The Week of Feb 6th 2022
>>>>>> Pain Enters The World. Genesis 3:1-12 <<<<<<
Sermon Noodles and Devotional Guide
Read Genesis 3:1-12
Notice the movement of the story in these twelve verses, it is quite dazzling.
First, our lives are “boundaried” by the word of God
· If we Zoom up to 40,000 feet and look at what the scriptures say we find our lives “boundaried” by the word of God. For example, in the first verses of Genesis how does God bring the world into existence? “And God said let there be light”--God speaks the world into existence
· God’s word comes to us in the ten commandments describes our four relationships
· According to the Gospel of John, Jesus Christ is the “word made flesh”. Logos
· In his ministry Jesus declares over and over again, “You have heard it said . . . but I say unto you” as Jesus is giving us the meaning of God’s word. You have heard it said love God and hate your enemy but I tell you love your enemies.
It is this boundary in which we know the good from the bad, the right from the wrong, what affirms and builds up, what destroys and tears down.
This is the story of how human beings wake up, how we become conscious, which distinguishes us from the other animals. Now Eve has to make a choice, and this is how pain enters the world. She chooses consciousness.
Now we know. Know we know what is right and what is wrong. Now we know what God desires—to do justly, to love mercy, and walk humbly (Micah 6:8) Once you know what is right and wrong, and you do wrong, pain enters the world.
Second, notice how beautifully the scriptures tell the story of this pain. God is walking in the cool of the day, searching for Adam and Eve. God is calling out, “Where are you?” Adam is hiding. Why? Because I was naked. Who told you you were naked?
This is what is called “original shame.”
It may be way more helpful to refer to the fall of Adam and Even in terms of original shame verse original sin. Sin isn’t even mentioned in the text, but shame sure is. “I was hiding because I was naked” what could be a better way to describe shame than this?
Shame:
Shame is perhaps the most toxic of all emotions. It is toxic because shame is not just saying “I made a mistake.” Shame is saying, “I am a mistake.” Shame is believing there is something inherently flawed about me that makes me feel unworthy of love.
Francis Weller also tells the story of how shame works in our lives by the example making rock candy in high school chemistry class. He took a glass of water, tied a string to a pencil, and placed the string in the glass of water. Slowly he added sugar to the water, creating a sugary solution. Then he waited. Nothing happened and nothing happened. Nothing happened until the string reached a certain saturation point and the sugar molecules begin to crystallize around the string. This is how you make rock candy.
His great insight is:
We endure a certain amount of pain/shame/disconnection from the people we love and need. We can digest a certain amount of criticism served up to us. But at some point, with enough repetition, the internal stories associated with those events reach their saturation point, and it begins to crystalize on our very soul. He adds,
“Herein begins the slow, insidious process of carving up the self to fit into the world of adults. We become convinced our joy, sadness, needs, sensuality, and so forth are the cause of our unacceptability, and we are more than willing to cleave off portions of our psychic life for the sake of inclusion . . . we become convinced . . . these pieces of who we are are not good enough, that they are in fact, shameful . . . (The Wild Edge of Sorrow, pages 33-34)
Working our own experience of shame is one of the most important tasks of a healthy and whole life because grief and shame occur most often in places “untouched by love” (Francis Weller). These tender places live “outside of kindness, compassion, warmth, or welcome” and create in us the feeling not that we made a mistake, but that we are a mistake.
I love Henri Nouwen’s definition of original sin: “Our inherent and seemingly endless capacity for self-rejection.”
Third, notice Adams toxic response to his toxic shame
If you body is full of poison, chances are so are your words. Adam points at even and says, “It is all her fault.” From very early on, we humans learn how to play “The blame game.”
Our culture is swimming in a toxic sea of blame. Its always the democrats fault.
Dear ones, the need to blame others is a symptom of sickness of soul. Unless we learn how to transform our pain and shame, we will inevitably transmit it to others. We project our own stuff onto others—this is exactly what Adam does by blaming Eve.
And it gets worse. Notice Adam doesn’t just blame Eve, he blames God.
“It was the woman, whom you put here . . .” God you are the one who created Eve, its all your fault! Isn’t that clever? This is a Jewish sensibility, insight, and humor par excellence. People just blame God for everything. It’s all God’s fault! Ever done that? Have you ever blamed God for something unfortunate that happened to you or someone you love?