/And the man knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived, and she birthed
Cain, and she said, "I've gotten a man--Yahweh!" Again she gave birth to
his brother, Abel; and Abel was a shepherd of flocks, and Cain was a
worker of the ground. And it was from the end of days and Cain brought
from the fruit of the ground an offering to Yahweh. And Abel brought,
also he, from the first-born of his flock, and of their fattened parts.
And Yahweh looked favorably upon Abel and upon His offering. Yet upon
Cain and upon his offering, He did not look favorably. And much anger
came to Cain, and his face fell. And Yahweh said to Cain, "Why is anger
in you, and why is your face fallen? If you do well, you are uplifted,
yet if you do not do well, at the door sin crouches, and on you is it's
desire, yet you gain dominion over it." And Cain spoke to his Abel, his
brother. And it was when they were in the field, and Cain arose on Abel
his brother, and murdered him. And Yahweh said to Cain, "Where is Abel,
your brother?" And he said, "I don't know. The keeper of my brother, am
I?" And He said, "What have you done? The voice of the blood of your
brother calls out to me from the ground!. And now, cursed are you from
the ground which opens its mouth to receive the blood of your brother
from your hand. /
How do you approach God? How does little ol' you come before the King of
the entire Universe? What can you do to cause the LORD to look favorably
upon your feeble efforts? Questions like these come naturally to mind as
we see the comparison stories in today's lections. The offerings of Cain
& Abel to God are contrasted in today's Lesson. As are the temple
prayers of two men in the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel. In each
case, God speaks favorably of one, not so of the other.
Now, our first instinct is to say, "Just tell me what to *do*" so that I
can do the God-pleasing thing. Well, it's not so simple as all that. If
you expected to hear a great "how-to" sermon which lays out 10 simple
steps to being an God-pleasing Christian, you've come to the wrong
place. Because "how-to" messages are the way of the Law. And the Law
curses as it did for Cain when he murdered his brother. God's law tells
you what to do or not do, but it has no power whatsoever to help you do it.
We should understand that our *doing* is not part of the solution, but
part of the problem! That was Eve's problem in the Garden. She wanted to
"do" what seemed like a good thing, even though God said "Don't". But
she did it anyway, ate the forbidden fruit because if her desire, shared
it with her husband, and they were both kicked out of paradise. Since
then, sin was just crouching at the door to cause more sin, and it found
Cain. Once again, by "doing" the wrong thing and murdering his brother.
Now you may think that the solution to the problem is just to do the
right thing...but you can't. Don't believe me? Well, you may not have
committed physical murder like Cain did, but you've been angry at
someone, called them names, and maybe even wished they were dead! You've
murdered in your heart! And like Cain, when you are confronted with
questions about your sinful attitudes, you put a spin on your actions,
fudging the truth in your favor. You lie and break the 8th commandment too!
It is plain as day that you fail to do only the right things. You sin
much every single day. You commit sins with your thoughts, with your
feelings, with your words, and with your actions. You sin against God by
considering your name, your time, & yourself as more important than Him.
You sin against your neighbor by loving yourself at his or her expense.
The problem is in your sinful heart, which desires sinful things
regularly. Your heart-attitude is stubborn, or selfish, or just plain
nasty at times.
That's the same heart-attitude problem Cain had in his jealousy against
his brother. It's the same heart-attitude problem the pharisee had in
his self-centered, judgmental prayer. So, you see, the solution cannot
come from people like us who have such sin-sick hearts. Yet there must
be hope. Abel was able to do the right thing and give a God-pleasing
offering. The tax-collector in the Temple was able to pray a
God-pleasing prayer. How could these men find a way to approach God rightly?
The answer is: Faith! For it was by a God-given faith that Abel offered
a better sacrifice than his brother. Abel's faith in Jesus testified
that he was righteous man in God's sight! God had made him righteous in
Christ Jesus Who would die for him. He trusted in that Seed-of-Eve, the
man-Yahweh who would one day come to save him. The publican in the
temple trusted in Jesus too for the forgiveness of his sins. You too are
believers who approach the real presence of Christ Jesus, receiving the
blessings of His body given & blood shed for you at the + for your life
and salvation. Amen.
John C. Drosendahl, Pastor
john.drosend...@gmail.com
