NAKED BEFORE GOD

Adam and Eve have eaten of the fruit of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad. The immediate effect is that they realize they are naked. And, somehow, they realize this is bad or shameful. So, they sew fig leaves together to cover their parts. Have you ever seen fig leaves? They can be huge – up to 10 inches long and seven inches wide.

Anyway, later that day – in the cool of the evening – God comes walking in the garden. Because they ate the fruit, they know they’ve done something bad and are ashamed. The text says they’re ashamed because they’re naked. Anyway, they do what we’ve all done as kids, hopefully not as adults. They hide. I’m not sure what the strategy is there, but God notices. He calls out to them. Well, to the man, because patriarchy.

Adam responds that he’s afraid to face God because he’s naked.

Naked.

There are so many ways to be naked: physically, emotionally, exposed for a lie we’ve told, vulnerable to another, spiritually. In all these there’s a sense of vulnerability. Adam is vulnerable before God – and now he knows it. He doesn’t like it. He’s afraid of what God might do. Adam is a lot like us here. Especially in America. We don’t like feeling vulnerable or helpless before another person.

But the truth is that we’re all naked before God. That’s why some of us don’t go near her. It’s too painful. Because to get close to God implies getting to know and admit the truth about ourselves. Most of us, when thinking about this, focus on the negative truths about ourselves. We’ve been taught to – not by any one person, but rather by our society’s institutions. Our society is a little broken that way.

Jesus doesn’t focus on our brokenness. When he called the disciples, he didn’t tell them he’d fix their personal faults. No, he told them to follow him. He told a few he’d teach them how to fish for people. He gained disciples by inviting himself to a meal, by recognizing repentance in the woman with the alabaster jar, by healing those who wanted to be healed in order to rejoin their community. Jesus gained disciples by loving them.

God is not watching us because she is tallying up our wrongs. She watches us as a father watches his newborn: in awe, wonder, and love.

It’s been a rough week, a rough month for gun violence in America. Most of us want something to be done and feel powerless when our leaders only offer “horrified and heartbroken,” which is the replacement for the much-mocked “thoughts and prayers.” I mean, we are all horrified and heartbroken. But our leaders seem to think that words are enough.

They are not.

So, maybe stay close to God, Jesus, the Spirit. They see us in love. Maybe rest there. That’s my plan. Because when I fill up on love, I can then spread it to others – in the form of actions as well as words. 

It sounds corny, because it is, but what the world needs now is love.

B

 

EVE IS AWESOME

Three posts ago, I talked about the picture of God bringing each of his creations individually to Adam to see what he would name it. God had noticed that Adam was lonely and was trying to find a ‘fitting partner’ for him. Of course, none of the creatures were a fitting partner for the man. I mean dogs are great and all, but they’re not the same as friends or spouses, right? So God decides to perform the world’s first surgery.

Which makes me wonder: when did the idea of cutting someone open to fix whatever was wrong inside and then closing it back up actually occur to people? There is some question as to when exactly the stories of Genesis were written down, but a conservative estimate would be 500 BCE. However, these stories were clearly being told long before then – at least, that is why there are two versions of the creation story, Noah’s story, and others. I’m afraid to google it because I’ll end up down a rabbit hole. Anyway, I have always breezed right by that detail, because surgery is so common now. Humans are amazing, is what I’m saying.

Getting back to God and Adam, God puts Adam to sleep so he won’t feel pain, takes a rib out, closes the skin back up, and makes a woman out of the rib (and soil, I assume). When Adam wakes up (was he groggy? In pain?), he exclaims, ‘Yes! This is it. This is the fitting partner for me.’ The author of Genesis puts it more eloquently: This one finally is bone from my bones / and flesh from my flesh. / She will be called a woman / because from a man she was taken.” (Gen 2:23, CEB). And they lived in the garden – naked and unashamed, because what was there to be ashamed of?

Of course, this is where the Bible starts regulating society – or describing what their society looks like by talking about a man leaving his mother and cleaving to his wife and getting married. Today, most of us have a more expansive view of marriage – probably because having children is not nearly as important now as it was then. Then, it was a survival strategy – kids could help with the work. Not to mention so many people died young. Today, in America, marriage is between two people – any two people.

Now, we have to backtrack, because I skipped a section in order to tell the stories of Adam naming the creatures and Eve being born. Earlier, (verses 16 and 17) God laid down the law: 'Eat your fill from all of the garden’s trees; but don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it, you will die!' However, it’s important to point out that Eve was not around then. She only comes onto the scene in verse 23. Adam or God must have told her about this offstage, because when the snake (not Satan!), comes walking over to Eve, remember they have legs at this point, and says, ‘hey, did God really tell you couldn’t eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,’ she knows the answer.

To her credit, Eve does not freak out about a talking snake, or maybe the animals talked back then. Anyway, she says it’s only the tree in the middle of the garden they’re not allowed to eat from or touch or they’ll die. The serpent spins the truth a little bit and tells her they won’t die. Instead, on the day they eat of it, they will become like divine beings, knowing good and bad. Here is where I have to say I think I have fallen in love with Eve a little bit, because she looks at this tree, and she sees that its fruit is good, that the tree is delightful to look at, and somehow, it doesn’t say how, she knows that that tree is desirable as a source of wisdom. I don’t know; I see Adam is kind of just hanging around tilling the garden and enjoying his life and that’s great. But Eve is pictured here as desiring something more, and all it takes for her to do something about it is that suggestion by the serpent that there is something more. 

So, desiring to be wise, she eats some, and she gets her husband – who was with her, and presumably heard this entire conversation and registered zero objections – to eat some as well. I just want to repeat that her husband was with her, heard the conversation, and made no effort to argue or stop her. I think I’m right about Adam’s laziness.

And about Eve’s awesomeness. We’ve seen in recent weeks the misogyny that White Supremacy needs in order to survive. The horrible treatment of soon-to-be Justice Ketani Brown-Jackson. The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade not on precedent but rather on the basis of historical rights. It makes me sad and angry. I hope it makes you sad and angry too. Because women are also God’s creation. What gives men the right to tell us how to live our lives? Nothing. Unless we give in.

Don’t give in. Let your awesomeness show!

B

JUSTICE

Last week, I started out with a quote from Rev. Dr. William Barber, II at the 2016 Democratic Convention: “I’m so concerned about those who say so much about what God says so little while saying so little about what God says so much.” Abortion is one of those things that Republicans talk about so much, but God says so little.

So, what does God say ‘so much’ about? Let’s take a look:

Deuteronomy 10:18 - He enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. (All quotes from the CEB)

Psalm 10:17-18 - Lord, you listen to the desires of those who suffer. / You steady their hearts; you listen closely to them, / to establish justice / for the orphan and the oppressed, / so that people of the land / will never again be terrified.

Isaiah 10:1-3 - Doom to those who pronounce wicked decrees, / and keep writing harmful laws /     to deprive the needy of their rights / and to rob the poor among my people of justice; / to make widows their loot; /to steal from orphans! / What will you do on the day of punishment /when disaster comes from far away? / To whom will you flee for help; / where will you stash your wealth?

Are you sensing a theme? There’s more! There are many passages in which the word ‘justice’ is not explicitly used, but is rather described:

Leviticus 25:35-7 - If one of your fellow Israelites faces financial difficulty and is in a shaky situation with you, you must assist them as you would an immigrant or foreign guest so that they can survive among you. Do not take interest from them, or any kind of profit from interest, but fear your God so that your fellow Israelite can survive among you. Do not lend a poor Israelite money with interest or lend food at a profit.

Luke 4:16-19 - Jesus went to Nazareth, where he had been raised. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue as he normally did and stood up to read. The synagogue assistant gave him the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, / because the Lord has anointed me. / He has sent me to preach good news to the poor, / to proclaim release to the prisoners / and recovery of sight to the blind, / to liberate the oppressed, / and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Let’s not forget the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The owner goes out and hires people throughout the day. “When those who were hired at five in the afternoon came, each one received a denarion. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a denarion.” Feel free to read ‘living wage’ for ‘denarion.’ This is what God’s justice looks like; everyone having enough. Enough food, enough water, enough clothing, enough shelter. Enough.

In God’s Beloved Community, all have enough – even those who would take from others, even those who we might see as our enemies, even those who would take away abortion rights – and other civil rights. In God’s vision, we are all beloved, and God finds happiness in us. Therefore, God’s justice requires that ALL are cared for.

Let’s commit to doing just that today.

B

ABORTION

https://twitter.com/RevDrBarber/status/1521588650584289280 

 If you don't have twitter, it's a tweet from the Reverend Dr. William Barber saying, "I’m so concerned about those who say so much about what God says so little while saying so little about what God says so much."

Today, I’d like to set the record straight about what the Bible says about abortion. I’ll tell you right now, it’s not much. Outside of some general blessings around women not having miscarriages and a passage in 2 Kings that discusses how an area of land is bad because its water supply causes women to miscarry (which are not even abortions!) there are two. And even these are rarely translated as abortions, although I’d argue that’s what they are.

The first is Exodus 21:22: When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that she has a miscarriage but no other injury occurs, then the guilty party will be fined what the woman’s husband demands, as negotiated with the judges. (CEB) The word is translated miscarriage, but in this situation, it’s an abortion. Not on purpose, of course, but an abortion nonetheless.

The important thing about this passage is the fact that the penalty for this miscarriage is not the same as if a man – or even a woman were to be killed by accident. That was addressed in verse 12-13: Whoever strikes a person mortally shall be put to death. If it was not premeditated but came about by an act of God, then I will appoint for you a place to which the killer may flee.

To recap: according to Exodus, if a person is killed by accident, the killer must flee to a safe place. If a fetus is killed by accident, there is a fine. Clearly, they judged an unborn fetus to be not worth the same as a person.

The other passage is Numbers 5:21: then the priest must make the woman utter the curse and say to the woman, “May the Lord make you a curse and a harmful pledge among your people, when the Lord induces a miscarriage and your womb discharges.” This is the test for a woman accused of adultery. The priest makes a special concoction, which includes dust/dirt from the floor of the temple (ew), for the woman to drink. If she is guilty and happens to be pregnant, she will miscarry. Again, this is clearly an abortion. The actual phrase discusses her thigh shriveling up and her womb distending. This makes no sense until you learn that the word thigh is often used for genitals in the OT. So, there is some question about whether the woman becomes infertile or merely loses the pregnancy and is sick.

That’s it. Those are the only two places where the OT talks about what might be considered abortion. One of them is a test/punishment ordained by God, while the other makes it clear that an unborn fetus is not yet a person.

The draft ruling by Alito is horrible for many reasons. The Pro-Life movement are mostly horrible - I say mostly because there are some who take the label seriously - because they do not support any kind of legislation to take care of children once they're born to poor or single mothers. They are not worried about children - it's all propaganda and fearmongering. This is what our country has come to.

May God forgive us.

B