Being Cain and Being Green

A rising awareness has emerged within much of Christianity about the sort of world we are told God creates in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2. There has been a resurgence of discovering the sort of relationships and roles that form the identity of what it means to be human in the midst of this interconnected community of creation.

And so in this attempt to push Christianity to "be green", the creation narratives are often referenced again and again and again.


Now, don't get me wrong, I have been exposed to the connection that we are created to have with the earth and its creatures, but I have noticed a slight caveat in many Green Christian's language that I would like to add a slight layer to.

One of the common texts referenced in this sort of rhetoric is Genesis 2v15:

"Adonai took humanity and put them in the garden to till it and keep it."

Similar texts from Genesis 1 are often used with remarks on how this is referencing a particular relationship with creation that isn't damaging or selfish, but that seeks the flourisment of all things [I talk more about this in a writing on food]. This is what Genesis 2v15 is talking about as well.

An interdependence between the ground and the human being.

And Christianity, in some respects, has been getting real good at this.

Almost to the point of it being a fad.

But I've noticed something amidst Christians that wave the Green flag, but miss something central that is happening in the progression of the narrative that is Genesis. And they typically tend to be the same people who talk a lot about Wendell Berry, but never actually do anything with what he says.

That verse in Genesis 2v15 has an interesting word in it. It is the Hebrew word shamar. Sometimes it gets translated as "keep", sometimes as "cultivate" or as "take care of", but, as it is with almost every Hebrew word, it has implications beyond what a strict word for word translation can give.

Literally, the word can get translated as "watch, keep, or observe". It is the idea that you have some sort of collaboration with whatever you are shamar-ing. There is responsibility and connection and an intertwined sense of guiding.

And, here, this is specifically about the ground. But all through the creation narratives the ground is a sort of microcosm for the whole thing. What we are being told is that the humans are supposed to shamar the whole of creation.

Which is the same picture of Genesis 1. We are shown God creating all that is the world we live in and the author seems to have this agenda to include and encompass everything and, at the end, we are told to shamar it.

The skies and the water and the land and plants and trees and creeping crawly things that scurry around the ground and beasts and animals and fish and birds.

All of it.

Watch it. Observe it. Keep it. Guard it.

What we are shown is the massive ecosystem that is the earth and we have a peculiar responsibility with it.

But this list that is the "environment", what we typically think of when we hear the word creation, this list is typically the problem. And it is the same problem we see Cain getting caught up in.

We have this story with Cain where this thing goes down and God ends up getting on him, and, instead of doing something about it, Cain ends up killing his brother [for more on that see the writing Stop Killing Your Brother]. And what happens immediately after is a little bit unusual:

Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." 

And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother and killed him.

Then Adonai said, "Cain, where is your brother?"

He said, "I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?"

So the enduring question has been, "Is he?"

Is Cain his brother's keeper?

And I have heard great interpretative responses to each side of that answer and I think they all have something to offer, but in the context of Genesis 1 and 2, there is something interesting with the word Cain uses here. 

"Keeper"

In Hebrew, what do you think this is translated from? 

Shamar.

Cain's response to God is, "Am I supposed to be shamar-ing my brother?"

And if you listen to the Green talk that so often happens, if you read the list above that is typically generated as to what we are supposed to be shamar-ing, then the answer is no. We typically talk about what we are shamar-ing as plants and animals. We have this language of the earth and creation that we conceive of as the "environment". These are the things that we are supposed to be "green" towards. 

But what is interesting is that when God creates the world, when God creates creation, it includes all of those things, but what does it end with?

Humans. 

Yes there are skies and plants and light and water and the ground and the vast array of animals. We are told about all the different encompassed elements of what composes creation. 

But human beings are a part of it. 

God doesn't create the world and then create humans. God creates humans as part of creation. 

So when we are told to shamar it...that includes our fellow beings. 

You are your brother's keeper...because you are shamar-ing the whole thing. 

People included. 

The tendency of Cain is the same tendency we see so often when talking about the environment and creation. We want to take care of the earth, but we hate our neighbor. We think pollution is bad, but we are killing our brothers and sisters and fellow human beings with violence and oppression and the vast array of injustices that creep into the lives we live. It is great to be passionate about creation care, but we have to realize that we are part of creation, too, and if we want to save the earth, that includes saving each other. You can't recycle a bottle and then treat a human being like garbage. You can't buy fair trade organic, but be violent in how you spend money. You can't ride your bike and have your own sustainable homestead and buy biodegradable detergent while dehumanizing your fellow beings with racism and sexism and economic exploitation. 

A lot of people in the  Green Movement can also be some of the most greedy, self serving people that may not do any polluting, but still manage to ruin the lives of the people around them. Who care's if your coffee cup is reusable if it caused somebody else's life to be a living hell to make it? It is rare to find people attempting to be caught up in the whole thing.

Rather, most of us are a lot like Cain.

Now, it is easy to be critical of people who are doing good things. Because taking care of the earth and creation is good. My hope is simply that we can challenge each other further. Because if you just take care of plants and animals, you neglect the very fullness that those plants and animals are connected to. And if you just talk about loving your neighbor and only worry about taking care of people, then you miss the very thing that will allow those people to flourish. There is a reason why God creates the whole thing together, because it can't exist any other way. We need to begin acknowledging the whole of creation.

That when we talk about the world, we talk about the whole thing. 

That we realize the interconnectedness of the entire community of creation, not just parts of it. 

Because we actually are each other's keepers.