How Far We Fall - The Story We Find Ourselves In - Part 7

    The Fall.  It's a story line that has emerged not only here in Genesis 3, 4 and beyond, but also in may other places and ways.  That which the Creator pronounced not only "good" but "very good" becomes twisted, distorted, damaged, and a sense of alienation settles in as the creation groans in pain.  It is here in the midst of the broken pieces of God's best work that a mission of recovery and restoration begins.  It is in the midst of this ongoing story of tragic brokenness and amazingly gracious healing that we continue to live as each new chapter unfolds.

To review  Pastor Chris' sermon once again (or maybe to listen for the first time if you missed it) click here.  

Questions for Reflection

What do we need to hear in this story . . . 

- the ease at which we can deny our involvement and assign blame to others?

- that deceit, envy and a sense of entitlement often precede tempation and fall?

- how quickly we can become ruled over by anger, especially when we feel justified or slighted?

- that worship is an extravagant gift from the heart, not a payment to an exacting god?

- that we are our brother's keeper?

- that sin is not just breaking a rule, it is a powerful consuming force that wants to rule over us?

- that even when people fail miserably, God does not condone violence against the guilty, but stays with them as well?

        What else do you hear in this story, not only as you read it,

        but as you allow it to read you?

Other Things to Consider

Other Stories or writings that develop a similar theme include:

• • J.R.R. Tolken, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

  • John Milton's Paradise Lost

  • John Steinbeck  East of Eden

  • C.S. Lewis  Mere Christianity

  • C.S. Lewis  Perelandra

  • Rob Bell Jesus Wants To Save Christians

            Perhaps you can think of some others?

• • Got Curse?

Genesis 3 describes the "curse" that God's creation suffers under as a result of the entrance of sin.  Revelation 22:3 indicates that God will one day remove all traces of the curse from creation.  Compare and contrast the images and themes of Genesis 3 with Revelation 22.

• Got Anger?

This is certainly one of the elements in the story that shapes what happens in a powerful way!  How much of a role does anger play in your life?   If you would like to think more about this, here are some places to start:

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/anger-management/MH00073

The Story Told With Legos?  Yes, it would seem so.  Click Here

Take a few moments to read through the story in Genesis 3:1 - 4:16 as it  traces the unfolding story that leads from openness and harmony through temptation, mistrust, embarrassment and shame to projecting our brokenness outward to others through blame and distorted ways of relating to each other.  Notice how the ability to create and work becomes wearying and exhausting, how relationships become exploitive, how even the joy of bringing new life into the world it tied to pain and travail, and how even the planet bears the consequences.  Notice too how the ripple effects build to a wave that washes over the first family in ways that become lethal as anger and resentment run their destructive course.    As you read through the story again, notice the places where you sense the pain and anguish in ways that seem to connect with you.  What are some of those connecting points for you?

But don't stop with the first reading.  Read through the story again and notice how this story also traces the gracious response of a loving God Who seeks to bring healing and restoration.  Notice how the God who gives the gift of freedom, even after it's abuse, continues to seek out Adam and Eve, engage them in conversation, speak with both honesty and hope.  A God who later seeks to connect with Cain in an attempt to bring insight, and who continues to seek after him even when the help is not taken and the choice made is tragic beyond words.  As you see these glimpses of grace and hope being extended in the midst of pain and tragedy, which of these connect with you the most powerfully?

Statements to Stir Your Thinking

(you may agree, disagree, ignore, or just wish to ponder awhile)

. . . [this story] asks if there are boundaries before which one must bow, even if one could know more.  It probes the extend to which one may order one's life autonomously, without reference to any limit or prohibition.

    This in an enduring problem in the Old Testament:  . . .  The text may be seen in relation to the story of David and Bathsheba (II Sam. 11-12), in which the king knows enough to rearrange his world for his own ends.  In doing so, he brings death. . .

                                - Walter Brueggemann, Genesis, (John Knox Press 1982), 51.

    Scripture is not only the living Word of God, it is also my story, and your story.  In the pages of Genesis, and all through the bible, we recognize ourselves.  It is God showing us who we are, and who [God] wants us to be.  If we are to have the courage to recognize ourselves as God reveals us to ourselves, we must have the courage to face ourselves, not only the parts which we like or of which we approve.

    The story of Adam and Eve, of their making, of their expulsion from the Garden of Eden into a world so much less real that it was almost unendurable, of the birth of their children, is in its symbolic way a blueprint of our own personalities.  Each of us will recognize something different, but if we are honest, each of us will recognize something of ourselves.

                                             - Madeleine L'Engle, The Genesis Trilogy ( Waterbrook Press, 1997) 63.