1st Sunday of Lent A

One of the things I find many people fail to understand about today’s first reading from the Book of Genesis is that, although it is not describing a real historical event, the story of Adam and Eve is nevertheless profoundly true. In the whole of literature there can be few texts as true as this one in the sense that it goes to the very heart of the human condition and says something of universal importance about every human being. It may have been written two and a half thousand years ago, but what it says is even more relevant today than it was then or has been at any time in the intervening centuries. So how can I justify such a claim?

Well, there are a number of things in the story which we could reflect on, and have done over the years. There’s that most human of tendencies to blame others for our own failures. Then there’s the subtle nature of the temptations we all fall into. Just as in the story, it always seems a good idea at the time until our eyes are opened after the event and we are left to rue the consequences of what we have done. But the particular aspect of the story I invite you to look at today is the tree that sits in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What does it mean, and why do I say that it’s more relevant today than it has ever been?

Well, to the Hebrew mind, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was a symbol of pride and arrogance. The person who ate of it was someone who would submit to no law, who would decide himself what was right or wrong without reference to any higher authority. And so, when God forbids Adam and Eve to eat of the tree, the author is telling us that we are not entitled to invent our own moral rules; it means that there are objective standards which we must live by. At its best, the knowledge of good and evil is wisdom, but genuine wisdom, the Genesis story is telling us, comes, not from ourselves, but from God. As Jesus will say in the Gospel when confronted by the same basic dilemma, ‘Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ In telling Adam and Eve that they must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God is not testing them or creating rules for their own sake. It’s a sign of his love and care for them. He knows that the consequences of eating from this tree will be catastrophic for creation and, without depriving Adam and Eve, who are, in fact, ourselves, of the freedom he has given, he is simply trying to protect them from themselves. And while this has always been true, it has never been quite as true as it is right now.

And there are, of course, good reasons for this. We have reflected before on the terrible shock it was to people to discover that the earth was neither flat nor the centre of the universe. Up to then people’s whole understanding of who they were was based on the belief that it was. Then there was Darwin and the idea that, far from being created in God’s image and likeness, we are descended from the apes. That, too, shook society to its very foundations. Add to that religion’s almost complete failure to respond in an adequate way to the challenges of Darwin and modern science and, before long, millions, very understandably, had decided that religion was out of date, a relic of a bye-gone age in which people were guided by superstition and religious mumbo-jumbo rather than reasoned thinking. The result was that, for the very first time in history, atheism became commonplace. The whole world was soon eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as any idea of objective truth or a morality outside of ourselves was rejected and we entered into a ‘do your own thing, if it feels good do it’ kind of society. And for many of us, that took concrete shape in the sexual revolution of the sixties or the Thatcher years when, having replaced the law of God with the laws of the market-place, the serpent’s words in the story were fulfilled. The individual was raised to the level of a god and we were all encouraged to look after ourselves regardless of the effect on others. And the results of this massive change over such a long period of time are everywhere. As humanity has eaten more and more from the tree in the middle of the garden, consumerism and materialism have run riot, bringing the very planet we live on almost to the point of extinction. The law of God is an attempt to save us from ourselves and we have rejected it. Driven by arrogance and pride we have done our own thing and are living now with the consequences. The book of Genesis is not a relic of a bye-gone age. It’s not about gardens and trees and snakes that talk. It’s about the world now, and what I am inviting you to recognize today is that it is 100% true.

And so there are consequences for men and women of faith. None of us are untouched by the mood of the time we live in. We are all deeply influenced by the kind of historical factors I have been talking about and Lent is a time to reflect on the effect they are having on us to see what conversion means in this context. In Genesis the person who ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was an arrogant person who decided for himself what was right or wrong regardless of any higher authority. And so is there any sign of that in you, any sign that you can justify virtually anything just because you want it? Have you succumbed to the temptation of materialism or consumersim, both of which are linked to atheism. A society where people no longer believe in God or in the reality of life beyond death will naturally turn to material things for happiness. What else is there? The reason, of course, why those same material things can never actually satisfy us and will always disappoint is that, in the end, it’s just not possible to turn stones into bread. No matter how hard we try, they will remain forever stones.

There’s a lot at stake here and although I don’t know exactly how at this point, we will, with God’s help, try to develop the theme further as Lent proceeds.


BIDDING PRAYERS


The story of the fall has itself become a symbol of the crisis of faith experienced by many in recent years. The journey from a simplistic, literal, childish understanding of the bible to a more mature, informed, adult understanding has not been easy. Many have not been able to make the journey and have sought refuge in fundamentalism. Others have simply lost their faith, as things that were once basic to the way they thought turn out not to be what the seemed. And so we pray for all caught up in this painful process………………Lord hear us

The myth of Adam and Eve is the most profound of the nine great myths we find in the book of Genesis. It contains many great truths, not least of which is contained in the story of the tree planted in the middle of the garden. And so we pray for the insight we need to grasp its meaning; to see clearly how absurd it is when, filled with the arrogance that goes hand in hand with ignorance, the creature thinks he knows better than the God who made him……………………………………….Lord hear us

The story, of course, is about ourselves. We are the creatures who think we know better than the God who made us. Caught up the mood of the time, we fall into all the traps of the modern age. And so we pray for the wisdom we need to recognize the effects things like consumerism, materialism, atheism, the worship of money and many others have on the way we think and live our lives so that we can understand what the conversion which lies at the heart of Lent means for us………...Lord hear us

At the heart of these modern ‘isms’ is atheism. A society which no longer believes in God and no longer looks to God for the ultimate fulfillment of its deepest longings has to find substitutes which take God’s place and give a reason for living. The tragedy is that the main cause of atheism has been religion and its failure to offer people faith when they began to see through the superstition and mumbo-jumbo of the past. And so we pray that, even now, we may learn to do this………..Lord hear us

Running through the atheism of the 20th Century is a deep pessimism. For many thinkers, life ultimately had no meaning. If we are just the random result of evolution rather than beloved sons and daughters of a God, then how can it have? And so we have seen in recent times a rise in mindless violence, drug-taking and even suicide, especially among the young. And so we pray for them that they, in particular, will come to know the God who loves them so much………………………....Lord hear us

It seems like no time since we were celebrating the birth of Jesus and now, today, we find him being led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. But these are one and the same thing. Jesus came into our world to share our human condition to the full and that meant experiencing everything that we experience. All human experience is capable of leading us to God and we pray that this knowledge will enable us to live our lives to the full……………………………...Lord hear us