The Bible is filled with stories that convey important lessons about how to live. I think we often miss the best lessons in Biblical stories and have gravitated toward convenient conclusions from these stories. An outstanding example of this is a story I learned in my childhood from the Hebrew book of Genesis — the stories about the beginnings. The story I’m thinking of is the one about Cain and Abel.
These two brothers, children of Adam and Eve, made offerings to God. Cain, the first-born, was a farmer. Abel, the second son, was a shepherd. Cain offered the first fruits of the harvest while Abel offered a sheep. As the story goes, God was pleased with Abel’s sacrifice but as for Cain’s…well, not so much. So, Cain killed Abel.
As a child, I was taught that the story illustrates that God expects people to give their best to God, to be pure of heart, and truly thankful. It was all the stuff children are often taught to coerce them to be good. But this story isn’t a children’s story. It was part of the oral tradition handed down for generations before being written down — handed down to adults. Because this is an adult story, I think the most important lesson comes in the next part of the story.
God asked Cain, “Where’s Abel?” Cain explains that he doesn’t know. And then asks an important question: Am I my brother’s keeper? This story, a story from “the beginnings,” will go on to other stories told by ancient peoples that demonstrate that yes, indeed, not only is Cain his brother’s keeper but we all have responsibility for each other.
This story of Cain and Abel is ancient wisdom that should speak to us today about classism, racism, sexism, and all the ways we divide ourselves one from another. To understand this, remembering some things about ancient cultures will help.
Back in the beginning, the beginning of human history and not the metaphoric Genesis of the Bible, people lived in hunter-gatherer tribes. They foraged for food and lived off the land. Later, some people gravitated to agricultural life while others domesticated animals. Cain and Abel represent these two ancient ways of life. People belonging to one group generally had negative perceptions about those in the other group. The civilized farmers didn’t want to be around the people who smelled of animals. Further, their animals ruined the crops and made havoc where order was established. On the other hand, those who domesticated animals found that farmers blocked the land for their fields and took over the watering holes, making their lives more difficult. To these two groups, the ancient story poses a question: are you your brother’s keeper? Do you have responsibility for those different from you? The answer is yes.
In recent weeks, I’ve been reading a book named Barking at the Choir: The Power of Racial Kinship by Catholic Priest and Jesuit, Greg Boyle. Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest and most successful program to bring youth out of gangs and back to society. Throughout the book, Boyle frequently quotes Mother Theresa: “We belong to each other.”
Gang members exemplify people we think of as fundamentally different from ourselves. Essentially, we demonize them. We see them as bad apples who need to be kept from society. Boyle understands that gang members are people, like you and me, who were raised in situations far different from you and me. Gang members grew up in the midst of severe abuse, neglect, and violence. They joined gangs not out of the popular belief of looking for a place to belong but because they had no hope. Boyle explains that the common perception that leads someone to join a gang is something like this: If life is nothing more than abuse and neglect, if there’s no hope for the future, then why not just cash it in now and live dangerously.
Homeboy Industries, a model that’s been adopted internationally, teaches self-worth, purpose, kinship, and relatedness. Individuals who were once rival gang members learn to work beside each other. In the process of moving through the year-long program, they experience transformation and move toward living with purpose. Research shows that Homeboy is successful for 70% of youth entering the program. Other programs have, at best, 20 to 30% success rates.
Here’s what’s important: Boyle founded the program on the belief that we are each other’s keepers, that we are all related, that we are equal members of God’s larger family. All the differences that matter to us don’t matter at all.
Many people say they want a better society where people live in harmony. But they expect others to be just like themselves. The ancient wisdom of Genesis is that no matter who we are, we are each other’s keeper. Yes, we belong to each other. When we accept that we are fundamentally related, then we will begin to create a better world that is safe and supportive for everyone.
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