Not My Fault

Genesis 3: 8-19

Today’s scripture story could be called, “Why the Snake Has No Legs.” There is an element of folklore to it, indicative of an old oral tradition in which story is not only informative but also entertaining. There are similar folk tales passed down in just about every culture to explain “Why Mosquitos Buzz In People’s Ears,” [so the story goes, they want to find out if people are still angry at them for causing a panic that caused a baby owl to die] or “How the Elephant Got Its Trunk,” [a curious baby elephant got its nose caught and stretched out in the jaws of a crocodile] or “Why We Have Summer and Winter” [winter was a season of mourning by the Greek goddess of agriculture, Demeter, while her daughter Persephone spends 6 months out of the year in the underworld]. My guess is that every parent or guardian or grandparent or aunt or uncle in this room has, at some point, made up similar such tales to satisfy a youngster’s persistent: “Why? Why? Why?”

These tales aren’t scientific or historical…but they are important. Stories are a part of what makes us human: being able to marvel at and celebrate the curious and mysterious beauty of the universe. What are passed on through these stories are not historical or scientific facts, but deeper insights into how cultures understand and express what it means to be human.

John Calvin, in explaining the importance and function of theology, put similar emphasis on the importance of having a means of discussing and contemplating the mystery of who God is and who we are in relationship to God. So while today’s scripture contains an element of lore, it also contains a deeper expression of what the ancient Hebrews believed about the nature of God, the nature of humanity, and who they were called to be in relationship to God. Scripture doesn’t offer an accurate description of how we came to be…but it does present a faithful description of who we are called to be.

Back to all of you parents, guardians, grandparents, aunts and uncles…chances are you’re not the only storytellers in the family. Have you ever caught a child misbehaving or tried to talk to a child who knows they’ve done something wrong? They can come up with some pretty good stories, too. “It’s not my fault…see, there was this…” I’m sure you’ve heard some good ones. Speaking of Calvin, I think about the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes and all of the imaginative excuses he used to come up with for the mischief he got into: “It’s not my fault it was: aliens; clones; dinosaurs; my gravity got reversed and I was stuck on the ceiling, that’s why I couldn’t do my homework*.” (*One of my favorites.)

That’s where my mind goes when I read today’s passage from Scripture. God asks Adam, “Did you do the thing I told you not to do?” I like to imagine Adam looking around like a guilty dog and pointing helplessly at Eve, “It’s not my fault, see, Eve gave it to me.” “Oh really?” God asks, turning to Eve…who points over at the snake. “It’s not my fault, the snake tricked me.” And somehow…this blame game works. Or does it?

God tells the snake, “Shame on you, you’ll be punished for this.” But then God also casts punishment on Eve and Adam (and by association, on all of humanity). It’s important to be able to see that the “pain in childbirth” and the “dominance of the husband” and the “hard to work soil” and the pronouncement of human mortality are not literal, factual, historically prescribed divine punishments. This is not a story about “Why Childbirth is Painful” or “Why Men Should Rule Over Their Wives” or “Why Farming is Hard Work” or “Why You Will Die Someday”; a lot of damage has been done by interpreting them this way. (Men…go ahead and try to tell your wives that this passage is why you’re supposed to rule over them…see how that goes for you.) These punishments can teach us something important: we can’t really hide from God, the “Not my fault”-thing doesn’t really work on God.

God calls out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” Do you really think that God doesn’t already know where they are and what they’ve done? Can you remember ever hiding from your parents under your bed or in your closet as a child because you’ve broken something or done something wrong? I can. Why did you hide? I can tell you why I hid: I was ashamed, and I was afraid of being punished. For Adam and Eve, you’ve got to remember that this is the first time that they’ve messed up big. And they’re hiding because they’re ashamed and they’re afraid of being punished. They don’t know what this punishment is going to be like, they’ve never been punished before. All they know is what they’ve been told by God, “Don’t eat the thing…if you eat the thing you will die.” They knew that they weren’t supposed to eat the thing, but they ate the thing…and now they’re afraid they’re going to die.

If you needed more proof that the word of God isn’t always literal, look at God’s warning: “on the day you eat [from this tree] you will die,” and then look at what happens: they don’t literally die. You could get away with saying that something within them dies: their innocence dies. But they are not killed, as perhaps they feared. And at the very beginning of the next chapter, we read that God blesses Adam and Eve with a son. Not only does God not kill them for their mischief, but God blesses them with the gift of new life. Sound familiar? “…May not perish but have everlasting life…”

That’s ultimately what all of Scripture is about: the faithless, mischievous humans who constantly mess things up, and the faithful, loving God who gives the gift of grace. Within the context of this overarching lesson, this portion of Adam and Eve’s story sheds light on how our fear can cause us to run and hide from God’s grace. Fear also causes us to play the blame game. Blame is a great defense mechanism, it helps us preserve our sense of self-esteem by avoiding our flaws and failures. It’s also easier to blame someone else than to take responsibility for our own mistakes. But the more often we play the blame game, the more we lose. And here’s what Psychologist Dr. Susan Krauss Whitbourne has to say about that, “Learning to tell when you need to own up to your role in a bad situation will help you grow from your experiences, and ultimately help you achieve more fulfilling relationships.”[1]

Facing our faults is the only way to grow from them. Adam and Eve weren’t hiding from God…they were hiding from having to face what they’d done. “Where are you?” is not a question asked for God’s benefit, but for theirs. This is a story about Adam and Eve messing up, yes, but more importantly it’s a story about God’s amazing grace. We can’t really understand the story of God’s grace if it’s not told in the context of a story about humankind messing up. We miss the point of this story if we focus on the punishment and overlook the life. Yes it is life with conflict and pain and sweat and tears…but it is life, when death had been clearly indicated. “This is not a simple story of human disobedience and divine displeasure.” says Walter Brueggemann, “It is rather a story about the struggle God has in responding to the facts of human life. When the facts warrant death, God insists on life for his creatures.”[2]

“God does for Adam and Eve what they cannot do for themselves. They cannot deal with their shame. But God can, will, and does.”[3] Confession is our confrontation with the divine question in this story: “Where are you?” This is an invitation to be honest with ourselves, to step out of hiding into the place where God can deal with our shame, to step into the garden where we can—what happens in a garden?—grow. But do not step out ready to do battle with blame, wielding words of denial, the shrugged shoulders of indifference, and the outstretched finger of fault-finding. “Not my fault” doesn’t work with God. I can understand hiding from God if you’re Adam or Eve and this is the first time you’ve ever messed up and you don’t know how God will respond. But we have their story so that we don’t have to fear, so that we don’t make their same mistake and hide from an opportunity to grow in grace. And not only that, we also have the story of the cross, of God becoming human and taking all of our blame and all of our punishment so that we can approach God without fear, knowing that we will not perish but be given the gift of life. Amen.

[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201509/5-reasons-we-play-the-blame-game

[2] Brueggemann, Walter. “Genesis” from Interpretation. Page 49

[3] Ibid. Page 50.