By Jacy Allen Boldebuck
July 4, 2010
2 Kings 1-14; Psalm 30

Freedom...we like to talk about it, sing about it, pay tribute to it, fight about it, we call it by other names like independence, autonomy, Janis Joplin said "it was just another word for nothing left to lose."

This has been a summer for thoughts and discussion about Freedom. Our only child has flown the coop. We knew this was coming. We have been active in the dreaming and planning, but towards the end I began to panic. Now what? How do we do this letting go, this fly away free, empty nest thing?! I want my baby bird back! Jon and the cat just won't cut it!

So....I have been praying about it and reading the Bible. Thinking about God, looking around for God. Wondering if there is some wisdom, strength, advice - some balm available to me in the scriptures. The beauty of the Bible is that we can go back to these ancient stories and glean something different every time.

The idea that light - truth-about ourselves, each other, our relationship with God - can be shaken free by different people at different times in different ways depending on what is going on in our lives simply astounds me...and it keeps me coming back for more.

So on a recent rainy evening...I decided to do some scripture reading. I decided to begin at the beginning. The Garden. Our creation narrative.

I had already had my interest peaked during our recent adult education discussions on the book "Bad Girls of the Bible" as we took another look a Eve and humankind's departure from paradise.

Every religion and most cultures have a creation narrative. I love to read the Native American creation stories. They are deep and beautiful an reverent to their Great Spirit. All people ponder their origins, have a need to explain, to understand how we got here and why life is such a mixed bag.

I have an allegorical interpretation of the creation narrative in Genesis that I would like to share. What that means is that I read the story as symbolic rather than literal. It means the characters, events stand in place of a larger life drama. I believe it is a story intended to describe human kind's relationship with our creator and I would like to suggest that it is our first story about Freedom. It is a story about letting go of our children and setting them free into an uncertain world. It is a story about the birth of free will and the inevitable cycle of life.

The creation narrative in Genesis was written thousands of years post creation, and after the ancients had experienced exile, famine, death, uncertainty and fear. Their creation tale attempts to explain the relationship between being the children of a loving creator while living in a world where evil exists. I think the story is also a symbolic tale about the joy and pain of being a parent.

Think about the story that way for a moment this morning. Let go for just a moment of the familiar interpretation you learned as a child - you know, the one where everything is perfect until Eve and the snake trick Adam into eating the apple. I encourage you to read it again. I think we got it wrong.

This is much deeper story and it is rich in symbolism: Our creation story is not about disobedience and punishment...it is a story of the birth of humanity ... it is the story of how to deal with the inevitable!

God's beloved children grow up, get wise and then no longer being children, God had to set them free. The knowledge had already been  digested, they Know, and they could not un-know. I don't think God was so much mad, I bet she had been active in the dreaming and planning bu towards the end started to panic. God knew her children would have to grow up, and that that meant allowing them to be FREE in the world - the children had outgrown the garden.

So here we have the seemingly perfect set up, God is intimate with creation, we bump into God in the garden and talk, laugh, live together.

We do not need to be clothed - there is nothing to hide. There are rules to follow: Rules to keep us safe, safe from knowing evil  -  but the tree is there visible with the tempting fruit of knowledge. We are told that we welcome to eat from every other tree except that one.

For a while we stay naked, innocent, happy, safe, protected.

Enter the snake. Think of all the things the snake symbolizes on the path to adulthood. The Bible does not describe the serpent as evil - only crafty - which is defined by the dictionary as "wise". The snake is only defined as a creature to fear once we are outside the garden. At the time Eve and the snake interact the snake is simply another creature living with us in Eden.

So, Wisdom/knowledge has always been in the garden. Remember we pass that tree every day. God tells us to stay away and warns us of death if we eat from that tree - if we partake of its knowledge, and yet God must know what's coming....I mean God planted the Garden.

So, the inevitable happens. Eve becomes "enlightened" and she shares this new knowledge of good and evil with Adam. They don't physically die as God warned, but we know that things have changed, there is a death in a way - the life God has known with his children is gone, changed forever into something unknown, yet to be. Adam and Eve hide from God and for the first time feel fear and shame. God responds by getting them prepared. The story tells us that God makes them clothes of "skin."

We all do that, right? We would not want our children to go into the world naked without the "skin" of our love, guidance, support, lessons.

So now Adam and Eve are no longer children of the garden and God shares with them the ramifications of this impending freedom. They are told about pain, loneliness, hunger and.... snakes....and then, God sadly lets them go out the front gate.

They are now Humans. In fact this is the beginning of humanity...(there was no procreation in the garden. It starts here outside the gates, outside our first home with God). We are now free.........Free to chose love, kindness..free to chose hate, war, free...free...but not alone. What the story does not tell us, is that quietly, quietly God gets her coat, turns off the lights and follows her children out into the world. They won't always recognize God ....but God is everywhere her children are....everywhere...watching, waiting, listening, laughing and crying, and loving them....

Fireworks

Now free....we struggle with our relationship with God. We are always looking around for God. We fight about God, fight for God, pray to God...beg for miracles. When we don't recognize God...we doubt God. We worry that we are alone. Why is it so hard sometimes. this life of freedom, this life outside of the Garden?

I ask you to recall this morning's scripture reading in 2 Kings. Remember that the God of the old testament was thought to be involved in the winning of wars, the cause of droughts and famine or the maker of rain....reward/punishment - simple, uncomplicated, but an awful theology.

During the time of Kings, the Hebrews are in competition for their very survival as a people and a way of life...this war was all about who had the most powerful God. They are the culprits - these stories set us up for expectation of fireworks - proof that our God is present and more powerful than our enemies. And in today's reading we have a Naaman a mighty warrior who is asking God to cure his leprosy.....and the prophet Elisha responds to Naaman's request for God's healing by directing him to "go wash yourself in the river Jordan 7 times and you will be cured-Your flesh restored" The mighty Sumerian warrior responds with arrogance - "that little dirty river" and Anger - "does Elisha think I am a fool?"

Naaman does not initially obey God's simple command. He expects more, more from this God of this supposedly mighty God of the Hebrews. Naaman is looking for "fireworks." It is his only when his servant points out that if it had been a more difficult task perhaps a mightier river, he would have obeyed, but he had refused to hear God's word in this simple, straightforward command "wash and be clean."

Once Naaman does as he is instructed he is healed and humbled. How many times do we over look the simple solutions because we assume it should be more complicated, glitzier, you know Old Testament stuff... Burning bushes, parting seas, swarms of locusts, floods, thunder...lightning, miracles............Fireworks.

We spend so much time searching the skies for fireworks that we step on and miss the everyday miracles that occur right here under our feet. God is present everyday.....Look around for God, but also recognize God's work in every act of love, forgiveness and hope, Look around for God, and recognize her in each other, in yourselves. Redefine Fireworks......here are a couple of recent displays:

An elderly woman struggles to get out of her car in the Woodman's parking lot, she has driven herself, but also uses a walker. I begin to walk towards her but a group of rough looking teens that I had on my radar since pulling in to the lot get there first. My heart races a bit and then I see them set up her walker, hold her hand, hand her the keys, she is on her way. They are all smiles. I saw fireworks...God was in that.

I am sitting with a female veteran who struggles with anxiety awaiting a hearing. I am there to provide support but we are also doing deep breathing together to keep her calm. The waiting area also has a couple of grizzled looking veterans who do not acknowledge us as we arrive and look stern and angry. As I am walking her through the relaxation exercise, I open my eyes and notice that both men are dong the relaxation technique with us...eyes closed, feet apart, breathing along with my instruction. We sit there quietly the 4 of us breathing...just breathing..... I  am glad I opened my eyes...I might have missed the fireworks. God was in that.

We pray to God to heal or save..when God has already given us to power and the freedom to do that for ourselves and each other. Maybe we really should be praying for the strength to handle our lives, the courage and grace to get us through, to have our eyes opened, to see, to breath, to love, to continue the walk with God. Our garden is here....our garden is now...it is ever changing, nothing stays the same...there is nothing to fear, freedom and fireworks are all around us...and God is in that.

Amen.