well the beginning of Lent is a time for
a sort of spiritual spring training
here's what I mean when I was playing
sports as a kid we begin always with the
fundamentals and even if you've been
playing for a while and you were quite
good the coach would still during you
know spring training for baseball or
summertime for football would bring you
back to the fundamentals I think of Jack
Nicklaus the greatest golfer ever at the
height of his powers he was the best
golfer in the world he would still begin
the season by flying to see his friend
Jack kraut who was his childhood
instructor and Jack route would take the
best golfer in the world back through
the fundamentals of the grip and stance
and alignment and swing and so it's
always good for us spiritually to go
back to the basics Lent is a time when
we do that and that's why the readings
during Lent are really good a real
archetypal elemental well the first
reading for the first Sunday of Lent has
to do with the creation of human beings
and the fall from grace in the garden
there's no better place to look for the
fundamentals of the spiritual stuff than
that story here's the first thing we
hear it says the Lord God formed the
first man out of the clay of the earth
and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life very important claim now
first of all God made us from the clay
of the earth that means that we are
embodied realities our bodies indeed
come from the the molecules and minerals
and stuff of the earth we with our
scientific perspective know better than
biblical people how embodied we are how
grounded we are in the planet wasn't it
Carl Sagan that said ultimately we're
all star stuff because all the the basic
atoms and molecules and so on were were
created in the furnace of ancient stars
and eventually found their way into the
planets
and so on so we are indeed made from the
clay of the earth spiritually speaking
is very important because the problem
that we have and I'll get to that we do
have a problem but it's not with our
bodies it's not our physicality that's
the problem now there are a lot of
theories as you know manic ISM and
Gnosticism and dualism and Puritanism up
and down the centuries that make exactly
that claim and the idea there is to get
away from the Fallen body the body is
the problem our emotions our sexuality
our passions that's not biblical that's
not biblical the Bible affirms that God
makes us from the clay of the earth and
everything that God makes is good that's
not the problem the second thing is
we're made for the clay of the earth and
God has breathed into our nostrils the
breath of life is that grade the Hebrew
term is rock breath or wind or air greek
has that it's Ponemah and our pneumatic
tires Latin has it as spiritus right God
has breathed into this earthy stuff his
life very important isn't it there is in
us an aspiration to God our mind that
seek not just particular truths but the
truth itself our wills that seek not
just particular Goods but goodness
itself our souls that won't rest until
they come to the beautiful itself there
is in these bodies of clay something of
an aspiration upward toward God if
Gnosticism and dualism negate the first
part of that secularism negates the
second part but we have today on display
secularism that life is reducible to
matter what I've described there is the
aspirations upward toward God are
reduced to the level of psychological
quirks or or wish-fulfilling delusions
secularism denies this breath of God
that animates us biblical vision and
it's genius has both very clearly both
the clay of the earth and the
breath of the divine life are in us
here's second-grade insight now from the
story God takes his first human beings
and he places them it says in a garden a
garden full of delightful things to see
and taste and experience he gives them
practically free rein eat of all the
trees in the garden save one and I'll
get to that but first look at the
extraordinary permission God wants his
human creatures to flourish in this
garden there's nothing of the ancient
mythological idea of the gods and human
beings in a rival risk relationship the
true God who makes everything from
nothing can't be threatened by his
creation he needs nothing from it
demands nothing from it for his own you
know well being and therefore God's
delight is that we be fully alive we're
in a garden not in a desert more to it
the Church Fathers saw this all the
trees and were given Liberty to eat of
all these trees represent all that makes
life wonderful philosophy and art and
science stimulating conversation
friendship politics sexuality everything
that makes life wonderful is represented
in the trees of the garden and God says
eat of them all eat of them all this is
not a God who's trying to limit the
human project but rather the one who
says you're being alive fully is my
glory that's the biblical God okay so
how about the prohibition we do here
that they are prohibited from eating
from one tree which is a tree of a
knowledge of good and evil what does
that mean well God is the unconditioned
good therefore God is in his own being
the criterion of good and evil God is
the measure of good and evil in his own
being
therefore this prerogative belongs to
God alone to know good and evil what's
the original sin the original problem is
irrigating to ourselves the prerogative
of the
meaning good and evil when our wills
become the criterion and the measure
rather than God that I would submit to
you is very it's very subtle point it's
not really so much a particular offense
it's not as though you know murders the
original sin or thievery or adultery
it's something more subtle and more
fundamental than any of the particular
sins it's the move of arrogating to
ourselves the prerogative of determining
good and evil
that's the original calamity from which
human misery has followed as surely as
night follows the day now if you're
tempted to say this is just a lot of
abstract theological musing let me
submit to you something I've discussed
before the famous decision of the US
Supreme Court in the matter of Casey
versus Planned Parenthood so writing for
the majority in that famous case Justice
Kennedy opined as follows now listen at
the heart of Liberty
is the right to define one's own concept
of existence of meaning of the universe
of the mystery of human life that's the
US Supreme Court 1992 frankly I can't
imagine a clearer expression of eating
of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil than that statement that it belongs
to the very nature of Liberty my Liberty
to determine the meaning of everything
of my life of the mystery of the
universe that's the arrogating to
ourselves the divine prerogative that
the bible identifies as the fundamental
problem and look the Supreme Court gives
formal legal expression to what's
generally taken talk to most people
today as as the truth of things how many
people especially young people would say
something like look you know right or
wrong that's a matter of my personal
decision before you get to any
particular sin any particular offense
that's the fundamental calamity the
fundamental twisting or dysfunction that
the Bible identifies as the problem
it's very interesting to me that right
after the fall Adam and Eve realize that
they are naked and they seek to cover
themselves now I wouldn't read it
primarily as a question of shame I'd
really rather as an intense and deeply
uncomfortable self-consciousness so you
think if the good is outside of your own
will and experience the good is is
something that you discern in God and in
the world that reflects God's wisdom
then you tend to be non self conscious
you tend to be looking outward but the
minute your will and your freedom become
the determining elements in good and
evil then there's this tendency to turn
awkwardly and uncomfortably inward the
the clothing of Adam and Eve is a sign
of their self-consciousness their self
preoccupation and that I think is on
display every place in the fallen world
so the bottom line is you know we're all
unhappy we live in the world that's
fallen that's that's followed from this
original fall if you want to find out
and lens a great time to do it
why are we so unhappy to search out the
deepest roots of it I can't think of a
better place to look than in this third
chapter of the book of Genesis
you