The
lectionary readings for Morning Prayer today are Genesis 2.4-9, 15-17 and Mark 7:14-23. In the first, God warns the ‘dustling’ not to eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. In the second, Jesus declares that it is not what
goes into the body that defiles us, but what comes out of the heart. How do
these readings relate?
The
first two chapters of Genesis tell two different accounts of creation. These
are symbol-rich stories whose purpose it not to tell us the mechanics by which
the earth came into being, but rather to tell us about the kind of world in
which we live. In chapter 1 we see order and life brought out of chaos, and
that life is pronounced ‘good.’ In chapter 2, we come across something that is
not ‘good’ – the knowledge, or lived experience, of evil, alongside good. We also
discover that it is ‘not good’ in God’s eyes for the dustling to be alone. God
addresses the first ‘not good’ through instruction – don’t eat of that tree – and
the second through provision – enabling the dustling to be fruitful, and
multiply.
The
symbol-rich story continues to unfold, and in chapter 3 we discover that there
is already at least one creature present in the garden who has set themselves
against God and against the privileged relationship the human beings enjoy with
God. We also discover that separation from God has an impact on the
fruitfulness of the earth itself, as well as on the fruitfulness of the
dustlings made from it.
And
with these new pieces of information, we can look back at chapter 2 and
understand that already, as a consequence of the decision of the serpent to set
itself against God, there has been an impact on the fruitfulness of the earth.
Among the trees there is one that is bringing forth not only fruit that nourishes
good but fruit that nourishes evil. Yet even this might be redeemed, as an
opportunity to learn discernment.
Jesus
says, it isn’t about what you eat. So what were the Jewish food regulations
about? Where they simply misguided? Or are they now superseded? Elsewhere Jesus
claimed that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. The purpose
of the law is to instruct, to train us for right living. The food regulations
aren’t about what you eat; they are about what you consume and what you nourish;
and about learning to decline something that look perfectly good and
justifiable, because not everything that looks perfectly good and justifiable
is good for us.
There
is a rich diet readily available that will nourish the potential for evil in
us, whether newspaper articles that encourage us to fear certain groups; or
adverts that feed discontentment and greed, promising satisfaction forever just
out of reach; or juicy gossip that eats us from the inside out; or images that
objectify others, seeing their physical form (shaped from dust) but not the
breath of God that animates them.
There
is also plenty of food available that will nourish the potential for good in
us, while starving the potential for evil. Tempted in the wilderness to feed a
sense of entitlement, Jesus declared, The dustling does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Words that are
patient, and kind; not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude; not insisting
on getting their own way, or irritable, or resentful; not rejoicing in
wrongdoing, but rejoicing in truth; words that enable us to bear all things, to
believe, to hope, to endure. Such words, wherever they are spoken, have their
origin in God; and God’s words don’t return empty-handed.
What
are we consuming? And what is it nourishing in us?
What
do we need to reduce in, or cut out of, our diet? What do we need to eat more
of than we have done?
