An apple a day

Genesis 2.7-8
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
 ⁸ Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.

Genesis 3.1-7
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
 ² The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ³ but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
 ⁴ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. ⁵ “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
 ⁶ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. ⁷ Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

             [This Sunday's OT (Old Testament) lesson is taken from two different chapters in Genesis.]

OK, OK I know there is nothing said about an apple....it's just a fruit.....but who am I to try to fight thousands of years of error.  I guess all those painters made the fruit an apple because a red apple looks so good against a green tree!

I suppose you could figure out that the theme of this Sunday, the first in Lent, is temptation.  The passage that we have is commonly known as "The Fall" and speaks of the fall from grace (or into sin) by the two first human people:  Adam and Eve. 

There is much to be noted about the text.  Note that the serpent (NOT Satan) was one of the created animals.  Note that the serpent begins the conversation as if this were an episode of Jeopardy.  "What did God say to you?"  Is this a test (another interpretation of the idea of temptation) or some kind of game? 

Then the serpent claims that God's prediction that eating of the tree would lead to death is WRONG!  What do we do with that?  Is the serpent claiming to know more than God?  Does the serpent know that God will look upon these folk with mercy and not claim their lives?  Because, the serpent is right.  They do not die - although they might wish that they had.

Adam and Eve consider what God has told them.  They consider what the serpent tells them.  They consider the benefits of the apple for their well being.  Then they chew on it all for a while. 

And it all comes tumbling down.  Humans are exposed to one another (saw their nakedness) as vulnerable, weak.  They know shame for the first time in God's presence.  They are banned from the garden.  And all of us have continued to face down temptation with limited results most of our lives.


Let me share a wonderful passage from a book by Barbara Brown Taylor, a superb preacher.  The Preaching Life, p. 172-3.  In a sermon she speaks of legends that exist about Adam and Eve after 'the incident'

'According to one of them, God gave Adam and Eve a cave to live in just east of Eden, where they sat in shock for months after their eviction from paradise, reciting every detail they could remember to each other:  the shade of the trees, the warmth of the sun, the beauty of the land.  Eve offered to kill herself if God would let Adam back into the garden alone, but Adam would not hear of it, although he tried to end his own life soon after by jumping off a cliff.  When both of them had failed to die, they wept and beat their breasts and both together begged God to let them return to Eden.  But God said, with enormous divine sadness, that it was impossible - that once he had given his word even he could not take it back.

Instead he sent them angels to sing to them and sprinkle scented water on them to cool them.  He reconciled the beasts of the earth tothem, telling the animals to be gentle with them, but Adam and Even could not be roused from their despair.  For 83 days they languished, refusing all food and drink for fear they would sin again.  God gave them a fountain of living water to drink, but took it back when they tried to drown themselves in it.  He sent them figs from the garden to eat, big as watermelons, but they left them for the crows.

Finally, the legend goes, when their bodies were stained from exposure and they were speechless with heat and cold, Adam and Eve let God teach them how to sew, using thorns for needles and sheepskins to make shirts for themselves to cover their nakedness.  It was a big step.  Having lost paradise, having run out of bushes and alibis to hide behind, having all but killed themselves through guilt and exposure, Adam and Eve decided to let God clothe them.  "Fear not," an angel sang to them that night, "the God who created you will strengthen you."


This world was patched back together again, but humans have never again known the clear, pure joy of being in God's presence that was spoken of in the story of Adam and Eve.  That is where we hope to find our selves one day, again in paradise and in the presence of the Lord.  That is the life Jesus made possible and calls us to.