Christmas Morning, 2003 – Kigali, Rwanda, Africa

For those of you that do not know or believe the “fall of man” part of the creation story, it goes like this. God created and called his creation “good”. It was complete. In his creation, there was only one thing that was not complete… man. There was a part of him missing to complete him. So God turned all his attention on the single most beautiful aspect of his divine work – woman. And if there was a word that the scriptures could have used to describe God’s reaction, “good” would have been more like “SHAZAAM!” So it goes – man and woman – Adam and Eve.

In God’s creation, he loved man so much that he not only gave him beautiful Eve, he gave him dominion over the earth. He was to subdue it, name the animals etc. The earth was his. God also loved him so much that he wanted Adam's relationship to be dynamic and interactive unlike angels who were created to only glorify him and carry out his tasks. So God put something attractive and distracting right outside Adam and Eve’s front door. A temptation. A way out of the closeness between them and their God. It was a tree that had fruit on it that Adam had been expressly forbidden to eat of. And the relationship with Adam and Eve and God remained beautiful – nothing hidden, no barriers. Just closeness and enlightenment.

Then something happened. An angel of light came and tempted Eve through a creature that Eve was obviously not afraid of. Of course – fear itself was not yet in existence. The Bible says it was a snake- go figure! Anyway, the angel told eve that if she would eat the fruit, a lot of good things would happen and that God really wanted her to eat it anyway. So she did. Now remember, Eve wasn’t in on the conversation that God had with Adam about eating the fruit from THAT tree. Not that she was absolved from any of the consequences, it’s just that Adam had charge over communicating this to Eve. In fact, the guilt didn’t come until after Eve offered the fruit to Adam and he ate it. Who, by the way, was right there according to the Bible. OK… after he ate it, both of their eyes were opened to the fact that they were totally naked which up until then was a cool thing. Open, authentic, no barriers. But now, “something was wrong”. They sewed some fig leaves together and covered their nakedness. Then when they heard the physical presence of God coming, they decided they didn’t belong anymore and hid themselves. When God called to them, Adam said, “I was hiding because I was naked.” And God said, “Who told you you were naked?” And then Adam did it. He totally denied ownership of his actions and blamed Eve and of course Eve blamed the snake. After the denial party, God told them the consequences of their action and let them know that they were basically on their own.

Really… I wonder what would it have been like if Adam and Even stepped into the open, knowing they were naked and took full responsibility for their actions. Authentic and laid bare in confession before God. But they didn’t.

So here we see it – the first action of selfishness and mankind has been running away from taking responsibility for his actions ever since.
That is – until Joseph and Mary. Several thousand years later, another angel came to a woman and told her that she was really special and God wanted to do something in her that no one could dream of. Sire a baby. She was afraid but she took responsibility and chose powerfully to say yes in spite of the scandal of being an unwed pregnant teenager. She went to the man she was betrothed to – more than just a western style engagement – and told him. Now, I don't know if Joseph's choice was a powerful choice or a decision after considering the alternatives just like I wonder about Adam with Eve's new scandalous place in life. Yet with Mary and Joseph, there was nothing in either of them that THEY had “done wrong” to make this happen like the original Adam and Eve, and this fruit they chose to eat was much more bitter than the first but they still took responsibility for it.

The Bible does compare and contrast Christ to Adam. But the picture that Mary and Joseph bring to life is a powerful reflection of Adam and Eve. And of course, as far as taking ultimate responsibility for everything Jesus wasn’t or didn’t do, he did take it all upon himself. And it seemed that the only people he made wrong were the ones who wouldn’t give up their pretences. But even unto death – “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.”

We are empowered in the Christmas story with a new and joyful responsibility for who we are in this world. The only way to freedom, cleansing and righteousness is to come clean before God. We are without reason or excuse. No more denial of our pretenses and the icky-ness they hide. Sure, Jesus could have been born in less scandalous and impovrished conditions and anywhere but a tattered animal shed but God chose honesty, uncovered and authentic humanity. Where else could both common shepherds and kings come to give honor.

Merry Christmas one and all!

Eric