Thursday, May 1, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

What the beginning of the story of “us” tells us is that there is no such thing as human progress, only regression. From one act of disobedience to murder, and not just any murder, but fratricide, in one generation! By the time we get to Noah, we get something like God knew that every intention of man’s heart was only evil all the time. That is like saying you don’t just have cancer, you are cancer, there is no health in us. In fact, in our tradition that is exactly what we used to confess, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us…” (We confessed that for the first 400 years of our Prayer Book but apparently we don’t want anyone’s self esteem to suffer so we leave that last bit out now.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Monday, April 28, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

Cain thought it might be okay in the sight of God to murder him, that is his fear, death. God further cursed the ground so that it would not yield its “strength” to him and He also sentenced Cain to be a fugitive and wanderer (of course he paid no attention to that second thing, he settled in the land of Nod). His only concern was that someone would kill him if they found him. He had no concern for his brother’s life but a great deal for his own. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sunday, April 27, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

Why is it I am never satisfied? If I lived in a vacuum apart from other people and things maybe I could pull off satisfaction, but as it is, I see other people who have something I want or something I think I lack, and envy creeps into my life and re-orients it entirely. The new orientation of my thoughts is to get whatever that thing is, however I can get it. It orients both my actions and my prayers towards that aim. If I were honest with you, I could probably name a dozen things I would like to have right now, I could make a wish list like a kid at Christmas and make the case why all of them were important to my ministry. Read the rest of this entry »

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Friday, April 25, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

What do those two guys have in common? When God asked Cain where his brother Abel was, Cain’s flip reply was, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” It is amazing how quickly sin becomes acceptable. His parents hid from God over the eating of the fruit because they knew that He knew. Cain makes no attempt to hide himself after fratricide. When God asked his parents a question they were more naive, betraying their sin by their answer, “I was afraid because I was naked…” They had been naked with God before and unashamed, they had no sense of vulnerability in their nakedness but now something had changed, naked suddenly felt vulnerable. Cain has none of that, he more or less assumes that God either doesn’t know what he has done or that it wasn’t that big a deal. His attitude is incredibly arrogant. Read the rest of this entry »

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Thursday, April 24, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

I know what Lieutenant Dan felt like in Forrest Gump, clinging to the mast of the boat in the midst of a ferocious storm, shaking his fist at God, shouting “Come get me.” It is the same thing Cain was dealing with when God asked why Cain was angry? He knew the answer to that question, Cain was disappointed with God. Life wasn’t going the way it was supposed to. He offered sacrifice and yet God blessed his brother’s sacrifice and the whole business seemed to be Cain’s idea and he was, after all, the first born. Read the rest of this entry »

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

From the start it has mattered to God how we worship. Spirit and truth requires both and Cain didn’t get it. Worship generally reveals what we think about God and Cain’s worship indicates that he thought just any old worship would do, Abel’s reveals he wanted to give God his best, because he knew that God had given him His best. An attitude of gratitude is important in worship. Read the rest of this entry »

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Sunday, April 20, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

Relationships are the thing that suffered most in the Fall. It took one generation to move from betrayal and finger-pointing to fratricide. Why do we expect relationships to be right when we aren’t? The blame game is never ending, we make decisions and when things don’t turn out the way we intended, we blame others. Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday, April 19, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

The other great curse of the Fall relates to relationships. They had already taken a hit before the Lord announced his curse to the woman, the man and woman were hiding themselves in shame from God and one another. Not a good start down the relationship path to introduce degrees of separation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Friday, April 18, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

So if God needed to curse in order to make it difficult for them to get their daily bread, does it logically follow that before that everything was blessed. If we look at that word, we see that it means something like endowed with the ability to do as intended or commanded. In other words, when He said be fruitful and multiply, the conditions had to be right, they had to be able to do just that. This curse on the ground isn’t that it won’t do what it was intended to do, but that creation would fight against the man’s efforts rather than fully cooperate. Read the rest of this entry »

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Thursday, April 17, 2008 by Big Kahuna.

Did God really say…? is the first question in the Bible, before that everything was fiat and imperative and then obedience. Beginning here, a new way of thinking enters the picture. It seems that this is now the only acceptable way. It is easier (post Genesis 11) to play that game, because now we have the additional element of language in the equation and the problem of the original languages and translation and transmission is introduced. Can you really know what God has said or meant? Read the rest of this entry »

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