Live-streamed sermon on Emmanuel YouTube. (This preached a little differently at the end per the leading of the Spirit)
This is a story of the first step in human relationship with God. Not unlike our own children, who, about the age of two, begin to self-differentiate, this story illustrates the beginning of our self-awareness and how we relate to our Divine Creator. This is not a story of human failure, but of human growth and development overseen, guided, and protected by our heavenly parent.
Like most children who are learning to differentiate from their parents, the humans in Genesis believe that their mistakes are the cause of the problems around them. They aren’t. In fact, as the story develops, we can see that those mistakes provide important opportunities for them to learn what they need to grow and thrive.
For example, it is impossible to live among humans and not learn right from wrong. It’s also impossible to live in relationship with God and not learn trust and humility.
We hear that at one point, Adam and Eve’s “eyes were opened” and they “knew they were naked.” Remembering that the biblical meaning of naked is ‘vulnerable,’ the truth being conveyed here is that in our vulnerability, God, who is always near and always watchful, will show us how to go, just as God does for Adam and Eve – sewing clothes for them to wear.
Clothing symbolizes protection. Adam and Eve put on the protection of God.
I think there are probably two things humans fear most: being totally alone and being totally unlovable. The story of Adam and Eve affirms for us that we are never alone because God is always faithful, always present, and always ready to redeem; and that God loves us so much that God will seek us out to maintain relationship with us.
In the Gospel from Matthew, the temptations Jesus confronts are also about archetypal. Jesus’ tempter says to him: “IF you are the Son of God…” then prove it. Like the serpent in Genesis, the tempter in Matthew speaks self-centeredness, that is, being the center of our own attention and concern, to Jesus.
In biblical terms, to speak something is to create it. Jesus, in his humanity, is confronting some very real human impulses here, and they’re the same ones we still face: Are we who we think we are? If we don’t take care of ourselves and what we need, who will? Are we really beloved of God – and what does that mean? How does that work in “real life?”
If you are a child of God, the tempter says, then prove that God loves you. Prove God is with you. Prove God will take care of you.
Proof is not the same as faith, and our faith assures us that God loves us. So, we can choose not to believe the lies of current culture, where protestors proclaim that God hates those other children of God because of their sexual orientation or gender fluidity. Around the world, rich and privileged children of God vilify and degrade poor children of God. Male children of God continue to oppress and abuse female children of God. The current Epstein scandal comes to mind.
But this isn’t new. For generations, girls, women, and other vulnerable groups have been and continue to be abused, trafficked, excluded from education, independence, and even leadership in the church. It’s a global and historical distortion of our right relationships. It’s sin, and as Rev. Naomi Tutu preached last Saturday, it makes me weep.
I have Good News to share about this, though. God hates nothing God has made.
That isn’t just my opinion. It’s in our Prayer Book. Did it sound familiar? It’s in the first prayer we prayed together at our Ash Wednesday service.
In biblical language to ‘love’ means to be loyal to, to be faithful to; and to hate means to turn away from, to desert. God hates no one and nothing God has made.
How do we know God hates nothing God has made? Because over and over, our sacred texts remind us that God is steadfast, faithful, merciful, loving, and always ready to help us. In the Genesis story, God covered the vulnerability of the first humans when they realized they were vulnerable. In the Psalm, God is our hiding place, our respite from trouble. In both of these stories, God shows us how to go, how to survive, how to thrive.
So then, why aren’t we thriving in the harmony God has created for us? Where did sin come from?
Our Scripture talks about the devil, the tempter, Satan, and the serpent. All of these are regarded as evil, but what is evil? According to our Judeo-Christian tradition, evil is anything or anyone who actively or on behalf of someone else sows division, pain, or heaps unfair burdens or hardships upon those they can oppress.
The devil, diabolos, is a person, desire, or thing that distracts us from God. The tempter refers to an internal challenge to test oneself, to see whether or not a thing can be done.
The Hebrew term “the satan” describes an adversarial role, not a particular character... Sorry – no, there’s no red guy with horns or a pitchfork – and the “S” is not capitalized. It isn’t a name.
In her book, “The Origin of Satan,” theologian Elaine Pagels says that the ancient Jewish understanding and literal translation of the word “satan” is: “one who throws something across one’s path.” If the path we’re on is bad for us, the obstruction is good; thus, the satan may have been sent by the Lord to protect a person from worse harm. (pp 39, 40) If the path we’re on is right and good, however, the satan is disruptive, distracting, evil, and intent on doing us harm.
The serpent is a pre-Christian symbol of the goddess, of feminine power, strength, and healing. Note how our forebears used this symbol. This matters because blaming women for sin and the cultural and spiritual consequences of that are being openly discussed right now on social media.
When Jesus went into the wilderness, he was showing us how to work out what our relationship with God and others should be. The self-differentiation of humanity begun in Genesis culminates in the full integration of humanity and divinity in Jesus.
We know where this led Jesus, so we are tempted to ignore the call. We don’t want to be led to our death. In fact, we resist death in general, whether it’s the death of our habits or of our understanding about God, the church, and our culture. We much prefer status quo, even when that status quo begins to harm and destroy people and creation.
As we’ve all watched the unfolding of the evils of the Epstein scandal, the rise of Christian Nationalism, ICE aggression, and billionaire-driven cultural influencing, I’ve had people say to me, “Oh, this will pass. It’s not as grievous or life-threatening as some are making it seem. Don’t overreact. It’ll all come back to the middle.”
The thing is, that “middle”, or as I call it, the waters we have been swimming in have been polluted by these evils for so long, we’ve stopped noticing the pollution. We’ve slowly adjusted ourselves to include and normalize the pollution.
It seems we have reached a tipping point. We can either recognize the opportunity God is giving us to restore divine balance, or we can watch the evil we have created destroy us like an aggressive cancer within the body of our humanity.
Jesus showed us what to do - if we have the will to follow him. Away with you, Satan, he said. We will worship and serve only the Lord our God, who, as we said before, is our ever-present, ever-watchful protector and hiding place; the co-breather of life in us.
Then Jesus gave his life so we could have new life in God. We will have to give up our lives as we know them now and be guided into our new life in God.
Training ourselves to be God-conscious, that is, awake and aware of God’s presence, protection, mercy, and redemption in every situation, and for every human being, along with all of creation, is the work of Lent. Weeping with God for the suffering of anyone and earth itself opens us to love as God loves, and to work for divine harmony on earth as it is in heaven.
May each one of us, and all of us together, work toward God-consciousness this Lent, loving God, loving one another, and changing the world.
Amen.
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