Lent

March 3, 2020

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. –Genesis 3:1-7

I was struck when I looked this scripture up on an online bible source that the heading above this scripture inserted by the publisher is The First Sin and Its Punishment. The word “sin” is not included in the scripture. Granted I cannot remember when I was first taught that this scripture described the first incidence of sin, but I was very young. I even checked my Strong’s Concordance and did not find it there. The first use of the word sin in the bible is in Genesis 4:7 in the story of Cain and Abel. Clearly Adam and Eve missed the mark in this story so perhaps the word “sin” itself is not required.

We followers of Christ have invested a lot of time and energy in trying to define sin to exact measures. Perhaps we work so hard at it because we want to know how close to the line, we can get without crossing it. Therein lies the problem with trying to master the meaning of “sin.”

I prefer to live under the positive commandments Jesus gave us to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves*. It is much less complicated. It does demand closely linked communion with God to help us live in God’s love rather in what humans distill as love and sometimes we still need to have our eyes opened in recognizing what is good and what is evil and choosing the good.

Prayer: God who is Love, teach us in every encounter with every neighbor near and far the essence of your love as we attempt to live in the light of your love. Amen.

*Matthew 22:36-40

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.