THE FIRST TIME IS THE CHARM

When I was growing up my siblings and I all had chores to do around the house. We had to do them before we could do anything else, like go out to play or even do our homework. They were never very difficult and, as we grew older and there were more of us to share the chores, each of us had less to do. Yes, they were a pain in the neck for me especially when my buddies were at the front door telling me to hurry up so that we could get the ballgame started.

My first chore, being the oldest, before I moved on to washing the dishes, was sweeping the kitchen floor after supper. It was no big deal. Our kitchen, even if it was an eat-in, was not very big. There was not much of a floor to sweep. But I still remember when my Mom made me sweep the floor six times before she was satisfied that it met her requirements. Six times!

When I finished with sweeping for the fifth time and complained, she said very kindly and calmly, “Billy, if you would do it right the first time, you wouldn’t have to do it again.” Enough said. I also would like to say “Lesson learned;” but, reflecting back on that time in my life, I cannot. And, in all honesty, reflecting on life now, it is still a lesson I sometimes forget to follow.

Do it right the first time and you won’t have to do it again. Common sense. It’s certainly not rocket science. It is a lesson that once learned should be put into practice from then on. Yet, we human beings, seem to have a very difficult time not putting the lessons we have learned into constant practice. Why else is it that history always seems to repeat itself? We keep sweeping the floor over and over again and never seem to get it done right. Why?

That would be the question, would it not? It is a personal question and a societal one as well. The first time we learn a lesson should be the charm. It so should enamor us that we remember it always and follow it always as well. But it doesn’t and we don’t and we pay the price over and over again, personally and as a world.

We are supposed to learn from our mistakes. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we do not. I would like to say that after that six-time floor-sweeping incident, I always did it right the first time. But I can’t day that. My Mom, The Inspector, still found times when I was in too much of a hurry to get the job done that it needed to be done again. The guys had to wait for me a little longer, much to my chagrin and their displeasure.

But that’s the point, isn’t it? When we fail to follow up on the lessons we have learned, we displease ourselves and we displease others. We make our life more difficult and we make the lives of others, especially and usually the ones closest to us and the ones we do not want to displease, more difficult. When will ever learn or will we ever learn?

IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH SEX

There are those who maintain that the first sin had something to do with sex, given the fact that the writer says that they, Adam and Eve, were born naked and not ashamed and once they were caught in their sins, they became embarrassed and had to clothe themselves, especially their sexual organs. Such an assertion makes some sense, if we think putting on clothes somehow shields us from the embarrassment of admitting to our sins and discretions.

Yet, as the story goes, Adam’s and Eve’s sin had nothing at all to do with sex; nothing. If you don’t believe me, read the story again. Besides, and more importantly (and it should go without saying) by its very nature sex is good because without it none of us would be here today to reflect on that biblical story and its implications and meaning.

Rather, I think, the very first sin was the one from which all other sins flow. The serpent in the story, sky and crafty creature that he was, understood human nature better than the humans themselves did. The serpent did not need to tempt these humans to do something so much as it had to just scratch the surface of that which spurs humans to eat too much, drink too much, misuse our sexuality and desire more than we need. That first sin was the sin of greed.

Think about it: these two people were living in Paradise. They had all their hearts could desire. They were never sick, never in pain, had all the food they ever needed or wanted. They had everything but it wasn’t enough. They were not satisfied. They thought or were induced to believe there was something missing that needed to be sated. They wanted more than enough.

Then when they were caught in the act, they put on clothes to hide themselves, not because they were embarrassed by their nakedness but because they were embarrassed because of the fools they had just made of themselves. Their greed had gotten the better of them and led them down a primrose path that was now and forever would be covered with thorns, thorns aptly called “greed”.

As with Adam and Eve in the story, so with each and every one of us: all greed has to do is scratch the surface and all hell can break loose. We know the stories, and they are legion, stories about people whose lives have been ruined and who, in the process, ruined the lives of countless others all because greed took over and sanity got submerged under a ton of lies.

Greed is so powerful because it is so insidious. It masquerades as somehow good. It convinces us that we need what we now desire, that we deserve what we now want. It convinces us that what we are doing is good and is good for us and is good for others and will do no one any harm. But, in truth, greed is the Father and Mother of all lies. It is only after learning the hard way, after we are suffering the consequences of our greed and seeing the harm that it has done to others, especially those whom we love, that we rue the day we gave in to it --- and we want to hide but cannot, especially not from ourselves.

NO NEED TO WALK ON WATER

We read in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus walked on water. No one, not even the world's greatest magicians and illusionists, has been able to duplicate that. To be able to walk on water one has to be divine.

That's one way to look at. Those who believe that Jesus is divine, that Jesus is God's Son, believe that Jesus' walking on water is proof positive that he is who he said he is: the Son of God. On the other hand, those who do not believe or do not wish to believe or cannot believe, Jesus' walking on water is written off as so much hokum: the product of the fertile imaginations of those who desperately wanted to believe that Jesus was someone he was not, namely, God's Son.

But both are wrong. Belief does not come from the miraculous, from the extraordinary. Belief in another, even if that other is the Son of God, belief in another comes not from the miraculous but from the mundane, the ordinary. The Apostles came to believe Jesus and to believe in him, not because of his miracles, not because he walked on water or raised Lazarus from the dead but simply because he always loved and cared about them.

It is the little things we do for the ones we love that matter. The big things are icing on the cake. We may be impressed by expensive gifts and we usually are. Walking on water, making a blind man see, giving clean skin to a leper can almost, if not in fact, overwhelm the receiver and the beholder. They almost demand belief, the big things do.

But we don't and dare not fall in love with the gift giver because we are impressed by his or her magnificent generosity. We fall in love with the gift giver because of all the little, everyday gifts of love. Not the big but the little. Not the extraordinary but the ordinary. Not the out-of-this-world, not the you'd-have-to-see-this-to-believe-it, but the mundane.

And we prefer it that way, too. The dozen roses are less important than the held hand. The glass of water is more important than box of chocolates. The size of the gift does not matter. What matters is the gift-giver, the person, the one who loves us by his or her presence rather than his or her present. Faith in another, love of another, comes and grows. It flourishes little by little, day by day. We sprinkle another, God sprinkles us, every day. The water to grow comes drop by drop and not by bucketfuls. Trying to overwhelm the other usually results in drowning the other.

In any relationship – God with us, us with God, one with another – it is never the size or the cost of the gift that matters, really. It never is. What matters in the beginning, in the end, and all along is the love behind the gift. If love is not there, or if the love is selfish rather than for the other, the gift, no matter how impressive or miraculous, will mean very

little.

Jesus did not need to walk on water for us to believe in Him. We need not walk on water to demonstrate our love for God or for another. Like Jesus all we need do is wade through the water with them.

WE ARE ALL INADEQUATE

No one is perfect. Only God is. We know that. It’s not rocket science or even deep theology. It is not even skin deep. We know from everyday experience that we are imperfect people living in an imperfect world. We make mistakes every day, deliberate ones and accidental ones. We are affected by our mistakes and are affected by those of others. There is no escape.

There never will be in this life in this world. Jesus came to bring in the kingdom of God in this life, not just in the life to come. But for that kingdom to become a reality, perfection would have to come into existence. And, again, that is not going to happen, at least not in the lifetime of any one of us currently living, nor, I think, in the lifetime of anyone in the very distant future.

What that means is that we have to honestly not only admit our inadequacies but seriously confront them on a very personal level and not shrug our shoulders and cut ourselves a break because no one is perfect. Everyone is inadequate. Just because everyone is does not mean it’s okay. Just because everyone does something that does not mean what is being done is all right and we can join in.

We tried that excuse on our parents as teenagers and it did not work back then and it does not work now. It never does. But we still try to excuse ourselves of our inadequacies, whatever they are, because, well, and again, everyone is inadequate. While that may seem like a good excuse, it still does not excuse us.

When we personally and honestly confront our imperfections, we need not take ourselves to the proverbial woodshed because we would never leave there. While they may not be many, there are still enough of them to keep us busy trying to do what we can to become a better person, selfish less and selfless more. That does not happen unless we are seriously intentional about it.

I think that is what Jesus’ ministry was all about. He did not come among us to remind us that we were not perfect. We knew that. He came to remind us that we could do something about it. And if and when we did, we would make our lives and those around us better. And he showed us how. Yes, in all honesty, it cost him his life because too many people thought it easier to shut him up than change the way they were living.

Killing the messenger doesn’t kill the message. It is simply a reminder about how important that message is. We have heard the message. We know we are not perfect. We know we will always be inadequate. But we also know that being inadequate does not excuse us from trying to be perfect even though we will always come up short.

God does not ask that we be perfect. What God does ask of us is that we do our best each day to be the best person we can be. And whenever we fail, because we will, to acknowledge our failure, try to rectify our mistake, whether deliberate or accidental, and try not to do it again. That’s all God asks of us and all we can ask of ourselves.

DID JESUS FAIL?

If one were not a Christian, and if one understood who Jesus was/is and what he taught/teaches, one could very well assert that Jesus failed in his ministry. All one has to do is look at the world today and compare it to the world of Jesus’ and honestly conclude that nothing has really changed. The world is still divided between the haves and the have-nots, between rich and poor, powerful and subservient. Jesus’ message was that needed to be changed.

But nothing has changed, has it? The world is still as divided today as it was almost 2000 years ago, as it has been ever since. Thus, one can easily and honestly assert that Jesus failed. But, of course, he did not. He did what he had to do, what he came to do: to remind us what God expects of us as God’s children and to remind us, as the prophets did before, what we had to do to fulfill those expectations.

No, Jesus did not fail. We have. We failed Jesus. We, Jesus’ followers, past and present, are the ones who were and are to have brought and continue to bring those changes into existence. They were and we are to be both living reminders of Jesus’ message, the instruments through which that message was and is implemented. Obviously, again, they and we have failed. Just look around.

In essence, because Jesus’ followers have failed in living out their responsibilities, we have wasted 2000 years. While almost every other segment of society – science, medicine, education and so forth – has made tremendous strides to make life here on earth better for all, we followers have spent our time fighting with one another over issues that have nothing to do with preaching, teaching, living out and making the Gospel message a reality.

And we’re still at it. Why are so many of our young people staying away from active participation in church? Why do so many say they will have nothing to do with organized religion? Why? Because the followers of Jesus again and again through the centuries and even today have failed and continue to fail in actually following Jesus: who he is, what he taught and what he expects from us who claim to follow.

None of this sounds very nice – it isn’t – and perhaps not even hopeful. But it is. It is not as if we do not know what to do. We do. It is not as if we cannot do what is expected of us. We can. It is not as if we have to change the world or even our little corner of the world. We don’t have to nor can we. The first disciples did make great changes in the world, one person at a time, one step at a time, one day at a time.

What is expected of us today, as was expected of every follower of Jesus, is to live each day as best we can so that we may grow as a person and so that those whom we encounter may learn from our example. Let us not fail Jesus or ourselves any more.