DYNAMIS!
A publication of St. George Orthodox Christian Cathedral
Wichita, KS

Genesis 4:16-26      (3/19)      1st Reading at Vespers, Wednesday, 2nd Week of the Great Fast

 

Beyond Eden-III ~ Secularism Revealed: Genesis 4:16-26, especially vs. 16: "...Cain went     forth from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod over against Edem."  This passage from Genesis describes the history of Cain and his descendants, those we may well call “the first secularists.”  Cain and his family disclose what becomes of human life devoid of all thought of the Lord God.  We see the heart of secular man: the deformed spirit, existence organized around the material and psychological dimensions of life, a place where the passions reign over men.

God curses Cain, casting him out “from the face of the earth” (Gen 4:12-14).  Cain is estranged from a rooted life tilling the soil (see Gen. 4:2).  He learns what it means to be “hidden from [God’s] presence” (vs. 14).  His rootlessness is emphasized in Hebrew in which “Nod” literally means, “the land of wandering” (vs. 16).  Wandering takes him “forth from the presence of God” (vs. 16).  Thus, the Lord is effectively removed from his thoughts.  He lives solely for the “seculum,” the material world.  In physical existence he fashions a community of here and now.  St. Augustine describes Cain as a man who in heart and will “belonged to the city of man,” and, therefore, “it is recorded of Cain that he built a city,”[1] a human construct to replace rightful life in communion with God.  Secularism is life devoid of relationship with God.

The Apostle Paul teaches us that when men exchange “the truth of God for the lie,” and worship and serve “the creature rather than the Creator,” they become “futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts [are] darkened” (Rom. 1:25,21).  Still, in God’s mercy, the darkening of men’s hearts does not destroy all facility of the human spirit.  Also, the Lord leaves in place His gifts for the just and the unjust (Mt. 5:45).  Artistic capacity remains in the hearts of all men.  Hence, the descendants of Cain employed their spiritual faculties, inventing and fashioning the various elements of material culture, the husbandry of livestock, the development of music and instruments, and the mastery of bronze and iron artistry (Gen. 4:20-22).

But compare these talented, worldly craftsmen with the godly artisans who were filled “with a divine spirit of wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge, to invent in every work...” (Ex. 31:3).  Clearly, the mysteries of faith and the beauties of worship are rightly expressed only by those whom God chooses, ordains, and inspires.  For this reason, vestment making, iconography, Church music, and other forms of Orthodox craftsmanship are conducted under the protection of canonical definition, prayer, and fasting, so that God is honored in all things.      

Secularism leads men to greater indulgence of the passions.  Cain’s descendant, Lamech, provides two examples of this, in his sexual lust and his anger.  God ordained monogamy as the basis for human marriages (Gen 2:24).  However Lamech, in a materialist spirit, takes two wives (Gen. 4:19).  No ills appear to follow from his bigamy, but Scripture reveals numerous other cases where multiple wives and indulgence of the sexual passions only brings great grief.

Lamech also exhibits a man fully under the sway of the passion of anger - greater than his grandfather, Cain, who killed one man.  In Lamech the passion of anger becomes far more violent and sinister.  He wildly boasts of wholesale revenge, announcing every intention to indulge in blood feud and multiple murder (vss. 23,24).  His ethics are founded on unrestrained passion and self-indulgence.  He epitomizes the spirit of every secularist ideology that promotes terror, genocide, mass-murder, war, and violence in order to achieve its “ideals.”

Blessed be the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of ages.  Amen.[2]

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