Another Glimpse at Genesis 3

I wish I had the energy today to write a new narrative - a re-telling of this story that inculcates what I've tried to think through in my last two posts. But I don't. That doesn't mean my mind has stopped or that my textual musings have ceased. It does mean that I'm relying far more heavily on the thoughts and musings of another. Gertrud Mueller Nelson in her book, Here All Dwell Free, tells the fable/myth of the Handless Maiden which mirrors many of the realities inherent in the Genesis story. I'll let her speak:

The feminine quality of curiosity that resides in all of humankind, the quality of wanting to know what is still unknown, is not an evil quality in itself. Certainly Eve or "the woman" is not evil--as one perspective on the issue of feminine curiosity has viewed it. Knowledge brings about wonders, but it can have terrible consequences. If we use knowledge for personal gain at the cost of others, or to further our blooming hubris in order to play at being gods, our unexamined motives are the cause of evil. That is the tragic flaw that is coupled with knowledge...

From my perspective, Eve's curiosity and subsequent knowledge was hardly for personal gain or intentionally at the cost of others. Even to think she "played at being god" feels like it goes too far. Indeed, there were consequences to knowledge and consciousness, but the introduction of such was not pre-meditated, intentional, or evil in and of itself.

Mueller Nelson's statement is true and worth repeating: Eve is not evil. Believing such is hugely important and must be allowed to permeate our deepest stories, firmest-held theologies, and most significant understandings of ourselves as women - and men.

Out of one side of our mouths we say that it is a sin to become conscious, and out of the other we say that it is a sin to remain unconscious. In a family, when one member dares to become conscious - to become enlightened about the ways in which the family has functioned or, indeed, about how they have been dysfunctional for so long - his or her deviation from old family patterns is a heroic act that takes enormous energy...When someone shifts into consciousness and out of an assigned familial role it threatens to unbalance the whole family.

This shift into consciousness, even though it threatens unbalance, is not evil. Nor was Eve's - or Adam's. Undoubtedly, unbalance was created, but such is not always bad. Mueller Nelson continues,

Had we not committed the sin of consciousness, we would also never have brought heaven and earth together in the incarnation of God's own Son.

Indeed, Eden, the eating from the tree, and the resulting consciousness and knowledge are the very things that usher Jesus into our midst. In our own stories the same is true: it is our own movement into consciousness and knowledge - our good and bad choices, our functioning and dysfunctioning, our naming and un-naming - that bring heaven and earth together in poignant, felt, experienced ways. The converse is also true: when we refuse to step into consciousness and knowledge we refuse to let heaven and earth come together. We stubbornly keep at bay the feelings and experiences that, though often painful, remind us of our very need for God. It is our knowledge, consciousness, and honesty that bring God near:

When in trouble I sought the Lord,
all night long I stretched out my hands,
my soul refusing to be consoled,
I thought of God and sighed,
I pondered and my spirit failed me.

You stopped me closing my eyes,
I was too distraught to speak;
I thought of the olden days,
years long past came back to me,
I spent all night meditating in my heart,
I pondered and my spirit asked this question:

"If the Lord has rejected you, is this final?
If the Lord withholds favour, is this for ever?
Is God's love over for good
and the promise void for all time?
Has God forgotten to show mercy,
or has God's anger overcome God's tenderness? (Psalm 77:2-9)

These words could just have easily been spoken by Eve or Adam as David or the Israelite people. Heaven and earth come together in our questions, in our curiosity, in our deepening consciousness, in our knowledge of ourselves, of others, of life. We need not disavow Eve's curiosity or her resulting knowledge; rather, we can recognize ourselves in her and recognize an Eden that ushers God incarnate right into our midst. Mueller Nelson says that it is our very sin that is responsible for our reconciliation with God. Amazing. And a far different glimpse at Genesis 3.

O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam,
which gained for us so great a Redeemer!

Night truly blessed when heaven is wedded to earth
and humankind is reconciled with God!

(From the hymn, the Exultet, used in the Easter vigil service)