Thank God Anyway

Genesis 4:3-5  "In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell."

The timeless tale of Cain and Abel may not seem a self-evident lesson for Thanksgiving Day, but at the heart of this passage is, indeed, an act of gratitude. Both brothers give offerings to the Lord, an action surely motivated, at least at the beginning, by thanks for the blessings of their herds and harvests. The tragedy of Cain and Abel begins as a thanksgiving story.

And what a story it is, a tale that has been retold so many times and with so many lessons; a classic tale of brotherly strife, of envy, of sin, of consequence. Yet we know so little about the setting of the story; we are provided so few details by the author. Whether we think of that author as Moses, or as the elusive "J" of the Higher Criticism's divines, he, or she, tells us precious little. Questions arise immediately. How did Cain and Abel learn to sacrifice to God?  Had Adam and Eve done the same? Was this required by God or was it simply a spontaneous act? Did the brothers make their sacrifice together, or separately? What did these sacrifices mean to them?

Finally, the ultimate enigma arises: why did God accept Abel's gift but reject Cain's? Indeed, that remains a true question for the ages, because the writer of the passage simply does not tell us.

Ultimately, students of scripture have come up with two points of view on this question. Most of us will have heard what I might call the traditional viewpoint, which places the blame upon Cain.  This view tends to say that since we know Cain immediately turned toward murderous rage after God rejected his offering, we can surmise that Cain's heart was impure and, at the very least, ungrateful to begin with. God, recognizing this, rejects Cain's gift, while accepting that of his brother.

But there is a flaw with this view, and the flaw is that the Bible simply doesn't say this. Nothing about Cain's attitude or state of mind at the time of his offering is recorded. This reality brings about the second viewpoint, which I might call the modernist view. The modernist view starts by pointing out that if we are to take scripture seriously, we cannot make up something about the character of Cain that simply isn't there. Blaming Cain, the modernist view tells us, is an easy cop out.

Yet the modernists often go too far, switching the blame from Cain to God himself.  Take, for instance, the words of Walter Brueggemann:

The trouble comes not from Cain, but from Yahweh, the strange God of Israel.... Conventional interpretation is too hard on Cain and too easy on Yahweh. It is Yahweh who transforms a normal report into a life/death story for us and about us. Essential to the plot is the capricious freedom of Yahweh. (Genesis, 1982, p. 56)

So to the modernist scholar, God is capricious, fickle, and thus unfairly and unkindly rejects Cain and his offering in favor of his younger brother.

Both of these conclusions have a grain of truth, but both are also too simple in many ways.  After struggling with this passage, I would submit that it is in fact, ultimately, a story about giving thanks in a broken world.

We don't know what Cain's attitude was as he made his offering.  All we can do is guess at his frame of mind. We can only assume that for some reason, whatever it might have been, God did not like the gift Cain brought and rejected it,while accepting Abel's gift.  Remember, this is the fourth chapter of Genesis: That unpredictability is the reality of a world caught up in sin. That unfairness was the brothers' inheritance from Adam and Eve.

And yet...God holds forth grace.  Think about the words of verses 6-7:

The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it."

Is this not the same tone that a parent or teacher, a coach or a mentor, might take when telling a young person,"I know you made a mistake, I know you missed the mark, [maybe even] I know that you failed. But try again, and you will do better. Don't let this defeat you."

What God wanted Cain to do was to remain thankful even when things went badly for him.  In a work of fiction Cain might have learned his lesson and taken a different path.  However, this story was not destined to be wrapped up with a bow; instead, the scripture plainly admits the truth. Cain fails at the task God has set before him and instead goes on to become our ultimate counter-example - the first murderer in human history.

It would be up to another ancient man in the Old Testament to  persevere and be an example of thankfulness in the midst of a broken world.  That man was Job.  

After losing his flocks, his herdsmen and servants, his sons and daughters, Job still managed to utter these words: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."

There are few words in the Bible harder than that to say, but many of us have had to learn to say them.  In our broken world, a world of violence, injustice, pain, and death, we are still called to thank God for what we have, and for what He promises us we will have.

Many Christians are familiar with the classic devotional book, My Utmost for His Highest, by Scottish minister Oswald Chambers (1874-1917).  One line of that book has impressed itself upon me throughout the years: "If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart."  How many of us have seen a new day dawn, or a new path open, because of (or despite) something in life which did indeed break our heart?  Yet how often did we remember to thank God for the journey?

Cain did not understand the bigger picture of which he was a part.  But Job did.  And more than that, Jesus did.  In this broken world, in our broken lives, hearts are broken, in many, many ways.  But thank God anyway.  Because He loves you.  And someday, He will bind the wounds, mend the scars, and accept your gift.  He will accept you, forever.

The Enemy

1 Chronicles 21:1a  "Satan rose up against Israel..."

The 21st chapter of the First Book of Chronicles contains, to say the least, a lesser-known Bible story. King David orders that a census be taken to determine the number of eligible and able fighting men in his kingdom. Doing this was unprecedented, and though it may sound completely normal to us from our modern and secular viewpoint, to David's officers this idea was blasphemy. "My lord the king," interrupted Joab, David's trusted counselor, "are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?"

The guilt to which Joab referred was the implication that God could not win a battle for Israel without the existence of a large and powerful army. In counting his available men, David was acting like any other king, not a king who had the King of the Universe on his side; not a king who had seen great victories through providence, regardless of strength in numbers.

God, also, was unhappy with David's actions, and sent a prophet named Gad to him with a message. To atone for his sin David would have to choose among three punishments: three years of famine, three months of defeats at the hands of Israel's enemies, or three days of plague brought by the angel of the Lord. David chooses the plague, and 70,000 died by it. David was left despondent, with the guilt of this destruction upon his own head.

This story in First Chronicles, however, begins with a very important sentence: "Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." One action, seemingly insignificant, seemingly innocuous, by Satan, and a chain of events fall into place causing destruction and despair.

No doubt, Satan has risen up against us, too. It is not the first time, and it will not be the last, but in recent weeks, months, years, Satan has risen up against America and against the world, and almost no one has noticed. The havoc he has brought about is noticed, but his hand in it all is invisible to our jaded and blinded world. We pin blame on any number of things, from guns to racism, from psychoses to socioeconomics, but the evil plaguing our world has a much more specific source: a fallen angel named again and again in holy scriptures.  Satan.

Satan is not brought up in polite society, I've noticed.  In our rational world, even those who believe in God prefer not to think about Satan and all he represents.  We concentrate on the bright side of the supernatural, conveniently forgetting that an evil lurks in the spirit world, meddling day-by-day with our existence. Yet any student of scripture encounters his obvious reality:

• Satan mocked God by questioning the goodness of Job
• Satan accused the high priest in Zechariah's vision
• Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness
• Jesus saw "Satan fall like lightening from heaven"
• Satan bound a woman with an issue of blood for 18 years
• Satan asked to sift Simon Peter like wheat
• Satan entered into Judas, causing his betrayal
• Satan caused Ananias to sin by convincing him to hide the sale of his property
• The thorn in Paul's side was a messenger from Satan
• Paul notes that Satan blocked his way during his travels
• Satan is hurled down to the earth in a vision in Revelation

Few characters in the Bible, quite frankly, are documented as thoroughly as Satan. yet even among many believers he is ignored or seen as a myth. Let's not be deceived -- Satan is real. He continues to be our enemy, and his anonymity is his greatest weapon.

Without Satan there would have been no Dallas sniper, no Minnesota shooting; there would have been no Orlando, no Sandy Hook, no Boston Marathon bombing, no September 11th, no Columbine. These and endless other acts of violence stem back, eventually, to Satan himself. We are in the midst of a horrid spiritual war, yet we do not even acknowledge the enemy. How then can we ever win?

It is high time that we as believers wake up to the existence of our common enemy, and recognize his role in the pain enveloping our world. We need to see the battle as one beyond our ability to fight or win.  We need to call upon God not merely to mend us, but to defeat the enemy who uses us against each other. We need to take heart in the words of the great hymn, which reminds us:

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

The Naked Young Man

Mark 14:51-52  "A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind."

The Gospel of Mark is by far the shortest of the four gospels.  In my Bible it covers a mere 16 pages.  Mark's style is uniquely matter-of-fact and succinct; he is not a writer prone to wavering into side stories or providing extra details for the sake of interest.  His gospel starts with action, and continues rapidly on through to its conclusion.

And yet, with all of the stories of Christ which Mark needs to convey (and indeed, there are many he doesn't convey in this short work), he still takes two of his precious verses to tell this intriguing vignette about a young man who escaped the arrest scene only by losing his clothing in the process.  Surely, this is a detail worth considering, if Mark deigned it worth recording.

Through the experience of this young man, we find an insight into understanding the situation Jesus was cast into that night.  We were not there as eyewitnesses, but we can imagine the scene and the experience through this young man's eyes.  The naked young man, surely, experienced  three things with which Jesus also contended that night: fear, shame, and loss.  

Put yourself into his situation. Though not an apostle this young man was a follower of Jesus, a dangerous role at any point, but never as much as now.  We are told that, “A crowd armed with swords and clubs” had come to arrest Jesus (v. 43).  Nothing good was going to come of this.  It was clear to all involved that this was a life or death situation. The execution of Jesus was probably a foregone conclusion, and anyone caught with him may very well suffer the same fate.

"The Betrayal of Christ," by Antonio Correggio, c. 1522

As he watches older and wiser men run away in fear, what choice does the young man have but to also flee? However, he is almost caught. Wearing only one garment, he gets away simply because he tears free of the cloth the mob members grabbed hold of.

Imagine running off into the night without a bit of clothing on you, and as a fugitive, no less.  Surely his first reaction was fear.  Where is he going to go?  What is he going to do?  You can hide a lot of things in this world; but you can’t hide being stark naked.  How will he get back to the other disciples? Where would they even have gone? Imagine the baffling situation of being on the run and also being naked.  It had to be a terrifying experience.

Yet, as he is dealing with this, Jesus is dealing with fear as well.  He knows what is coming – the beatings, the nails, the crucifixion.   Divine plan or not, Jesus still must feel it all, as a mortal man. He will die, and die a gruesome death.  What intense fear he must have felt?

Secondly,  the young man surely dealt with shame.  Ever since the Garden of Eden, nakedness has represented shame.  His primary shame would have come from his nakedness; but shame also came from abandoning Jesus in his worst hour. None of us would have done any better.

Similarly, Jesus endured shame as he was beaten and mocked. He is divine, and yet he was subjected to complete humiliation.

As the young man grappled with fear and shame, he also faced loss. He had lost his teacher, his leader, and in fact his overall purpose in life. He ran away naked, not only physically, but spiritually.  Jesus Christ, however, was losing so much more. He had lost his physical freedom, he had lost his followers, and of course it was rather clear he would soon lose his life.

We can learn from the naked young man because he acts as a bridge between us, living in comfort and safety, and the Messiah entering into that dark and fated day.  The King James Version quotes the prophet Amos as saying, “And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day, saith the Lord.” (2:16)  Like all the disciples, and also like us, the naked young man was painfully human.  And yet so was Jesus Christ; painfully human, even if, indeed, divine. Nevertheless, he subjected himself to the fear, the shame, and the loss, if for no other reason than that we might avoid all three, in a better life that is to come.

A Stark Choice

Luke 23:42  "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

In 2010 I gave a guest sermon for Good Friday.  I took as my inspiration a feature of the church we were attending – three crosses made of steel beams and holding up a bell.  I related this to a set of three crosses standing on a farm near where I grew up, and to such trios of crosses I had seen elsewhere across America over the years.

My question was this:  What would a non-Christian think of this symbol?  What do three crosses standing together signify to someone whose understanding of our faith is limited to what they hear in popular culture?  Moreover, how many people in the pews on any given Easter morning really understand what is meant by three crosses clustered together?

I like to think that most people relate the cross as a Christian symbol.  Would three crosses confuse them?  Would they think we worship three gods?  If someone had heard of the idea of “Trinity,” might they think there was a tie-in here?  Or maybe they might think that three crosses are simply better than one.

 

Greencastle Church of the Nazarene - photo by Becca Sampson

Of course, three crosses represent the story of Christ’s crucifixion, whereby two criminals were executed on either side of him.  (Luke 23:32-43)  One the criminals mocked Jesus, while the other defended him.  The two criminals, in many ways, represent all of the human race in our relationship with God.

First of all, each of us has sinned.  We all have rebelled against the laws of God.  We are all, therefore, in need of forgiveness, as judgement awaits us otherwise.

From there, however, the similarities end.  In the face of God’s existence a certain portion of the human race sneers and mocks.  To these people, even the certainty of death cannot overcome their flawed human selfishness and arrogance.  “One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’”

Yet others realize their frailty and their fault, and seek humility from within themselves and mercy from God.  “‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’  Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’”

It is a stark and simple choice.  One leads to death, the other to life.  One comes from our human brokenness, the other stems from our yearning for grace.  One is a dead end, the other an open door.  This Lenten season, let’s remember the words of the penitent thief, that we might be assured of mercy, just as Jesus answered on that fateful day: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”