Second Sunday Before Lent

In our readings from the Mass this morning we heard again the opening of John’s Gospel. Also the reading from the book of Proverbs speaks about the creation of the world and God at work in that creation, setting its boundaries and the means by which it was to grow and continue. And so this evening we revisit the creation story of Genesis, the second of two accounts given that begin to introduce the reader to the understanding that it is God who creates in the world.

So often in our society today and indeed throughout the history of the Christian Church there has been this false conflict between scientific exploration and explanation on the one hand and faith on the other. Perhaps it is easier to come to a point of reconciliation in these two apparently opposing sides of a debate when we take seriously this second creation narrative of the Book of Genesis. The fist thing that we may notice is the absence of a time scale – the day one, day two, day three etc of Genesis chapter 1. The point in Chapter 2 is the simple truth that it is God who creates. We are given a story that has meaning for everyone in society, young, old, those who consider themselves wise and those who do not, it offers a simple truth, God is the creator of all that we see, in some way the created order has its origins in God.

The next thing that we can say is that we are not simply moulded out of the dust and clay of the earth, or even dare we say, moulded out of the bone and flesh of another – no! This is not what Genesis chapter 2 is saying to us. Rather we are created and then filled with the very breath of God. Created humanity owes its very existence to the inbreathing of the breath of God. Life is to be indeed Spirit filled if the Holy Spirit is the very breath of God. All of this says to me that there is something innately good in creation.

Then we move on again to a wonderful garden again speaking to us loudly and clearly about the good of creation. But what God intended was not just goodness but life also. We can notice hear that humanity was given permission to eat o the tree of Life, so the story goes. So often it is said that religion, or faith is about what you cannot do, it is that which restricts life. Yet Jesus says to us, ‘I came so that you may have life in all its fullness’ – a picture consistent with this creation story in the very beginning in the book of Genesis. God who creates is not some divine policeman watching over us, waiting for it all to go wrong, he created us so that we may have life. The only quotation from the Scottish catechism that I know is the opening question and answer: Why were you created? Answer: You were created to worship God and enjoy him forever. So God’s intention was never punishment and death, but relationship and life. And so the Garden we have before us is one of great abundance.

But beware, I hear the voice of a member of the Community of the Resurrection over my shoulder, because when I was a student, Fr Peter said to me you have a higher opinion of original goodness than you do of original sin. In other words, perhaps it is easier to see the goodness than it is to face up to the sin! So what are the consequences when sin comes into the world through what we have described to us. There is a joke that goes a bit like this: Adam was walking with Cain and Abel, and they looked over to the garden of Eden, now a forbidden place to them. The brothers asked what was the place? And Adam replied, ‘that my boys, is where your mother ate us out of house and home!’

Is God so fickle as to condemn just for eating a piece of fruit? I have often wondered what the motivation might be for the serious way in which what appears to be a minor transgression is dealt with. Why should it have such dire consequences? So in Genesis chapter 3 with the build up to the defying of God’s Command we see think the reason for the seriousness of the sin. The harmony of our passage today is replaced by discord, trust gives way to suspicion. And from here things go from bad to worse.

Only this week in a  school assembly, I was talking to them about Cain and Abel, Genesis chapter 4. Together we learned that actually it was not just the fact that Cain had murdered his brother Abel but it started with the competitiveness and jealousy which resulted in the attack and was followed by lies. Sin is rarely uncomplicated and often begins with the little things – perhaps this is what the story of the fruit in the garden of Eden is really all about. It is not that God wants to prevent us from knowing, but that he knows how the little things often lead to complications in life that bring if not death a poorer quality of living. How this is picked up in Luke chapter 8 and the way Jesus calms the storm. It is the simple lack of trust that these early disciples show when they begin to fear for their lives. I believe that the sea of Galilee is known for its sudden storms, yet these men would have known this as fishermen. Perhaps it was the first time that they had been caught out like this. Yet they still panicked. What about us? Have we been caught out time and time again with sin? Yet each time we panic, the little thing becomes totally overwhelming and we are convinced all is about to go wrong. O we know deep within our hearts, our very being the promise of God who created us to have life in all its fullness. When the sea of life is a little choppy we need to have the words of St Paul on our lips ‘If we live, we live for the Lord, if we die we die for the Lord, so that whether we live or die we belong to the Lord!’. |These are some favourite words of mine, because they acknowledge why we were made, they acknowledge our destiny and the give a real sense of God not just making us but being that inbreathing of his very breath to give the life he always intended to the one he loves.