Genesis 3:8-21; Romans 8:31-39
This is the third Sunday we’ve visited the story of beginnings in Genesis. Today we read about the consequences of letting the serpent choose the dinner menu, better known as The Fall. Last week we learned that the first humans disobeyed instructions and ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which gave them the ability to know right from wrong. This week we find them hiding in the garden so that God won’t find them and learn what they’ve done. Their loss of innocence is noted here by their awareness of being without clothing and their attempt to remedy that problem.
Remember this story is an origin story and not a history. Our ancestors told this and similar stories to explain why things were. So rather than starting with an action and describing the consequences, they worked backwards from the consequences to the cause. Given the way life is, what could have happened to explain this reality. Today’s part of the story answers many questions. Why does childbirth hurt? Why is farming so hard? Why are there snakes? The answer is that God is displeased with the behavior of the humans. Some contemporary authors suggest that these stories explain the transition from cultures of hunter/gatherers into fixed settlements of farmers and herders. That’s an interesting theory we’ll never be able to prove or disprove. But it reminds us how very old these stories are and how very different life was when they were developed
If we were explaining these things today, we’d give a different answer. We’d turn to obstetrics to describe the birth process, which involves pain because of the movement of muscles. We’d ask a meteorologist and an agronomist to talk about the difficulties of farming in times of drought or flood. We’d ask a herpetologist to tell us that snakes are wonderful creatures, not to be feared irrationally. But ancient folks didn’t have the same resources we do so they did the best they could. These are stories we can appreciate and enjoy as they help us reach into our ancient past.
It's interesting that although three religious traditions share these stories, only one sees it as a “Fall” from grace. Judaism, Christianity and Islam share common stories but only Christianity sees this story as describing a fatal flaw in humanity, the reason why we aren’t and never can be perfect and so we are rejected by God. In the first centuries of Christianity, philosophers used this story to explain why Jesus had to die – we were broken in Eden and Jesus fixed that. But Jesus was a Jew and that’s not his understanding of what his ministry was about. Yes, these stories describe the reality that human life is both beautiful and hard and people know good and bad and sometimes make wrong choices about that. It seems to me that it’s possible to admit that reality and still not condemn humans for being human.
The translator we’re using for our scripture this year points out an interesting fact – in this story the serpent is cursed (having to crawl on the earth and be hated by people) and the earth is cursed (resulting in weeds) but the people aren’t cursed. Yes, their life is hard but the text doesn’t describe that reality as a curse. It’s just the way it is. Yet over the centuries we’ve come to believe that we’re cursed – doomed if you will – because of the behavior of original people. If this story isn’t history, then neither is that understanding of our situation. Maybe there’s a better way to understand what’s going on.
You laugh with me about how much I hate Lent and its themes. This is the heart of why that’s true. Lent plays on the theme that we’ve been hopeless sinners since the moment we ate the fruit in the garden and God made life hard as a result. We were supposed to be perfect but we’re not. Since we can’t pull off perfect, we can’t save ourselves and “get right” with God. So Jesus died to make up for our evil. If we believe that, God will ignore our imperfection and let us into heaven anyway. There are just so many ways this seems wrong to me.
First of all, who says we were supposed to be perfect? If I could, I’d eliminate that word from our vocabulary. How much energy do people expend and how much pain do they experience because they can’t do everything perfectly – color in the lines, win the game, live in a relationship, look like a movie star, become rich and famous. Day after day people do the best they can and feel like failures because the result isn’t perfect. It’s time to give up that impossible, ridiculous standard.
Second, who says God is offended by ordinary successes and failures? Life can be hard and sometimes we pull it off better than others. But do our bad days really disappoint God? Are they divine punishment for not getting everything right? Jesus says not. He says God is Love and love doesn’t give up on anybody, even on the worst days.
Third, who says Jesus died in our place? Well, actually, lots of people say that. But Rome killed Jesus and Rome wasn’t at all interested in doing it for our sake. Rome wanted to silence him because he was a trouble-maker, talking about love and mercy and economic justice and especially drawing a crowd. Rome wanted to end the challenge to power that Jesus represented. Instead they multiplied it infinitely. They gave a rag-tag bunch of Jesus’ followers courage to continue to change the world
One of them, the Apostle Paul, was so bold as to completely defy the power of Rome. Both Paul and Jesus lived when Rome made life terrible. Taxes were crushing. Official violence was pervasive. People were enslaved physically and economically. They were starving and oppressed. Jesus says, “God loves you. God is love. Love one another.” Not even Rome was stronger than the power of love. Paul said, “Nothing can separate you from God’s love. Not Rome, not danger, not the local governor, not enslavement, not death. Nothing.”
It seems to me that neither Jesus nor Paul was saying, “You’re not perfect so Jesus will have to rescue you.” They were saying, “Life is hard and sometimes unjust and terrible, but love is stronger than anything. Love each other and together we’ll make it through. God is always with us.” The first idea takes away our power: there’s nothing we can do to make life better. The second idea gives us power: nothing can defeat us if we live in love.
Our world is a pretty big mess right now. Evil is destroying a beautiful country and an amazing people. Only it’s not. Because people are standing up with courage to fight it, and to welcome refugees and to feed strangers. The world is far from perfect and some of it is terribly broken. But even in the face of great danger love is finding a way. Love is making us human in the face of dehumanizing attack. In Ukraine. In our own community. In our workplaces and homes. God hasn’t cursed us. God loves us. God hasn’t driven us away. God is with us. We aren’t powerless. We have the power of love on our side and love will always find a way.