We are back in Genesis today and walking through the Bible,
Genesis chapter 4. And we've just as a reminder,
the last time we were in Genesis, we were in chapter 3,
which was the fall Adam and Eve deciding to ignore God's
instruction. God said there's one tree in the
garden you can't eat the fruit from.
That's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And they ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. And just as God promised death
enter the world, God said you will surely die if you eat fruit
from this tree. And now we get to Genesis
chapter 4 and we see another way in which God's promise is being
fulfilled and carried out. Cain and Abel have been born,
Adam and Eve's first two children, and there is rivalry
between them. And thank you, John, for reading
that. We're going to read some more of
that story and some other portions of it as we go on here.
But we're going to focus today really on this aspect of shame,
mercy and shame, shame, sin and the mercy of God.
I want to review the story though, as we do it because this
is one of those stories that it's this is one of those
stories. Even folks that have no church
background have often heard something about Cain and Abel
and something about how Cain killed his brother Abel.
And it's easy to miss some significant things when we
overhear a story. Sometimes it's also easy to miss
some miss some significant things when we don't catch the
cultural nuances that are embedded in a story.
And those are the easiest to miss because our eyes don't even
see those sometimes unless we get help from people that have
those same eyes. And the ancient Near Eastern
culture and which these stories were first written down as very
different and it was told even before they were written down is
very different than 21st century American culture.
And so we're going to look at a couple of those things today.
But we know this. We know Cain was born and Eve
rejoiced. God has helped me make a man.
And then Abel was born and that's all we know about Abel
really. His name Abel and, and his name
means nothing. And well, his name means
something, but the something that his name means is nothing.
His name literally means nothing.
Imagine that legacy from your parents.
Here's Cain, this man, this fruit of this what?
Cain got all the honor, Cain got all of the glory, and Abel
literally was nothing to them. And then they reached a time, we
don't know how long it had passed, but at some point in the
course of time, Cain and and Abel brought an offering to God.
And God looked with favor upon Abel and his offering and did
not look with favor upon Cain and his offering.
And this, this notion of looking with favor on is anytime we see
in the Old Testament and much of the New Testament and we see
looking on someone or something, or a description of a person's
face being torn toward or away from someone or something, we're
in the realm of honor and shame. You've heard of saving face and,
and gaining face and keeping face.
And what people did with their faces was to give or deny honor
to another human being. So when God looked with favor
upon Abel and his offering, God was giving honor and glory to
Abel, sharing his own honor and his own glory with Abel.
And when God wouldn't even look at Cain's, and Cain and his
offering wouldn't even look at him, God was casting shame upon
Cain and his offering. He was dishonouring him.
He was denying Cain and his offering glory.
Why, why, why did God accept Abel and his offering and reject
Cain and His offering? We don't know for sure, but
there are and there are a number of different theories.
As I've looked and studied and prayed through this, I'm going
to give you the one that I think makes the most sense given what
the Scripture says. And what the scripture says is
this. And again, it's subtle, but I
think it's there. Now.
Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil.
In the course of time, Cain brought some of the fruits of
the soil as an offering to the Lord.
So in the course of time, Cain brought some stuff that he grew
and gave it to God. That's the description of Cain's
offering. The description of Abel's
offering is very different. Abel also brought an offering
fat portions from some of the first born of his flock.
Now the law, later when we get the law hundreds of years after
this, when God gives the law to his people, the Israelites
through Moses, and God describes when you bring me offerings,
this is what you need to bring. None of that had happened yet.
That law was not the only rule that we even know of.
The only commandment that we even know of at this point is
God saying to Adam and Eve don't eat from the fruit of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.
That law, that command that already been broken, they were
cut off from that. That was done.
That was done and was still having its impact and continues
to have its impact. Yet Abel somehow, in his heart
and in his spirit and in his attitude, reflected the very
thing that God later said is what he wanted explicitly.
When you bring me an offering, bring me the best, Bring me the
first fruits. That was what the law became.
Whether it's a grain offering or an animal sacrifice, bring me
the 1st and the best of what you have.
And that's what Abel brought. He brought some of the first
born of his flocks and he brought the best portions of the
first born, the fat portions. Abel offered God the best that
he had. Cain offered God some of what he
grew. There's a very, there's a huge
gulf in difference between those those two things.
Abel was showing God had priority in his life, that
honoring God and worshiping God and glorifying God was central
and important. And so he gave to God some of
the best of what he had and the first of what he had received.
Cain at some point in time just gave God some of stuff that got
some of the stuff that he had received.
We don't know that it was the best, probably wasn't, or we
would have been told that like we were told that of Abel's.
There is with Cain a sense that there's no real priority here.
There's no real importance here. Maybe he was giving to God out
of a sense of duty rather than a sense of love.
Maybe it was an obligation that he felt he had to do and he
resented it. So well, if I've got to give
something to God, you know, I'm just going to give enough to get
by, but not enough to really be a sacrifice for me.
I think that's what was going on here.
Abel was honoring God by giving the best of what he had to God.
And so God honored Abel with his favor, with his glory, and Cain
dishonored God, so God dishonored Cain.
Now here's the thing. Shame in our culture.
Shame in our culture has become an incredibly toxic thing, and
it's used almost exclusively to punish.
It's used punitively. We talk and hear a lot about
cancel culture these days, and cancel culture is all about
shame. You find one shameful thing that
a person has done in their past, and you pummel them with it.
You cut them out of any influence.
You cut them out of any status. You cut them out of any group
where they might receive honor and respect.
You humiliate them and degrade them.
And you just keep doing that. And there's no recovering from
it now. Millennials aren't the people
and you know, aren't they didn't invent shame.
And the the term cancel culture is new, but this process is not
new. Human beings have been doing
this for generations, using shame punitively to punish
people and cut them out and, and, and shun them sometimes for
the rest of their lives. God never uses shame that way.
God only ever uses shame to restore people, to say to
people, look, this is not good. This violates the standards of
community that I want to create. And so if you're going to behave
this way, I'm going to turn away from you.
But it's always with the invitation to come and be
restored. And that's what God did for
Cain. Cain, when God rejected him,
when God shamed him, dishonored him, Cain then received that
with anger. We're told Cain was angry and
his face was downcast. This is a sign of shame.
A downcast face in the Scripture is a sign of shame.
And God, Cain, it's as if Cain is saying, God, if you're not
going to look at me, I'm not going to look at you.
You're going to turn away from me.
I'm going to turn away from you. But God wouldn't turn away from
Cain, not completely. And he came.
God's heart was for Cain to come to him, Say, God, what have I
done? How can I be restored to your
honor, restored to your grace, restored to the right status in
my relationship with you? But Cain just got angry and
turned away, and God went to Cain.
Why are you angry? Why are you downcast?
Why are you refusing to look to me?
All you have to do is do what's right and it will go well for
you. You'll be restored to honor.
You too will receive my glory. But if you do, what's wrong?
Sin is right there, and it wants to rule over you.
It wants to master you. It wants to dominate and control
your life. But you must master it and
control it. It was invitation came come back
to me, do things my way. But this doing what's right,
this doing what's right. The key thing here is that that
doing what's right in this context is not following the
rules. It's not there.
As far as we know, there are no rules for him to follow it.
We don't know what if God gave any rules about offerings?
We don't we, we were not told about it at this point.
So God isn't saying to Cain, if you be a good boy and follow the
rules, then I will be nice to you.
But if you're a bad boy and don't follow the rules, then I'm
not going to be nice to you. That's not what God is saying
the word right here. The root of that is
righteousness. And righteousness is not
primarily or even mostly about following moral or religious
rules. Righteousness is about right
relationship. Got to say, Cain, if you will
live in right relationship with me and right relationship with
others, then things will go well with you.
But you haven't been living in right relationship with me.
You've been treating me like a duty, like an obligation, like I
don't really matter and the first and most important thing
in your life God is saying is to have right relationship with me.
Cain had had all of the glory and his family.
He'd had all the glory and Abel had nothing.
Abel was nothing. And now Abel had the glory and
Cain was feeling like nothing and he was angry and he wanted
his glory back. And God was saying the best way
for you to get glory is from me. Just come to me, honor me, and I
will share my glory with you. I will share my honor with you,
live and write relationship with me and others, and I will give
you all the glory you need. But Cain had a different plan.
He was not interested in being restored by God.
He was not interested in receiving glory from God.
He wanted to achieve his own glory.
That was King's plan. He wanted to do it his way.
Does that sound familiar? Adam and Eve wanted to do it
their way. Now their son Cain wants to do
it his way. And his way to gain glory for
himself was to defeat his rival, his brother Abel.
If I kill Abel, then I've overthrown my enemy.
His glory is now my glory. And that's what he did.
I think that's extreme. People don't do that.
Yes, they do. Yes, we do.
We do. We do.
We try as hard as we can so
often to achieve glory in our own lives.
The easiest place to see this is in sports.
It's easiest place. Who gets all the glory?
The teams that win. Who gets all the shame?
The teams that lose. Sadly, I'm a Browns fan.
I've learned a lot about shame over the past decades of my life
and a Reds fan. Also a lot of shame over the
past decades. Every year.
Every year, I wish I I stopped short of praying for it.
Even at a young age, I kind of knew God isn't interested in
hearing my prayers for the Browns or the Reds to win, but I
wish for the Browns to humiliate the Steelers every year.
Every year. It's so seldom happens.
I was on.
I played sports in high school. Our teams were terrible. 8th
grade, my basketball team lost every game.
We got beat 66 to 16 in one game.
I missed 14 free throws that game, which was all of the free
throws I took. We were terrible.
It was embarrassing. We were humiliated.
The way to get honor, the way to
get glory. You win it by beating your
opponents. And in the world of sports now,
even college sports, that brings honor, it brings glory, it
brings wealth, it brings power, it brings influence, It brings
more wealth that glory of winning, of defeating your
opponents. And we know with all of that
money at stake, even when there's not even down at Youth
League sports, we see people cheating, we see people bending
the rules, we see people doing just so they can so that their
kid can win glory over someone else's kid out on a baseball
diamond or a basketball court or a football field someplace.
You get up to the pro level sports and it just gets worse.
It just people cheat people like people bend to the rules.
We sometimes we hear about it and we know about it and then we
fingers get shaken and nothing really changes because they're
making a lot of money and they're winning a lot of glory.
And yes, I'll say it right here. The ball was deflated.
It's true. People cheat.
John got that joke.
Thank you, John. Even violence, we don't hear
about it as much. I don't know how often we know
what occurs. The clearest example is in the
sport. We are the least likely to ever
imagine it being there as women's figure skating.
Some folks here are old enough to remember Nancy Kerrigan.
And I just drew a blank. Tonya Harding.
Thank you. I wanted to never mind who.
I wanted to say another person. Tonya Harding and they were
rivals. Nancy was always a little bit
better or seemed to be doing a little bit better.
And they were heading into the US Championships to see who
would have the highest rank going into the Olympics.
And Tonya Harding's ex-husband, Galuli partnered up and
conspired with Tonya Harding's trainer, and they hired a hitman
to injure Nancy Kerrigan to keep her from competing so that Tonya
Harding would carry all the glory and all of the status and
all the favor and hope of America into the Olympics.
Didn't quite work out the way they planned, but that's Kane's
way. I'm going to get glory for
myself. Forget God's glory.
I'm going to get glory. I'm going to achieve it for
myself by defeating my enemy, no matter what the cost.
I'll stand on my brother's shoulder shoulders.
I'll stand in his blood on the ground to achieve glory for
myself. That's Cain's way.
Cain's way is the way of death. When we strive to achieve glory
and honor and respect for ourselves, we're following in
Cain's path. And that's the way of death,
because the way to achieve glory for ourselves is by conquering
our enemies. If we want to achieve glory for
ourselves, we have to take it from someone else.
We have to stand on someone else's back, put our boot on
someone else's neck to lift ourselves up and say we are
better, we are more honorable, we are more glorious than those
that are beneath me. And that's pervasive not just in
American culture, but culture throughout the world.
To achieve glory on the backs of those weaker and more
vulnerable, at any cost and at any means.
That's Cain's way, and it's the way of death.
God's way is completely different.
God's way for us to receive glory is to come to Him for us
to give our glory and our honor, our praise, our allegiance to
God, and then God will share His glory with us.
We get glory not by achieving it, but by receiving it from
God, by being adopted into His family, by being in right
relationship with Him. And God gives us His glory, and
the glory that we have is not something we've earned, not
something we've achieved, but something we've received by
being in right relationship with God.
And to be in right relationship with God, we also have to be in
right relationship with others under the old covenant, the
covenant of the New Testament, that covenant relationship with
God. God said give me the sacrifices,
show me the honor, show me the glory that I have.
That I have earned as the one who has created you, the one who
has sustained you, the one that delivered you from slavery in
Egypt, has given you this promised land.
Give me the honor and glory and praise that I have shown that I
deserve. I'm worthy of for because of all
of that. And I will give you my peace and
my prosperity and my justice. Well, my justice.
That's a partnership because part of being in right
relationship with God then as now, is in how we treat those
around us. And part of the way we honor God
is not just by the sacrifices, not just by the offerings, but
by how we treat others, particularly the weak and the
vulnerable who live among us and near us and around us.
Whether they are friends, whether they are enemies,
whether their skin is our color or another color, whether they
speak our language or another language, regardless of their
status, where we show them justice and respect and dignity
as God has shown us. And that's part of the covenant.
God says live in that right relationship with one another,
and I will share my glory with you.
You will be a light. You will be a city on a hill.
You will be glorious in this world if you honor me and treat
those around you with dignity and respect and humility.
Jesus clarified that and emphasized that there were a lot
of rules that God gave Moses for the Israelites in those days,
and Jesus narrowed it down. He said, let's keep it simple to
fulfill all the law and the prophets.
Here's what you need to do. Love God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your
strength. And love your neighbor as
yourself. Someone asked Jesus, well, who's
my neighbor? Who am I required to love in
order to receive the peace and prosperity and glory of God?
And Jesus said, well, let's think about that.
And he told a story. You know the story, you know the
story. The man was traveling from
Jericho to Jerusalem, and bandits came upon him and they
stole, they, they beat him. They left him for dead.
And they took all he had. And then the priest came by and
the Levite came by, and they didn't want to have anything to
do with this man. And then the Samaritan came by.
The Samaritan was the man's enemy.
He was a cultural enemy. He was religiously different,
culturally different, ethnically different, politically
different, morally different. The Samaritans and the Jews were
enemies. But this Samaritan stopped and
he cleaned the man's wounds and he poured wine on them to
disinfect them, and he bandaged him and he put the man on his
own beast and he took him to Jerusalem and he took him to an
end and he put him up in the end.
And he said, here, care for this man, here's the money you need.
I'll come back later. If you've spent more money than
I've given you, then I'll pay you back then, but care for him.
And Jesus said to the guy that asked him, who's my neighbor?
He said, who was that man's neighbor?
Who was neighbor to that man? The guy couldn't bring himself
to say the word Samaritan. He hated the Samaritans.
All he could bring himself to say was the one who showed him
mercy. And Jesus said, yes, you go and
do the same. Stop worrying about who is my
neighbor. Stop asking that question, Jesus
said, and start asking your question.
The question who out there can I be a neighbor too?
Who out there who do I have not? Who do I have to love, but who
is in need of love that I can share love with?
Not who do I have to show mercy, but who is in need of mercy that
I can show mercy to? Who can I be a neighbor to?
That's God's way. That's the doing right that God
was talking to Cain about honoring God above all.
And the best way to show honor to God is, is to treat others
with dignity and honor and respect.
Then we'll be doing the right thing and things will go well
for us because that's God's way, and God's way is the way of
life. God's promise to the Israelites
was Shalom, peace and prosperity.
Follow my way and I will bless you with peace and prosperity,
and you will be a light to all the nations, a blessing to all
the world. And Jesus expanded it to
everybody, not just the Israelites.
Do it God's way, do it my way. Love God with everything you
have, and your neighbor is yourself, and you will be a
light to the world. You'll be a light to the world.
My glory will make you shine. The question we then have to ask
is which way will we choose? Which way will we choose?
And that choice matters, and it matters more than just for us.
Now this is Father's Day and this, believe it or not, I
haven't said Father's yet, but this is a Father's Day sermon
and I don't want to talk to the fathers here other folks can
listen to. That's fine.
It's it's for you as well. Like the Mother's Day sermon was
for everybody, but I was kind of talking to the moms Father's Day
sermon. It's for everybody when I'm
going to talk to the dad. We leave a legacy by whether we
do right or do wrong as God defines those things.
Adam and Eve abandoned their right relationship with God and
did things their way, and they left a legacy to Cain that he
was carrying on God. Even as God was punishing Cain
for murdering his brother, God was casting him out of his
presence, was denying him the fruit of the land.
And Cain said anyone who finds me will know that I'm no longer
under your protection and they will kill me.
And God said, no, you forfeited your right to be in my presence,
but you are still mine. I will put my mark on you so
that folks will know you're still under my protection.
You still belong to me. Cain.
Even at that point, God was showing mercy.
Cain left a very different kind of legacy, the legacy of his own
way, the way of death. We read a few verses down in
Genesis chapter 4 and we come to 1 of Cain's descendants.
Lamech. I counted it out the other day.
I should have written it down. I thought I'll remember.
I don't remember. He's either Cain's great, great,
great grandson or great, great, great, great grandson.
I don't remember. It's a few greats in there,
maybe 5 greats, 3 to 5 greats. It's in there that range
someplace. We read this about Lamech.
Lamech had two wives, Ada and Zilla, and Lamech said to his
wives Adah and Zilla, listen to me wives of Lamech, hear my
words. I have killed a man for wounding
me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged 7 times, then
Lamech 77 times. Cain left his descendants a
legacy of death, a legacy that says if you want honor and
glory, you achieve it by overthrowing your enemies.
Someone hurts that you, you kill them.
Someone wounds you, you kill them.
You never take second place. You never accept dishonor or
disgrace. You achieve for yourself the
honor and glory, all the honor and glory that you can,
regardless of the cost to those around you.
This was a legacy. This is not an accident.
Friend of mine, a woman I very much respect, name is Kimberly
Butler, taught me about what some people call generational
curses. Have you heard of that before?
You can use a lot of different language to describe it, but
look in your own family trees and your own family histories up
and down and look for repeated broken, dysfunctional behavior,
things that you know, my grandparents struggled with that
and my parents did that and doggone and I'd do it and I'm
seeing it my kids now. I can see that stuff in my
family worrying is one of mine. I wear my mom was a warrior, my
grandmother was a warrior. I have parents, grandparents on
both sides that are warriors. There's some more in city.
Well, that's pretty insidious where he does a lot of damage.
I can look through some of my family history and see alcohol
and drug addiction repeated in one generation after another.
I can see that that's not an accident.
That's how sin works. It it it once it gets a hold of
us, we pass it on. God described it for us this way
in Exodus chapter 20 when he was trying to instruct his children,
his people, on what a high priority they needed to keep God
in their lives to make God the first priority.
And one of the things that God said was this.
He said, for I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing
children for the sin of their parents.
To the third and 4th generation of those who hate me now, this
is not God being petty. This is not God saying you broke
the rules and I'm mad at you and I'm going to punish you and I'm
going to punish your kids and your grandkids and your great
grandkids and your great, great grandkids.
God is saying that sin gets passed on when we choose,
particularly when we choose to deliberately go our own way
rather than God's way in whatever aspect of our lives.
We pass that on to our children and our grandchildren and our
great grandchildren and so on. And it just keeps repeating
itself. And it can go way beyond 3 or 4
generations because every generation that repeats it, it
bumps it out more generations after that.
We can leave a legacy of sin, men, women to but it's Father's
Day. Amen to our children.
We can leave a legacy of sin that lasts for generations, or
we can leave a legacy of righteousness.
And this is what God says about that.
Punishing children for the sin of their parents.
To the third and 4th generations of those who hate me but showing
love to 1000 generations of those who love me and keep my
commandments When we choose, and this is the God said to Cain,
you've got a choice. You can choose to go your own
way to a try to achieve your own glory, or you can choose my way.
If you choose my way, that's the way of life.
If you choose the other way, that's the way of death.
And you're going to pass that on.
And generation after, choose my way, choose life.
Choose this way of life where you're not striving to achieve
your own glory, but instead you're striving to love me, and
you're striving to show dignity and honor and respect to
everyone you encounter. And I will give you my glory.
I will share that with you. And you will shine like a city
on a hill. You'll have so much glory.
And that blessing, that blessing will go for 1000 generations.
God's life always overwhelms and overshadows any curse, any
legacy of sin and death. Always.
So which will we choose? Spoiler alert, the best we can
do is mix it. You know, we all mess up.
We all have legacies of sin from our parents.
We all have broken and dysfunctional behavior that we
repeat. And because I'm convinced that I
would be a much better dad now than I was in my 20s and in my
30s, that ain't going to happen. That ain't going to happen.
I still wouldn't be a perfect dad though.
I still have things that are things that I do poorly and do
wrong that I would pass on. But I see my boneheadedness and
some of my kids decisions and behaviors and attitudes and
actions and they recognize it too.
They have they're more aware of it than I was at their age and
and they know where it came from and they tell me we got this
from you, Dad. Yeah, my fault.
But we can choose good as well. We can choose righteousness as
well with the promise and the hope that the righteousness that
we live by being in right relationship with God and others
will be a blessing to our kids and our grandkids for 1000
generations, which sometimes in Scripture, when we see that
#1000 it just means forever. Which way will we choose?
Let's choose the mercy of God, the way of God showing love.
And I, instead of looking at our brothers and saying I'm not my
brother's keeper, they're nothing to me.
They don't matter to me, they're nothing to me.
We look at our brothers and our sisters and our neighbors both
near and far, and our friends and our enemies, and we say I
have a responsibility to love them and show them, to show them
compassion and mercy and give them dignity.
That's God's way, that's God's way, and that's the way of life
in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.