1449AFC120514 – Did you do that?
Read it online here, please.
ADAM! WHERE ARE YOU?
Genesis 3:9-12 – But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, ”The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
Adam was trying to shift responsibility from himself to Eve. It was clear to God that Adam had disobeyed because he and Eve knew they were naked. How and why is that important? It is because earlier in the story of Eden in the book of Genesis, we find in Genesis 2:25 – And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. Adam knew he had lost his innocence. He tried to blame it on Eve: “It’s her fault! She made me do it!” Eve was already two steps ahead of him. First, she lied to The Serpent. God had told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” When the Serpent was tempting Eve she told him in Genesis 3:1-3 – “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'” Notice that God said nothing about touching the tree!
As we continue in this account, you will recall that in Genesis 3:4-9, the story continues with – But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Eve’s defense was, “But God! We only wanted to be like you! It was the Serpent who tricked me!” And Adam? He was there, and he tried to pin it on her. Neither of them would take responsibility for what they had done; the first sin was disobedience with a nice dollop of lies for a topping. Also note that this first sin for earthlings was strikingly similar to Satan’s first sin – attempting to place himself equal to or above the God who had created him. Oh, Beloved! We still fall for this trick. And we still try to make excuses. What can we say about people who are supposed to be stewards of the earth and all its contents who will not take their stewarding responsibility seriously? Well, first, let’s think a bit about what responsibility is.
“Responsibility” implies there is a opportunity and duty to take control independently – as an individual or corporate entity – and to be accountable for the effects of how we exercise that control. We make the decisions based on a priori authorization. In The I.D.E.A.S. FORMAT ™ – Tools for Performance Improvement – Responsibility is defined as “A pledge to act consistently in the best interests of the party being served.” In the case of Adam and Eve, the party being served was God. Whatever they did or were going to do should have been done in the best interests of God. So what were HIS best interests?
God’s best interests in Creation were that he should create and love all the he created and that all of Creation should love an acknowledge him. Our First Parents failed the Responsibility Test through their disobedience. It became a pattern throughout scriptural history right up to this present moment. We fail to act consistently in the way God designed us to act – because we are sinners – and then we say it is someone else’s fault. That is irresponsible. God expects us to be responsible. He tells us that over and over in scripture. In Genesis 4:7 God told Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Instead of mastering the sin of jealous anger, Cain lured his brother away to the field from which Cain had taken his offering and killed him there. Cain repeated the pattern of sin which started with his parents when God asked him “Where is your brother, Abel?” Cain’s reply was, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Jonah was held responsible for running away from God. The Apostles were responsible for spreading the Gospel. The Apostles appointed Deacons to be responsible for the care of the members of the Jerusalem church. In all these instances, the people involved carried out their responsibility. God respected and rewarded their decisions to act responsibly. He also respected and rewarded the decisions of the people who chose to act irresponsibly. He allowed them to choose their course of action, and rewarded them accordingly. Why does that happen? It is because God loves and respects his Creation – which includes us. He allows us to choose – we call it Free Will – to love and serve him or to disobey and refuse to serve. We, in turn should respect him and each other, and everything else that is a gift from God. But what is respect.
We often hear it said, “You have to earn my respect!” I think that’s backwards. That’s not the way God does things, so it’s not the way we should do things. Returning to THE I.D.E.A.S. FORMAT ™ Working Definitions, respect is the gift of courteous consideration of others. Respect is not earned because that would make it a commodity that can be bought and sold. Respect is a gift given unconditionally and continuously. To accept the gift is to honor the giver, and that is also respect. God expects us to be stewards of everything on earth. When we do that, we are being responsible and returning God’s respect as our gift to him. Respect that deep is called reverence. In scripture this deep feeling of awe is called “Fear of the Lord.” It is not a fear that is frightening, but a powerful understanding that knowing and obeying God is an amazing and humbling fact. For this reason our goal should be to know fear. That is the responsible thing to do.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
To know him is to love him.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Scripture quotations from New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) or Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
1449AFC120514 – Did you do that?
Read it online here, please.
ADAM! WHERE ARE YOU?
Genesis 3:9-12 – But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, ”The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”
Adam was trying to shift responsibility from himself to Eve. It was clear to God that Adam had disobeyed because he and Eve knew they were naked. How and why is that important? It is because earlier in the story of Eden in the book of Genesis, we find in Genesis 2:25 – And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. Adam knew he had lost his innocence. He tried to blame it on Eve: “It’s her fault! She made me do it!” Eve was already two steps ahead of him. First, she lied to The Serpent. God had told Adam in Genesis 2:16-17 – And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” When the Serpent was tempting Eve she told him in Genesis 3:1-3 – “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'” Notice that God said nothing about touching the tree!
As we continue in this account, you will recall that in Genesis 3:4-9, the story continues with – But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. Eve’s defense was, “But God! We only wanted to be like you! It was the Serpent who tricked me!” And Adam? He was there, and he tried to pin it on her. Neither of them would take responsibility for what they had done; the first sin was disobedience with a nice dollop of lies for a topping. Also note that this first sin for earthlings was strikingly similar to Satan’s first sin – attempting to place himself equal to or above the God who had created him. Oh, Beloved! We still fall for this trick. And we still try to make excuses. What can we say about people who are supposed to be stewards of the earth and all its contents who will not take their stewarding responsibility seriously? Well, first, let’s think a bit about what responsibility is.
“Responsibility” implies there is a opportunity and duty to take control independently – as an individual or corporate entity – and to be accountable for the effects of how we exercise that control. We make the decisions based on a priori authorization. In The I.D.E.A.S. FORMAT ™ – Tools for Performance Improvement – Responsibility is defined as “A pledge to act consistently in the best interests of the party being served.” In the case of Adam and Eve, the party being served was God. Whatever they did or were going to do should have been done in the best interests of God. So what were HIS best interests?
God’s best interests in Creation were that he should create and love all the he created and that all of Creation should love an acknowledge him. Our First Parents failed the Responsibility Test through their disobedience. It became a pattern throughout scriptural history right up to this present moment. We fail to act consistently in the way God designed us to act – because we are sinners – and then we say it is someone else’s fault. That is irresponsible. God expects us to be responsible. He tells us that over and over in scripture. In Genesis 4:7 God told Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Instead of mastering the sin of jealous anger, Cain lured his brother away to the field from which Cain had taken his offering and killed him there. Cain repeated the pattern of sin which started with his parents when God asked him “Where is your brother, Abel?” Cain’s reply was, “I don’t know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
Jonah was held responsible for running away from God. The Apostles were responsible for spreading the Gospel. The Apostles appointed Deacons to be responsible for the care of the members of the Jerusalem church. In all these instances, the people involved carried out their responsibility. God respected and rewarded their decisions to act responsibly. He also respected and rewarded the decisions of the people who chose to act irresponsibly. He allowed them to choose their course of action, and rewarded them accordingly. Why does that happen? It is because God loves and respects his Creation – which includes us. He allows us to choose – we call it Free Will – to love and serve him or to disobey and refuse to serve. We, in turn should respect him and each other, and everything else that is a gift from God. But what is respect.
We often hear it said, “You have to earn my respect!” I think that’s backwards. That’s not the way God does things, so it’s not the way we should do things. Returning to THE I.D.E.A.S. FORMAT ™ Working Definitions, respect is the gift of courteous consideration of others. Respect is not earned because that would make it a commodity that can be bought and sold. Respect is a gift given unconditionally and continuously. To accept the gift is to honor the giver, and that is also respect. God expects us to be stewards of everything on earth. When we do that, we are being responsible and returning God’s respect as our gift to him. Respect that deep is called reverence. In scripture this deep feeling of awe is called “Fear of the Lord.” It is not a fear that is frightening, but a powerful understanding that knowing and obeying God is an amazing and humbling fact. For this reason our goal should be to know fear. That is the responsible thing to do.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved
To know him is to love him.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
Scripture quotations from New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) or Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)
About Chick Todd
American Roman Catholic reared as a "Baptiterian" in Denver Colorado. Now living on Kauaʻi. USAF Vet. Married for over 50 years. Scripture study has been my passion ever since my first "Bible talk" at age 6 in VBS.
