Do Not Hide

After Adam had eaten of the tree, the LORD God called to him and asked him, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!” The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”

The LORD God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.” Then the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the animals and from all the wild creatures.  On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living. (Genesis 3:9-15, 20)

This story is about the fall and original sin – a concept developed by St Augustine.  Much has been written about this sin that has become an underpinning of Christian belief.  I’ve never been fond of basing so much of our faith on a clever, ancient story with God being angry and punishing and with Eve being the guilty party.  Adam was the snitch; the snake was sneaky, as well as talkative.   

This mythical story having much spiritual meaning is quite difficult to sell to young men and women being educated in our faith.  It has had legs unlike the snake and must be interpreted in a way that helps us understand that we do and must “eat” from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  We fall when we fail to recognize evil its many forms.

We must know evil when we see it, or when we suspect it since evil can be disguised as good.   The snake [the Devil] is clever and being the deceiver gives the Devil the upper hand since most of us are as susceptible to temptation as Adam and Eve. We fail. We are easily duped especially when evil plays to our bias and prejudices.

Evil is everywhere, and we must be vigilant.   Evil makes us fail and fall.  We are all susceptible; we are all naked, but we must not hide.

Deacon David Pierce