"The Family Tree"
October 23, 2005
By Rev Laura Stellmon

The Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 3: 1 - 13

Every family has its stories-stories that are told over and over again, stories that everyone in the family has memorized. Stories about how Grandma and Grandpa met, how they got married in the horrible blizzard of '23, how they held onto the family farm through the depression, how Grandma always took the blue ribbon prize for her quilts at the county fair, and how Grandpa used to sneak away and go fly fishing on Saturday mornings.

My grandmother on my mother's side spent years and years working on our family history. She found some bad news-a great uncle who had spent time in jail, a distant cousin who suffered from fits of hysteria, and lots of ordinary details-potato farmers, squabbling siblings, furniture makers, people who died at ripe old ages, and babies who died before their lives had ever really begun.

Then she found what she considered to be the real jewel in the crown-way back there, buried in the birth and marriage records was what every family hopes to find-a revolutionary war hero! My family is descended from Nathan Hale!

I'm not sure exactly why it matters now, all these many years later, but somehow it makes you feel better about yourself to know that there's someone to be proud of WAY back there in your family tree. All these stories about our ancestors help us to know who we are. We remember and rehearse our family's values, and we do our best to not repeat the mistakes of the past.  We discover things about ourselves as we discover our family's history. We find out that we are not on the stage of life all by ourselves. We are simply the most recent players in the age-old drama of life and death.

This first story from the book of Genesis is an ancient family story that seems to tell us some true things not only about those original players, but also some true things about ourselves.  From this story we might learn something about our own ambition and appetite, about our own capacity for curiosity and daring, about how blindly we can make decisions that change the course of our lives.

Most of us learned this story when we were very young. We learned it as the story of "the fall"--how Adam and Eye "fell" from the grace of eternal life in paradise-how they "fell" into the struggles and drudgery of ordinary life through their disobedience. And so, we learned, because of the mistakes of Adam and Eve, we are somehow contaminated by our kinship with them; infected with their sin, so that all of our days, from the moment we wake until we close our eyes in sleep, we must constantly be on our guard against inappropriate behavior.

Now, there is something that I think is interesting to note here. The story that teaches us about what we call "original sin" or "the fall" doesn't even contain those words.  Both of those labels were applied much, much later, in an effort to make SENSE of the story, to discover its meaning and learn its lesson so that humankind would not keep "falling" forever.

This ancient family story seems to be primarily about human choice and consequences.  It is an old family story that tells us things about ourselves that we need to know.  It tells us not only how we fail-which we already seem to know very well, but it tells us as well how we survive. Because that is a part of the story, too. This story of the "fall" in the garden is not the end of the story of Adam and Eve. They went on from there. But HOW?? That's what I want to know more about! How did they go on after they had defied the God who was their maker and their friend? How did they make their way in the scary new future they had created for themselves outside of paradise?

Paradise.  Even for those of us who have never been there, the word conjures up an image of blue skies, lush vegetation, warm breezes, nothing to hide, and nothing to hide from, a place where everything was still whole, and holy, and pleasing to God.

But everything didn't stay pleasing to God, didn't stay holy for long. Eve and the serpent engaged in what was likely one of the first recorded religious debates. After which, Eve bit into the fruit she was told to avoid.... And nothing was ever the same again. Paradise was lost, and there was no going back. Now, how does a person go on after that??

Well, you have a couple of choices, actually. You can, as we have seen, find someone else to blame for what has happened to you. That way you can be angry instead of hurt and afraid, but you also manage then to cast yourself firmly in the role of victim.

On the other hand, you can blame yourself, punishing yourself in a number of different ways. You can keep track of your failures, tallying them up until you are not longer able to see anything positive about yourself.  Or you can drive yourself harder and harder every day, trying desperately to make up for all your past mistakes.

Or, if you're feeling particularly brave, you can blame God, pointing out that you, after all, were designed and manufactured by God, who made the dreadful mistake of giving you free will-­thus your sin is actually God's fault!

Or, the last alternative is that you can accept responsibility for what you've done, and then reestablish an appropriate relationship with God. You can stop hiding behind bushes and excuses, and receive the good gifts that God continues to send your way. Verse 21 of chapter 3 says, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them."

God, who created Adam and Eve, continued to bless them and strengthen them, even after they had disobeyed God. Even though the snake continued to plague the all their days, Adam and Eve decided to LIVE. The days of peace and holiness and plenty were gone forever, but they got by.  Using all that God had provided, and combining it with their own hard effort, they managed to build an altar to worship God. And they managed to build a family. Using the pieces from their broken past, they made a future for themselves, and for their descendent in the world, outside of Eden-the same world we continue to live in today.

It is a world full of chips and dents and scars that we live in today.  Even where we have glued it back together, you can still see the cracks. But in its own way it's lovely, a mended work of art, living proof of the God who is willing to work with the broken pieces, and calls us to do the same.

The story of Adam and Eve is our story--a story of promise and failure, blame and guilt, forgiveness and healing and hope. It is a story about us, and a story about our God, who did not create us just once, but who goes on creating and working with humans forever-putting the broken pieces of our lives back together so that we are never ruined entirely, and never without hope.

As exciting as it may be to be able to trace one's heritage back to a revolutionary war hero, it's a much greater thing to be included in the family of God. The Gospel according to John starts out not with the typical Christmas Pageant story of Jesus' birth. Rather, John's gospel starts with the beginning of the world, and notes that from before all time, Jesus was with the Father. All things were made through him, and the Light of God has been present in him since before all time. John claims that Jesus came into the world so that the world so that the world might believe in him, and have abundant life. John 1:12 says, "To all who received him, he gave power to become children of God."

What an amazing family tree we have! (hold up the Bible) Scoundrels, prophets, tricksters, priests, tent makers, fishermen, businesswomen, and thousands and thousands of unnamed faithful who passed the story of Jesus from one generation to the next.

We are the family of God. We are the keepers of the family history.  It's reasonably fun to be a part of Nathan Male's descendants. But it is a wonderful and amazing thing to have been adopted into God's family!

You've probably heard the familiar phrase that you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family?! Well, it's not quite true. You CAN choose your family. You can choose to add people into the family of God. Who would you like to see added into Jesus' family tree?? Why don't you invite them in? There's always room enough and love enough for more.

Amen.