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