Putting a Stop to Fear and Insecurity

Silent Reflection

After reading the Scriptures for this week, take some time to simply pause and reflect before moving on to the remarks.

Remarks

What is the greatest danger in not trusting the story? We have been talking about the invitation to trust that God does accept us and love us, and that our primary essence was conceived in goodness and exists in goodness. We spoke of how this trust enables us to act out of the qualities that reflect the Divine image. We know when to say enough to our desires for self-indulgence, and we explored when to say enough to the internal monologues that are rooted in fear and insecurity.

Why is this so important? Because if we let fear and insecurity reign in our daily experience, we will act out of that fear — just as beasts. We will fight to protect ourselves as an act of survival or even of vengeance. If we believe we lack, and that such lack affects our ability to thrive, we will attempt to take what we lack from others.

Sometimes we will take this through robbery, stealing from others the spiritual capital of which we fear we are short. What spiritual capital is important in the Kingdom economy? Mercy, value, acceptance, right-standing, the fruits of the Spirit, a purpose for being, a walk of meaningful righteousness; if we feel as though we lack these things, we will try to acquire that value by taking it from others. (By the way, acquire is the meaning of Cain’s name in today’s story.) Sometimes we will attempt to remove the threat to our lack, seeing other people and circumstances as a menace that drains our own value.

We see this in the story of Cain where he initiates a gift to God. (It was his idea!) After a long, hard day’s work, he decides to give some of his hard-earned bounty to God. It appears that Abel jumped in on the idea and tried to up the ante of the gift. We are told God looks favorably on Abel’s gift, but not Cain’s. We are not told the backstory, though the rabbis suggest Cain’s gift was one given out of a sense of duty to be grateful, while Abel took Cain’s idea and leaned more into the heart of giving.

Cain immediately feels the threat. His insecurity tells him that someone else’s success is a sure indication of his own declining value. However, God confronts this thinking and begs Cain to reconsider the myriad other ways he can view the situation. He invites Cain to “master the beast” crouching at his door, to know that it is time to say “Enough!” to his insecurity, warning him that if he doesn’t, it could have disastrous consequences.

But he doesn’t. And so it does.

To finish out this week’s reflection, here is Josh Bossé, a campus minister, BEMA co-host, and friend of mine, who wrote the following about this conversation and these consequences.

And finally, God tells Cain that sin crouches at the door, and then quotes word for word the reminder to Adam that he could not have mastery over anything unless he had a partner. On one level, God is getting at the heart of Cain's struggle: his name-appropriate jealousy, his passion. He’s telling Cain the thing he is really mad about is that it is hard to live with people, it is hard to understand them, and it is hard to reconcile with them, especially when they seem like obstacles, enemies, and problems. But He then tells Cain it is the struggle itself which is essential to his own abundance, that without this tension in his midst, he would be nothing but an animal. There's no moving forward in the garden. “Yes, Cain, life is hard; it’s hard to do work, it’s even harder to do good, but in that tension is a Good Story which I invite you into!”Now the door phrase makes sense. Doors are in houses. God talks to Cain while he is in a house and tells him, “If you walk out that door, into the field, you will sin. Please don’t go.” Here we see the first use of the word “sin,” which I think indicates God was also revealing His law to Cain, making it clear to him that this was a line never to be crossed, even though it is not until Noah that we see the law against murder cut in covenant. Nevertheless, we see Cain here in a sort of self-deception. He goes out into a field with his brother to have a conversation, but no words are actually spoken. He just wanted to talk to his brother, and it happened to be in a place with no witnesses. They were just going to talk. (He swears!) And God tells him, “No, talk to him here, in the house, in community. Dare to be vulnerable with him, to tell him you are angry and depressed. To hear him and his story and his struggles. Can you be strong enough to learn from your younger brother? Can you dare to see this obstacle, this immense problem in your life as a human?”I think this story is like the one before it, except that it’s showing what happens when brokenness isn’t repaired. Adam and Eve came back together and were stronger than ever. Cain and Abel could never be reconciled in this world. Again, we see mistrust as the beating heart of all darkness — the belief that God is not good, and definitely not on your side. But now we see for the first time the true ugliness of sin and hear for the first time the true horror of the cry of an innocent victim’s blood.And while we can see two radical sides to this story — God's invitation to rejoin the story, and the fallout of their refusal of that invitation — the conclusion of this story is profound.Two things are very clear. First, the story ends with new hope. There are always new ways to find hope, new bearers of God’s name, new faces which can lift others up. But what is most striking to me comes before that, when God punishes Cain. God casts Cain out of community, out of his inherited purpose, and Cain protests that it is too much, and brings up two issues God did not mention in his punishment: that he would be hidden from God’s face, and that he would be killed. Cain is scared. He is scared he will be separated from God and that he is going to die. And God responds to this murderer that He will personally protect him, that He will personally watch over him. Even though we don’t necessarily see any repentance or desire to reenter community or the story, we still see grace upon grace, unconditional love, a God who would both protect and avenge a murderer. A God who is willing to live out His story even when we are not. A God who walks with Cain in his wandering.

Silent Reflection

Take some time to pause, reflect, and listen.

Response

Return to this week’s Scriptures each day as you respond throughout the week.

1. What part of the Cain story strikes you as the most vibrant?
2. Take a moment and write down all of the things that threaten your ability to trust God. List your inadequacies and the things you believe qualify you for God’s condemnation.
3. In the spirit of Lectio Divina, have someone in the group read the Lamentations passage again, three times, with spaces to reflect and listen.
4. Repeat the last response with the Romans reading.
5. Reflect and share together around broken bread.