CAIN AND KENOSIS

  Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

                                                                                            Genesis 4:26b



In my last post, I began a discussion on theism as a divestiture of power.  In this post, I am going to rely on my experience as a Christian, but I think what I say  will on some level apply to other theisms.  

Let me begin with the Christian concept of kenosis and then backtrack to where I left off on the Cain story. Kenosis is the emptying of oneself, of submitting one's will to God as an act of faith.  It is most often associated with Jesus emptying himself of his divine nature to be one with us.  I will get back to that theology, but for now I want to go back to the earlier origin of kenosis as found in the story of Cain. 

CAIN

Admittedly, few would associate the story of Cain with the concept of  kenosis.  Here was a man so full of himself that he could not get the beyond the perceived slight God gave when God favored Abel's sacrifice over his.  That he killed Abel as an act of revenge on God was unforgivable.  Yet, God not only forgave Cain, he also marked him as protected.  Although Cain paid a price from the earth not giving of its produce, he would become the mythical founder of civilization and the forebearer of offspring who would become the founders of art and industry.  

How could such a jealous, vengeful person as Cain end up so favored by God?  

This is the question the writers of Genesis want us to explore.  They don't give us much to go on, but I suspect that was done with intent.  Genesis is one of the most complex books of the Holy Bible and is probably my favorite book because it is so rich in questions that beg exploration.  

The first four chapters of Genesis have deep psychological and spiritual implications about human nature and it's relationship to the concept of the divine.  The story of Cain ends this initial discourse on the inability of humans to cope with our own sense of knowing, our own sense of power over the other.  Adam and Eve sought to be what God is and bit off more than they could chew.  Cain showed the depths of depravity that human could sink to over something that did not directly effect Him, apart from his belief that God's favoring Abel's sacrifice was meant to insult him. 

In both cases God goes lightly on these three humans.  Yes, there were consequences, but they lived through them to see many more days.  The story of Cain  and Abel is presented in the context of acts of worship, in the form of sacrifice.  Why they were sacrificing or offering God the fruits of their labor is not known.  Were they thank offerings?  Were they being offered to ensure God's blessing?  


As a side note to Genesis, the stories in Genesis present a consistent theme of the younger brother being favored over the eldest.   God is depicted favoring the younger brother in order to give us pause on what we think is just. Often it is the younger brother that seems to be least deserving, like the deceptive Jacob and the arrogant Joseph. Abel's sacrifice is favored  by God.  As a result, his older brother, Cain, goes into vengeful rage.

Abel trusted Cain. He had no idea that Cain was jealous to the point of wanting him dead.   
Cain deserved to die and Cain knew it.  When God asks Cain where his brother is and Cain responds by asking God if he is his brother's keeper, Cain realizes that he should have been.  There is a deep psychological dialogue going on in Cain's mind.  God is in the details of our minds, we cannot rid ourselves of God's inner voice. We can try to reason it away, try to ignore it, or try to tune or drown it out, but it's there. Call it conscience or consciousness, but that voice which knows what we don't want said is always there at some level.

Cain suffers from extreme guilt and fear.   In his inner conversation with God, Cain tells God he cannot bear the guilt, and he fears that God will no longer look upon him; that others will seek to kill him.  In essence, Cain spills his guts to God, empties himself to God, and loses all sense of pretense.  He submits to God's will and he is spared. 

In the Hebrew  scriptures, kenosis is expressed as contrition, as heartfelt remorse for failing to do what is right, an admission of one's own weakness, a handing over control and power to God who alone can manage it, a submission to the will of God. This is what Cain does and as the Hebrews scriptures affirm time and time again, God does not despise the contrite heart.  In fact, the Hebrew scriptures goes so far to say God does not desire sacrifice, the context in which the Cain and Abel story is set.  Is the graphic point of this particular story that it was not the sacrifice that God sought, but rather the expressed need Cain had of God?

There is a sense of irony and paradox in the story of Cain much like the story of Adam and Eve.  They parallel each other on several levels.  Their storylines are similar.  God sets the stage for a challenge.  In Adam and Eve's case it is putting the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.  In Cain and Abel's case it is God's favoring Abel's offering over Cain's.  In Adam and Eve's case God warns them not eat of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge.  In Cain's case, God encourages Cain to resist his urge for vengeance and warms him of the evil that is seeking him out.  In both cases they fail the challenge. In both cases, they try to avoid their sense of guilt.  In both cases, they experience an expulsion of sorts that leads them to remorse and contrition whereupon God forgives them.  

What these stories tell us is that we are powerless against our own desires when left to ourselves.  We are prone to impulsive behavior and decisions based on feeling rather than reason, which allows one's selfish interests to become dominant rather than acting from a true self interest based on the needs of others.

What these stories reveal is the perception that God is merciful and forgiving; that this awareness is somehow connected to the act of one emptying self of one's failures, real and perceived as an act of contrition, a divestment of personal power. Although the story of Cain does not make a direct link between God's show of mercy towards Cain and people calling upon the name of the Lord, that the story ends with birth of Seth (Abel's replacement) implies a connection.

This interesting obscure verse at the beginning of the Hebrew narrative is easy to pass by without much notice or thought. I suggest that the writers of Genesis are making a subtle commentary on the nature of worship.  Consider the story of Cain and Abel. If sacrifice was not worship, what was it?  The concept of worship is suddenly turned upside down.  Sacrifice was done to appease or appeal to power.  Here at the end of Cain's story people call - talk to God - rather than sending smoke signals.  Here at the beginning of the Hebrew narrative (and at the end of Cain's story) is the point that God does not want appeal or appeasement in the form of symbolic sacrifice, but rather the sacrifice that comes through contrition, through the personal divestment of power, through the emptying of self, through kenosis.

KENOSIS


Kenosis is a Greek term that simply means emptying is mostly applied in Christian theology to Jesus as the Christ of God.  As a teaching about Jesus as the Christ, it maintains that the Christ of God, the Son of God came to earth divesting himself of his divine nature - power to become one with humanity.  This top/down theology was promoted in one of Paul's letter, the Letter to the Philippians as follows:

 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
⁶ Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
⁷ But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
⁸ And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
⁹ Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
¹⁰ That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
¹¹ And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2: 5-11 (King James Version) 

As is true with the ending of the Cain's story being overlooked,  so it is the beginning of this narrative in Verse 5, that is easily overlooked:  "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."  Perhaps it is that Paul goes a bit overboard in his adulation of Jesus as the Christ that throws one off a bit, but Paul recognizes the  essential motive at work in monotheistic worship, that true worship begins with emptying oneself of self.  In principal, it is the divestiture of one's own sense of power and will or, in other words, turning over the instinctual drive to survive and intellectual desire to succeed to the power and will of God that defines true worship.  

The main mechanism of worship is prayer -  Calling on the name of the Lord - talking directly to God - letting it all out, the good, the bad, the ugly and putting it in God's hands as an act of faith without expectation.  This is easier said than done, but it is what Paul is getting at in his hymn of praise to Christ. 

Paul's recognition of kenosis is tied to his understanding of contrition when he says, "Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus."   The word, contrition is not found in the New Testament, but the concept is woven into the teachings of Jesus.  I would say that in Jesus's teachings contrition morphs into a sincere heart that seeks to do God's will more than an unloading of one's guilt and sense of failure. 

For Paul  kenosis is the ultimate act of letting go and letting God.  Johannine theology, on the other hand,  tends to sidestep the issue of contrition when it comes to Jesus.  In John, kenosis occurs at the moment of Jesus's death - when the time is right.  The synoptic gospels, however, strongly hint at Jesus's ongoing acts of contrition throughout his ministry, beginning with his baptism and culminating in his death on the cross. Throughout his ministry Jesus pours himself out to let the power of God, the word of God, come through.  

It is in the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane that synoptic gospels of Matthew and Luke depict Jesus emptying himself of the instinct to survive and the desire to succeed comes into full play when he prays, "If it is your will let this cup pass from me, but not my will, but yours."  The sacrifice of Jesus begins here with a broken and contrite heart.  It is completely counterintuitive to what we Christians imagine as necessary in Jesus's case, but it is played out throughout his ministry from his act of submission in baptism through this act of submission before his crucifixion.  

In the synoptic gospels, Jesus is in a constant state of emptying himself of personal power.  He is depicted as being in a constant state of dependent worship.  It is his engagement in becoming powerless that renders him so powerful or that exposes the life-giving power of God that is expressed in the story of his resurrection.   This is what Paul is hinting at when he says that his power is perfected in his weakness. (2Cor.12:9).

From taking one's life over a sacrifice as an act vengeance to the act of giving one's life as a sacrifice of love, God is depicted as restoring life to those who pour out their lives, who turn over their drive and desire for power to God.


Until next time, stay faithful.