Treat Yourself - Part 2

 This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life: an antidote to chaos. Great Britain: Penguin Random House, 2018. Rule 2: Treat Yourself Like Someone You Are Responsible For Helping – part 2 pp. 44 - 49

Opening Thought: I was hoping to finish rule two today, but there was so much good stuff, I am going to have to split it into two portions just to make it all fit. Today we are talking about the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and the snake. Most people chalk up the Genesis story of creation to a kind of "pretend thing" made up by primitive people from ancient times. Since the dominant theories in science are based around evolution, the origin stories of the world have been discounted as dribble in many people’s minds. This is a real shame, because even if the world wasn’t created in six days, with God resting upon the seventh day – this does not mean that there is no value in the story. Myth and legends often contain longer-lasting truths; one could say ‘more important truths’ than what can be found in the material world. In the case of the legend of the Garden of Eden, we see this perfect place, nourished and full of life, surrounded and protected, and in the presence of the Lord our God. Now this garden has something in it that is quite amazing, created beings with consciousness, and free will (humans). Now the most important thing Peterson notes is that, even in a garden; perfect and protected, created by the one true God, we will still find a nugget of darkness, "the snake." The snake becomes a danger to our conscious forerunners even if they do not know it. The snake is a danger because it is the alternative to the will of God. Peterson relates the garden to order and the snake to chaos, fair enough. Theologically, I would say the Garden is God's will, and the snake is the potential to miss the mark towards the will of God, or more simply put, sin. Sin serves all that is in revolt against God. Since God is the ultimate mark and standard by which creation should function, resulting in life, when we fall to sin we neglect the standard of God and ultimately serve death. Being self-aware and having free will to choose, means that even though we ought to choose God, and deep inside we feel that call, we also can choose other things which may seem more tempting in the present moment. That temptation gives the snake its power. In a way, our free will of choice gives the snake power within the garden. That explains how the snake arrives in the garden in the first place, the snake is a result or byproduct of God’s willingness to give his human creation and choice. And as much as we would hope all would choose God, order, love, and God’s will. We all have a snake inside, calling us to act against what God has instructed us towards.

Opening Prayer: Our Father, you dwell in heaven and with us by the Spirit. You are sacred in more ways than we can imagine. We ask you to share Your sacred blessings with us today and move our hearts toward healing and redemption. We seek forgiveness when we have fallen short of your will, and we offer forgiveness to others as they struggle to find the glory of your will for themselves. Mercy is a powerful gift. In Christ’s name Amen.

Reflection: Peterson notes a quote from Solzhenitsyn, which goes as follows,

“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through every human heart – and through all human hearts. […] even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an uprooted small corner of evil. […] It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.”[1]

In a general Christian understanding, this line is based on two main conditions with the human heart. The first is that we were created in the image of God, with a likeness of God written upon our hearts, this being the moral law or natural law. We have this compass with points us towards the ultimate standard of God’s will. This is our “good side” if you will. The second is a “fallen nature” because we have a choice, and within the choice, there seems to be a disposition toward choosing the snake of chaos, over the order of the garden. We consistently through the history of humanity have fallen short of the will of God. We are fallen. So, we have a moral nature and a fallen nature. In many ways we are in the same dilemma as Adam and Eve, all the time. In all we do we are presented with a choice, to choose God or choose sin, to choose the “ought to” or the “want to”.

You may think that you are not in that there is no war inside of you, but I would argue that it is not so much that there is no war, you are just ignorant to it, or you may downright ignore it. If you look at how Jesus instructs us to utilize the commandments, even if we sin in our mind and heart, i.e., lust, we commit adultery. We continually fall short of the will of God in mind, body, and action. That is why the old Christian turn of phrase “we’re all sinners” is so prevalent in evangelical circles because it speaks right to the heart of the issue: our hearts are in conflict between two possibilities.

Scripture Brought to Mind: Genesis 3:21-24 [NIV]

The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side^[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

When Adam and Eve are ejected from the garden, they are removed from the communion with God. I say communion in two ways, the first being community, and the second being eucharistic. In the garden, we were in a very transparent community with God. To choose God’s will or order, we choose unity with God. We become closer to God, we welcome God’s presence, and walk with God in our lives. When we choose what is contrary to God’s will, chaos, we move toward death, we leave the protective garden. 

Adam and Eve are also removed so they do not eat of the tree of life and come alive forever. It seems that there is a disconnect between sin and eternal life. This is something that makes sense when you look at the full biblical tradition. Sin is antithetical to God, and since God is the eternal source of all life, sin in the presence of God would be eradicated. Not out of some sense of divine punishment, rather it is like how a shadow cannot exist without obstruction from the light. If Adam or Eve were to eat the fruit of life, while in a rebellious state – the will of God being ultimate would eliminate the rebellious spirit. In a way, sending the rebellious Adam and Eve out of the garden was the first step of mercy by God, he let them see what it was like to be in conflict in their hearts between God’s order and the Snake’s chaos, it allowed them time to change their choice.

This is echoed by Paul in the New Testament, the communion rite which repeats the new covenant of Jesus Christ with the church, bring people to a table to eat from the “new tree” – Christ on the cross, and we need to come to this table with discernment, and with repentance found in self-examination. In other words, we need to be humble in spirit, acknowledging our conflicted hearts, before we eat this new meal. Paul says this,

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.

For Paul’s letter, in the context, he speaks how people are using the Lord’s supper to serve the hunger and drinking impulses, and not treating it with a discernment to which it deserves. If we are to heal our conflicted hearts, we first have to name that there is a problem in the first place. Only then can we come to the table, find our way back to communion with God, and eat the meal which leads to eternal life.

Continual Work: We should each take time to think about the two natures in which we have, a moral-natural nature (human) and a fallen nature. Christ comes to bring us the kingdom, and the ability for us to be born again, replacing our fallen nature with a Christ nature.  

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: I too will be looking at this dichotomy of natures. I want to try to pinpoint, when I move towards a fallen nature, what negative consequences manifest as a result by doing so, and ask myself what would have the positive results been if I had not taken the fallen pathway.

Prayer for your week: God, help us this week in all we do, help us to walk the path of the righteous, and not the path of the wicked. Amen.

Artistic Close: When we feel in conflict, it can make us feel it. In many ways, those who are more steadfast and dedicated to their ways are less stressed, anxious, and ill-feeling in their spirit. It may not always be easy to follow the way of the Lord, but the more dedicated you become the less conflict you will feel.

 

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[1] Solzhenitsyn A.I. (1975). The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An experiment in literary investigation (Vol. 2). (T.P. Whitney, Trans.). New York: Harper & Row, p. 615.