The Bible Challenge has begun! In our church I invited people to begin this journey of reading the Bible through in a year. Like some of the other clergy in the diocese we decided to begin on the 7th, the first Monday. Of course, some churches in the diocese started in Advent, others on the First of the Year, and I bet more start in Lent. It doesn't matter when you start; just that you do.
I started a day late. Somehow I managed to start the year out by being sick and I just didn't get started yesterday. So I started today. I'll read both of the first two days before I go to bed tonight. All will be well. This is not a challenge that becomes ruined if it is done imperfectly. The only thing that matters is to be willing to read with an open heart and to listen for the truth.
Today I read the first three chapters of Genesis. I've read them a million times! (OK, slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean.) I wondered anew at the moment when Adam and God are talking about that piece of fruit. I was thinking about the "size" of the sin compared to the consequence. I wondered about the legality of the thing. Then, without warning, the story shifted. Then it was in my gut.
You know that feeling, that moment of discovery, when you know that you have done something that will break the heart of someone else? That is what that conversation is about. It doesn't matter who told or why Adam broke his word, it only matters that he did. He can't face it. It is too sad, too heavy, and too irrevocable. It is done and he has done it. The relationship, perfect in its creation, is now broken. Nothing will make it completely whole again.
This is the world we live in. We hurt others, sometimes accidentally, sometimes carelessly and sometimes intentionally. Perhaps we did not even consider the consequences in our eagerness to taste the new fruit. But then there is the moment of revelation. We are naked and we know it! The consequences are terrible and we only wish that we could stay hidden. Paradise is lost and we are kicked out!
But we are not dead. There is still love. We can know forgiveness. All is not lost.
This is where we begin. We are out in the wilderness East of Eden. May we again find our story in the story of God's people and may we again find our way home.
