Here’s another fine mess (2) you’ve gotten me into...

The first book in the Christian Bible goes under the title “Genesis”. The book is at least 3000 years old. The word “genesis” means “beginning”. What do you think about page 3 of that book – see bold above? Does it provide helpful indications about the reasons for all the messes we’ve all gotten into?

The “beginning” woman (and man) had everything, including freedom. That wasn’t enough for three very good rationalizations which Eve concluded were “right” – right for her and her husband.

She thought that (1) “the tree was good for food”. She wasn’t hungry – she had all the fruit in creation to eat. But this fruit was also good for food. So why not eat it? What possible mess could occur if she has it?

She thought (2) “it was a delight to the eyes”. Everything around her was pleasant to the sight. It was all a delight. But she wanted this beautiful fruit for her very own. She wanted not only to eat it once but also to have authority to eat from that particular tree when she wished. It was only “right”. No problem.

She thought (3) “the tree was to be desired to make one wise”. Was she not already intelligent? And her husband? Yes, but she wants what, seemingly, was being wrongly withheld from her (and from her husband). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  She wants to be the one who knows about, and makes decisions about morality, justice and ethics. Both of them must be able to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Why on earth not? That right is best placed in their hands – their decisions will be just. No mess – no messing.

Can you see how multiple messes will arise? No? Nor could they. They ate.

The outcome: the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. Please don’t think of this erotically. Instead imagine yourself without clothes in King Street. Vulnerable? Without any protection? Sure.

But why did they begin to fear one another? Could it be because both had been disobedient? Both now knew that the other might do unexpected things. They had become a threat to one another. But there’s worse. They had decided – each of them – to make their own decisions regarding right and wrong, good and evil. If the “man” decided that (eg) punching was “good for me” and merited by “her” the woman suffers. All now need locks on doors.

Business leaders love mergers which reduce the possibility of harm to them from others. Simultaneously, the public can’t abide mergers because monopoly businesses can overcharge. Either way fear of harm from others is here. All who follow the “him” and “her” of Genesis have the same three “me” drivers. This world is in human hands, hands driven by each “me” pleasing “me”.

There’s worse:  each decided to blame someone else – and God. As one does. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. They turned away from the LORD God, the one who planted the garden in Eden. Their right to decide what was good and what was evil would be decided by each of them without reference to their good and generous and loving creator.

But their moral choices were their own. They declared their independence. They would live, as you and I do, with the consequences – with the mess.