God in the Garden

Jim:

Genesis 3:1-24
There is something very poignant about the first part of verse 8: “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze…” This was a moment of crisis for Adam and Eve. They had broken faith with God and done something they had been expressly forbidden to do. They also recognized their nakedness now. As a result they hid themselves away from God. But here comes God on an evening stroll, enjoying the beauty, the gentleness, the coolness of the garden. How contented God sounds, and therefore how bitterly disappointed God must have become when the guilt of Adam and Eve was revealed. It seems to me that God is destined for continual disappointment in us, but what patience God has to put up with our sinfulness and our habit of spoiling God’s evening strolls with some crisis or other in our own lives. God of the evening cool and the noonday heat, the leafy bough and the sun-washed beach, forgive us when we fail you and keep patience with us so that we can try again by your grace. Amen.

Hebrews 2:1-10
John 1:19-28
Both the writer of Hebrews and of John make use of Old Testament passages in our readings today. The writer of Hebrews cites Psalm 8, but uses the Greek-language Septuagint instead of the original language which accounts for a difference between Hebrews 2:7––“for a little while lower than the angels”––and Psalm 8:5––“a little lower than God (or angels).” In the gospel reading, John the Baptist points to Isaiah to authenticate his ministry. Here, too, there is a slight difference. In Isaiah 40:3 the Hebrew reading would normally be “A voice cries out: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord…’” A voice of unknown location is asking that a road or highway be made to run through the wilderness. But in the Greek of John’s gospel the quote reads, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’”… (John 1:23). In this case a voice located in the wilderness asks that a road or highway be made to run in an unspecified place.

These two passages of scripture seem to have put us in a bit of a bind by not quite quoting other scripture correctly, by “fudging” a little at the edges. But scripture is a dynamic, living word through which the Holy Spirit is constantly at work, bringing light to texts in a new way and helping succeeding generations find relevance in new and exciting ways in the word of God. John and the writer of Hebrews found use for Isaiah and the Psalms which were centuries old by the time they used them. We can find relevance in scripture, too, if we will keep our ears and hearts open and allow the Holy Spirit to work around the edges.