Well, the readings of the last two days cover the range of what we call “Salvation History” in the business. Humanity falls, Cain murders, then Lamech, and Noah. God is fascinating in these stories. God tells Adam and Eve that they can’t eat of the fruit or they will die, on that day. The serpent says, no dice. And the serpent is right. God curses humanity. God curses the ground and the serpent. But God doesn’t kill Adam or Eve. They don’t die that day. You could take the route that they become mortal that day, but the indication of the story is that mortality was the plan all along. God removes the tree of life, less they eat that and become immortal. But I think that something else is happening.
God is discovering/revealed as merciful. Also frustrated, angry, and even inconsistent. But God is merciful. The promise to Noah is striking from today, For human hearts are inclined to evil, even so I will not curse the earth and destroy everything again. The seasons and weeks and days will continue, anyway. God is merciful, loving even to the cost of frustration, anger, and even cursing the goodness of creation. It is interesting to see God’s temperament in the narrative as God discovers his own nature as loving beyond his anger.
Then Matthew and Acts show the cards God is holding. God will redeem humanity through a son and his followers. The surprise is that God loves to such a degree that he will set aside sin in a self-sacrificing act of incarnation and death, humiliation and annihilation, dying for that unfulfilled warning back at the beginning, to set us free to be what we were intended.
God made us to take care of creation and one another. Stewards of the house of God. And instead we Genesis ourselves. So God indwells us in Pentecost and gives us a new heart. What are you doing with this one? I still have work to do.
Luckily, God speaks my language.
daniel+
Grace Episcopal Church 