Reading:
Some Excerpts from Genesis 3,The Story of Adam and Eve

         Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 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 desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, 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 themselves aprons.

[You know how God found them and was angry.] The Lord God said ….I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; …. To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband….” Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever-- [And you know that they were banished from Paradise and forced to work for a living.]

Sermon

         I want to begin today by introducing you to a particular phrase: it is “The Free Church.” The Free Church was coined in England when religious people wanted to identify the churches that had broken away from those that required belief in a creed. Unitarians were one of the free churches. The Quakers were another, among others. In the Unitarian Universalist Association, the “free church” has come to mean the church that cherishes religious freedom of its individual members. We are all free to believe what our conscience and heart dictates. It is this freedom and the religious values we share that hold us together. The center of our faith, however, is love.

         When I offer a religious idea to you and give you my opinion on it, I hope that you will remember that it is my opinion and you are free to form your opinion, even though it may differ greatly from mine.

         It is a remarkable thing that we can be so free and yet grow together. We are fortunate to have found one another with whom we can walk together in diversity of religious opinion or belief. Perhaps being responsibly free is an evolutionary step for humankind. There is one man who took a great stride towards freedom, a theologian and writer, who published a book called Original Blessing in 1983. In 1984, he was “silenced” by the Vatican and in 1993 he was asked to leave the Dominican Order because of the views he held. He became an Episcopalian priest and went on to write many more controversial and well received books and essays. His name is Matthew Fox. Perhaps you have heard of him. I am not related to him!

         Matthew Fox came to a point in his life where he could no longer see religion with a narrow focus. His lens became wide like that of the mystic who sees the Oneness in all creation. Matthew believes that the biggest mistake made in developing Christian doctrine was the misinterpretation of the Adam and Eve story. Many modern liberal theologians see this story as a metaphor of humankind’s conscious separation from God, or the universe, in order to realize their own potential as co-creators in the universe.

         Orthodox Christian doctrine interprets the incident of Adam and Eve eating an apple from the tree as a sexual act, an act of disobedience against God and because of this the rest of human kind is condemned to a harsh life for all their lives. The interpretation of this myth as “original sin” that is then inherited by all generations that follow has had an astounding negative effect on a great portion of humankind through Christianity. Just the misinterpretation of this myth alone has caused tremendous oppression, especially of women.

         This interpretation gave God a bad name. What kind of God would send such temptations and punishments? This is hardly a “good” God. This interpretation is one of fear, setting the stage for patriarchy to dominate humankind’s tendency to look at the world, the earth, as a mother.

         What I find intriguing in the reading from Genesis is the line, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever…” I repeat, ‘The man has become like one of us…’ What is “us.” Us is probably rightly interpreted as being the “Heavenly Council” from Babylonian myth. Also, there is no evidence that the eating of the apple is a sex act. It is likely an indication of the awakening of human beings to creation and their role in it. Adam and Eve became like Gods, co-creators of life on earth. Adam and Eve enter into the creation of the Cosmos with God. It was supposed to raise us up not put us down.

         Matthew Fox says, this myth is not one of original sin but original blessing. Last week I read from Original Blessing Matthew Fox’s words, “What I call ‘original blessing’ can also be named ‘original goodness’ or ‘original grace’ or ‘original wisdom.’ …. The twelfth century [mystic], Hildegarde of Bingen [uses] the phrase ‘original wisdom.’ She says we are all born with original wisdom and that life’s task is to set up this tent of wisdom…’ (pp.5-6)

         [Our wisdom comes to us from creation, or God. It comes from] our awareness that there is one flow, one divine energy, one divine word in the sense of one creative energy flowing through all things, all time, all space. We are part of that flow and we need to listen to it…be filled with it and go about our task of healing, celebrating, and co-creating.” (p. 38-39) It is no wonder that Matthew Fox was to go on to publish in the year 2000 a book called One River, Many Wells, which must surely validate paths to all religions. No wonder the Catholic Church didn’t want Matthew challenging them!

         This view of who human beings are is now called “Creation Theology” or “Creation Spirituality” and it is interesting that Matthew Fox and others look for inspiration to 12th and 13th century mystics Hildegaard of Bingen and Meister Eckhart. After his death, Eckhart was expunged from church records. Well, of course! His view had nothing to do with church doctrine.

         The Reformation in the sixteenth century unleashed a tremendous number of reinterpretations of many parts of scripture, and as we know, people were killed for the opinions they held!

         The Free Church tradition is the most liberal one today. Unitarian Universalists had a natural inclination to creation theology before it was named. This inclination inspired our Seventh Principle, the interdependent web of which we are a part, and our first and sixth sources from which we draw our inspiration: the transcending mystery and wonder and earth-centered teachings.

         Matthew Fox says, “A theology of blessing is a theology about a different kind of power. Not the power of control or the power of being over or being under, but the power of fertility. Blessing is fertility to the people of Israel and to the Native American and other pre-patriarchal religions.” (p.53) These religions were close to the earth and by extension to the cosmos.

         Jesus’ most famous teachings that are also the core of his beliefs were the Beatitudes: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; Blessed are the peacemakers… Justice making is a way of sharing blessings. The ancient prophets often castigated the people for hoarding their blessings instead of sharing them.

         Original blessings are those things of life that make our lives good and rich in the sense of the fulfillment of human needs and potential, emotionally, spiritually, and materially. Although the earth is invested with the potential to give us all that is needed, we are the distributors of the blessings through our creativity and thoughtfulness of others. (And in our offering today for the Tsunami victims, we shared our blessings with them.)

         But what kind of God revealed itself to inspire original blessings. Scripture gives us glimpses of the loving parent God, the God of the cosmos. But divine guidance and inspiration comes to us from many avenues. Albert Einstein said, “The most important function of art and science is to awaken the cosmic religious feeling and keep it alive.” He certainly did a lot of that. But cosmic religious feeling can be in our own interpretation of aspects of life and of life itself. As a religious person, you might care to know how Matthew Fox views God. His God is the God of panentheism. And if you want to know what that is, you will have to come back on January 23rd! Whatever his or your view of God, it will always have as its foundation, love.