Saturday, February 11, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
What dreams may come
The Lord God called to Adam and asked him, “Where are you?”
That is to say, the Lord God called to me and asked, “Where are you?” Can I find it in myself to trust the question and the Questioner?
The hostess of “Pray As You Go” (12 minutes of music and thoughtful questions about a lectionary passage each day) asked, “Does God’s question lead you to positive or negative thoughts and feelings?”
Adam answered, “I was afraid because I was naked.”
God is angry.
“Why did you do such a thing?”
I was a kid and I loved the title of a book on my mom’s desk: Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. Robert Paul Smith concludes this eventual classic with the line, “I guess what I am saying is that people who don’t have nightmares don’t have dreams.”
Adam had dreams, and now he is having a nightmare. Eve is having hers too. And the serpent? Well, he gets the worst dressing down of all. But I don’t think about him. I identify with Adam, and I think of Margaret identifying with Eve. Both of us are in big trouble.
To the woman, God said, “I will greatly intensify the pain of your childbearing. And your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
To Adam he said, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in sorrow you shall eat food from it all the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you will return.”
When Miles and Jasper do something they know is wrong, they kind of cocoon up and pretend they don’t hear us calling them out. Generally they can last longer than we do. But God didn’t give his children time for that. He had to get them out of that garden before they ate from the other tree.
They have now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. They must not be allowed to reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.
Angels and a flaming sword kept the two from coming back to the garden, and in the midst of both their sin and God’s continuing (if angry) attention they left to begin their banishment.
God’s tough love kept them from living forever in their sin. They must have thought the banishment and pain he chose for them was much worse; it was indeed very painful. But God intended (intends) to restore us and the rest of his creation to its original sinless, exquisite, joyous beauty. For that there will be no half measures. We might compromise over and over, but God does not. We must die, in order to live.
Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Return, O Lord! How long? Have pity on your servants!
Can we just be done with the questions, and be caught up with Jesus, as he breaks curse after curse, as he continues to restore Creation? Can’t we sit and hear him preach, get hungry, and be fed? Be there for just a small miracle on a hill in Galilee?
Jesus took the seven loaves and few fish, gave thanks, broke the bread and his disciples passed them out to the crowd of four thousand. They ate and were satisfied. There were seven baskets of fragments left over.
Oh! Come, Lord Jesus!
(Genesis 3, Psalm 90, Matthew 4, Mark 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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