{"id":23342,"date":"2023-05-23T22:45:28","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T05:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greaternw.org\/news\/?p=23342"},"modified":"2023-05-23T22:47:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T05:47:22","slug":"why-we-keep-wearing-fig-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greaternw.org\/news\/why-we-keep-wearing-fig-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we keep wearing fig leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Rev. Paul Graves<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I had a hip joint replaced five weeks ago today. During the surgery, a spontaneous fracture occurred just above the new joint. It was caused by a bone condition I have that makes some of my bones brittle. I\u2019m healing very well, but I\u2019m also newly aware of how long bone fractures take to heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That new awareness prompts me to wonder about the many fractures our personal lives and our societal lives endure every day; and how long they can take to heal. I know only one thing: they will never heal if we keep re-injuring them! Our culture seems obsessed with re-fracturing ourselves and others. I wonder why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps one reason is that we feel, bone-deep (pun intended), that we\u00a0deserve<\/em>\u00a0to endure continual fracturing of our spirits. But why?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the answer may rise up from a little-remembered detail in the story of Adam and Eve\u2019s \u201cFall\u201d in the Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:1-24). Mid-way into the story, God looks for the couple and calls out to them, \u201cWhy were you hiding from me?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adam weakly calls back to God: \u201cI was afraid because I was naked.\u201d After their encounter with the serpent, they discovered their shame-based nakedness. They didn\u2019t want God to see them that way! Slap on the fig leaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were ashamed. But here\u2019s a little detail we usually gloss over: Genesis 3:21 simply affirms that instead of punishing Adam and Eve in that instant, God becomes a loving mother who sews skins together to cover their shame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I see the whole Creation story as a metaphor. It\u2019s an ancient story that wonderfully tells how the world began and how humanity was introduced into that creation. In this garment-sewing detail, God\u2019s first post-creation act is to love the creatures who seem overwhelmed with a primal shame that never seems to go away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we still buy into the shame-lie! That shame continues to be reinforced by nearly everything we experience, everything we\u2019re told about ourselves or the \u201cnature of humanity.\u201d We believe we are shameful to the bone, and no one can talk us out of it. Not even Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really? Not even Jesus? All of the stories and doctrines that surround our too-limited perceptions of Jesus don\u2019t convince us that there\u2019s so much more to our humanity than the shame we wallow in. We\u2019ve been slow-to-unwilling to embrace the Gospel, the \u201cGood News\u201d, of Jesus. As our shame death-grips us, we give in to \u201cIt\u2019s too good to be true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I sometimes begin to feel that way, I try to remember a simple truth-piece I read some years ago by my spiritual guide, Richard Rohr:\u00a0\u201cJesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity; Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Really? That\u2019s a very radical \u2013 root-deep \u2013 reversal of the way we usually think! In our primal shame, we think what we do \u2013 or not do \u2013 will\u00a0change God\u2019s mind toward us. Rohr counters this: \u201cPeople often seem to start with this premise: \u2018If I behave correctly, I will one day see God clearly.\u2019 Yet the biblical tradition says the exact opposite: If we see God clearly, we will behave in a good and human way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we have it backward? Yes! So Jesus\u2019 life really means to convince us that he wants us to change our minds about who God is? Yes! God really wants us to be free from our shame so we can experience and express God\u2019s love for us. So drop the fig leaves \u2013 and your shame\u00a0with them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Rev. Paul Graves<\/strong> is a retired elder member of the Pacific Northwest Conference of The United Methodist Church.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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