An original sin........

For most of us, sin isn't particularly original.  Nor can most of us remember what our original sin was.  However,  I want to talk about the original sin.  You know, Adam and Eve and the apple (which wasn't necessarily an apple, just a piece of fruit, but why argue with all those Renaissance paintings?).

Or maybe you don't know.  Maybe you are one of those folks for whom religious symbols or biblical terms are so archaic as to be incomprehensible.  Fair enough.  No point in discussing original sin if you don't know the first thing about it.

A quick synopsis.  Before things went haywire, before people were casually unkind and intentionally evil.......when everything was well, and good, and beautiful and life-giving.......there was no sin.  We are fairly sure that there must have been a time when things weren't as bad as they are today. (Although I do not mean 'the good old days' which may be fondly remembered by the geriatric crowd but which, in fact, were just as broken and dangerous as today but with uglier fashions)

Furthermore, when I use the highly charged religious term 'sin' I want you to think 'broken' 'forsaken' 'warped' 'skewed'.  Let's use the word 'sin' to talk about the distortion of our shared life that causes pain and sorrow - too often deliberately, but often unintentionally or unavoidably.

People of every nation and culture have pondered about the possibility of a paradise - a time and place where everyone simply got along with everyone else, kindness and compassion prevailed, life was truly good.  The great storytellers of each of these cultures have woven tales of what it was like  when it was wonderful; Christians (and others) call this paradise Eden and it was a garden where animals cooperated, the vegetation was lush and suitable for eating, and the people were so sympatico that it was as if they came from one whole cloth.

But since we know that the world we inherited is not any version of paradise, how did we get from those wonderful imaginings to the mess we have today?  Somehow, it all broke and became so shattered that all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't put it back together again.  What started this cascade of disaster?

Well, there are lots of stories about that as well.  For Christians, this is where Adam and Eve come into play.  They are the original human creatures, and on one hot afternoon (I made that up) when they were walking through the magnificent garden God had created and given to them as home, they encountered a tree called 'The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil".  (Remember, this is a story, not a travel guide).  It seemed like a good thing to be able to know good from evil, and the fruit of the tree was very appealing.  So they ate.

Here's the rub.  God had given them only one thing to remember in their garden, and you can guess what it was:  stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  One thing!  They took the first bite of that 'apple' and the rest is human history. God called out Adam, Adam threw Eve under the bus, and Eve blamed the wily serpent.  With finger pointing all around, Paradise ended.  Adam and Eve were evicted, they began to know the pain that comes from power-over relationships and the act of creation.  They lost their close connection with the Creator, and work became a four letter word. The essential relationship between Creator and Beloved Creature is forever broken.  We know it as sin.

From a single act comes generations of broken relationships.  It is a pestilence upon the human race perpetrated by the human race.  It is from these dreams of paradise, and stories about a desire that led folks astray, to the reality of our broken world that we get the idea (and, in the Church, doctrine) of  'original sin.'

So to bring us full circle, once again I assert, few of us are original in our sin, nor can we point to our very first 'original sin.'  We ask  Who is to blame?  Is there a way to fix it?  How did sex get involved?  Keep an eye out for more sin talk.

Come to the table......

That's what my Mom would call when dinner was ready.  "Come to the table."  It was both invitation and command for children who  are apt to want to linger with whatever seems more important than the hot meal that waits.

Adam and Eve, on the other hand, should have lingered a little longer.  Their appetite had all kinds of consequences, the majority of which they could have never imagined.  When they saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eyes and good to eat, they said, "Why not?" and the results of that have played out through the ages.

Our appetites are still getting us into trouble because appetites are immediate and life is long. God had warned the first humans that eating of that fruit would have disastrous consequences but they chose to trust the serpent, the craftiest of all the animals God had made.  Interestingly enough, many Bible commentators when analyzing this story point out that the serpent was right, Adam and Eve did not die............not right away at least.  Instead they died a thousand deaths as they wrestled with the dark side of this creation and their lost connection with the Creator God.  'Why can't it be like it was?'  Don't we ask similar questions, seeking a gentler, kinder time to which to return?  You know, the good old days.

We fool ourselves if we think that there was no suffering in the 'good old days'.  We delude ourselves if we truly believe that life was easier, people were nicer, and neighbor helped neighbor.  Some did, some didn't.  Folks then knew their own kind of hard work, short lives, fragile health, unpredictable growing seasons and economies.  Folks knew what a destitute old age meant and most had buried at least one child from diseases that are now preventable.Their suffering might have been different, but it was suffering just the same.  Even their children lingered when Mom cried out, "Come to the table."

Jesus calls out the same invitation to us and it is primarily invitation but a little bit of command as well.  Come, it will nourish you.  Come, lay down whatever task is at hand.  Come, eat.  Eat with your brothers and sisters.  Eat with your neighbors and strangers.  Come and discover the human family again.

I will feed you.  I will place in your hands a bit of bread, the staff of life, the stuff of life and it will sustain you for a while.  I will place in your hands a bit of wine, to ease your thirst and clear your throat and prepare you for the tasks ahead.  Come to the table....that's where you will find everything to satisfy your appetites and focus your life.

At this table you will come back into yourself, find your humanity, find peace for your spirit....find the Creator God you continue to seek.  Come to the table and be made whole.