a gray day

First Sunday in Lent, going to 10:30 church, where the gospel will be Matthew's view (an expanded version on Mark, which Matthew gets from Q, modifying slightly from Luke's version) of the Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by Satan / the Devil. Not my turn in the pulpit until next Sunday, Lent 2A.

In my Lenten discipline, I've finished three books and got two going: "Voices from the Third Reich" currently with interviews from Austrians and now from people in the Baltic States; and "Dresden - Tuesday, February 13, 1945" that has an overabundance of history leading up to the main event, but I'm seeing the vicious enthusiasm in Dresden and all Saxony for the National Socialist program, as well as significant local involvement in war production, fast coming aware of Dresden as a legitimate target.

Fully realize that nobody but me is interested anymore in what happened in Germany during my early lifetime, although I'm seeing the same base elements as Make America Great Again. It starts with division, hatred, defiant parades with startling flags and provoking violence, political exploitation, expands to beating people up and murderous intolerance. This is America's destiny? μὴ γένοιτο. I'm thankful to have lived during hopeful Times and sad to be living into a dark periphery. Some observers say that the downslide toward authoritarianism is slowing and being checked: one may hope so.

But it's Sunday, back to the gospel. Or perhaps better yet, the readings that lead up to the gospel reading - -

Old Testament: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

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, 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.

The Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19

As sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned-- sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

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There's no telling what Christianity might have been like if Paul - - who was working in his own milieu, point of view, situation in life - - had had the four gospels to read and find out what Jesus was really like. I imagine that the Faith might have developed more agapé oriented toward living lives of love and sacrifice for others, and less focused on being sinners and obsessed with personal salvation into a future life.

Adam and Eve: a great etiological story of how it came to be that humans are "more than" and have consciences instead of just living on self-preserving instinct like "lower" animals. Part of a story that we are special, that God sorted us out to be responsible for Creation by leading us to think for ourselves and about others. Our rector calls it, the Bible, a love story, and cautions us against getting too wrapped up in individual unhappy bits and pieces.

Years ago we read this story in class and a perceptive sixth grader asked "Why did God put such a tempting tree in the middle of the garden instead of hiding it away out of sight?"

The answer is that it's a brilliant tongue in cheek campfire story with a talking snake, about God offering us the opportunity to be more than just pets or wild animals, and more like God, by putting something irresistible out in the middle of us, saying, "Don't eat that!!" all the Time knowing what would happen. Paul has this story all wrong!

God put the tree in the middle of the garden in order to bring about precisely what happened!

The point of the story is not our sinful disobedience, the point is God messing with us and us falling for it! Jewish humor is wonderful. Today's Genesis reading Is as humorously ironic as the later Genesis story of Jacob being tricked into marrying the ugly daughter - - Jacob, himself the trickster who had it coming!

God isn't against us, seeking to punish us; God is for us, using human nature to help us, hoping that in Time we will become more like God.

RSF&PTL