A Gift of Grace
In reading today’s texts it is not difficult to find ourselves focused on sin. In part, that is what these texts are about. But, if you only look at these texts in that light you will miss the major point they emphasize. I will admit that I am reflecting on these texts through a conversation I had with a friend who grew up in the Christian Missionary Alliance Church and how that church emphasized all the things that were not allowed. (We got into this discussion because I had told him that I like to dance – a forbidden exercise in his church.) I told him that not doing something because it could condemn you in God’s eye was actually righteousness.
In the story of Adam and Eve we usually look only at the eating of the forbidden fruit and the expulsion from the garden. While this story plays a minor part in the Old Testament it has been used to justify many ideas and beliefs – that the serpent is the devil, that women are to be subservient to men, that through Adam we have inherited sin. I propose that this story is about God’s gift. God did not sit Adam and Eve down in the garden and tell them what not to do. The story is much greater than that; God gave them the garden, permission to take care of it, and a command (“do not eat…”) to protect them. To view any of this in a negative light is to miss the beauty and majesty of God. Could you have imagined God putting us down in a desert, giving us nothing to do, and leaving us to our own devices? What cruelty that would have been. Instead, God gave the garden to us, permission to take care of it, the skills that were needed to do so, and a law to protect us. God also allowed us to live our lives in opposition to what was best and good for us. Eating the proverbial apple did not kill Adam and Eve. Instead it brought on anxiety, worry and doubt. That was what God was protecting them from.
We are still being given these same gifts. God gave us the world to care for, called us to certain tasks, gave us the skills we need, and gave us a law to remind us of that. But, like Adam and Eve, we stretch the boundaries and “eat the apples” the world offers instead of looking to God for guidance and truth. And when we do, we find them to be lies and half truths, devoid of concern for us. From the hawkers on television to the street pharmacists we hear a constant barrage; serpents slithering into our lives.
But into the mess that we make of our lives and the world around us God sent Jesus. Left to ourselves we would be lost sowing fig leaves, hiding from the world, and squandering the gifts God has given us. But Jesus came for you and me showing us God’s will and freeing us from our worry, anxiety, and sin. God sent Jesus so that you can return to the world God gave you and, using your gifts, get back to the task God has called you to do. That task? To share the love of God with the world. The world certainly needs it. This Lent, spend some time with God by reading the Bible and in prayer so that you can shine the light of Christ into the world by sharing your gifts with the world.