St. John s United Church Service Sunday October 1st, 2017 Scripture: Genesis 3:20-24 Reader: Grant MacLean Reflection: Rev.

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1 St. John s United Church Service Sunday October 1st, 2017 Scripture: Genesis 3:20-24 Reader: Grant MacLean Reflection: Rev. Karen Verveda SCRIPTURE READING: Genesis 3 20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all who live. 21 And the LORD God made garments of skins for the man * and for his wife, and clothed them. 22 Then the LORD God said, See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever 23 therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. REFLECTION: Genesis 3:20-24 The Aftermath The season of creation is an opportunity to spend time reflecting on two books the book of scripture and the book of creation. This year we ve been reflection on the book of creation with the help of Sheila Watt Cloutier and her book, The Right to Be Cold We ve been listening in on her conversations with her Arctic garden home letting the animals, and the birds, and the fish, and the elders, and the hunters, and the children, and the earth teach us. And we ve been reflecting on the second and more intimate of the creation stories from the book of Genesis. The one theologian Phyllis Trible entitles A Love Story Gone Awry. In Episode One of the first creation story we witnessed to God the artist-gardener finding pleasure in the creation of life. In Episode Two we grieved as the earth creatures turn away from God and close their ears to God s call on their lives. In Episode Three we were called as witness in a divine courtroom where God called the human pair to account for hiding from the presence of God in the garden. This week the story concludes: H adham names his wife Eve. And Yahweh God makes garments of skins, sends h adham forth from the garden and places cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. 1

2 Phyllis Trible suggests that conclusion of the creation story, a brief two verses returns us to the story s beginning, Only now, instead of celebrating an opening up and God s creation of life, we hear of a closing down and a disintegration. Yahweh God who had placed h adham in the garden now sends h adham forth from the garden. Yahweh God who first said, You may freely eat of every tree save one, now sets cherubim and flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. H adham initially formed from h adhamah a sexually undifferentiated earth creature, is now generic man who names, as he named the animals, the one first claimed as bone of bone and flesh of flesh, a reminder that union, the one flesh, is now split and where once there was mutuality, now there is hierarchy of division. In an unfinished speech Yahweh God comments, Lo h adham has become like one of us... Taken at face value, these words seem to confirm the serpent s claim in Episode Two that the couple would become like God, but nothing else in the story confirms this claim the couple hides from God, they suffer the consequences of inattentive listening to God, they exhibit no transforming wisdom so perhaps irony (often used in the last Episode of the story) is the best way to interpret this closing speech by God. Lo h adham has become like one of us... Helpless creatures, their lives shattered by strife, discord, and enmity are hardly candidates for divinity. And so it seems this creation story ends as a tragedy not a comedy it is a love story gone terribly awry. But to quote Patel, the Hotel Manager, in the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Everything will be all right in the end. If it s not all right, it is not yet the end. Well, we may not need Patel to tell us that it is not yet the end. We know, that while this may be the end of this creation story it is not the end of the biblical narrative. The relationship between woman and man forfeited in tragedy in this story is redeemed in joy in the Song of Songs. We know that according to the book of Revelation (or the Unveiling) in the end, the guarded tree of life in this story, 2

3 grows on either side of the river of the water of life with twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month, and with leaves that are for the healing of nations, and all this in the city of God whose gates are never shut, welcoming nations and kings of the earth. And while we could look simply look outside this creation story in the rest of scripture for evidence that it is not yet the end perhaps there is also some evidence in the story that it is not yet the end. When the couple first come to know their helplessness, insecurity, and defenselessness, they sew leaves together and makes for themselves clothes and hide from the presence of Yahweh God. In today s closing scene, Yahweh God makes garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothes them. Whereas in the beginning although naked, the couple felt clothed because their relationship with God began in love, with God s love calling them into being. Here God acts now to clothe them again, but this time with skins, to cover their shame and defenselessness. It is a profoundly gracious act, assuring them even in the midst of estrangement of God s continued presence and relationship of care. The couple may have turned away from God, but God continues to turn toward the couple. Secondly, God puts a cherubim, and a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. Often this has been interpreted as a way to prevent human immortality, but perhaps another way to understand this is that by guarding the way to the tree of life God is preventing the newly introduced strife, discord, and enmity from becoming a permanent state of affairs. Yes God sends the couple out of the garden, and yet the last verse holds the possibility of a way a path guarded yes but still a path to the tree of life. And certainly the rest of scripture is full of stories attesting to the ways that Yahweh God guides the human family in finding the way of life. And scripture is not the only place we hear such stories. In chapter 7 of The Right to Be Cold we listen in as Sheila testifies to the way God s voice speaks through the earth, through the Arctic calling, and guiding the human family to the way of life. 3

4 This photograph captures the efforts she writes about in chapter 7 efforts to bring the world s attention to the melting Arctic and the reality that this was an early warning signal of the danger of climate change. Sheila worked with Arial artist John Quigley who is known for assembling people on the ground, usually on beaches, to come up large images photographed from a helicopter that often carry a political, social, or environmental message. After many months of preparation to secure funding and to organize Iqaluit community input and involvement on April 22, Inuit, dressed in northern clothing and fur, lay down on Frobisher Bay, off Baffin Island to create this image of a drum dancer with the message Arctic warning signal to the world of the dangers of climate change. Chapter 7 is the story of what it took to bring concerns about the imminent devastation of the Inuit way of life to the attention of the global community, not only through this photograph but also through a petition brought to the world s stage. How do city-dwellers come to know that the cars they drive and the emissions they create powering their cities are connected to the Inuit Hunter who falls through the thinning ice, and to the Pacific Islander defending his home along a sinking shoreline?? Inuit culture and economic independence and artic wildlife depend on the cold, the ice, the frozen ground. Shifts in temperature and weather patterns were upending an entire way of life and denying Inuit economic, social, cultural, and health rights. The efforts to bring this message to the global community through this Arial photograph, and through months and months of work to deliver a petition about Global Warming to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights were intended as a gift from Inuit hunters and elders. It was an act of generosity from an ancient culture still deeply tied to the natural environment still in tune with its cycles and rhythms. And reading about the process it took to bring this message to the world stage makes it clear that it was a Herculean effort not just on the part of Sheila, but of many others. I have this image of Sheila and Inuit hunters and elders and children and Arctic animals waving the sword of truth, offering themselves as channels of divine wisdom and guidance 4

5 trying to catch the world s attention, trying to help them find that path to the tree of life. So as we gather around Christ s Table on this Worldwide Communion Sunday let us remember and give thanks for all the voices from all parts of creation from all around the globe, that are lifted, that cry out, guiding us onto the path of life inviting to God s banquet table. Amen. 5

Bible Where did Satan and sin come from? Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

Bible Where did Satan and sin come from? Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. Series: Throwback Date: January 20, 2016 Text: Genesis 3 Title: Reverse The Curse Introduction Snakes story. Talking dog story. Need I want to tell you a story tonight that will help you the rest of your