We then moved on to Genesis 2 and 3. These portion of scriptures have often been read as the story of the fall, but we proposed an alternative. This text is a profound exploration of the birth of human consciousness.
This makes the story very relevant because it is the story of every human being. We all begin in naive innocence; we discover the power of our own minds to give meaning to our world; we encounter the complexity of relationship, the depth of desire. The knowledge of good and evil can be confused and not everything that happens to us is pleasant. In fact, I think we can all agree as we look at human history and at our personal stories that shit happens! But that is part of the richness of the human story. You may not have had a perfect beginning, but you do have an amazing beginning. Life, with all its complexities and struggles, joys and pains, is an incredible gift.
But what the story also shows is that our first response to unpleasant events is fear, guilt and blame. We blame God, others, or whatever we can find to avoid personal reflection.
But what would be a healthy way for us to relate to our past? Firstly, gratitude for the pure givenness of our existence. But there are other realities in life for which gratitude does not seem appropriate at first. A strong theme throughout scripture, which we have not explored yet, is the theme of forgiveness. Forgiveness has the power of transforming our memories so that even those events of pain and suffering become, paradoxically, events for which we are grateful. And so gratitude and forgiveness are two of the most powerful ways in which we can relate to the past.
These Genesis texts are not accounts of historic events. There never was a deathless, perfect Eden in which snakes could speak and magical trees could bestow eternal life. This is metaphor! But if its not historic these interpretations should raise many new questions such as ‘What did Paul mean by ‘death entered through one man’s sin? etc. Some of you have already emailed questions and I would encourage you to engage on the website. I’ll address these questions in a future video/article.
Up to now, we have mainly considered our relationship to the past. Next, we will look at our relationship to the present and after that, the future.