Our World Today
August 11 2013
Ancient events: current repercussions.
The bible is not a history book. The bible is not a handbook for any science, except for theology. The bible simply tells us that God created the cosmos ‘in the beginning’ whenever that may be, of which the human race became a part. It also relates that God gave the human race ownership of creation. There they had a faultless start, but then somehow were enticed to sell God’s creation to God’s enemy. Later God sacrificed his son to redeem (the French bible uses ‘racheter’ which means ‘buying back’ or ‘repurchase’) creation from the grip of his great adversary. Just like a ‘van Gogh’ painting will always be associated with that artist, even though he no longer owns any, so in the same way creation will always be ‘the Lord’s’, even though for the time being ownership has changed.
Colossians 1: 15-20 gives us some insight what took place ‘in the beginning’. Here is my liberal not literal version of what Paul wrote there:
“This human being Jesus of Nazareth is precisely in his unconditional love for humanity the image of the invisible God.
Jesus Christ makes God’s love visible for us and so enables us to experience this love also.
Jesus Christ lived as a human being, reason why God too wants to be seen as a human being. In Jesus Christ we see God at work for us.
As the first-born of the entire creation Christ is the prototype of our humanity.
In his human existence Christ has made clear what God himself has intended for us as well, because the universe, everything that exists, has been created by Christ and for him.
For all of us Christ went through death because, in solidarity with all humans, he would be the first in everything, including the firstborn from among the dead.
Nothing happens in our lives that he himself has not experienced first: sorrow, loneliness, sickness, pain and even death, because in him God has chosen to dwell in his entire fullness to reconcile everything to him by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.”
Here is something that I think is possible. I am always amazed how we humans are so clever, so inventive and artistic and so exceedingly smart. Colossians 1 tells us that everything without exception is the work of Jesus. Based on that I am inclined to think that he, being fully human and possessing ultimate wisdom and knowledge, called, as the first human being ever, everything into existence. He created us in his image, which to me suggests that we not only look like him, but also have some of the brainpower he possessed, which accounts for the fabulous accomplishments we as the human race have achieved.
Let me backtrack a bit to Adam and Eve and especially Cain and Abel, the first sons of Adam and Eve. These two young men represent an eternal motif: good versus evil: God versus Satan. Cain and Abel are two siblings as different as brothers can be. Cain was a man of action who worked the land, tamed animals. Abel was a shepherd, slow in pace, contemplative, not a go-getter. Somehow Abel understood God’s plan for creation, relied on God’s law, studied the way of nature, and marveled at God’s goodness.
Cain was different. Because his parents had insisted, he too went through the routine of worship but really thought offering an animal to God pretty silly stuff. He noticed Abel’s contentment, his happiness, his lack of uptightness and realized his own anxiety and his own restlessness. Cain saw Abel’s close contact with God Creator and his jealousy and anger grew.
The Lord God also spotted Cain’s unhappiness and discussed it with him, something Cain resented. God asked “What’s the matter with you, Cain? How come you are so strained and uncomfortable? You know the way. Your parents have shown you.”
Cain knew the way alright. He also knew that God favoured Abel’s way. Cain started to hate God and his anger centred on his brother. With his mind in turmoil he thought: “I, Cain do all the work aro0und the place. I toil from dawn to dusk and beyond. And Abel, the pious bastard, what does he contribute to the economic wellbeing of our family enterprise?” So, at one time when Abel had forgotten to close the gate and his sheep had accidently strayed into a field ready for harvest, his anger boiled over and he knocked him cold. Abel’s head hit a sharp stone and he bled to death.
When Cain saw what he had done, he left the scene of the accident.
Then God got into the act again.
“Cain, where is your brother Abel?”
Cain kept going. Stubbornly he refused to listen to God. He tried to ignore God, acting as if he did not exist.
“Cain, I know exactly what you are thinking. You may try to ignore me, but that is impossible.”
Stubbornly Cain plodded on. Then suddenly he yelled, “Leave me alone. Am I my brother’s keeper? I don’t know where Abel is and I don’t care.”
“Cain you killed your brother. Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Creation, holy creation groans because of his blood. Do you realize what you have done? Because of this murder you are under a curse and because of Abel’s blood the ground is cursed as well.”
“But God, I couldn’t help it. I don’t deserve such punishment. Your sentence is too heavy. I made an offering to you but you did not want to accept it. I’ll no longer be under your protection and whoever finds me will kill me.”
Then a strange thing happened. God made a promise to Cain. God condemned Cain for killing his brother, yet God protected him, promised him that he would be safe from others. God allowed him to develop his world in the direction he wanted to go.
Why did God give Cain such freedom?
Strange as it may seem, God did this for the sake of his covenant people. God wanted to speed up the development of creation. God wanted a faster pace of progress in the world.
Cain, driven from his fields, uprooted from a slow-moving agricultural life, God gave Cain carte-blanche to bend God’s creation in an effort to mold it into his image.
Until now, until Abel’s blood flowed, God’s protection had enabled life to go on quietly, serenely, imperceptibly slow. There was still a great deal of stability, a good deal of affinity between the human race and God’s creation. Cain had shattered that closeness. He now introduced insecurity, the taste for blood, a desire for revenge. Cain, his arms raised in defiance to God, had broken this covenant bond. No longer does he have a home because murder destroys a home. Now he is a fugitive, a vagabond. Cain, the insecure wanderer, who yet craves for security, Cain is promised protection by God, a God whose existence he denies, in whose promise and covenant he does not believe. The tragedy of Cain, the tragedy of the Human Condition is that the human Cain will always be in search of a home.
So where does Cain search?
Cain turns his eye and his desire to Eden, to the lost paradise, and this too is the perpetual quest for humanity. The search for a home, for Paradise Lost is nothing else but the human desire for God’s presence, the God Cain and humanity in general, rejects. Cain, in search for a home, in search for security, builds a fortified city.
It is now impossible to imagine life without the city. People even in the most remote regions depend on the city. The pensions cheques, the TV programs, our tax notices, they all come from the city. The city, the place of human progress is the direct consequence of Cain’s murderous act and of his refusal to accept God’s protection. Yet without Cain humanity’s progress would have been drastically slower and Jesus’ birth and Second Coming would have been delayed by many millennia.
Cain built a city. For God’s open paradise, Eden, he substituted his closed fort. He called his city Enoch which means New Beginning. Cain is going to make the world over again in his image. God’s creation is seen as nothing. God did nothing. A new start is made, a new beginning. Cain, with everything he does, digs a little deeper the abyss between himself and God. Each solution to a problem becomes a new disobedience, each invention, each remedy a new offense to God. With Cain paradise has become a legend, creation a myth. Cain, in his city called “New Beginning” takes possession of the world, and molds creation to his concepts.
The City, what is it?
The City is a centre of crowds, of churches, of cathedrals, of concert halls and commercial premises. Many people of God live in the cities yet, basically, a city appears to be a place where human desire to exclude God from creation is the prime motive. The city is where people display a remarkable unity to be separated from God. The city is a place built by humans for humans where constant efforts are being made to exclude any divine intervention or power.
Perhaps 50 years ago there was still a country and city separation. Now there is no difference. Food production, with monstrous tractors and so much energy intensive machinery, has become just as heavily dependent upon a total energy packet as the city. The modern farmer is no more than an extension of the city system. Today the globe is basically an immense city. The city now is based on one factor only: economic growth, progress at the expense of creation, progress at the expense of human survival.
Yet the city, Cain’s answer to Eden, to Paradise, is God’s way to prepare his people for the New Jerusalem, the City of God.
The city is now the place through which every Christian has to pass. The City is Our World Today. The World is the City. We must be in the City but not of the City. We must work for the betterment of the City.
For Cain, when he founded the City it was first of all a monument to show his pride and display his defiance to the God whose existence he even denied. Now God has used Cain’s pride and is now using our pride to bring everything to its full potential. The city depends on progress, on permanent economic growth. Once that stalls, the city is in trouble. Detroit is not the only city that no longer functions. Basically all cities everywhere are under a death warrant. All depend on economic growth to pay for the upkeep of its infrastructure, its sewers, water, electricity and roads. Once growth stops, cities degenerate. And growth is stopping. The One Trillion Dollars Bernanke is pumping in the US economy each year is the last desperate gasp to revive the economy by artificial means, and it is not working. Climate Change is the icing on the cake of decay.
We now have entered civilization’s final stage. The Tower of Babel was something God could not tolerate because (Genesis 11:6) “nothing has become impossible for humankind”. Last week I read that people are experimenting with implanting certain ideas into the human mind: nothing now is impossible. Today eerily resembles the visions of Nineteen Eighty Four that dystopian novel by George Orwell published in 1949. In it he visualizes a world of perpetual war – today -, omnipresent government surveillance – today- and public mind control where an ‘Inner Party’ elite – the banks – persecutes all individualism and independent thinking. That to me suggests another Tower of Babel event, something God will not tolerate and in which he will actively intervene by establishing his kingdom.
The City of God is on the way. Cain’s city, that ancient event, is having its repercussions even unto today. It could never last because its foundations are based on human endeavour. The City of God has Christ at its foundation.
Next week, all week, our entire family – some 25 children and grandchildren – are at a retreat in Estes Park Colorado. I will probably have no time to write my column. That’s why this column also is a few days early.