Don Friesen
John Milton (1608-1674), famous for his epic poem, Paradise Lost (1667), considered an alternative title in an earlier draft of the poem. He was considering the title, Adam Unparadized. Contemporary poet Catherine Wing plays with that very notion in a poem entitled, "Paradise-Un," as follows:
Then the world unwound
And the earth unfastened
God created he him, Adam unfallen,
And in order that Eve could uncage,
But the serpent (more subtle), unheard
Then the unthorned got thorns
Adam unparadized a song not
(Catherine Wing, Field, Number 72, Spring 2005)
Creation in Ruins
It's hard to argue with that point of view, given the nastiness evident in our world in the lives of individuals, families, and communities; amply evident in unbelievable human greed; and disturbingly evident in our sustained commitment to kill each other in the theatre of war! Theatre of the absurd, really.
Creation is in ruins. Many species of animals are in trouble because of rapid and dramatic loss of habitat. Many are already extinct. Climate change threatens our future, as does the depletion of irreplaceable resources, deforestation, the increase of deserts, the decrease of fresh water. You know the statistics and predictions better than I do. It's a sad song: "Adam unparadized a song not / Unsung...." (Wing)
The Bible itself echoes the grim reality of Genesis 3. Humankind, created in God's image, is damaged. We hear echoes of the Genesis 3 tune in the confessional tone of Psalm 51:
Original Blessing and Goodness
It's hard to argue against the fact of humanity's fallenness. Our downfall may have started with the mythical apple, but we've managed to damage much of creation, including the apple now genetically-modified and the evidence of our abuse of creation is overwhelming!
The doctrine of original sin, a dark view of humanity that does not hold out much hope for us. The biblical story, however, does not begin in Genesis, chapter 3, it begins with Genesis, chapter 1, and there's something about the biblical view of creation, humankind included, that is even more original than the doctrine of original sin! We might call it original blessing.
Read through Genesis, chapter 1, and there is no hint of anything untoward. In fact, the created world began with great delight and enthusiasm. God created the heavens and the earth, and God said, "Let there be light,' and ...God saw that the light was good...." (Genesis 1:3-4) God created the firmament the waters, sky, dry land and seas, "and God saw that it was good." (1:10) God created vegetation plants, and fruit trees and such, "and God saw that it was good." (1:12) God created the constellations of stars and the moon to light the night, and the sun to light up our days, "and God saw that it was good." (1:18) God created swarms of living creatures in the sea, and in the sky, creatures large and small and of every kind, "and God saw that it was good. (1:21) God created more creatures, cattle, creeping things, wild animals and such, "and God saw that it was good." (1:25) And then God created humankind male and female in God's very image! And "God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good." (1:31)
Creation is good, good, good, very good! One of the more exuberant translations of this last expression renders it this way: "God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good!" (Genesis 1:31, The Message) Another translation puts it this way: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good ...and (God) approved it completely." (AMP) Or another: "God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased." (TEV)
A Benevolent, Smiling God
Genesis, chapter 1, has been the focus of much debate, none of which makes much sense to me because this is not history or science it is mystery and as such those who try to debunk it are as foolish as those who try to make of it what it is not. This is mystery, and as such perhaps poetry is better equipped than anything else to show us the awesome mystery of God and God's creation.
There is a hymn in our hymnal #579, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" which became the national anthem of the black community in the United States. It was written by James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938), in the year 1900, and it gave the black community not only an opportunity to express their hope, it also gave them a subtle voice against racism at a time when an increasing number of lynchings accompanied the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Johnson, in fact, became the national organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in 1920. He also made a major contribution to African-American literature. In his book, God's Trombones (1927), he has a poem entitled, "The Creation," in which he captures the exuberance and delight of Genesis 1. He writes:
And far as the eye of God could see
Then God smiled,
Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
(James Weldon Johnson, God's Trombones)
The New Testament Hope of Creation Restored, and a New Creation
Abraham Joshua Heschel, a Jewish philosopher to whose writings I turn time and again, tells us that the fall of humankind in Genesis, chapter 3, remained important to Jewish thought throughout the ages, but not all authorities regarded it as having decisively altered what God had originally brought into being. No human act, "however grave, could essentially change or distort what was created by an act of God. Significantly," says Heschel, "there is no word for Original Sin' in Yiddish...." And the Hebrew term for "original sin" only appeared in the thirteenth century, presumably from outside influences. (A Passion for Truth, page 253)
The benevolent intent evident in the biblical vision of creation was not wiped out by the tragedy of Genesis 3. It appears again in such passages as Psalm 8. Writes the psalmist:
The God who created the earth will one day re-create it, when He makes a "new heaven and a new earth." (Revelation 21:1) And human beings, whose creation especially pleased God, will themselves be a new creation! "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...." (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV) We are urged to "put on the new self, which is being renewed ...in the image of its Creator." (Colossians 3:10, NIV) An image, according to the New Testament, that is characterized by "compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" (3:12) all of which makes the church community function smoothly and harmoniously. "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body," writes Paul. (3:15)
"Finish then thy new creation," says the hymn-writer ("Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," Hymnal: A Worship Book, #592), so that God can once again pronounce us individually and as a community very good! I don't for a minute intend to minimize or trivialize sin. We are far from perfect, some of us severely damaged but let none of us ever forget that we were created by God, created in God's own image, and that there's something about us and within us that delights God. Let none of us forget that God loves and cherishes each one of us, and all of us together. AMEN
In the beginning God, unaccompanied,
Catherine Wing's poem seems like a whimsical and beguiling improvisation on Genesis 1, except that on second reading it reveals a darker tone, not unlike some Christians who think that the Bible begins with Genesis, chapter 3, in which Adam and Eve took a nose-dive into sin and chaos. They like to think that the human story began in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit. Since we are the descendants of Adam and Eve, we have inherited their sinful and corrupt nature. The corruption is so much a part of who we are that we live in a state of sustained depravity.
And unmanned, made light.
Adam as yet unimagined.
From heaven. The day unbuttoned
From the night. The sea unearthed
The grass and the trees unhusked
Their seeds. Adam unhastened.
Unpinned from the ground.
Unhitched Adam. Adam unbound.
Adam unribbed, and both undressed
and were unashamed.
From until now, unlocked and unappled
Eve, and Adam unabled.
And the unthistled thistles, the earth
Untoiled until then.
Unsung, of life's uneasying,
And Adam undone.
"Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight...." (Psalm 51:2-4)
We also hear echoes of the Genesis 3 tune in the New Testament. Jesus' example and presence notwithstanding, the "works of the flesh" fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, ...enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, ...and things like these (Galatians 5:19-21) continued to plague humankind, and even the Church. We fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and we need a Saviour to help us! Creation and that includes all things and all beings, including human beings lies in ruins!
And God stepped out on space,
The story of creation continues to flow out of Johnson's pen, each day of creation spewing forth delightful gifts:
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely
I'll make me a world.
Darkness covered everything,
Blacker than a hundred midnights
Down in a cypress swamp.
And the light broke,
And the darkness rolled up on one side,
And the light stood shining on the other,
And God said: That's good!
And God rolled the light around in his hands
Until he made the sun;
And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.
And the light that was left from making the sun
God gathered it up in a shining ball
And flung it against the darkness,
Spangling the night with the moon and stars.
Then down between
The darkness and the light
He hurled the world;
And God said: That's good!
Then the green grass sprouted,
But God is "lonely still," writes Johnson, and so...
And the little red flowers blossomed,
The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,
And the oak spread out his arms,
The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,
And the rivers ran down to the sea;
And God smiled again,
And the rainbow appeared,
And curled itself around his shoulder.
Up from the bed of the river
Then God smiled. It says it all. What a contrast Genesis, chapter 1, is to Genesis, chapter 3. And I don't think that chapter 1 is just a cheap set-up a pre-text for chapter 3. Chapter 1 suggests to me that there is something more basic to who we are than the fact that we sin and disobey God. We were created by God, and created in God's image, and received the stamp of divine approval and God took one look at us, "and he was very pleased." (Genesis 1:31, TEV)
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars that You have established; what are human beings that You are mindful of them, mortals that You care for them?" (Psalm 8:3-4)
The psalmist, however, seems to think that God is still as pleased with us now as he was at creation!
You made us (but) a little lower than you yourself, and you ...crowned us with glory and honour." (Psalm 8:5, CEV)
The benevolent intent evident in the biblical vision of creation is also reflected in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul talks of creation waiting with eager longing for redemption, waiting for the day when it will be "set free from its bondage to decay". Paul uses the imagery of childbirth to imagine a redemption whose scope includes God's whole creation. "We know,"Paul writes, "that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now...." (Romans 8:19-22)
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.