Text: Genesis 4: 8-16

What’s your all time favorite beach read, the book that you enjoyed the most sitting by the ocean or on a deck looking over the lake?  Last summer, National Public Radio listeners came up with a list of their all time favorites. The Harry Potter Series was the number one pick with the all time classic, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee coming in as a close second. The list was a mix of classics and contemporary reads and two that made the top 50 are connected with our lesson today.  Coming in at 32nd on the list was East of Eden by John Steinbeck.  Six spaces beneath Steinbeck’s classic was Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove.  In a moment, I’ll tell you about the connection. But first, let’s have a brief review for those who are new, for those who missed last week’s installment or for those who’ve forgotten everything I said last week.

This is the second summer that I’ve offered a sermon series titled Beach Reads. Beach reads or summer novels are those big, blockbuster stories in which you are caught up. Sometimes, they are filled with amazing stories which simply don’t happen that way in real life. That was last week’s Beach Read, the story of Adam and Eve. Snakes don’t talk in real life, there aren’t mysterious, magic trees of knowledge and you don’t walk through a garden having a conversation with God. Sometimes however, beach reads are very familiar, describing an experience that could be reported in the morning newspaper or take place in your own family.  Our story this week about Cain and Abel is a realistic, believable story, with perhaps the exception of God’s conversation with Cain.  Our Beach Reads this summer are from the prologue of the Bible, the first 11 chapters of Genesis. It’s called the prologue because the material is “pre-history”, that is to say the events take place prior to any recorded history we can find in other sources.  Pre-history stories are archetypal stories which speak a truth that is timeless. Think of them as stories that answer some of the most basic questions that we ask as human beings, namely, “Who are we?”, “Why am I here?” and “If there is a God, what is God like?” Each of these four stories in this beach reads series answers these questions and they also provide foundational information that shows up later in scripture.  

Last week, the first beach read about creation and Adam and Eve answered these questions. “Who are we?” We are God’s children, created in God’s image, given the freedom to choice between good and evil.

“Why am I here?”  We are here to be in relationship, with God and each other, to have partners.

“What is God like?” God is a God of consequences and a God of grace. God expects His word to be followed but offers grace when we choose poorly. In today’s story and the lesson over the two weeks, these answers are sustained and expanded. So, let’s go to this week’s beach read which begins “Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord.’  Next she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground.” (Genesis 4: 1-2).

A keeper of sheep and a tiller of the ground is the connection with Lonesome Dove.    Larry McMurtry's Beach Read is about a keeper of herds, not a tiller of the ground. It’s a story about Woodrow Call and August McCrae in the late 1800’s, driving a herd of cattle and horses to Montana.  It is a typical beach read because just about everything that could possibly happen does and many of the cattle drive riders don’t make it to the end of the story.  Lonesome Dove is a long novel with dozens of subplots and storylines and one is the tension between tillers of the ground and keepers of herds.  As the Wild West was tamed and settled, violence erupted between farmers and ranchers.  Barbed wire was invented in 1873 to keep herds, cattle to some degree, sheep to a greater degree, off land and away from water. The free range was over.  Violent range wars sometimes broke out as cattle drivers, farmers, and sheepherders found themselves at odds.  It was a violent time and lives were lost because of the tension between the keepers of the herd and the tillers of the ground. 

It goes without saying that this tension existed in cultures throughout the history of humankind and the Bible alludes to this tension. When a drought hit Palestine, the keeper of sheep, Israel, takes his sons to find pasture for grazing. They go to the farmland of Egypt.  The Egyptians were farmers because of the fertile land of the Nile River Delta. That tension between the keepers of sheep and the tillers of the soil eventually led to Israel becoming slaves to Egypt. So the ancient listener to this story would immediately identify with a tension between Cain and Abel.  It is why we learn about Cain’s and Abel’s professions.  It’s tipping us off about the tension between farmers and shepherds not to mention the tension between brothers.  We know that families aren’t perfect and brothers will fuss. Just a few chapters later in Genesis we find the story about Jacob and Esau and their sibling rivalry.  Jesus begins one of his most famous parables saying "There was a man who had two sons” (Luke 15: 11). 

If professional and sibling rivalry isn’t enough, there is one other red flag at the outset of this story and it is found in these two boys names. Cain is related to a word in Hebrew that means “to acquire”.[1]  In Israel today, shopping malls are called “kenyonim”.[2]  Cain is an acquirer. He gets things and holds on to them.  Abel on the other hand means temporary, as fleeting as a breath or vapor, here and then gone, almost like he wasn’t even there.[3] Of course, we know that both describe the very nature of the characters.  Cain is going to hold on to that which he has; Abel gives freely. Cain is tightfisted; Abel, open handed, generous.  You can see then that volumes are said in just that one description of the two brothers. “Now Abel as a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground.” (Genesis 4: 2b). With this prelude, the story describes the conflict that arises between Cain and Abel. “In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 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, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.” (Genesis 4: 3-5).

It is important to note that the seed of this conflict is planted during worship. Early worship was presenting an offering to God.  There wasn’t singing or prayer. There wasn’t reading of scripture or a sermon. It was only the offering. There is the recognition from the outset that everything that we have is a gift from God. Primitive worship recognized this by presenting an offering, literally burning up a portion of that which God had given them, in order to say “God is God and I am not.”  When the offering plate passes by today, you need to understand that this was the way worship first started and was considered the very essence of what it means to be in relationship with God. 

I remember reading this story as a teenager and wondering why God punished Cain. When you read it without any background information, it almost feels like God isn’t being fair, that God is picking on Cain. Both of them brought gifts; both of them put something into the offering.  Why did God not hold in high regard the gifts of Cain?  There is a clue and if you don’t know the Bible and the ancient Hebrew culture, you might miss it. Scripture challenges us to bring the first fruits of the harvest.  In numerous places throughout scripture, we are instructed to “bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me." You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 26:10). Cain presented some of the fruit of the ground, but not the best, not the first fruits.

On the other hand, his brother Abel brought the very best, the fatling. We are supposed to stay away from fat to protect our heart but the fatling was considered the very best, like veal, a young animal made fat for slaughter.  Again, you’ll remember in the story that Jesus tells about brothers, and when the youngest returns, the father slaughters a fatted calf to celebrate. Abel brought the best when he made his offering. The author of Hebrews said:  “By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s.” (Hebrews 11: 4a.) 

God sees what happens.  One wanted to give God the very best and one wanted to give God leftovers. God’s disappointment had nothing to do with the value of the gift and everything to do with the heart of the gift. Cain was living out his name—the acquirer, holding on to that which he’d created, thinking it belonged to him.  Abel was living out his name, giving away the very best, knowing that what he had was temporary. When Cain saw what his younger brother brought, he was embarrassed with his gift and became defensive.   “So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen?’” (Genesis 4: 5b-6).

Every time I choose poorly and it probably happens too often, I know there is a moment when everything would have turned out differently. Hindsight is that way, whether in business or living a Christian life. This is that moment for Cain. If he’d simply stopped to answer that question, the second half of the story would have never been written. He was angry with himself. But instead of answering God’s question, Cain’s anger at his brother grows.  So God says, “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.’”  (Genesis 4: 7) Remember in last week’s story we said that we are created to have choices and God is giving Cain the choice.

What makes us look like God, what makes us authentically human created in His image is the ability to choose. We have the freedom to choose between right and wrong, good and evil and God wants Cain to make the right choice. Freedom defines us. What did he do with his freedom? “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.” (Genesis 4:8). It’s not just the first death in the Bible, it is the first murder and it is premeditated. Because of this premeditated decision, the conscious choice by Cain, this becomes the heart of the story.   

God comes to Cain and asks a question that it is so simple and searing that almost everyone knows this verse of scripture.   “Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is your brother Abel?’ He said, ‘I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?’” (Genesis 4: 9).  God was giving Cain the same opportunity that he gives each of us, the identical opportunity that he gave Adam when he met him in the Garden, the opportunity to confess.  Instead, Cain chooses to smart off.  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  The answer is yes; yes you are. It’s what we learned in the first story and it is what we will discover throughout scripture.  We are created to be in relationship, to care for one another while we tend the garden. We are called to love God and love neighbor.  Jesus will tell a parable about who is your neighbor, the Good Samaritan after a lawyer wants to argue about whether or not he’s a neighbor. Yes, you are your brother/sister/neighbor’s keeper. 

“And the Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen; your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground!’”  (Genesis 4:10).   Do you hear the pain in that?  Do you hear God’s agony?  God cares about our decisions and it deeply grieves God when we choose poorly. God is a grieving father weeping, wailing in pain over the spilling of the blood of his son Abel. In the Old Testament, the life of a person or an animal was in the blood. So Abel's life is crying out to God.  As I’ve said, these stories are foundational stories upon which scripture builds and it is this moment when we can begin to understand the absolute agony and torment felt by God when Jesus died on the cross.  The author Hebrews understands this when he says, Jesus “sprinkled blood cries out louder than the blood of Abel.” (Hebrew 12: 24).

In agony, God responds to Cain the way God responded to Adam and Eve. God is the God of consequences.   God says to Cain “the ground is now cursed for you. You can’t be a farmer. 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."  (Genesis 4: 12).  For Cain to survive, he has to take his brother’s career. He’s going to have to be a keeper of sheep, to wander, looking for pasture for his herds to feed. 

Cain begs for mercy because he feels like his punishment is greater than he can bear and as a fugitive, he will be killed by the first one that recognizes him. So God assures Cain that this won’t happen.  “Then the Lord said to him, ‘Not so! 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.”  (Genesis 4: 15).  

The story ends with Cain departing from the presence of God and settling in the land of Nod.   God has granted him grace, the opportunity to make a life and he does.  He marries and they have a child, Enoch.  Enoch gave Cain grandchildren and great grandchildren and they did same. Eventually, four generations later, Cain’s great, great, great, grandchildren are born. Jubal, who is the ancestor of the harp and flute, Tubal-Cain, who discovered how to use bronze and iron and Tubal-Cain’s sister name Naamah, which simply means beautiful. Even after the sin of murder, God offers grace to Cain and his family flourishes in the land of Nod.  And where is that? Somewhere east of Eden.

It is why John Steinbeck used it as the title for his beach read, the 32^nd most popular novel according to the NPR list. If you read East of Eden, you know it is the retelling of the story of Cain and Abel, done through the conflict between two sets of brothers. The first set is Adam and Charley, the second Cal and Aron.  It’s a tragic novel just like the story of Cain and Abel is tragic. The only real character that brings humor to the book is Adam’s Chinese housekeeper, Lee.  People called him “Chink” or “Ching Chong” and talk to him as if he didn't speak English when in fact he was fluent in it.  

In the middle of the book, Adam has a conversation with Lee and he begins telling the story of Cain and Abel. Then Steinbeck has Lee sum up the truth of his novel and the truth that’s found in our Bible beach read.   “It’s easy out of laziness, out of weakness, to throw oneself into the lap of a deity, saying ‘I couldn’t help it, the way was set.’ But think of the glory of the choice. That makes a man a man.  A cat has no choice; a bee must make honey. There’s no godliness in that.” He goes on to make the point that what differentiates us from animals is that we have the ability, the freedom to choose.  The Hebrew word “Timshel” figures prominently in the novel which literally means, “thou mayest.” At the end of this conversation, Lee adds these words, “These sixteen verses are a history of humankind in any age, culture or race.” [4]

What Steinbeck is saying through his character is what we’ve started this sermon series with, the description of these Bible beach reads as being archetypal stories. They speak a universal truth that is timeless, that resonates with ancient people and people living in the 21^st century because each answers the questions, "Who are we?”, “Why am I here?” and “If there is a God, what is God like?”

“Who are we?”  We are created in God’s image which means that we are given the freedom to choose. We aren’t predestined to be bad or good. We are given choice. We can choose, to be Cain or to be Abel.

“Why am I here?” We are here to be in relationship, with our brother and with God.  We honor the relationship with God by worshiping Him with a sincere heart and by being our brother’s keeper, by caring for our neighbors, our brothers and sisters. 

“What is God like?” God is a God of consequences and a God of grace. God expects His word to be followed and literally agonizes when we sin, cries out “what have you done?” God cares about our choices.  But God also offers grace when we choose poorly.

It is the pattern of these stories.  Adam and Eve choose poorly; there are consequences for their sin and there is grace.  Cain chooses poorly; there are consequences for his sin and there is grace. We will see the same the next week when we see that humanity was choosing poorly; the world was filled with wickedness.  The Flood is the consequence the new world, the grace.

You can see that pattern in the story and I hope you see the pattern in your life. We are given the freedom of choosing. Sometimes we do well; sometimes we choose poorly. There are always consequences but there is always grace.

That’s good news for every one of us sitting here today, a personal reminder of the Good News that is revealed in our Lord and Savior Jesus. At the outset, before history was recorded, we learn what will ultimately be told in person by Jesus himself. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how far you’ve wandered, no matter how evil you think you’ve been, when you return to God, there are consequences but there is always grace.

That’s not just a great beach read; it’s truth to live your life.