Making Loincloths

Gen 3: 1-4:26, Matthew 2:13-3:6, Psalm 2: 1-12, Proverbs 1:7-9

That didn’t take long.  Creation went from, “It was good” now to this, from beautiful to now seeing our shame, from God creating and our wanting to be like God.

And already, by the second day of our Year of the Bible and I am already a couple of days behind…  I blame the fall.  At least it is convenient.  And seriously, this is why I don’t like “the fall.”  Or better said, this is what I don’t like about what we have done with “the fall.”
On it’s own, it helps us make sense of our condition.  How we can’t help but want to elevate ourself at the expense of others…even God.  But what I don’t like is that we tend to easily Scapegoat what two characters did thousands of years ago.  If I am honest with myself, I too often stand at the same tree.

We see the worst case scenario of “The Fall” in our Matthew reading today.  And like the fall, if we are honest with ourselves, we have tendencies that  more with Herod than with following Jesus.  Not to this extreme of the slaughtering of innocents, but in how we like power and maintaining our status quo rather than seeking common good for those on the margins.  What would the world be like if we instead learned to follow better in Jesus footsteps rather than eating forbidden fruit or seeking our own advantages?  (In the same line of thought, consider how today’s Psalm fits ‘The fall.”)

And so we make loincloths and hide in our shame.  This second day of the year, may we instead be comfortable and thankful that we are made in God’s image.  Let’s work on this together.  See you again on our journey tomorrow.

Shalom,

Pastor Rob