Why Are People So Angry?

19th Sunday after Pentecost – C (Proper 25)                       LSB #’s 906, 572:1-3; 572:4-6 tune 451
Text – Genesis 4:4b-5
 
And the Lord had regard for Abel & his offering, but for Cain & his offering he had no regard.  So Cain was very angry, & his face fell.   
 
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO ANGRY?
 
 
If you spend any time at all  listening to news media,  on national & world events,  it quickly becomes clear – there is a lot of anger & hatred going around.   More disturbing, to those who truly follow Jesus,  is the number of people promoting or celebrating  the anger & the hatred.   If you wonder  where all that comes from,  the OT reading  reveals the answer. 
Many people today  excuse their anger  & blame it  on Donald J. Trump.  However, Cain did not have that problem or that excuse.  The events of Genesis 4 happened thousands of years before president Trump was born.  Those events occurred long before the words Nazi,  fascist  or dictator  entered the English vocabulary. 
To understand why Cain killed Abel,  you have to believe that God is perfectly good & 100% accurate  in reading the human heart.  Simply hearing the sermon text can leave you with the impression that God is not fair.   Why does He have regard  for the offering of Abel  but not for the offering of Cain?   All of us have been unfairly judged  so we know  what it feels like. 
“And the Lord had regard for Abel & his offering,  but for Cain & his offering he had no regard.  So, Cain was very angry,  & his face fell.”  Cain’s problem  is that his heart was not right with God,  & Cain’s Creator  knew it.  That’s why  the Lord had no regard for Cain’s offering.  It was not given out of faith in God.  A spirit of love & thankfulness was missing. 
The Lord is not unfair  because He never  evaluates anyone arbitrarily  as we often do.  God’s reading of Cain’s heart & offering was dead on,  yet,  what really upset Cain  is that his little brother’s offering  was given out of love & gratitude for the blessings from his heavenly Father.  Abel’s offering  made Cain look bad.  At least,  that’s how Cain saw it.  Abel’s heart was right with God,  & Cain hated him for it.  The reason Cain’s offering was not regarded is that his heart was opposed to God,  & that’s also the reason Cain became so angry.  His heart was opposed to God,  & the actions of an unrepentant heart  always compound themselves. 
Cain wanted to be his own man – independent of his Creator & Lord.   Since God is good & is love, He tried to counsel Cain regarding the danger he was putting himself in: “Why are you angry, & why has your face fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted?  And if you do not do well,  sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you, & you must rule over it.”  (4:6-7 ESV) 
Sadly,  in defiance of his Creator,   Cain embraces the sin  that is crouching for him!   In NT terms, Peter would counsel, “Be sober-minded;  be watchful.   Your adversary the devil  prowls around like a roaring lion,   seeking someone to devour.”  (1 Peter 5:8 ESV)  In his defiance, Cain thought that he was devouring Abel,  all the while,  Satan was devouring him. 
Cain allowed the anger & the hatred to fill him, &: “…Cain rose up against his brother Abel  & killed him.”  (Genesis 4:8 ESV)   The power of darkness was unleashed.   Adam & Eve saw the fulfillment of their Creator’s warning: “…but of the tree of the knowledge of good & evil  you shall not eat,  for in the day that you eat of it  you shall surely die.”  (Genesis 2:17 ESV) 
That is why people are so angry today.  It has nothing at all  to do with Donald J. Trump.  It has nothing to do at all  with politics,  the constitution,  or freedom of speech.  It has nothing to do with deportations,  hate speech,  or climate change.   Cain murdered Abel,  because Abel loved the Lord.   Charlie Kirk was assassinated  because  he loved the Lord. 
Is Satan seeking to devour you?   Or,   are you already  on his team?   What our Creator said is all too true: “…sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you,  & you must  rule over it.”  (Genesis 4:7b-c ESV)   People today are angry.  Many have allowed themselves to be filled with hate,  & it has everything to do  with Jesus Christ.  He explained it like this: “If the world hates you,  know that it has hated me  before it hated you.”  (John 15:18 ESV)   If you love the Lord, Satan will be coming after you,  & he is playing for keeps.  But also know this, the Holy Spirit will also be reaching out to you, as He did to Cain:
“Why are you angry, & why has your face fallen?  If you do well, will you not be accepted?”  (Genesis 4:6-7a ESV)  With those words, God was calling Cain  to come back to his true Lord & Creator.  Cain didn’t even have to come up with the strength to repent on his own.  God’s Spirit provides that for us.  His Spirit is the strength that turns us back. 
Sadly, Cain’s heart was opposed to God’s Spirit.  St. Paul warned against that in his letter to the church at Ephesus: “Be angry  & do not sin;  do not let the sun go down on your anger,  & give no opportunity to the devil.”  (Ephesians 4:26-27 ESV)   Cain preferred to wallow in his anger.  And in that self-righteous attitude,  Satan found the perfect soil to plant death  & destruction. 
Cain embraced the sin that was crouching for him – a frightening thought for us to consider.  The same cycle has occurred throughout world history & throughout our own history.  Day in  & day out  you & I embrace the sin that crouches at our door,  waiting to devour us like the roaring lion that it is,  that we so often refuse to acknowledge or reject. 
For that,  & out of the purest love for His creation, Yahweh sent the Son to embrace our sins & to crush them to death on the cross.  Like he was for Cain,  Satan was also crouching at the door for Jesus: “…after fasting 40 days & 40 nights, He was hungry.  And the tempter came & said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God,  command these stones to become loaves of bread.’[1] 
   Jesus did not allow hunger or anger to guide His actions.  Instead, He turned to & leaned completely upon  the Word of God to provide for Him.  Instead of allowing sin to guide His actions, out of love, Jesus died for us,  rather than making us die  as Cain made his brother Abel die.  In the “cancel culture” of our day,  people increasingly  are calling for the death of those  who offend them, even of entire nations, as in the slogan “Death to America.”  In so doing they are working for Satan as he seeks to devour all of God’s creation. 
Those who are seeking to cancel Christianity are being used to actively recruit others for Satan’s team.  Every time any of us sins,  we are working for the devil’s team,  even if we’re not aware of it.  All of us have sinned against God,  yet He sends His Son to die because of our sin, so that we might be holy & blameless in sight of our heavenly Father. 
Our nation is the wealthiest nation on earth & probably one of the least thankful to God.  For anyone who is angry & wallowing in it, calling for the canceling of those who offend them, Jesus gave us the parable in Luke 18:
“He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, & treated others with contempt: ‘Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee & the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”’”    
“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” 
May all of us take those words to heart.  Christ has come to save sinners.  May we freely admit our sins & trust in Jesus to cover them all.  Amen. 
 
The peace of God that surpasses all human understanding will guard your hearts & your minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen. 
 


[1] Matthew 4:2-3 ESV