Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost Fr. Rick Wilson, homilist Every now and then something happens to remind me of the story of Adam and Eve. Oddly, this time it was today’s Gospel reading. Other times, it can be something as simple as the time honored comedian Flip Wilson’s character Geraldine, with her signature comment, “The devil made me do it.” Whenever I hear that, automatically, I think of Eve and Adam. Eve claimed the serpent made her do it. Adam claimed Eve made him do it. No one is willing to say, “I chose to do it.” Adam and Eve symbolize the human community’s being tempted and sometimes choosing to not accept responsibility for our actions. Paul the Apostle, in his letter to the followers of Christ in Rome, says “…sin came into the world through one man…” referring to Adam. Paul’s perspective is that sin spread through all humankind. St. Augustine of Hippo is attributed with an increased development of this perspective which some believe was unhealthy. In the Western Church, it became an understanding that all humankind is born with the hereditary stain on their very being, referred to as Original Sin. The Church in the East, the Orthodox Church, didn’t go as far as the Western Church. Both branches of the Jesus movement believed there were ongoing consequences with the introduction of sin in the human community – chiefly, the distancing of humankind from God and from one another. But the Orthodox Church, calling it Ancestral Sin, did not agree with the Western Church belief that all shared in the guilt of the introduction of sin within the human community. As a 21st century Episcopal priest, I believe our Ancestral Sin is humankind’s proclivity to be self-centered. I call it our Ancestral Proclivity. Unfortunately, the emphasis on Original Sin overtook any reflection and understanding of Original Blessing. Fr. Matthew Fox, an Episcopal priest and theologian, has been a major proponent of understanding the initial and ongoing blessing of creation. Original Blessing has its basis in that God is the creator, and what God has brought into being is good. The image of God, into which humankind is made (of which is our ability to create, reason and love), is intact. But our likeness, well, that needs development. Our Christian tradition maintains that Jesus is the fully developed image and likeness of God. Terms such as Savior, Redeemer, Healer, and Reconciler emphasize the role of Jesus the Christ to assist us in developing more and more into the likeness of God. Why is there so little about Original Blessing? Is there something about us that is more attracted to concentrating on what is bad rather than good? Is it more appealing to focus on negative elements rather than the positive? Certainly, concentrating on what is unhealthy is valuable as a step into taking it and transforming it into something healthy. To obsess with it and do nothing, however, seems a waste. What does an ancient story of two people who blamed another for their wrong action have to do with a story about a shrewd but corrupt manager? Jesus’ parable is a bit bizarre. Is he praising dishonesty because that is how the shrewd but corrupt manager behaved? Biblical scholar Charles Cousar offers some suggestions. Shrewd. One perspective is that he was a shrewd character bilking his master by reducing the amount of interest on loans his master made. This action could have reduced the size of the indebtedness by excluding the interest, which was forbidden by Hebraic Law. Wise. Another perspective is that he acted wisely to reduce the indebtedness by the amount that he would have made, forfeiting his commission, saving face and gaining favor with his debtors, in the hope of guaranteeing friends in the face of material loss. Basically Dishonest. The third option is that he acted dishonestly to gain leverage with those indebted to the master. Why does his master praise him? Could it have been the quality of being responsive rather than the questionable morality of the action that is the object of praise? Luke’s Jesus zings his listeners with the charge that the children of this age act more shrewdly in dealing with their own than the children of light do. Luke no doubt identifies the children of light as the followers of Christ. But in what ways are we to deal shrewdly as children of light? Within this scenario, Jesus does not offer specifics other than to be careful about one’s attraction to money. Could it be confronting and contending with the issues of our age? Are we neglectful of that? Adam and Eve live within us. They live in us as a people in relationship with God, acknowledging and valuing the blessings around us, and being stewards of that to which we have been entrusted. Adam and Eve live within us as a people who at times choose to do something wrong and may refuse to take responsibility for our action. Unhealthy choices have undesirable consequences. Adam and Eve live within us in that we bear the image and likeness of God. The image (again, among which is the ability to reason, create, and love) remains, but the likeness, well, that needs some development. A prominent bishop of second-century Lyons, Irenaeus, maintained Adam and Eve were children, and prohibiting the eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was a discipline meant to encourage their growth, keeping them mindful of being creatures in relationship with God. By observing the discipline, they would have grown to the place where a healthy knowledge of good and evil would be theirs as part of their identity, having become more fully the likeness of God. But in their story, they chose to experience the knowledge of good and evil without being prepared for it – trying to get to the end without the appropriate means. This stunted their continual growth into the likeness of God, obscured their present likeness of God. As mentioned previously, Jesus jumpstarts the process by being the image and likeness of God in its fullness, our champion. Inviting us to grow more fully into the likeness of God, God gives the Adam and Eve within us the opportunity for renewing our growth into God’s likeness, an ongoing invitation! The invitation is to remain centered on the relationship God offers and grow in that relationship, with Jesus as our teacher and role model. It is not a passive relationship, but one which responds to and confronts concerns of our age such as violations of humankind’s dignity, destruction of our environments of which we are to steward wisely, and oppositions to justice-based peace. Original Blessing is more foundational than Original Sin, our Ancestral Proclivity. Our giftedness of being is more solid than our decisions to obscure our image and likeness of God. Jesus challenges and confronts us with having a faith that puts into action the beliefs we profess. Let us confront and contend with the challenges of our world. Let us be a healing presence the prophet of Jeremiah calls for – a soothing ointment for the wounded, a physician for a hurting world. Let the Adam and Eve within us not be defined by past mistakes but be empowered by the teachings, example and Spirit of Christ as to be what our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry calls us to be for a world of fear and anger: loving, liberating and life-giving. The reign of God is still at hand! Amen!