When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.”
Genesis 4: 8
What is it about us humans that causes so much chaos for our world? The writers of the book of Genesis struggled to put words on both our original blessings and our original failings. The editors of the book weaved together the thoughts and writings of different authors and sometimes we don’t notice how chapters contradict each other. The thing is, it doesn’t matter. What has come down to us is the collective insights that humans had about our relationship with God and our collective wisdom about us humans. These insights have inspired us down through the ages and not grown obsolete. Instead, we continue to reinterpret their meaning for each new generation.
I have been thinking a lot about our relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. Many years ago, I wrote a book called All Creation Waits: The Unfulfilled Promise of Christianity. I wrote it as my attempt to understand why Christianity had not made a bigger difference for our world. As I knew I would, I continued to learn, reflect, and grow from what I understood at that time and know that I would write a different version of the same book today.
In this book I wrote: “Once again, in an era of creative chaos, it is time to stop trying to do things in the same old ways that do not work, and to do something new. This is not a matter of throwing out Christianity, but of reclaiming the Spirit of Christianity, and the purpose of Christianity.” We have reached this point again. In fact, many no longer want to call themselves Christians because naming oneself a Christian could get one identified with bigotry, dogmatism, and narrow-mindedness. Now we say we are followers of Christ and try not to identify as “Christians.”
My reflections these days bring me back to our origin stories. I am not talking about “Original Sin” but about the clever way that the writers of Genesis helped us see the ways that human beings turned away from the ways of God and decided for themselves what would be right and what would be wrong. Instead of following the spark of divinity that had been breathed into them, humans decided to look outward toward their own desires. What was right became what was seen as good for the individual, no matter how that affected anyone or anything else. Scholars often tell us that the first problem with humans is that they forget who God is, and they forget who they are in God. When we lose that relationship with God, we lose ourselves.
For centuries people have blamed women for bringing sin into the world, thanks to the story about Adam and Eve, but now we know that sin is a joint effort. Humanity desired to go its own way and decide for itself what the rules would be for life in this world. The consequences of sin were not assigned by God as punishments but were outcomes of human choices and human behaviors. The first step away from the ways of God was humanity’s decision to create a pecking order. The original blessing and the way God desired us to follow was for all of us to stand alongside one another as equals. Instead, certain humans want to rule over others and will force the issue with violence if necessary. This is not God’s way.
We were created in the image and likeness of God. “Let us make earth creatures (the name Adam was a word play meaning “earth” – Adamah) in our image.” I love that the first image of God is communal – us. As Catholics we have long believed in a trinitarian understanding of God as one Being who is three persons. There are lots of writings about trinitarian theology and that’s not what I want to write about today. My point is that God is relationship and that in this relationship is an equality of persons. God is love. To decide that one person can rule over another is the first and most basic step away from God. The first step away from the ways of God was for males to choose to rule over females, often with brutality when women resisted. This original failing established a pattern for abuse that has lasted to today. Until this initial step away from the ways of God is healed humanity will continue to get everything wrong. This step away from the ways of God set the stage for every version of power structure that followed, including slavery.
The next major step away from the ways of God are described in chapter four in the story about Cain and Able. Cain resented the success of his brother Able. Competition against one another entered center stage in this story. Cain could not stand being second best and to be number one, he killed his brother. In this story Cain shows no remorse for his actions. His only concern is that he is not killed by others. Cain leaves the presence of God, forgets who God is and how he is to relate to God and to others, and therefore murder is passed down through his descendants, as one of his descendants says in verse 23, “I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for bruising me.”
The Genesis story stops following Cain and starts to follow his younger brother, Seth, who is born after Cain leaves and we have the first branching of humanity, the first division, the first breaking of relationship with one another because humanity turned away from the ways of God to follow its own way.
Micah 6:8, my favorite scripture, claims that every human being knows what is right because the spark of divinity has been breathed into each one of us. We are to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. But from the beginning we have turned away from this way. Christ, who was incarnate as Jesus, came to bring us back to our original blessing as the image and likeness of God, but humanity does not want to follow God, preferring its own path.
As I witness the increased violence in both word and action in our country I see the works of Cain, the spirit of Cain, alive and well in our world. It is the spirit of Cain that keeps us in division, that persuades individuals to kill one another. We can call this an evil spirit. This spirit cannot bear to see others succeed and when it is coupled with the desire to rule over others, that first and most basic step away from God, it leads to hell on earth. Those infected with the spirit of Cain will do anything – lie, cheat, steal, murder – to stay on top. I believe that White Nationalists are the children of Cain. They cannot bear to see anyone other than white people succeed.
We have witnessed the spirit of Cain in action repeatedly when it comes to so-called white supremacy. There is a long history of white terrorism against black communities. When black people succeed, the spirit of Cain rises in white people who rush to destroy them. You can read about several massacres HERE. White supremacists will do anything to stay on top.
Those of us who follow Christ must turn toward the ways of God and back to our original blessings. We are to do all we can to heal the broken relationships we have with God, with one another, and with creation. Yes, even our broken relationship with creation. We were created to be the representatives of God toward creation, not its abusers or exploiters. We are stewards of an earth that belongs to God and are to care for it with the same love that God has toward creation, for God saw that everything that God created is good.
My beloved ones in Christ, let us turn towards God always.
Bishop Kedda
Bishop Kedda 