Sermons

Original Sin or Original Blessing

First of 3 sermons on Christian ethics

Rod Frohman                                Third Presbyterian Church  August 1, 2004           Romans 3:23, Genesis, Chapters, 1, 2, & 3

On the last Sunday of August we will baptize Ossont twins, Eilee and Reese. They are not the first nor the last twins to be baptized here but probably the first twins whose collective birth weight was less than four pounds.

Baptism is a ritual that is loaded with symbolism, much of which has to do with water. One of the symbols of water is that it cleanses. In traditional Christian theology baptism is the washing away of the original sin of the child. Now I could understand that if a 12-year-old youth or an adult was baptized that the water might symbolize the cleansing of sin. But a baby? Is a baby sinful? I thought babies were blessings. For sure the Ossont twins are. Of course somehow babies grow up to be sinful people, baptized or not. Were we born that way? Originally were we sinful, were we cursed? Is that why the world is so screwed up, original sin? There is plenty of evidence for this conclusion in both the social and physical environment. Human beings do nasty things to each other and disease is very much a part of the human condition. But maybe we have focused on sin for so long that we have convinced ourselves that we are bad. Maybe we have defaced an otherwise beautiful work of Creation, ourselves?

When you think about it, doesn't original blessing sound a whole lot better that original sin? As a matter of fact, the idea of original blessing is central to the first pages of the Bible.

The Bible states that God created the world and called it good. If you have read the creation legends of the Hebrew people in the book of Genesis, you notice that the world is made by the word of God. God said, "Let there be light, and there was light.” God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind” and so on. So, the idea of "original blessing" is that it is the "word behind the word, God’s desire or motive behind the creation. (My professor, J.C. Beker at Princeton Seminary, used to dramatically illustrate this concept by running across the stage of the lecture hall and thrusting his hands in the air to emphasize the “Verd behind the verd” in his Dutch accent.) God the creator, like any artist, is not indifferent or neutral toward the work of art created." (Matthew Fox, Original Blessing, c. 1983 Bear and Co., Santa Fe, New Mexico, p. 44)

Further, you may remember that after each "day" of creation God looked at his artistry and pronounces it "Good!" "Like any parent, God loves her creation and that love, that sending forth into existence, is a blessing. Yes, you heard “his” and “her” for God. The Hebrew language combines the idea of potter and mother here suggesting that God, as creator is a female potter. (Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament Vol. 2 p. 245) So God's creation is desirable. That means it is a blessing.” (Fox, Ibid.) This is a truly incredible religious idea that is rooted in the very first pages of the Bible. "And if it is true,” suggests Matthew Fox, “that all creation flows from a single, loving source, that all of creation is blessed and is a blessing, atom to atom, molecule to molecule, organism to organism, land to plants, plants to animals, animals to other animals, people to people... on and on, then, the Word of God flows on and on and blessing flows." (Ibid.)

So, original blessing is the basis of all basic human trust and faith. Original blessing underlies all being; all creation, all time; all space, all unfolding and evolving of what is. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel puts it, 'Just to be is a blessing, just to live is holy.'

"It is interesting that the Hebrew word for blessing, berakah, is closely related to the verb for create, bara. Indeed in the entire Old Testament only God serves as the subject of the verb bera. (New Interpreters Bible Vol. I. P. 342) Bara also can mean 'pool,' and if you change one vowelwel to berekah, the word means a reservoir where camels kneel as a resting place." Furthermore, "the word for covenant, beriyth, (as in the covenant with Noah, Abraham, Moses the people of Israel, etc. ) is closely related to the words create and blessing. A covenant is a blessing agreement, a promise to bless and to return blessing for blessing." (Fox Ibid. p. 46)

Most of us have heard about original sin plenty of times, but rarely do we hear about original blessing.

If we took seriously this idea of original blessing, how would it work out, how would if affect how we look at ourselves and at each other? I think a number of things would change.

If we begin with the blessing of God's creative energy and understand ourselves a originally blessed, rather than originally cursed, how much better we may feel about ourselves. Also we would understand the miracle of creation around us, the wonder of life.

Instead of our lives being egological they would be ecological.

Instead of being suspicious about our bodies and see a fight between body and spirit we would welcome our bodies and we would be gentle, not combative in our body/soul imagery. Indeed the idea that the soul leaves the body at death is not a Biblical idea but a Greek idea.

Instead of understanding humility as despising of one's self, humility would mean to befriend one's earthiness.

Instead of trying to control everything we would be more ready to experience ecstasy, breakthrough.

Instead of emphasizing personal salvation, we would emphasize social salvation and healing of the people of God and the cosmos. The kingdom of God would not be limited to the church or just human arrangements, but to the whole biosphere, whole universe. In other words, less homocentric and more geocentric.

Instead of eternal life being after death, we would understand eternal life as beginning now, as does the fourth gospel. The longer I am in the ministry the less I am concerned with life after death and the more I am concerned with life after birth.

Instead of regarding humans as sinners we would regard ourselves as persons who can chose to create or destroy. (Last paragraph is a summary of Fox's Appendix B p. 316 - 318.) There are wonderful possibilities of understanding ourselves as originally blessed.

But there is another part of this Genesis legend, the story of "The Fall”. Although I think instead of it being called "The Fall" it should be called "The Slide" because in the 3rd Chapter of Genesis Adam and Eve sort of slide, or segue into their condition of irresponsibility, of dishonesty about what they have done, eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And notice that the "original sin" is not so much a rebellion but rather sloth, passing the buck, blaming the snake, a not owning up to responsibility. (This is sort of like the Legislature of the great State of New York, which for the past 20 consecutive years, has allowed the deadline date to slide by in a cacophony of finger pointing.) In other words, the Hebrew story tellers are saying we were originally blessed, but somehow we couldn't handle it and we attempted to over reach or control the Source of our blessing, this was our down - fall our slide into hubris, a condition called, well, ….sin.

This puzzling tendency of humans beings to ruin that which is blessed led the Hebrew people to add another story to their primeval literature, the legend of the first murder. Given his freedom Cain becomes jealous of his brother Abel and murders him and is forced to "go away from the presence of the Lord, and dwell in the land of Nod, East of Eden”.

East of Eden is the title of one of John Steinbeck's great novels. In Steinbeck's story, Adam Trask arrives in the Salinas Valley, California, with his wife Cathy, hoping to build him an Eden, to which he thinks his first name, Adam, entitles him. But his marriage breaks apart and Adam Trask gradually realizes that his two sons are repeating the pattern of conflict and hatred that marked his own boyhood home. So Adam Trask finds that the Salinas Valley, with all its promise, is not Eden, but, "east of Eden," and he watches that generation to which he gives birth reveal, like some hereditary birthmark, the tragic deformity of original sin.

But is it original or is it learned? Sad as it may be there is no guarantee that a baptized baby will grow up to is a saint. Every parent knows that. As a matter of fact ask any teacher about the saintliness of their children and they will be glad to testify to their humanity, that is their uncanny ability to fight, hit, steal and hoard, as well as to their ability to learn, charm, love, and share. But ask Kindergarten teachers about children who are entering schools now. More and more children are entering our school systems that are morally challenged, that is their moral compass is dysfunctional. We have many children who enter our schools bearing the wounds of fetal alcohol syndrome, and lead poisoning. (I am not talking about these tragedies.) But more and more we are finding, regardless of socio-economic level, children who seem to have no conscience. How they got this way is a complex matrix of causes, but in some way, by influence or lack of influence, by omission or commission these children learned… well… nothing. But then who teaches them…nothing. Well, I guess the adults do. But who taught us? Our parents.

The spooky thing about all of this is that the sins of the parents seem to stretch out several generations long after the parents are dead. One need only to look at the history of "manifest destiny" in America (the national urge to occupy the entire continent without regards to its original inhabitants) in order to see that the consequences of the sins of the parents extend to the third and fourth generation. (We probably would not be currently talking about a casino in downtown Rochester if our great grandparents had dealt fairly with the Seneca Indians in upstate NY.)

In 1954, in the middle of the Cold War and the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction, MAD, William Golding gave us his classic and piercing analysis of human nature in his book, Lord of the Flies. He puts a group of upper class, Christian, British school boys with all their innocence and charm on a tropical island as isolated victims of atomic war. But the result is not a tropical paradise. Quite the contrary, the boys vainly struggle to remain civilized. Gradually they become fearful, vicious, bloodthirsty, depraved and barbaric. It is not a pleasant story but a statement about a character flaw that lies deeply imbedded even in so-called, civilized, Christian, English school boys.

It seems that in the past 10,000 years we have all learned something rather well, and it is not a reflection of our original blessing. We have, St. Paul reminds us, “All sinned and have fallen short of the glory [blessing] of God”. (Romans 3:23)

That is, despite living with a positive attitude about our originally blessed selves we will have times when our ugliness will show through much to our embarrassment, or downfall.

Instead of living life in wonder and adoration of the beauty of God's creation, we, for example, chose to "develop" pristine parts of the Adirondack mountains so that snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles are permitted and people can make money from the creation.

Instead of celebrating and being gentle to our bodies we are hard on them, working them long hours, depriving them of sleep, putting all kids of foreign substances in them and otherwise wearing them out before their time.

Instead of emphasizing the healing of the whole people of God, the whole earth, we want our own personal salvation, our own piece of the economic pie and we want it now, even if two-thirds of the world must suffer to support our selfish standard of living.

Our desire to experience ecstasy and the joy of sexuality turns on itself and we use the blessing of sexuality to sell cars, and boats, and facial creams, and of course, Viagra.

If we share our hopes and dreams of a better tomorrow there will always be someone or some group who will, either from fear or malice, shoot down our dreams as too far out or too risky. This is a condition also found too frequently in the church. As we regard ourselves as persons with the freedom of choice, we choose a number of good things but so often we chose those things which destroy rather than create.

So which is true? Are we originally blessed or originally cursed? Now of course the stories of the blessing of creation and the fall into sin are not historical accounts, but a legend told after the Hebrew Exile (TDOT Vol. II. P. 246) to explain a preexisting condition. In other words, even if there was a Garden of Eden, we all now live east of Eden and we can not get back to it. So even if we want to live according to our original blessing we cannot.

Q: So which is true, are we originally blessed or originally cursed?
A: Both.