Knowledge is…

It’s embarrassing story time with Pastor Brian. I don’t think I will ever forget the time in college when I was approaching the stairs of the cafeteria and I saw one of my friends ahead of me about a quarter of the way up the stairs. We always loved to mess around with each other, so I had this brilliant idea that I would quietly but quickly race up the steps and scare her by grabbing her on the shoulders. So I did just that, and just as expected I scared her and as she turned around to see who it was I smiled a big smile in anticipation of her seeing it was me. As she turned around my smile instantly faded and turned into complete shock and embarrassment, because as she turned around I quickly discovered that it was in fact not my friend but a stranger I had never seen before in my life. My face turned red hot and I immediately apologized and explained that she looked just like my friend. If she said anything in response I don’t remember what it was and I returned to my other friends at the bottom of the stairs feeling even more embarrassment as they were now giving me a hard time for scaring not my friend but some poor innocent girl that will forever remember me as the stranger that scared her in the cafeteria.

How many of you have ever had an experience at least somewhat similar to that? I don’t know if that girl remembers that day, but I do because of the profound sense of embarrassment that I felt for scaring a complete stranger. Isn’t it amazing how some of these strong emotional responses to any given situation can impact us decades later or perhaps for our entire life? Just last weekend our family watched The Disney/Pixar film Inside Out 2. It and the first movie are all about our emotions that we have and how the influence our memories and the way that we behave. One of the new emotions that shows up as the main character gets older is embarrassment. Embarrassment is always around but only shows up when certain situations happen, in the movie and in our lives.

Although we don’t get this part of the story in our reading today, I think it is important to note that in Genesis 2:25 we see that the two new humans were naked and were not embarrassed. I point that out because I believe that the author is foreshadowing the embarrassment they feel when they do eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and realize they are naked and they made garments for themselves. So while it doesn’t say in Genesis 3:7 that they were embarrassed we can see that they are because of what we were told at the end of chapter 2.

Right after they embarrassed they then hear that God is coming during what seems like God’s daily evening walk in the Garden, they then hide from God. This time, if we just look forward two verses in Genesis 3:10 we discover that the reason they are hiding is becuase they are afraid which I feel also aligns itself with the emotion of shame. They are ashamed at what they have done by disobeying God, so when God’s presence comes near they hide from God instead of admitting what they have done.

This, as we know it, is the moment that begins their expulsion from the garden and the hardship they will experience for themselves and for all those that come after them. What is so mind boggling to me is that this knowledge that they were tempted with by the snake doesn’t lead to some grand revelation. It doesn’t make them like God in the way that the snake presents it, and how they may have thought it might. Their new knowledge makes them aware of their nakedness which leads to embarrassment and then it leads to a fear of being confronted by God and shame at their disobedience. This doesn’t seem to be the grand revelation that any of them were hoping for.

What they may have thought was going to bring them closer in their relationship with God, or at least on the same level as God, actually brought them in conflict with God. That seems to be a problem that continues throughout history and even to today. When we try to take matters into our own hands, or when we try to tell ourselves and God that we know better that’s often when we experience the greatest hardship and when these negative feelings and emotions start to take over.

Sure the man and woman can point the finger at the snake, and that’s convenient, but that’s avoiding the fact that they had a choice. They knew that the fruit from that tree was forbidden. They also knew that they could have talked to God about what the snake told them. “Hey God, the snake told us we wouldn’t die, and that we’d be more like you if we ate this fruit, can you tell us more?” But instead of going to the source they chose to focus on what was presented to them, then they looked at the fruit and they then ate. I love the inclusion of the comment that the woman, as she was looking at the tree and it’s fruit, that it would provide wisdom. I honestly think that was probably something she convinced herself of, becuase how in the world would a fruit have an aura of granting wisdom? I have this sense she convinced herself of that based on the influence the snake was having on her.

Again, instead of having the conversation with God they had it with the snake and themselves. In fact, this is probably the first conversation that was had without God and we see how it turned out. We see this pattern play throughout the stories of the Bible. When people listen to God and follow in God’s ways there is abundance in their lives and they have a strong relationship with God, but when they have conversations and make decisions without God they experience hardship, strife, and even exile.

However, despite all of this, we see time and time again that no matter how many times we mess up. No matter how many times we try to take matters into our own hands, God is there with us. God continued to be with Adam and Eve outside the garden. God continued to be with Cain after he murdered Able. God was with Noah after the flood. God was with the Israelites after they went into exile. And God sent Jesus so that every person would know that the power and influence of sin on this world would not be able to stop God from loving this world and all living things in it. So that no matter what strife or hardship we face, even of our own doing, God is with us every step of the way. Amen.