To those of you who are mothers, happy Mother’s Day. I was trying to decide on an appropriate lesson for Mother’s Day, and I found myself being drawn back to Eve, the first mother. Now, to be sure, history and religion have not been kind to Eve; the story of Eve has been twisted to all manner of misogynistic purposes. She has borne the blame for all of the sin in the world, as though she were some sort of pre-Hebrew Pandora. But a careful re-reading of the first four chapters of Genesis gives us a glimpse of a complex, strong woman whose life experiences might not be all that different from yours.

First, let’s look again at Genesis 2:18b, where God decides that Adam needs a “helper.” Now, we think of “helper” as being a subordinate position, but the actual Hebrew word used there means helper in the “strong rescuer” sense. Now read it again – suddenly, Eve goes from being the underling to being someone created by God to pull Adam’s fat out of the fire.

Then, consider Adam and his shortcomings. In verse 15, he’s charged by God (pre-Eve) to “work the Garden and to keep it.” That word translated “keep” actually has connotations of “guarding” and “protection” and is the same word later used to describe the task of the Cherubim stationed outside the garden when Adam and Eve were expelled. So, one has to wonder later on in the story, where was Adam when the snake came into the garden? Had he fallen down on his job? And when the serpent was tempting Eve, where was Adam then? Why wasn’t he at Eve’s side, providing emotional support as she faced her greatest temptation? Surely this forbidden tree had been a topic of conversation between them! Had Adam said something which encouraged her to explore beyond their limits?

It is then instructive to look at Adam’s response to God’s questioning as opposed to Eve’s. When God challenges Adam, he does the same thing our kids might do – he throws Eve under the bus! “She made me do it,” he said without hesitation. But Eve admits her mistake: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate from the tree.” Two confessions, not excuses.

Then the real trouble begins. They are turned out of the Garden of Eden. They are forced into a hard life, a hunter-gatherer lifestyle of subsistence living – a far cry from the idyllic setting which she had been promised from the beginning. She gives birth to two sons, and she acknowledges that these are a gift of God. Then the unthinkable happens: Abel dies, and, even worse, at the hands of Cain. Cain goes through the self-destructive cascade which we discussed last week, and ends up in both physical and spiritual exile. How sad that must have been for Eve, the loss of both of her sons. But she gives birth to Seth and again recognizes God’s providence, and chapter 4 ends with the declaration that “..men began to call on the name of the Lord.” But Cain’s descendants, Genesis tells us, never found their way back to God.

Are women of today all that different from Eve? How many women subordinate their roles? How many wives have been let down by their husbands? How many have taken all of the blame when there was plenty to go around? How many women have gone into a relationship having been promised one rosy future, yet found reality to be much less desirable? How many have lost a child to death, or had a child take a life-path that leads to a dark place? This is the plight of so many women.

But how many, like Eve, have faced their own shortcomings with honesty? How many have taken on the burdens of the harder life rather than running away? How many have overcome disappointment with their circumstances, and rather than falling into a spiral of self-destruction like Cain did, they have soldiered on and still recognized that God is with them and providing for them? As painful as it was for Eve to lose her first two sons, I have to think that Seth’s “good” outcome happened because Eve set the example of loving a loving God.

So again, to all the mothers who have overcome so much and have still managed to raise a family and keep the faith, I say “Well done, thou good and faithful servant…Come share your Master’s happiness!”

Happy Mother’s Day

Leland Allen, MD

Watching the news after the Boston tragedy it seems clear that we have learned something since 9/11. They said everything changed on that September morning, and, sadly, it is true. As a result, American leaders and state and federal security systems responded with amazing decisiveness and choreographed precision. Our own, Gray Clark, who was at the 26.0 mile marker when the second explosion disappointingly ended a year’s worth of training and years worth of hopes, watched with front-row clarity as a multi-block area was blanketed, within minutes, with emergency responders from a number of distinct but connected organizations and agencies. While no one could have known to prepare for such a horrific act, the response was so complete and instantaneous it was as if they had known.

In that amazing response we’ve been moved by the heroic courage of paid responders, police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who, despite the obvious danger but the unknown threat, ran into the fray and not from it. We’ve been motivated by the selfless response of bystanders, spectators with no specific training who held bleeding limbs and calmed victims reeling from the pain and immersed in a sea of shock. We’ve been stirred to emotion by the amazing stamina of medical professionals who ended the race only to head straight for medical tents or ERs, matching live-giving stamina with life-saving knowledge. In tragedy, once again, Boston proved that the human spirit is indomitable. It revealed as perhaps nothing else can that calamity levels the playing field, bringing even a sadly divided nation together allowing Americans to transcend political, socioeconomic, racial, and cultural differences and achieve the unity that can, alone, save us. And Boston revealed the historic heart of American pride: against all odds a unique melting pot of the world’s huddled masses, working out a messy, human experiment called democracy, continues to inspire the world.

On the international front we’ve declared mission accomplished. Our war in Iraq is history, and the reports ensure us that the Taliban is crippled and Al-Qaeda is on the run. Our military leaders in Afghanistan are working out a plan to turn over security and control to indigenous forces. The courage of troops will always be mystifying to me. Putting your life on the line in the face of the certain, deadly danger of warfare is more than I can comprehend, and like the incredible response in Boston, is best referred to as inspiring. But despite the courageous efforts of our troops, the heroic efforts of our first responders… we keep having to respond.

To respond.

So, is there a pro-active initiative that can prevent the need for such courageous, effective, heroic response, or is that just “pie in the sky, by and by”? I believe we can be pro-active, must be pro-active (in something other than pre-emptive war), and I believe the initiative we need is practical, not just wishful idealism. An old friend of mine used to say you could never interdict terrorism. Since you cannot predict the future it goes without saying that you cannot know when an enemy might choose to strike. So, as ready as you may be, heroic and inspiring as it will always be, response is too late. Just as obvious, if not as well-accepted, is the fact that the use of force only increases the potential that you will need to respond, at some point, in some way.

To respond.

I’m grateful for troops who put themselves in harm’s way, and for first responders. We will always need them. But we do not have to need them so often. So, while we continue to train and prepare and refine our abilities, what are we really doing to prevent having to respond?

Last Wednesday night a group of Jewish youth sat in the chapel at Park Road Baptist Church. It’s one of my favorite nights of the year. Their Rabbi, my good friend, always calls to arrange an evening when his confirmation class can come listen to me talk. I love standing in front of those bright, inquisitive youth and their adult leaders, sharing what Christianity is and what it means to me. I love the surprising awareness that turns their faces to a kind of perplexed smile when I tell them I believe there is more to unite Baptist Christians and Jews, that we have more in common than separates us – that religions ought to bring people together, not push us apart. It’s not that my Jewish friends and I actually have the same beliefs at some watered-down, least-common-denominator level. We do not. But when we listen to one another we find the humanity that is common to all, the desires we share for our children, the hopes we hold for our future, the shared convictions which are at the heart of our diverse faiths. Through my work with Charlotte’s interfaith organization, Mecklenburg Ministries, I’ve come to believe this about all religions. Christians and Muslims, Christians and Hindus, Christians and Unitarians, Christians (and other Christians!) will find, if we dig deeply into our convictions, that a love of neighbor, and peace, is essential to people of good will, in all religions, and even for those with no religion. Because the Mecklenburg Ministries office is also located in our chapel building, on a regular basis you find a Muslim hijab, a Jewish yarmulke, and a Christian clerical collar along the corridors of our campus, and the wearers of those religious markings gathering to work together in our classrooms, even meeting for worship. I cannot imagine being Church any other way.

And I can’t imagine having to respond to very much violence if the nation as a whole looked the same, if we really gave ourselves to dialogue with the people of the world, to the recognition of our common values, to the pursuit of our common, universal goals.

There is no naiveté in my conviction. People will always make unfortunate decisions, resulting in painful, horrific consequences, so we will always need to be on the ready to respond. I’m not suggesting we just have a nice potluck dinner with the world’s madmen, let bygones be bygones, and go home the best of friends. Troops are necessary, and so are first responders. We must never tire in the pursuit of justice – but we do not have to resign ourselves as a nation that there is nothing we can do to change an environment that continues to foster, if not to encourage acts of terror. There is never a justification for terrorism, but we ought to be honest enough to recognize that what we are doing can be improved, that our use of force in the Middle East is only serving to heighten the tensions. The Baptist minister meeting with the Jewish youth is just a symbol. Maybe our Homeland Security Department and our CIA need Offices of Interfaith Dialogue.

I’m proud to be part of a congregation that practices hope, that works for peace, that pursues justice in simple ways. I invite you to join us.

Our first responders could use a break.

Amy Jacks Dean