If we are honest, the god we understand has been thrust upon us from those above, parents, clergy, friends, all well meaning  because they are afraid for us. Afraid that we will not inherit the “Promise” of Eternal life – as they believe they know it.

Therefore we will die in our sins the eternal death that comes to those who believe that Jesus is not the only way to the Father, that he was only mortal, a demigod. All manner of things that they do not, their hearsay.

Dare I say it? My god isn’t their god!

The god we will know  comes to us from within.

The God I know was/is within me indwells every fibre and capillary of my being, squeezes between the marrow and the bone, becomes blood for me, is within the scab that formed on my knee after my mother kissed it better. After God in my mum kissed me better with the lips of God.

We can  carry a metaphore  a step too far or stuff too much into our own  god-boxes…

God is not out there! God is in here!

Genesis bugs me.

Start at the beginning, it seems a popular place to begin – ha. The story of our first beginnings tells us that we are loved and good, everything is good. The Genesis of the Earth in the presence of the Word breathed out by the spirit; is very very good as is everything within it.

How then did we go wrong, well, as all children are, God’s first children were disobedient, could not keep one commandment. Did exactly the opposite they were told to do and that is why bad things happen. When we use our Free Will to be disruptive and disobedient we have chosen the Reptile park.

In Eden there was no Reptile Park, it was meant to be a very safe place where people walked and communed with God face to face, but there was this one rule, there was a very desirable fruit forbidden for humans to eat. On pain of death..because they would then know too much and be unhappy and not know how to be innocent again.

Eve, the Mother of all the living, went to gaze at the tree and out from its tangled branches, enter stage left, slithering along with a friendly smile,came sir snake. Surely you will not die and it is such nice fruit, I eat it everyday. You will know everything just like God, Adam of the earth or clay came there too and the Mother of all the living introduced Adam to the The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they ate of it. No it wasn’t a Granny Smith Apple or an Avocado or Tomato, that’s just the myth within the Myth it was something we will never see again. That’s why people began to do wrong because they had failed to keep just one Rule. When we do wrong, and I am not using that icky word called sin because it is scary; we feel bad inside because we have the knowledge to know what is right or wrong. If we know God we know we sadden God because we are just like our first parents.

AND GOD IS IN HERE not out there in a mythical garden with smiling talking reptiles, this story was for curious children who wanted to know…. the Hows Whats and whens of it.

Snakes in the land of Babylon,  were worshipped, this is the Creation story, NOTE a Story, not a HISTORY- written by the priests,  to show the People of God that God, the God of Israel had made everything that exists, unfortunately even snakes but since snakes are so sneaky and lie why should the Israelites they join with their captors in worshipping them.

The Reptile Park is a good place to be, our Zoo, Taronga, has a wonderful reptile section, snakes are a Good Creation but must be respected because they bite, and their bite is worse than their hisss.

So what about this eternal death and the sins of the fathers visited upon the sons to the third and fourth generation? If that happened wouldn’t God be dead too. Why does the church say that we will die forever because two people ate forbidden fruit because a snake told them too. A bit daft if you ask me. Will God die forever if we do?

God did come and did die but not forever he walked out of his temporary home, ha grave to close the Reptile enclosure where “IT”had been sent for dangling ripe fruit in front of children, then God went back to heaven were he hadn’t left anyway because God is everywhere, even in the wood of the cross and the nails that bound him there. You don’t need to eat your fruit and veg to know that God is good, and true, and faithful and loves you forever.

Get to know God who lives within, walk with him and talk to him, read the Words that Jesus said and ignore what they want you to believe to make them feel righteous because they played with your head.

Jesus allowed the Romans to hang him on a cross because at ground zero in Jerusalem that was what happened to heretics who were heard to say that they were God. Jesus loves us and redeemed us from the sneaky snake yes Jesus even trod on it in the Garden where he went to talk with his Father before the guards came to take Him away.

We call the Snake the Devil, who was once Lucifer the light bearer until he wanted what God was and had a fight with the archangel Michael and got chucked out of heaven with all his merry men.

These are metaphorical Stories in the Scriptures which keep explaining over and over again that it only takes one negative act to make God who is within us sad within our turmoil. These single acts cost our God who is within, the loss of his life and we died too and hung on that cross with him because…

What power wrong doing has that it brings God and us to the brink of being like a broken toy in the hand of. well, us.

And this is just the beginning

Don’t be bugged by stories, by some kinds of Fairy Tales, we are good and have always been so yet we can also choose to be bad. In this case there are just two ends to the piece of string, top and bottom, left or right.. When we have talked some more with God we get to learn more about the complexities of our lives with God and the string becomes a net within which to trawl humans through the icy cold water to common sense.

We get to go fishing and we can read these stories in the gospels – the Good News.

Are you still here God, you haven’t left me because I have made light of your legacy to us? No I can feel you within me having a little chuckle about mixed metaphors and what they are for, and things that are the same as some other thing- and you are in the pages of the Book to help us read it right. Before the goody goodies get us.

 

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The Confessions of St Augustine of Hippo