webmaster posted on March 14, 2011 10:53
Living as Post-Apple People
My 3-year-old son is playing outside. Two older children run off behind a tree and pretend to whisper to each other. They’re trying to pick on my son and make him paranoid. But he’s too young to get it. He runs around the tree and keeps playing with them, unfazed by their efforts. “Psychological bullying” doesn’t work on him yet.
The Old Testament lectionary reading for the First Sunday of Lent 2011 is Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7. Generations have read this story as humanity’s early fall from perfection to sinfulness. But every time I just try to read the naked text – for what it says and doesn’t say – it sounds more to me like a story of humanity's premature growth from naïveté to awareness.
The fruit (not identified as an apple) that Eve is persuaded to eat by the serpent (not identified as Satan) is said to be from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." Adam and Eve eat the fruit and "their eyes were opened" and "they realized they were naked." In the serpent's temptation, he never lies but merely manipulates the truth (a more effective tactic). “You will not actually die,” he tells them, and he reveals the reason that God didn't want them to eat of it (which God had not shared). While Adam and Eve’s actions clearly constituted disobedience (and therefore sin), verse 22 reveals that God’s primary concern was this new special knowledge they gained that He did not want them to have...at least, not that soon.
My son has not yet eaten many “apples.” He's not supposed to yet. Eventually, he will lose his naïveté as he matures. But not yet. There’s a proper time. But we adults, who have gained more “knowledge of good and evil,” can easily forget our reckless tendencies with this knowledge.
Lent can be a time to reflect on what it means to live as “post-apple” people. With knowledge comes responsibility. The more we know (or claim to know), the less of an excuse we have. As Paul explains in the Romans lectionary reading, “sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law” (5:13). We live in a tension. We know something of good and evil, we are called to be discerning and wise (Proverbs 8:10-11), but Jesus also said that we must seek Him with the reckless trust and naïveté of children (Luke 18:17). Lent is a time to remember our beginnings in the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7) and submit ourselves once again to God as His helpless children who have never known what is best for us.
In the meantime, I love watching my son play in his own little Garden of Eden where there’s no pain of rejection and he hasn’t felt the shame of “nakedness.” He’s sitting on Jesus’ lap where he’s loved and welcomed, the place where we are called to return, if we choose.
Rev. Corey S. Fields
Associate Pastor
First Baptist Church, Topeka, KS