Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Genesis 3: 1-13

I grabbed my big old standard poodle by the collar; dragged him across the kitchen floor, his feet stretched out and sliding. I spanked him once and as I tossed him out the back door I yelled, “You just stay out there and think about what you did and don’t come back in until you feel sorry.” We are usually such good friends. He and I are buddies, us guys. We are “we”. But I had made us “I” and “he”. I was mad and he was outside.

I want to talk about “I” and “we”. “I” is an individual and an attitude of being on my own. “We” is a group and an attitude of belonging.

This distinction between “we” and “I” becomes very, very important as we look at the story of Adam and Eve and the fruit that got them in trouble. The lesson of Adam and Eve is that we can be free from giving into temptation, from alienating ourselves and others, from buying things we can’t afford, and from generally doing things we would rather not do.

Let me read the story of Adam and Eve from Genesis chapter two and three and then we will dive into “we” and “I” and why I was so mad at my dog.

Read Genesis 2:16-3:13.

I discovered some things in this story that surprised me. The most important thing I learned was that God was 100% right when he warned them, “The day you eat the fruit, you will die.” Usually when we hear this story, we think, “they didn’t actually die”, as in drop dead on the spot. We assume God meant something like, ultimately die, or eventually die. But now I think he really meant drop dead right then and there and I think that’s what happened to Adam and Eve. More on that in a minute.

Something else I discovered was that the serpent was 100% lying when he said, “You won’t die, you will be like God.” I was taught that that was a half truth; that people would be like God in that they would know good and evil. Nope. I think the serpent was 100% lying and that human beings not only did not become like God but that they became less like God than they had always been up till then.

It all has to do with “we” and “I”. God is a “we”, an “us”. Not just theologically, as in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; three in one. I mean that those three are and have always been a community, a “we”.

In verse 26 of Genesis chapter two, God said, "Let us make human beings in our image. Let us, in our. From the very beginning of what we know about God, God is “we”. There is no “I”, no “you”.

Jesus spent his entire ministry showing how God wanted to be reconnected with humanity. He kept trying to explain “we”. He said, "If you knew me, you would know my Father also. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. I and the Father are one.”

More than just explain how he and God the Father are “we”, Jesus proclaimed that all of us were and are meant to be a part of their “we”. He said, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him.”

We are all meant to be “we”. Human beings love being a part of a “we”. We crave it. We love it when it happens. But we only get glimpses of it in the world today. A wedding day is about two “I’s” become one “we”. Rabid sports fans shouting together in a sports bar are a “we”. There is a “we” at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” when everyone gathers around Jimmy Stewart and the Christmas tree, and in “Elf” at the end when everyone gathers in Central Park and spontaneously sings together, and when we raise our candles together in a Christmas Eve service. They are all Christmas “we” moments. Holidays are especially joyful because they promise there will be “we” and holidays are especially painful when they don’t deliver.

Do you know why “we” is both so excruciatingly pleasant and so agonizingly absent? It’s because we were created for “we” and that is what died when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. And “I” was born.

God is and was a “we”. When God created human beings, God included them in God’s divine community. People were created in the image of the plural, communal God. We are communal people, and hell for communal people is being alone. So, how did the element of “we” die and what does it have to do with my dog?!

It begins with another thing that surprised me about this story. See if you already know what I didn’t know. Which human beings were in the Garden of Eden when God gave those instructions? Let me read it for you. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’ Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.’” Who was there? Only Adam. Eve wasn’t there. But Eve is famous for telling the serpent, God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” Did she add that last part or did Adam tell her? I kind of think Adam told her.

I can imagine him thinking, “This is so important that I’ve got to be sure she doesn’t eat the fruit.” So he tells her, “don’t eat it, don’t even touch it.”

He protected her the way a parent in the kitchen protects their child saying, “Never touch the stove.” It only hurts to touch a stove when it’s hot. But, it is so bad to touch it when it is hot that we say never touch the stove. Why? Because our children are part of our “we”. We protect ourselves. We don’t hurt ourselves. The only people I can hurt are ones who are not part of my community, my “we”. Adam was still a “we”. He was part of God’s “we” and as such he was protecting Eve. Don’t eat it, don’t even touch it. There was no problem as long as there was “we”. But the “I” was about to appear.

There is a grim but honest verse in the New Testament that generalizes all the things that an Individual, an “I” can be tempted by. It all comes out of the world; none of it is from God. It can be summed up in three things, the lust of the flesh – those things that feel and taste good, the lust of the eyes – what looks desirable, and the pride of life – what makes me look good or be better. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now listen to what happens to Eve.

Genesis 3:6: “ so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate.”

The temptations of the world were wrapped up in that piece of fruit. But a “we” doesn’t give into temptation. People in community with each other may want something, wish for something, even lust after something. But only individuals reach out and take it. It was Adam and Eve - the “we” who were tempted - but it was Eve, the “I” who ate the fruit. It was Adam, the “I”, who ate the fruit. And when the two “I’s” ate the fruit, the one “we” dropped dead instantly. Knowledge of good and evil will do that to you. Take a moment to think about that.

Knowledge of good and evil causes death all the time. A person confides in a friend, “I think my husband (or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend) is cheating on me.” They are concerned, but is their relationship still alive at that point? Yes. A longtime faithful, hard working person is told that the promotion they’ve been expecting has been put on hold for budgetary reasons. But then they hear a rumor that an almost identical job has been opened for someone else. They are concerned, but is the relationship still alive? Yes. But what happens when the person in either situation gets proof that their fears are true, when they gain knowledge of good and evil in their situation? What had been a “we” dies. Even if they stay together and work it out or keep the job and remain a good employee. An “I” stepped in and the “we” dies. I need to know that I can kill my community, my “we”. Many of us have been forced to be an “I” by the hurt or betrayal of another. But the wonderful news is that God’s “we” is always available if we will seek it.

Of course, there are glimpses of “we” all around us. On our best days, we live in “we” relationships. They are gifts that we should protect, the way Adam tried to protect Eve; the way parents protect children. Protect the communities you have; communities of one or two or ten or a hundred. Protect the “we” when you have the gift of being part of one. Because ever so quickly, we give in to “I”. Which brings me to my dog. His name is Einstein and he is our family’s standard poodle. We named him that because he has Einstein’s bushy hair and because he seemed so smart when we got him as a puppy. He is the family dog, but he’s really my dog. When I come home he runs to the front door and barks and rubs against my legs. He insists on being the first person I greet and if I don’t pet him enough he runs in front of me for more.

Cat people may not know this, but dogs feel guilt and shame. They know when they have done wrong and they will let you know. We had left a freshly made 9x12 glass pan of rice crispy treats way back on the counter to cool, and had left for a few minutes. When I came home, Einstein was not there to greet me. He was sitting at the top of the stairs not making eye contact with just a slight, tentative wiggle of his tail, his tell tale sign of shame and guilt. You could almost hear his thoughts, “don’t go in the kitchen; don’t go in the kitchen.”

I went in the kitchen. There on the floor were the shattered remains of that 9x12 pan and not a single Rice Crispy treat, not a single snap, crackle or pop. And there was no blood. He somehow had been able to extricate all the treats from all the glass. Einstein and I were a “we” but now “I” was mad. I called him and when he wouldn’t come, I went up the stairs and dragged him down. I put his nose in the remains. I told him, “Bad dog.” But that wasn’t enough. I am the master. He had offended me. Those were my treats. How dare he break our rules? I smacked him on the nose. Then I spanked him and dragged him by his collar, his feet sliding on the kitchen floor. I sent him into the back yard and told him to think about what he had done, and not to come back in until he was sorry. Like that worked.

He was fine by the way. He has inches of thick poodle hair. I hurt my hand more than I hurt his rear. But for awhile, I moved from a place of Einstein and me being “we” to a place of “I” and “he”. I was right. He was wrong. I could yell and he had to take it. Do you catch how bad this death of “we” really is? You don’t hurt your community. You nurture it, love it, protect it. Only an “I” can hurt a “you”. I don’t have to care about “them” the way we care about ourselves.

Scripture makes so much sense with this understanding. Love your neighbor as you love yourself, as part of your “we”. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; treat them as “we”. Greater love has no one than this; that he lay down his life for his friends, his community, his “we”.

Like Einstein, we feel shame and guilt. But God isn’t interested in shouting, “Bad person, bad “I”.” He longs to draw us back into the “we” he created us to be a part of. But we can’t be a part of that “we” while remaining an “I” to everyone else. Selfishness is out, along with giving into our lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Humility is in. Considering others as more important than ourselves is on the menu. And before any of that will work in the long run, we need to come back to the one who created us. Seek his forgiveness for turning our back on his community; insisting that I am most important, that I have the right, that I can do whatever I want, whatever feels good. That was a lie in the Garden of Eden and it’s a lie now. If it’s so bad to eat the fruit of “I”, how can you tell when it’s bad fruit? God always draws you closer, into community with him and others. Sin always pushes you away from God and from others. It doesn’t take much practice to know it when you see it. And if you remember nothing else, remember this. Refuse the fruit. Amen.