Cain's story

This week the daily lectionary has begun again at Genesis.  We've read the first creation story, the second story, and the story of the serpent and the apple.  Today it was Cain's turn.

These stories can seem so packaged, over years of familiarity.  This morning I heard it fresh, or as fresh as I can.  Elizabeth is away, so instead of reading out loud at Matins I can sit with it and take it in at my own pace.

Here's what stood out for me.
Yesterday, after the serpent tricked Eve into eating the apple, God comes by and asks Adam and Eve why they're hiding.  They are honest about it.  God is upset and banishes them from the garden.

Then the next generation grows up.  Likely Cain and Abel heard the story from their parents - "we made a mistake, we disobeyed, and we were punished."  So Cain learns: honesty may get you into trouble.  He murders his brother - first, big mistake.  But then, when God comes by again and asks, "Where's your brother?," he compounds his misdeed by evading.  He doesn't exactly lie, but he doesn't answer.  As if he can avoid trouble that way.

Now, here's a twist.  When God asked Adam and Eve about hiding, did s/he already know what they had done?  It doesn't sound like it.  But God clearly knows what Cain has done.  So Cain's evasion not only doesn't protect him, it gets him in deeper trouble.

One takeaway for me is: there's no sin I can't make worse by denial.  There's no separation from God, from other people, from creation that will not deepen and widen when I refuse to take responsibility.

I wonder: is Cain's mark to protect him from others, or to remind him not to do such things in the future?  God could have killed him, or left him for others to kill.  God protects him, but by leaving a permanent reminder of his misdeed.

Some of us have those.  It's nice to think of Jacob's limp from wrestling with God, but many of us have marks of Cain on our bodies. I lost a lot through my early addictions - not only socially or emotionally, but physically.   And, as much as I might regret that, it does indeed remind me of the cost of separation from God and myself.

God wants to protect me, protect you, even when I need to learn a hard lesson.  And I believe, in some unrecorded corner of our stories, that Cain finds his way back to a relationship with God.  I believe we all can, if we choose.  The slate isn't wiped clean, but we don't have to be stuck in hell either.  Good news.