Sewanee

After probably fifteen years I have returned to Sewanee. This holy place on the Cumberland Plateau is the location of the University of the South and its School of Theology were I earned an M.Div. twenty two years ago. I am here for two weeks as a Fellow in Residence to read, study, walk, talk and pray.

I attend the Daily Offices and daily Eucharist in the seminary chapel, which was not there when I was here. I am spending time translating Greek; trying to "unrust" it.

The low clouds hanging on to the mountain make Sewanee grey and brown during this time of the year.

Peaceful. I need that right now as I make a transition to the last third of my life or at least to my third career.

Sex, Sin, Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve naked and innocent in the Garden of Eden are tempted by a snake to eat an apple, first Eve tempted by the snake and then Adam tempted by Eve. Thus they learned not only that they were “neked” but they learned about sin by having sex.

Wrong. The only part of that description of the beginning of Genesis Chapter three that is accurate is that they began naked.

Eve is not given her name until the next chapter. The man, adam, which means undifferentiated human, is not called Adam until the next chapter. Here they are still ish and isha. It was not a snake but a servant; it was not an apple but a fruit. While the woman took and ate the fruit first, the man was with her all the time, Genesis 3:6. They had already had sex with each other, Genesis 2: 24.

Note that they were tempted as we all are to something good, Genesis 3:6.

Genesis chapter three is not about the origin of sin. If there was no sin before the serpent- woman conversation, how could either the man or the woman have been tempted and succumbed to disobedience? No. This is a story that says human beings have always been tempted from the very beginning and have always given in to temptation.

There was no “Fall” in the sense that there was a time in human existence when people were “perfect” and one human being started the sinning for all the rest of us. The fall is not a past tense verb; it is a continuing event in the relationship between humans and God.

Human sinfulness is not, despite St. Augustine, tied to sex. There is no inherent connection between sexual intercourse and disobedience to God. Indeed, the act of love between two people is a sacrament which embodies the love of God for creation. Like all good things we can and do pervert it. Augustine and much of the church have perverted sex by linking it with sin.

Finally, the story of “Adam and Eve, the snake and the apple in the Garden of Eden” is a story. It is a made up, true, fictional, myth which tells us much of great value about ourselves and our continuing relationship to the loving creator.

The story ends with a very domestic YHWH designing and making clothing for the couple. Genesis 3:21.

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

Some call it Ground Hog Day. For Christians, at least those of us in the catholic tradition, this is a feast day marking the day Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, was taken to the temple in Jerusalem and dedicated. See Exodus chapter 13.

We don't celebrate this much in the Episcopal church, I suspect because "baby dedication" sounds like something Baptists do. We baptize infants and they dedicate them until they are old enough to say they are born again. When Episcopal kids reach that age we have the Bishop "confirm" them. Same thing, well almost.


This feast is also known the the Purification of Mary. It follows the tradition that somehow women are impure after childbirth and during their monthly bleeding period. Such a feast is born of the fear men have of women's power to give birth.

Unclean does not mean dirty. Could we revive some sense of being in need of a spiritual wash? Men and women alike are estranged from God, from the good spirit of creation in ways that are sinful. When we sin we separate ourselves from God. But there are times, things we do that are not necessarily wrong but move us, not exactly away from God, but perhaps raise some kind of barrier. It is that sort of idea, I think that illuminates what the Hebrew scriptures mean by "unclean."

The only thing I have experienced that might be comparable is periods of depression and panic. I cannot see how such a time equates to the period after childbirth, but I have felt that separation and a need to be cleaned following panic attacks.

Career change

Finding a job is a full time job. My last job, Vicar of the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan ended when the new Bishop chose to stop funding that mission church. He provided two months severance pay, membership in a career coaching company and just recently several months of health insurance.

I have been talking about retiring, but wanted to do it on my own time. I had talked about getting out of parish ministry, but again wanted to do it my own way. So.

January and February looked to be a mini sabbatical. I would spend the time working on Greek and re writing my Chicago Junction stories for publication. Neither has happened. I have spent most of the time working on how to "package my skill set" so that I might appeal to employers outside the church.

The process of learning how to "network" [Verbing weirds language - Pogo], is challenges me. I don't like making telephone calls to people I don't know. But I have been doing it.