(2nd in a series of 3 posts)
“… and I heard him murmur… “it’s hard to throw rocks when you’re holding a candle in each hand...”
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:5-8
The Christian Bible has two main parts… the first having 39 books from the Hebrew scriptures… which is referred to as the Old Testament and the other part is called the new one… a New Testament with 27 books mirroring the older ones… with hundreds of years between the end of one and the beginning of the other. Religious folks called this material… holy and inspired by God… and in my tribe… the Lutherans… we say that these words are trustworthy, faithful and normative for daily life. Yet, when theologians and Bible scholars break down those pages asking… ‘how do we understand God’s intent here?’ … they often list four phases… Creation… the Fall… Redemption and Restoration… and these phases reflect what preachers consider a ‘biblical worldview’ while millions of others on the planet have different ways to say what life is all about… and for this writer… God is in the midst of all of this even though when we watch the news and listen to the radio and talk amongst ourselves we realize Alfred Toynbee struck a nerve when he summarized… “history is just one damned thing after another.” Faith matters. It does.
So what happened ‘after the Fall?’ What became of the man and the woman who were dismissed from God’s garden? Well… it seems God was not pleased with all that unfolded and had some regret about the whole creating thing and decided a ’do-over’ would be needed… as the rabbis reminded us… humanity unfolded with the adding of more humans… some being farmers and some being herders of animals… and one older brother killed his younger sibling and God was not pleased… casting that brother into no-man’s land where humanity continued to expand then more brothers came along… some living longer than others… and then God noticed the people were out of control … choosing evil every chance they had and yet God saw one man… Noah to be righteous… and would use him to start the world over again… causing a huge flood to wash away the evil… while saving Noah and his family. It seemed like a good idea to God and then Noah went and planted a vineyard and used the grapes to make the wine that got him drunk and naked (Genesis 9:20ff … the part after the rainbow we seem to never read in Sunday School) embarrassing his sons and reminding everyone… each of us has the capacity to mess it all up… and by the time anyone reads to Genesis 11… one discovers the one language humans spoke erupted into many resultant from the building of a tower to God to challenge God thus taxing our ability to live in peace and harmony ever since… and in A.D. 2023… we still don’t do that very well.
That’s where the REDEMPTION comes in… God realizing the only way humanity would be rescued from its sinful way… was for God to do the heavy lifting on our behalf… becoming one of us in Jesus of Nazareth… showing us the better way to live with peace justice and grace… bearing our sins unto himself… in the form of a servant… St. Paul wrote… suffering on humanity’s behalf… dying for all who have lived and for all to come via death on a cross … the ultimate do-over with an empty tomb granting the door to eternal life!
After the fall means there is good news following the bad… and in each generation we seem to forget how that has been… so we all must engage in the act of remembering… but take heart… God’s Word and God’s gift in Jesus is eternal… perfect and preferred… ever present as the Godly life we can embrace….
I continue to watch what is transpiring in the Middle East… and as Israelis and a Hamas brand of Palestinians continue to launch bombs on each other and participate in deeds of death… I can only notice that somehow… those who are the Jesus followers nearby have either not been invited to the table to talk about tomorrow… or they’ve chosen a preferred silence and, in either case,.. as Jesus is missing… the Prince of Peace… the King of Kings… excluded from the conversation… allow me to share some old words from A.J. Muste… about next steps… when he said, “There is no way to peace; peace is the way.” and that bumper sticker from the pope… “No Jesus. No Peace. Know Jesus. Know peace.”
(NEXT /LAST — “Falling Up”)
murmurings 