Genesis 4-7

Two stories make up today's reading--with a strange interlude in between. First, Cain and Abel. Cain's anger toward Abel arose because Cain was "crestfallen" that God had looked with favor on Abel's offering, but not on Cain's. It never struck me before that Cain's anger and the horrific act that followed were born out of Cain being unable to deal with God's disappointment. Worse than this disappointment for Cain, though, is the punishment that he receives for killing his brother. Being banished from God's presence is a punishment that Cain finds "too great to bear." I feel as if I disappoint God all the time, but he gives me the strength, I think, to somehow understand that He is all-merciful, and to keep going. I used to experience this story as a brother--as I am the oldest of 7 children, but now, as a parent, I am struck by what is not discussed:  Cain and Abel's relationships with their parents.  Bruce Springsteen wrote and recorded a song called Adam Raised a Cain, the theme of which is obvious from the title and which comes to mind in reading the story. 

As a parent, I see how each of my children is so different from the others, yet has certain traits and behaviors in common. How could Adam and Eve have raised both Abel and Cain? While each had the common urge to please God by making an offering, their actions certainly took them on different paths with tragic consequences for both of them. Anyway, let me briefly mention the second story, the story of the great flood, which I confess I have never found terribly compelling. It has never had the same resonance for me somehow as the stories of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel do. I can't help but think of the old Bill Cosby routine that I listened to on vinyl when I was a kid (God: "Noah, this is God" . . . Noah: "Right!"). What a contrast for me between, on the one hand, the God who so regretted his creation that he wanted to wipe it out and start over, and, on the other hand, the loving, forgiving, merciful God who shines throughout the New Testament. One last thought: That interlude right before the story of the great flood is so strange! The sons of heaven mating with the daughters of the earth to create "the heroes of old, the men of renown." It seems to "Greek mythology" to me, and just randomly dropped in there.