After
only a century of being fairly guilt-free in understanding,
Christianity became, unlike its Jewish mother, fixated on SIN. Along
with the newly developed doctrines of heaven and hell, the idea of
sin soon took over the interpretation of many scriptures. This old
creation story was the mother-lode. It was obvious to those
non-Jewish Christians that because of the sin of Adam and Eve, all
people (direct descendants, of course) were doomed. By 400 AD the
power of sin had trumped all, even a loving God. In their minds,
where Satan was behind most of life, no love was strong enough to
overcome a bite on a forbidden fruit. That mouthful, they soon came
to believe, caused all people to go straight to Hell. They were only
to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus, but that will come later.
So,
for nearly two thousand years, this wonderful and true story has been
used mainly to terrorize people, (Gentiles at least). What a waste!
We who have followed those sin obsessed people have missed truths,
truths about us, now and forever.
Background
For the ancient and current
Jews, FAMILY is paramount. The family was the main spiritual,
social and economic unit. That was where truths were learned and
passed on. And for the families back in about 1200 B.C., the era
from when these stories came, times were hard and very uncertain.
Yet, they believed in an all-powerful and loving God. Why didn't God
make things better for them? Why didn't their God defeat their
enemies? Why did the "bad guys" seem to prosper more than
the godly? Why do bad things happen to good people?"
Are these questions out of date? Don't tell me you haven't shared
them! How many times have you or others asked "WHY?"
when a child or loved one dies, or have doubted the existence of God
because of the facts of death and suffering? These are timeless
questions put to voice in a good story, true to life. IF GOD IS
LOVING AND POWERFUL, WHY AREN'T THINGS DIFFERENT? WHY IS THERE THE
BAD STUFF?
To
those with no god, no larger view of the here and now, the answer
today and then is simple: That's the way life is. To those who
believe in an unloving but powerful god, god deservingly gets the
blame. Neither of these understandings takes much thinking. The
answer is a logical reaction to experience.
For those of us who know of a God of Love, our answer must also be a
logical response to our reality and this ancient story in Genesis
helps us to see that reality. But first we need to use our reasoning
to remind us that if we are assuming even the possibility of a God
of Love, LOVE itself must be the lens through which we read and
experience the story even as LOVE was the assumption on which it was
told. Back to the lessons learned in families.
First
Reality
The
most intense love many of us ever experience is in families. Love
is the first genetic and automatic reaction we parents experience
toward our infants. PROTECT! We want the best for our child. No
hurts, no wants. To give them everything we never had; that they
never experience the bad sides of life. We would give our own lives
and suffer all hardships if only our children might not!
This reality is the first scene of the "Garden of Eden"
play. God's new children are living in perfection, having all
provided for and under the eternal loving protection of their
perfect parent, like we might provide for our children if we had
the power.
Second
Reality
What are the results of children living in a paradise, with no
responsibility and no needs, where they can stay up as late as they
want, watch TV or stay on-line, eat what-ever junk food they crave
and then sleep in as late as they want? What does PARADISE give us?
Spoiled children!
The
children, of course, grow to blame their parents for any and all
perceived grievances. They are never satisfied. The "spoiled"
of the world, then, now and always, think the world owes them
everything they want. The children want even to replace their
parents and demand to be treated as equals and to be independent long
before they achieve maturity. Even while living with no wants and
needs, they really are not happy and are definitely not growing up!
Living in PARADISE has done them harm in all ways, keeping them from
learning the important lesson of life, HOW TO LOVE.
Don't tell me this is a new truth to anyone! Again, it's part of
our lives. It's TRUE. It's how we are, always have been, always
will be. The story hasn't given us a NEW truth but has reminded us
of what we know through experience. What it HAS done is to connect
the knowledge learned in the family to the Holy so that we might use
our knowledge from one area in our lives to answer questions in a
larger arena.
Third
Reality
The
remedy to the parental urge to over-protect is EVEN MORE LOVE!
Love enough on the part of the parents to endure temporary
displeasure and even wrath of the children who are not given what
they want. Love enough to realize that real love is the giving away
of power, that real love does not control or manipulate. Real love
allows and even forces freedom upon the loved, giving them the
responsibility and opportunity to make mistakes. God's Wisdom
shows us that real love and understanding can NOT be passed down to
others; it has to be learned again and again in experience, one
person at a time. ONLY IN AN IMPERFECT WORLD CAN WE GROW AND LEARN
OF LOVE! It turns out that living in paradise is a curse even
though we automatically desire it! Call that desire the ORIGINAL
STUPIDITY!
So
the Creating God loved and loves us enough to place us in a very
imperfect world where we kick and scream like spoiled children,
wanting everything to go our way, often cursing God and asking WHY?,
claiming that God doesn't really love us at all. When we and others
are hurt, these are our knee-jerk reactions, just like a
six-year-old. Rarely do we take the time or thought to really look
at LOVE for the answer.
As understood in classical Christianity, Adam and Eve were ejected
from the perfection of the Garden of Eden because of their sin,
after being tempted by the Devil (in the form of the snake). Their
"fall" into the "real world" was seen as
punishment for this crime, so great a sin that it extended to all
humanity and time. In Judaism, in contrast (and they wrote the
story, remember) the EXPULSION WAS AND IS SEEN AS A BLESSING by a
loving God and Creator who knows that this banishment from paradise
to an imperfect and random world is the only way for people to
experience love and grow in this divine way.
And so now life is beyond God's control. In the story, Adam and Eve
asked for control. They are us. We ask for control. It looks
like God gave it to us. Now that we have it we still bitch about it
when things get tough. Some kids just never learn; some learn
only after a lot of hard knocks. Through it all God hopes beyond
hope that we might grow in love ourselves and wants to stay with us
in the joys and suffering of this world, after doing all that is
possible for us in love.
For as we and all parents eventually learn, in the end, we have no
control and power, we can only give our children unconditional love.
What
a truth! What a story!
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