March 16, 2014
Genesis 2:15-17, 3 - 7
The Lord God took the man and put him in
the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You
may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall
die.”
Now the serpent was more crafty than any
other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God
say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said
to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God
said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” But the serpent
said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God,[a] knowing good and evil.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a
delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she
took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with
her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they
were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for
themselves.
***
You are a congregation that knows this text
is not a simple as it seems. You know that a woman eating the fruit does not
simply make women bad. You know that the first couple knowing they were naked
does not simply mean sexuality is wrong. You are congregation that does not
write off the snake as the evil one. You know this text, is more complicated
than that. You too perhaps, have eaten from the tree of knowledge, the tree of
good and evil. It is a part of life. It is a part of life, and a part of death.
God commands Adam, ““You may freely eat
of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” God
does not say, ‘if you eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.’ God
says, “for in the day you eat of if, you shall die.” Eating the fruit is not
an, ‘if,’ it is a, ‘when,’ and in that when, there is a little death.
I think this, ‘when,’ is for what we raise
our children. The, ‘When you mess up, you will learn.’ It’s inevitable. In the
same way, I think Adam and Eve eating the fruit, was inevitable. God planted
the tree, not for temptation, God created the snake not for deceit, but for the
moments that come in the growing up. It’s why NeverNeverLand only exists in
Peter Pan, and the silver bells of Santa’s sleigh only sound for children in
the Polar Express. It is a part of life, and it is a part of death. “Of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that
you eat of it you shall die.” It is inevitable, and I think perhaps, God
planted and planned it that way.
The snake already knew; the snake is the
older sibling, the older friend. There is part of me that is still angry
at Valerie Moczygamba for, ‘telling me about Santa,’ there is a part
of me that grieved when Ashley Harrison wanted to play pretend and for first
time, I was too old. There was a part of me that hated hearing, ‘the talk,’
because in those moments, something is surely lost. The garden becomes so much
less simple, but it was never really simple. I was just living in a fantastical
world. The snake, the older sibling, the older friend, our parents, just wanted
to help open our eyes. The snake says, “You will not die; for God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” The snake knows that God’s warning is not as simple and
straight forward as it commands. The snake’s eyes have been opened. The snake
knows that this death is a part of life, and it is what must happen for our
eyes to become open.
And so Adam and Eve took the fruit, because
they too saw, “that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to
the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.” There is
something lost, but there is also something found. “Then the eyes of both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together
and made loincloths for themselves.” They realized life was not as simple as
being naked in a garden. They knew what already was, but what they hadn’t
known. They knew what God planned them to know, by planting the tree. This
death is a part of life. We are not Lost Boys, with the chant, “never grow,
never grow up, never grow up.” We are the children of God, whose eyes are to
become opened to the knowledge that life is not that simple.
