And as for Seth, to him also a son was born; and he named him Enosh. Then men began to call on the name of the LORD. (Genesis 4:26)
What sort of emotions and thoughts well up inside us when we are talking about the religion of the New Church with other people? When we love something about our religion, it can hurt a little bit when someone disagrees. On the other hand, sometimes when we are zealously defending a doctrine, zeal can turn into condemnation as we stop teaching and start hammering. How does the Lord want us to treat our neighbors who do not know about, those who do not understand, and even those who denounce the New Church religion? Our answer to this question (which is how we behave in such a situation) reveals something of the quality of our own religious life.
The story of Cain and Abel teaches us about the consequences of a bad choice. Abel corresponds to the life of charity. Cain corresponds to the separation of faith from charity, that is, acting as if a correct understanding was an essential part of the life of religion. When you are talking with a person who does not believe in the teachings of the New Church you have two sorts of choices: Being like Abel is to act from charity, to love this person as part of the Lord’s church when they behave according to what they believe because of a desire to be a good person. Being like Cain is to condemn the person for false understanding regardless of their life, an attempt to forcibly replace their religion with your own religion based on your belief that your understanding is correct and their’s is not and putting yourself in the place of teaching Truth.
It’s easy to see that the Lord wants us to spiritually be Abels. He teaches us that those who separate faith from charity end up thrown out from the presence of the Lord, the end result of which is Lamech, who corresponds to utter destruction. We live in a time when faith is easy to separate from charity. In our zeal to cooperate with the Lord in growing the New Jerusalem, it feels very much like we need to get other people to accept the Doctrines of the New Church. But truths do not build the Church, only a life of charity. The energetic yet gentle sharing of the Lord’s gifts is how the Lord wants us to treat everyone.
To see that this is true, read Luke 10:25-37; Genesis 4:1-26; and Arcana Caelestia 4468.
(This is a synopsis of the sermon preached by the Rev. Amos Glenn at Pittsburgh New Church at 11:00am on August 20, 2006.)
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