Lent

February 28, 2023

Scripture Reading: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

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.

Why do we suppose God put a tree in the garden and then said yes, that tree is there, but the humans were told not to eat from it? Why plant it in the first place? Is God testing humans to see if they will mind God? Or is God testing them to see, if they can think for themselves, good or bad? Why was this story included in the creation saga, so the humans to come, us, would read it? What exactly do we think God wanted us to glean from this account? What is the bigger picture?

First, being made in the image of God sets humans apart from other animals. Psalm 8 describes it this way:
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God*,
   and crowned them with glory and honor. –Psalm 8:3-5

Second, due to this designation, humans were set apart to partner with God in God’s great creation undertaking. To be a good steward of God’s work, we must differentiate what is good and what is not, and we are called to do the good that Jesus Christ modeled for us.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we miss the mark in our service to you. Help us not to be distracted by the ways of the world that are harmful to the development of the Beloved Community. Amen.

*This is from the NRSV. Some translations use the word angels rather than God.

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.