The death of Michael Jackson this past week shocked me, yet at the same time it did not really surprise me at all.  He was a magnificent and innovative performer and also a sad figure in American popular culture.   Jackson seemed to be obsessed with finding a childhood that had been lost in the pressures and financial payoff of being a child star.  Offstage, he could never quite seem to become an adult.

This past week, I began my summer sermon series - Ask Jack - based on questions submitted by the congregation.  In a curious coincidence, the first question was, "Why did God put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden in the first place if Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat it?  Why would God punish people for exercising our own free choice?"   This is a story about choices, coming of age, and ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­seeing the world with eyes wide open.

That question prompted some of my own questions regarding this story.  For example:  

·          What is so wrong with learning about good and evil?  

·          Why was it so awful to eat this fruit - so awful that it would bring a penalty of expulsion and death?   Is our growing up so threatening to God?

·          Does God not want us to exercise our own judgment and learn about good and evil?  

·          Is it not within God's will for us to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and look at the world without blinders?  

Why would God punish people for exercising our own free choice?  The only answer that makes sense to me is that leaving Eden was a consequence for Adam and Eve, but not a punishment.   What if the action of eating the fruit indicated the couple was growing up - becoming adults.  What if the consequences of knowing good and evil were that Adam and Eve could not stay in Neverland, the idyllic garden?   We all live east of Eden - where we grow up, shape our lives, and choose the attitudes that we carry with us.

The story of Adam and Eve, the snake, the fruit, and ejection from paradise reflects people's need to place the context of their far-from-idyllic lives (post-Eden) within the will of God, even if that will seems cruel and full of judgment for humanity's failure.  The Bible offers other images of God as well:  a God who fervently desires us to eat and drink deeply of knowledge and wisdom, and to have our eyes opened.  But the cost of wisdom is great.  We have to look at ourselves clearly, come to grips with who we are, and face the consequences of our free choices.  

We cannot know what was in Michael Jackson's heart or what motivated his sad quest to find a lost childhood.  We do know that his best music and dance were highly charged with worldly passion and a very adult sensuality.  Perhaps that tension between growing up and shrinking back is present in all our lives?  But meaning and joy wait for our discovery outside the Garden when we find that the God who walked in Eden in the cool of the day is the same Spirit in whom we live every day.  There is something even more satisfying than Eden's paradise -- full partnership and an even deeper intimacy with God.  These are available to us here and now.  The pain, struggles, and conflicts of life, far from curse or punishment, are gifts that enable us to grow in wisdom and stature.   In the economy of heaven, they become our treasure.  

Thanks for continuing to bless me as we journey together.
  
Jack Price

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