Why Do We Always Get Blamed?

Not Our Fault

One of the nicest things that happens is Adult Sunday School, during the Sep-May school year, when the curious, enthusiastic and inquisitive meet for an hour between services each Sunday morning. We meet in the parish library, which is at the east end of the new sidewalk from the new courtyard to the two-story building. It is the group’s privilege to say what they want to study. We have studied the Gospel according to John, Mark’s gospel, Letters of Paul, Revelation, parts of Exodus, some non-canonical gospels, the Creeds (and there’s a request to study the Creeds again). Sometimes it’s the Lectionary Readings for each Sunday. For the Fall 2013 season, we are studying Genesis.

Actually, there’s an awful lot to Genesis, 50 chapters, and we probably will shift to something else after a few Sundays. Maybe after the Creation Stories, maybe after the Flood (which allows great discovery of two writers, one of whom calls the divinity Elohim and the calls the divinity Yahweh). Or maybe we will go off to the Creeds or something and come back to Genesis later. It will be up to the group.

As well as all the folks who come, a richness of the group is the presence of two folks, Mike Dickey who is parish EfM mentor, and Jane Burkett who recently graduated from what I think is our most intellectually demanding theological seminary, Nashotah House in Wisconsin. Mike and Jane share leadership with me, adding immensely and immeasurably to the fun, spirit, imagination and depth of Adult Sunday School at Holy Nativity.

We started last week with the second (but older) creation story, Genesis chapter 2, the earthy campfire tale in which the Lord God scoops up mud, forms an earthling, breathes life into it, makes a lovely garden, puts the earthling to work as gardener/farmer, tells him, the ish, that he can eat anything in the garden But Not The Fruit Of That One Tree, makes animals, makes an isha to be the ish’s companion and helper.

Details slip my mind just now, but there is a psychology experiment that I’ve watched on YouTube, in which little children are given toys to play with and told that they may play with these toys but not this one toy over here. And that they may eat this candy but not this candy over here. They are then left alone not knowing about the observers behind the mirror and the video camera. Predictably, it’s deja vu all over again, the Garden of Eden brought present, lies, disobedience and all.

That’s what we’ll be doing in Sunday School tomorrow: Genesis chapter 3, in which Nacash gets us into all this unending trouble with Hashem Elohim and we get blamed. Actually, it’s HE’s fault, isn’t it. He shouldn’t have put that tree in the middle of the garden in the first place. And He certainly shouldn’t have made such a big deal of pointing it out and telling us not to eat it. And after all, we aren’t the ones who created that sneaky Nacash. It‘s not our fault, is it. If it weren’t for Nacash and HE we’d still be back there in the Garden instead of hating Mondays.

Here’s the story.

Genesis 3 NRSV et al.

1 וְהַנָּחָשׁ

יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that YWHW Elohim Adonai Elohim Hashem Elohim the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did Elohim God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” [1 Now the Nachash was more arum (cunning, crafty, wiley) than any beast of the sadeh which Hashem Elohim had made. And he said unto the isha, Really? Hath Elohim said, Ye shall not eat of kol etz hagan? (OJB) ] 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 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.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 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.” 6 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. 7 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.

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you among all animals
    and among all wild creatures;
upon your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

16 To the woman he said,

“I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children,
yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.”

17 And to the man[b] he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife,
    and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread
until you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

20 The man named his wife Eve,[c] because she was the mother of all living. 21 And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man[d] and for his wife, and clothed them.

22 Then the Lord God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

Footnotes:

Genesis 3:5 Or gods
Genesis 3:17 Or to Adam
Genesis 3:20 in Heb Eve resembles the word for living
Genesis 3:21 or for Adam