I don t have grandchildren yet. I do have grand dogs. I m okay with that. But,

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1 I don t have grandchildren yet. I do have grand dogs. I m okay with that. But, when Kevin posted a picture on Facebook of the newest animal child, I was taken aback. It was a snake. I have a grand snake. Her name is Ramen. Ramen, the danger Noodle. Yes, it s a her. I don t know how they can tell, but apparently she has all her lady parts. She s a boa constrictor of some type. Apparently, she likes to be held. According to my son, she mostly lies around and eats once a week. What do you feed a snake? I queried. Frozen mice, he said. frozen baby mice. I shuddered. Don t they make Purina Snake Chow? Frozen mice are snake chow, Mom. Alright. Fair enough. They took the four-legged and non-legged critters to the vet last week. The vet said the snake is fat, Kevin reported. Angela s making Ramen fat. She s making Cash and Credit fat. She s making me fat. Hmmm. 1

2 Now, I know my daughter-in-law loves to bake, but I can t see her forcing my son s mouth open and stuffing it full of cake. The matter is really about will power.or won t power. Our grand snake conversations put me in mind of today s lesson from Genesis. Not my fault! That woman that you gave me told me to eat this. Oh good grief. From humanity s beginnings, we ve made an art form out of deflecting responsibility. If there is some way to make someone else to blame, then make it so. Deflecting responsibility keeps attorneys and contract writers busy. Tight contracts serve to delineate the responsibilities of all parties. From a legal perspective, that s a good thing. Written contracts provide protection from unscrupulous people. They clearly define the give-and-take between those entering the contract. 2

3 The downside to contracts is that they are always written to force blame. The tighter the contract, the less the opportunity to compromise, reconsider, or regain trust. Once there is a breach, it s nearly impossible to return to where you started. I think the reason is that contracts begin in a world where distrust is primary. You want to put in place avenues of retribution before anything has gone wrong. You just assume something is going to go wrong. When it does, then we move directly to retribution. There s no opportunity to confess and start over. God s covenant with Adam and Eve (aka as humanity) is that all would be given to them for their delight and pleasure. They just needed to avoid one thing. God trusted them with everything in creation. God walked with them in an intimate setting. God was accessible. Until, of course, they couldn t avoid the one thing. 3

4 The consequences of the breach were monumental. The serpent loses its uprightness and must crawl on its belly for all time. Adam would have to work the soil. Eve would cry out in childbirth. An angel with a fiery sword would block their re-entrance to the beautiful garden. What most Sunday School lessons and theological treatises would have us understand is that the one thing was eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some theologians consider this an upward fall the point at which humanity stopped being puppets of their creator and learned that they needed to choose doing God s will. I have another idea. I may be a bit of a heretic, but here s my exegetical theory: God punished humanity not because they ate the fruit, but because they didn t take responsibility for the eating of the fruit. If the punishment was for fruit, why didn t it happen immediately? Why did God wait until fig leaves were strategically placed and a hiding place determined? God wanted a confession. God wanted to hear, I messed up. I m sorry. 4

5 Instead, God gets The woman whom you gave to be with me, SHE gave me fruit from the tree and I ate, from the man and The serpent tricked me, and I ate, from the woman Women and men are loathe to confess their own sins. My own experience in business and other relationships, however, is that it is much easier to move past disagreement and onto reconciliation when I am willing to say I made a mistake. I m sorry. Yes, I paid for those confessions. Sometimes it was money, sometimes it was hurt feelings. Errors have consequences. Often, though, confession was a moment of reset. Everything was on the table. Tension was eased. Solutions to problems came more readily. I think that what disturbs me most about American culture these days is that we are so quick to retributions and so unwilling to make confessions. We ve lost the understanding that confession, while it makes one vulnerable, requires bravery. The confessor admits wrong AND requests forgiveness. 5

6 The consequences of the confessed act will not be gone, but with confession there is a chance that the relationship can be repaired. Had the first couple gone from the tree directly to God and confessed their sins, not the sin of the serpent, they probably still would have found themselves outside the garden gate, but perhaps God would have been less distant. I know that I m sorry isn t a cure-all for every transgression, but one that is heart-felt can be a first step to reconciliation. Take the time to account for your life. Examine your cycles of behavior. What drives your choices? Where have you put your treasure? In heaven? In something else? You know, I m very happy that there is a confession of sin in the Eucharistic liturgy, but at some point we have to stop saying we confess and begin saying I confess. 6

7 What better time to do that than in the season of Lent? Formal confession is available, but not required. You can take the forms of Reconciliation on pages 447 or 449 of the Book of Common Prayer into your room. There, where your Father sees in secret, you can make your confession. If that doesn t convince you that you are back on track with God, please call and make an appointment to see me. Confess your own sins. That s a mantra I can take through Lent. You are invited to consider it as well. Amen. 7