Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 4 verses 3 through 10:
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.” 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!”
Last night, just before bedtime my boys had a bit of a row as the youngest, lying on the floor in a Linus position sucking his thumb with a blanket half-way covering his head, casually reached up and with his non-thumb sucking hand and tried to trip his older brother as he walked by. I was sitting just opposite the two and I could see the anger -- righteous as it was -- flash in big brother's eyes. I knew this was trouble and I rose up from my reading chair to try to intervene before the nukes were launched. By the time I could break in, big brother had gotten in two good, anger-induced, stomps to Linus's head and shoulders. They were quick, strategic strikes. I was there before a third stomp could be landed. After it was all said and done -- lasting less than five seconds in total -- I could see that big brother didn't really feel good about what he had done, but he did seem to feel better. The anger in him had subsided. It was now time to go to bed; and off he went. And Linus went back to sucking his thumb.
Welcome to Genesis 101.
Over the centuries, it has been wondered why Cain's offering was not accepted. Much has been made of the fact that the text says his brother Abel gave of the "firstlings" of what he had, while Cain gave only "an offering". I doubt, however, that that's the Scripture's point. Cain could have given it all, I think, and whatever he gave would still have been rejected. For there was anger inside him -- consuming, stomp on his brother kind of anger -- and no outward gift could conceal it. God knew and God had no regard for it -- no matter how large of a gift was used to try and cover it up. The sin of anger was lurking at Cain's door and its desire was to eat him alive -- which it did.
St Paul said that we can give away everything -- all our positions -- but have not love we are "nothing". As the Prophet Isaiah put it, our righteous deeds are "like filthy rags". Giving to the church whether in money or time will not cover over the sin inside us; in fact, what we discover is that it actually draws the sin out. This is one reason why there is so much conflict in church -- because holy places expose the unholiness inside us. Perhaps, in a mythic sense, this is why the altar table is both the place where we lay our money and murder our Lord.
There is anger inside us all. It may start off as righteous anger. But ultimately it's desire is unrighteousness. Its desire is to consume us. Its desire is murder.
We must learn to master it before it masters us.
No comments:
Post a Comment