ORIGINAL GOODNESS

When I was growing up even into adulthood and theological education in seminary, the doctrine of original sin was placed front and foremost into our thinking and acting. In essence, we were born with this black mark on our soul because of the sin of our original parents (parable-wise: Adam and Eve). The only way to erase that black mark was through the waters of baptism.

That was bad enough. What was even worse, at least back then, was that those who had not been baptized would not enter heaven upon there death. Worst of all was that the only baptism that counted was Roman Catholic baptism. Thankfully, at least that belief was passé by the time I began studying theology immediately following the end of Vatican II. But original sin still showed its ugly face.

The truth, of course, is that we are indeed “marked”, influenced by that first sin whatever it was because the even greater truth is that those first human being who could think were born in original goodness. Once they did something that was not so good, called “sin”, they lost that perfect goodness forever. After that everyone born into this world is born into a world where sin happened. It is unavoidable.

But being born into a world where sin and selfishness are a way of life does not mean that we are born in sin or even with the mark of that original sin on our very soul. Being born into a sinful world is not the same as being born sinful. We are born, like those first humans, into original goodness. If we have the slightest doubt about that truth, all we have to do is just hold a baby in our arms: goodness personified!

For that baby there will come a time when he or she commits his or her original sin, first sin, the first time that human being deliberately says or does something knowing full well that it is wrong and selfish. Up until that time that person is living in original goodness. Even more importantly to remember is that that goodness does not immediately vanish upon the commission of that first sin.

We remain good from birth to death because we are the creation of a God who is infinite Goodness and everything that God creates remains forever good despite what that good person does in this life. That does not mean that we are given carte blanch to do whatever we want because God always forgives us. It does mean that we always have it within us to come to our senses and admit our sins and repent.

All of which brings us back to baptism whose main purpose is to welcome us into a community of likewise good and yet sinful and repentant people who will love and support us in our journey through life, helping us to always do the best we can; and when we do not, realize our mistakes, try to redress the hurt we have caused, learn from what we have done, and continue being the good person we have been from birth.

DON’T BLAME GOD

Whenever bad things happen to us not of our own making, like being in the wrong place at the wrong time, we almost automatically wonder what we did to deserve what has just happened. Did we do something sinful in our past the punishment for which is now catching up with us? After all, if we believe that we experience hell in this life, that we are going to pay for this life’s sins in the here-and-now and not in the hereafter, then this unforeseen and unexpected bad thing is simply our payment come due.

Makes sense to a degree. But usually the sin-come-punishment is tit for tat and we are acutely aware that we are now paying for our foolishness, even sinfulness. What is even worse is that even after once or twice having painfully paid for our discretions, we continue to do those things, say those words, that we know, sooner or later, will bring pain and suffering into our lives let alone many times into the lives of others, often the ones we love the most. So why do we continue to do it?

That’s the real question, isn’t it? The answer is simple: free will. While we want to believe that a good and loving God would never allow unjust pain and suffering to come our way; and while we want to believe that this same God would stop us in or tracks before we say or do that will bring pain and suffering to us and, even more, pain and suffering to others, God does not interfere.

In that sense God is at fault for giving us free will. Without it we would all be robots always doing the right and loving thing and never saying or doing anything that was not. That would not be much of a life. So blame God for free will that allows to do what we should not and then suffer the consequences for our misdeeds, but don’t blame God for allowing us to do what we know we should not do in the first place and enjoying it…until the consequences kick in.

God does not interfere with the workings of nature nor the workings of us human beings. What God does do is enjoy the fruits of our loving actions with us and cries when we are in pain because of the forces of nature, the consequences of the sins of others and of ourselves and, I think, especially when we keep doing what we know will bring pain and suffering to us to and others and do nothing to prevent it.

Why God created this world and the inhabitants thereof the way God did is a question whose answer will have to wait until eternity because no one of us smart enough to provide an adequate answer. Blaming God for what is wrong in this world may make us feel good and give us an excuse for the bad that happens, but it is simply a cop out. We have no one else to blame but ourselves, individual and collectively.

Our responsibility that comes with free will is to say and do that which we know God would have us say and do. Then we won’t have God to blame.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU’LL GET

Several weeks ago there was a great Hagar the Horrible cartoon in the Sunday paper. Lucky Eddie is complaining to Hagar and says “Sea battles…dragons…zombie armies…magic castles…. Let’s face it. I’m in a rut.” Hagar replies: “Lucky Eddie, you need to get out of your comfort zone! You can’t be timid and weak! You’ve got to take daring dangerous chances to feel alive! You’ve got to walk through fire! Do you understand what I’m telling you?” “Yes,” Luck Eddie replies. “I’m going to ask out a redhead!”

I know what Lucky Eddie meant. I asked out a redhead. She said “yes”. And I married

her and life has never been the same since. Even if, like Lucky Eddie, you have an idea of

what you might  be in for, you never know what you’ll get until the time comes to

actually learn what you have. Then you have to learn how to deal with what is and not

what you thought it might be.

That is what life is all about, isn’t it? It is learning how to live with whatever cards we

have been dealt at the time they have been dealt. We can always speculate ahead of time

about how we will respond to a certain situation. But we never know for certain what we

will actually do when that situation arises. Life is full of too many contingencies for

which we cannot account ahead of time.

That is also what makes life so interesting, so exciting and even so frustrating. We just

never know what the day or the hour or even the minute will bring because so much of

our life is out of our control. We can ask a redhead for a date and think we know what we

might be in for and we might discover we hit the nail on the head. On the other hand, the

redhead might not be the “typical” redhead, if there is such a person. And there probably

is not. Well, maybe.

Every situation in life is different. Even so, we have to prepare ahead of time for what

might be even if what might be never happens. That is not simply the Boy Scout motto, it

is also the only way to live. Otherwise we will be setting ourselves up for disaster. If we

have no inkling about what to expect in a given circumstance, we would be foolish to put

ourselves in what truly might be harm’s way.

Yet, even when we are most prepared, we still never really know what will happen. All

we can do is do our part. That is, first to try to be as best prepared as we can be and then

once the situation arises, do the very best we can to respond. That is all we can do and all

that we can expect and even demand of ourselves.

Not all redheads are alike. No two people are alike. No two situations are ever alike. That

is why, again, we never know what we will get, what will happen. But that is also what

makes life so interesting, isn’t it?

FIRST THE PAIN AND THEN THE PLEASURE

No one likes to be in pain. No one likes to suffer, at least no sane person does. The masochists among us may seem to enjoy pain, even seek it out. But they have obviously a screw loose. Pain and suffering prevent us from fully being the person God created us to be. Perhaps we will never fully become that person as it seems that pain and suffering are part and parcel of this life on earth.

On the other hand it is precisely because we do suffer, that we are in pain – physical, spiritual, emotional – at many times in our lives that we know what it means to be fully alive when that pain and suffering passes, but not before. That truth would not seem so, but it is. We cannot know true pleasure, true joy, before we first know suffering and pain.

That is the truth that lies inside the parable of Adam and Eve. As the story goes, God placed them in paradise, the Garden of Eden, where they knew no pain or suffering. It was like being in heaven on earth. But they did not know so. They did not know what they had living there in paradise. It was only after they had sinned and then began to suffer that they fully understood what they had had and now no longer had. It was a difficult lesson to learn.

It is a difficult lesson to learn and we all have to learn it the hard way. There is no other way. The further truth is is that we like it that way – at least after we have learned that truth the hard way, the way of pain and suffering. All we need do is think about those times when we have been in great pain. It matters not what that pain was. Once that pain, that suffering, passed, we experienced the great pleasure that its passing produced. It is as if we never knew such pleasure now that the pain is gone.

That is not to say that we hope to be in pain, to suffer, just so that we can experience joy and pleasure, or at least to know exactly what true joy and true pleasure really is. Only a fool has such hopes. It is to say, however, that we need not live in fear when pain and suffering come our way, as it always does. We know from experience that the pleasure and joy that will follow will eventually outweigh the suffering we endured.

That does not mean that the promise of the joy and pleasure to come will make the present suffering any less painful. It will not. It is simply to say that we can never fully   understand what joy and pleasure is all about unless it has been absent in our lives through pain and suffering.

The corollary of this is the lesson from Adam and Eve. They did not know what they had when they were living a fully-pleasurable and joy-filled life. They took it for granted and suffered the consequences. When pain and suffering are absent from our lives, we, too, often take it for granted and not give thanks for what we now have because when pain returns, it will seem worse than it is. We need to enjoy the pleasure. We earned it!

MORE IS NEVER ENOUGH

Our two-year old grandson, Carter is in daycare while his parents work. He is learning yoga, sign-language, the alphabet and is being potty-trained among the other learning activities that the program provides. One of the first signs Carter learned was the one for “more”, meaning he wanted more food. Now Carter likes to eat. He always has. Thus, as concerned grandparents, one being a very health-conscious nurse, we were afraid that he would put on too much weight.

We needn’t have worried. Yes, Carter did sign for more (he now simply asks) when he wanted more, but he also shook his head and waved his hands when he had eaten enough. He knew when he needed more to fill his stomach and he knew when he had had his fill. He still does. I wish I had learned that lesson at Carter’s age. It’s still a lesson I all-to-often forget when it comes to food.

Don’t we all? We seem to want more and more and more and, at the same time, never know when we’ve had enough. That is true not only when it comes to filling our stomachs but in all of life. We live in a society that screams out to us that we can never have enough, that we can always use more, that, in fact, we do need more – more of whatever it is that has our attention at the moment.

Worse, still, is that when we have accumulated more than we ever need, we have a very difficult time letting go of some of it to share with those who need what we have but, in truth, no longer need because we already have enough, truly more than enough. The solution to the problem, once we understand that having more will never be enough and that chasing after more and more, is to let go of the chase after more before the chase even begins.

That is difficult, again, not only because of the society in which we live that tells us that more is better and society will think better of us the more we have, but also because we enjoy the pleasure that comes from the attaining of more, whatever that more is. It is a double-edged whammy. We fight the exterior forces that tell us we need more and the interior forces that give us pleasure in having more.

My hope for Carter is that he has already learned that when he really needs more, he will get more and that when he knows he has had enough, he will not ask for more. That lesson, once learned and made part of his life, will serve him well throughout the rest of his life. Unfortunately it seems to be a lesson we only learn as we enter the later stages of our lives almost when it is too late to do us much good.

I am thankful that my two-year-old grandson has taught me a lesson, or at least reminded me of a lesson I should never forget. I am even so bold as to suggest it is a lesson we all need to remember and certainly practice. Life will be more enjoyable if we do.