Stewardship
1988 (Year B), 30 October /
Pentecost 23
St Peter de Beauvoir Town
‘The day came when Cain brought some of the produce of the soil as a gift to the Lord; and Abel brought some of the first – born of his flock [not just any old part but] the fat portion of them. The Lord received Abel and his gift with favour; but Cain and his gift he did not receive’.
It’s the arbitrariness of it all that seems so unacceptable. It’s downright unjust. No reason is given for this lack of generosity on the Lord’s part. No excuses made. It’s not suggested that Cain had been mean and given less than Abel, or that Cain spent less time thinking about his gift, or that it was less prepared. Simply one gift was accepted. The other wasn’t. It’s as stark as that.
The outcome of course is that Cain kills Abel and Abel’s blood cries out from the ground to the Lord. Cain pretends he knows nothing of what has happened. It doesn’t matter, he’s driven from his land. He becomes a wanderer, a refugee. Cast out from the light of God; out into darkness. Hidden from the Divine presence. It’s too much for him to bear he says. And wherever he goes he carries with him that most famous of marks. The mark of Cain.
Maybe it’s too frightening to think about, just as we’re coming to the end of our Stewardship Programme, but perhaps it is worth a passing look. Maybe we’re the fortunate one and our gift – the one we’ve put in those little envelopes – has been accepted. Heaven help us if it hasn’t. It all focuses the mind a touch doesn’t it? And maybe when we’ve thought about it for a few minutes there might be a few of us queuing up to get the Promise forms back and add a bit more.
And what if it hasn’t? What if our gift hasn’t been accepted? Well then, all kind of thoughts begin to flash before us. ‘Right!’, we might say, ‘If what we’ve offered God isn’t good enough, then we’ll have the whole lot back thank you very much. Just see how they like that. How dare they!’ And if we were to find out that some gifts had been accepted while ours was rejected then there really would be hell to pay. All kinds of incredibly dark emotions really come flooding in then.
And that of course is what the story’s all about. Sure, it’s about the otherness of God. Our Divine Father is not bound by our sense of what is right and wrong. That’s one aspect certainly; but critically it has to with the parts of us that we’d rather not acknowledge. Never mind pretending they don’t exist to God, we can’t even see them ourselves. They’re those parts of us which according to next hymn we ‘hide’. Those things take us to places far away from God’s house. And outside God’s house, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, lovers and friends do become rivals – even enemies, prepared to kill. Each perpetually plagued by jealousies, suspicions and resentments.
But really it’s not the fear of God banishing us that should terrify. Rather, it’s our own attempts to put ourselves beyond the reach of our Father. For, ‘In the house of my father there are many places to live’, Jesus says. Each child of God has there his or her unique place. Even Cain. All of them places of God.
I have to let go of all comparison, all rivalry and competition, and surrender to the father’s love. This requires a leap of faith because I have little experience of non-comparing love and don’t know the healing power of such a love. As long as I stay outside in the darkness, I can only remain the resentful complainant, the result of my comparisons. ‘God loves them more than he does me’. ‘He has given them more gifts than he has me’. Outside of the light of God, my brother and sister seem to be more loved by the Father than I; in fact, outside of the light, I cannot even see them as my own brother or sister.
Cain was hidden and banished from the presence of God. With a mark on him. The truth is that we all bare the mark of Cain. And like Cain the mark will ultimately be our salvation. For Cain it meant safety. It was a sign that anyone who killed him would suffer vengeance seven times over. Cain found that there’s nowhere, even after having killed his brother that he can go, to stand beyond the protection of the Lord. He found ultimately that it wasn’t the mark of Cain at all. It was the mark of the Lord. The Lord’s mark there to protect him and care for him.
This story of these two brothers and the struggles between then is instructive for us. There are of course two other famous brothers. And rivalry that existed between them. One had stayed with his father. The other had gone of to a foreign country and there spent all his money. Both in their own way are strangers in their father’s house. Even the one who stayed. The one who was so deeply hurt. He was the one consumed by anger, jealousy, resentment, ‘you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends’.
On our own there is no way out of this nightmare. The more I try to disentangle myself from the darkness, the darker it becomes. I need light, and the light has to conquer my darkness, and that I cannot bring about myself. I cannot forgive myself. I cannot make myself feel loved. On my own I can’t leave the land of jealousy and anger. I can desire it, of course I can. I can hope for it, wait for it and even pray for it. But the light must be given me or I remain lost. I must be found and brought home by the one who goes out to seek me.
And it’s God who comes, with open arms. God urging us all home, to enter the light. Not to go away. Not to remain in the dark but to discover that there, in Him, all people are uniquely and completely loved. In the light of God I can finally see my neighbour as my brother or sister. The one who belongs as much to God as I do. AMEN