Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Wisdom Wednesday: Adam and Eve

Grace and peace to you, I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, June 5, 2024 A few months ago, a church member of Peakland, Mrs. Lee Ohl, presented these banners which she had made. Each banner has 6 panels featuring beloved Bible stories. This summer I’m using the Bible stores featured on these banners as the scriptures for our Sunday worship. Last Sunday, we began at the beginning with the creation stories of Genesis. Two stories which differ in the details, but each one shows us that what God has created, God intends for good. I talked about how faith and science aren’t really in conflict but are two verses in the same hymn. This upcoming Sunday we’ll look at the story depicted on the next panel. Adam and Eve, whose story is found in chapters 2 and 3 of Genesis. God creates a human out of the dust and dirt of the ground, places the human in a garden in Eden where there are many plants and trees good for food. The garden also has the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God warns the human that he may eat of all the plants except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God recognizes that the human is alone without companionship, so God creates animals in the same way God created the human, out of the dirt of the ground. God presents each animal to the human who names them. Dog, cat, goat, giraffe, butterfly, horsefly, dragonfly. Kind of ran out of steam on those last ones. God sees that the animals, and though they are fluffy and furry and scaly and wonderful, they are not the same as a partner for the human, so from the human’s body, God creates another human, and now there is a man and a woman. At some point a crafty serpent convinces the humans to eat from the tree of knowledge, “You won’t die,” says the serpent. The humans eat the fruit, and they recognize they have crossed a line. They cover themselves in itchy fig leaves When God calls after them, at first, they hide, then when God confronts them with the truth, they each blame the other. The woman gave it to me, says the man. The serpent tricked me, says the woman. There are consequences for all of them for their actions. Serpents will crawl on their bellies. The man will have to work hard for food to eat. The woman will have childbirth pain. The relationship between men and women becomes disjointed, and they must leave the garden paradise. This story leaves me with some questions which we’ll explore Sunday. Did Adam and Eve eat an apple? Why would God put such a tempting tree in the garden in the first place? Was the serpent the devil? And of course, the most challenging question of all: Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons? The story of Adam and Eve comes to an end with one of my favorite Bible verses. Genesis, chapter 3, verse 21, And the Lord God made garments for them and clothed them. That seems like an unremarkable thing to do, almost like an afterthought, and yet, what it says about God is substantial. God’s love and care for Adam and Eve remained even when they were disobedient. God gave them what they needed. They still had to live with the consequences of their actions, but God offered them grace and compassion. What’s true for Adam and Eve is true for us, God wants all of us to have all the blessings of a good life: home, safety, peace, love, acceptance, faith, and even when we mess life up, even when life is hard and our relationships with each other are disjointed, God’s grace and God’s love cover us and God helps us provide a good life to all of our neighbors. That’s what we do here at Peakland. We let God wrap us up in love and then we let God help us love and care for each other and for all our neighbors. If you’d like to know more about life here at Peakland and finding your place here, reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com Thanks be to God!