The following verses are Genesis 4:1-5
1 The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, "I have produced a man with the help of the LORD."
2 Next she bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil.
3 In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil,
4 while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,
5 but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen.
The above from Genesis has some interesting food for thought as it might pertain to our current situation with all things green. Right from the get go we are taught God prefers blood sacrifice to the things of the Earth. The Lord looks with favor on Abel and his blood offering, but not on Cain and his offering of the fruit of the soil.
At the Last Supper Jesus flips this around and bread and wine become the most pleasing offering to His Father. No more blood sacrifice. Jesus is to be the last such 'offering'. From thence forward it will be Jesus present in the offerings of Cain which will supplant the bloody offerings of Abel. No more violence is to be associated with offerings to the Creator Father. Jesus's death and resurrection spell the end of that notion.
This was not just a substitution of one form of sacrificial offering for another. It was a change in world view from the violent domination of blood sacrifice to the cooperative balance of working with the earth and it's natural rhythms. It can be seen as an elevating of the feminine, or a restoration of the feminine in Hebrew religious practice. The fact Jesus does this in the context of a sacrificial meal which ritually called for the involvement of the entire family should not be overlooked. No longer would sacrifice pleasing to the Father consist of a separate class of males engaging in blood sacrifice of innocent animal matter. It would consist of a community offering the 'fruit of the vine, work of human hands'. It would be an offering without violence. Instead it was to be one of peaceful sharing embodied in the human effort of working with the land. It was a hugely symbolic shift from the Old Covenant thinking of violent domination of nature to the New Covenant thinking of sharing and cooperation with nature.
Two thousand years later it's obvious the patriarchal religions of the book didn't get, or refused to make, this shift in thinking. It would be in our best interests to convert to this shift in thinking before we make the entirety of the human race our last bloody offering in the name of someones willfully limited understanding of a God of violence and domination. To continue in our fascination with violence and domination is not the way to salvation. It's the road to extinction.
