Bible Text: Genesis 4:1-16 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: Genesis | How many of you have ever been to Disney World in Florida?  How many of you have ever been to Disney Land in California?  How about Disney in Tokyo or Paris or Hong Kong?  Well, if you went to any of those places you might have seen an attraction called, “It’s a Small World.”  You know what I’m talking about?  It’s a boat ride through a canal with displays of little mechanical people from all over the world.  The ride is beautiful, it’s colorful, it’s air-conditioned, it’s about fifteen minutes long…and the whole time, they keep playing the same song, over and over.

It’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small world after all, it’s a small, small world.

We might almost be tempted to mock that as one of the lamest songs every written, but did you know that this is believed to be the most performed and translated song in the whole world?  Can you believe it?  That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment—it beat out Amazing Grace and Jesus Loves Me!  Personally, I think the song can get stuck in your head and get a little annoying, and the chorus is rather trite.  But the verses are pretty profound for such a simple song.  Do you know the first verse?

 

It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears

It’s a world of hope and a world of fears

There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware

It’s a small world after all.

 

Isn’t that the truth!  It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears, a world of hopes and a world of fears.  We see that every week in our prayer requests—blessings and concerns, sometimes even in the same sentence!  And I imagine it’s the same in every church.  I think that’s why the “It’s a Small World” song is the most translated song in the whole world—because so much is the same everywhere.  No matter what you go, people experience laughter, tears, hope and fears.  Life is a mix of blessings and hardship.  This is true here, it’s true in Sweden, it’s true in China.  And it’s not just true today.  It was true in 1962 with the song was written, and it’s been true for a long, long time, at least since Cain and Abel were around.  And since Cain and Abel were the children of Adam and Eve, that’s the Bible’s way of saying that as long as people have inhabited the earth, life has been a mixture of blessings and hardship, of sometimes getting more than we deserve, and sometimes getting less than we deserve.

Look at Abel for instance.  The author of Genesis tells us that he did what was acceptable in the sight of God.  Abel gave an offering from his flock of sheep that God approved of.  He did everything right.  But did he get what he deserved?  Heck no, he got killed!  Murdered in cold blood by his own brother for doing absolutely nothing wrong.  He got MUCH LESS than he deserved.

And what about Cain?  Cain killed his own brother, but instead of the whole eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth thing, God provided a place for Cain to live, food for him to hunt and gather, a wife, descendants, and he even set up a special system to protect him in case someone wanted to avenge Abel’s death.  Does it sound to you like Cain got what he deserved?  No!  It sounds to me like he got a whole lot MORE than he deserved.

As a minister, I spend a lot of time trying to answer people’s questions.  Some are easier to answer than others, but there’s one question I never seem able to give a satisfying answer to.  You know what question I’m talking about?  It’s only three little letters, but boy does it pack a wallop.  It’s the WHY question.  Why did this bad thing—death in my family, losing my job, getting diagnosed with a difficult health issue, you name it, why did this bad thing happen to me?  Why didn’t this good thing—finding a spouse, getting a promotion, getting healed—happen to me?  “Why is my life like this?”, we want to know.  We read the headlines and wonder, “Why is the world like this?”

The WHY questions, why did this bad thing happen, why is the world so messed up, those are hard questions, but maybe we have the answer to them right here in Genesis chapter 4.  It’s a Cain and Abel world.  That is why things don’t make sense.  That is why things don’t seem fair.  That is why we don’t always get the good we deserve, and sometimes we get more good than we deserve:  because we live in a Cain and Abel world.  We can do everything right and still get the short end of the stick—just ask Abel.  We can do something really terrible and still experience God’s protection and provision even as we suffer the consequences of our sin—just ask Cain.  Sometimes we get less than we deserve.  But sometimes we get more.  That is a universal truth.

 

It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears

It’s a world of hopes and a world of fears.

There’s so much good we do,

There so much evil, too!
It’s a Cain and Abel world!

 

We get less than we deserve

We get more than we deserve

It’s a Cain and Abel world

Cain and Abel world after all.

 

It’s a Cain and Abel world.  But we also know “This is My Father’s World.”  And no matter what, God is still at work for good in God’s world!

For some reason, God wasn’t pleased with Cain’s sacrifice.  The author of Genesis didn’t explain exactly why.  What the writer did think was important, though, was that God didn’t look the other way about what Cain should do with his anger.  God wanted Cain to do the right thing, and God encouraged Cain that he would be accepted if he did.  God does a little cheerleading for Cain here—but then, God does a little chastening, too.  Come on, Cain, you can do it—make the right choice!  But in the next breath God says, Cain you better watch out.  Sin is lurking at your door.  I want you to make the right choice, and I hope you will. But there’s another option, and it’s right near by.  Beware!  Be on guard!  Master what tempts you, or it will master you.

Clearly, Cain does not master temptation.  Last week, Pastor Karen preached about the comma—about putting a pause between stimulus and action, and that pause, that comma is where the wisdom is.  It sounds like Cain did the exact opposite of wisdom.  Instead of using that comma time to think about how he could overcome temptation, Cain used the comma time to plan how he could kill his brother!  Cain suggested to Abel that they go in the field, and once they got there, Cain murdered him.  The first murder is recorded right there in Genesis chapter 4 verse 8.

It’s interesting that the first murder in human history gets one little verse.  That’s it.  If there were a murder in one of our families, that would get several columns in the newspaper!  That would be traumatic and we would expect a lot of coverage.  But the real drama in this story isn’t the murder but the universal human struggle to make the right choice.  Everyday our choices replay this ancient drama:  which will come out on top—righteousness, or sin?  Doing right, or doing wrong?  Respecting boundaries—or violating them?  Giving our all to God—or giving God something less?

These opening chapters of Genesis remind me of rolling a snowball downhill.  It started with Adam and Eve, eating the forbidden fruit.  Then, Cain got jealous. That led to the first murder.  If you keep reading further in Genesis chapter 4, six generations later Cain’s descendant Lamech not only kills someone, he writes a poem bragging about it.  Things are going downhill quick, and in chapter 6, which we will talk about next week, God will declare things so bad that he is sorry he ever made human beings!  From the very start of the human race, people were prone to choosing sin over righteousness.

But at every turn, the writers of Genesis take great care to show that God is right there in the middle of the action.   The world that is portrayed in Genesis is a world marked by sin and violence, that is true.  But God does not leave the people God created to their own devices.  In a way, we could say that God’s presence with the people snowballs, too.  God is right there with Cain, urging him to make the right choice.  God’s presence and action continue through the whole biblical narrative, with the turning point coming with the birth of Jesus.  Jesus is our model of human faithfulness, and after his death and resurrection, God sent the Holy Spirit to guide and shape us and dwell within us.

Many years ago, when I was pregnant with our son Wes, some ladies from my church came to our house to throw me a surprise baby shower.  And yes, I was completely surprised!  I had been outside working in our garden, and I looked a wreck.  My shirt had mud on it, my face had mud on it.  I was so embarrassed!  But what I remember more than my own embarrassment is a piece of advice I got from a mom of four.  She said the key to raising children is to never be shocked.  She did not say, “It’s a Cain and Abel world.”  But I think that is what she meant.  Your children will do things you cannot even imagine.  Don’t take it personally—it’s not necessarily about you.  And don’t make any rash judgments—it’s not necessarily about them, either!  We are all human.  We are all capable of doing some really wonderful things.  But don’t be shocked if your kids do some pretty awful things, too.

We’ve been looking at the book of Genesis with an eye on what these foundational stories might have to teach us about God’s dreams for our church in the future.  I wish I knew more about why Abel’s offering was acceptable, and Cain’s wasn’t, because I think the real gift of this story is the necessity of acceptance.  It’s a continuation of the wisdom idea Pastor Karen talked about last week.  The church needs to be able to reckon with and accept the honest truth about itself and its members:  that we are part Cain, and part Abel.  We do some things that make God very happy.  And we do some things that are pretty awful.  We need to accept that truth about ourselves and each other and not be shocked by any of it.  But we also need to accept the truth about God.  And that acceptance always leads to hope.  We might live in a Cain and Abel world, but we also live in the Kingdom of God.  And God will never give up on any of us.

So the next time you find yourself wondering, “Why?”  I hope you will think about Cain and Abel.  Sometimes we do everything right and get whacked.  Sometimes we do everything wrong and get blessed.  That’s the way the world is.  Can we accept that?  We live in a world where it’s easy to get angry, and hard to do the right things.  But God is committed to helping us master what tempts us.  And the day will come when there will be no more failing, no more violence, no more tears, no more sadness.  Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the goodness of God.  “It’s a small world”, or as we’ve modified it this morning, “It’s a Cain and Abel world” will no longer be the most translated and performed song in the world.  Instead, God’s love song for the world will become the most translated and performed song on earth!  What a small world it will be then!  May we live in acceptance and hope.  Amen.