Am I my brother's keeper? Genesis 4:9 (NIV)
In Order To Keep Yourself – Keepers – Series 2 – Part 1
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6
(Go to Series 1)
Am I my brother's keeper?
Who is my neighbor?
Am I responsible for what happens over there? To them?
These are ancient questions, asked from the beginning, that are still being asked today in a thousand different ways, on all our shores, in our backyards, and around our dinner tables (or at least, in mine… especially about what toys belong to what kid and whether or not something was fair or not… #parentlyfe).
Which is what we’ve boiled the story of Cain and Abel down to for centuries. It’s been about sacrifice and rivalry and violence.
Which it is. But more than, it’s about the motivation behind those things, too. In series one of this little adventure, we talked about the sacrifice component of this story and the fact that it doesn’t really play a central role.
God wasn’t correcting Cain because he brought the wrong kind of sacrifice. God was challenging a pattern of behavior that if left unchecked, would send Cain down a dark path.
Which it did.
“Whoever loves his brother and/or sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble.” 1 John 2:10 (NIV).
Want to know how not to stumble?
Love your brother and your sister.
It’s as simple, and as complicated, as that.
What drives someone to kill their brother (or sister)?
Well, history, and the all the crime shows on TV, tell us that many things propel one human to destroy the life of another. But what's at the heart of it? What drives violent disunity?
The story of Cain and Abel is about what happens when we forget that we belong to each other (nod to Mother Teresa’s quote). It’s about what happens to a soul when their creative desires and passions begin to own them. When their achievements and possessions and lands and rights become more important than their connection to another human being.
Am I my brother’s/sisters keeper?
I believe that in order to keep yourself, you can’t afford not to be.
Go to Our Own Darkness – Keepers – Series 2 – Part 2
Written by Liz Milani
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