Copyright 2012 by Robert Morris

Christ Church, Short HillsAdult Spiritual FormationThe Omega Course: Your Destination in God

Session # 2What Goes Wrong?

N spite of the best intentions, things sometimes go awry. We planned the perfect dinner party, or Christmas din-ner, but one of the guests misbehaved, the

mood turned sour, feelings were bruised. Or the town council, which had resolved difficulties in a friendly non-partisan way for decades, gradually turns bitterly partisan, and governing becomes more difficult. Or we discover that someone we liked and trusted in the community, or a colleague at work, has been working behind our backs to get the position we wanted, or to sabotage something we were trying to do—and sud-denly stabs us in the back in a surprising way.

What went wrong? How did that get into such a mess? Why can’t we just get along? Usually we ask this about a particular relationship or action. But, espe-cially in times of personal or social distress, human beings in all cultures have felt there might be some fundamental “streak” in our nature that can lead us astray and make our lives “out of joint,” (as the Bud-dha put it). Violence, dishonesty, greed and unbridled self interest seem to always stand ready to infect the human family, even if many, if not most people try to be fairly decent and moral, and some excel in virtue.

Human beings in many cultures have told stories about this more pervasive sense of “what went wrong” in the distant past, or some flaw intrinsic to human nature that has resulted in the human race becoming such a recurrent problem to itself, its noble aspirations under-mined by a variety of forces. Some African legends say that things have gone downhill since the beginning of agriculture. In both China and the ancient Greco-Roman world, there was a belief that a “Golden Age” in the distant past had been more peaceful and spiritu-ally alive. Biblical people told a number of stories, found in the ‘Primeval History’ in Genesis 1-11 about what went wrong, looking at the human dilemma from different angles. Please read Genesis 2-3, 6, 10 before we meet for discussion, as well as the commentary on

Christian Basics 2 Affirmations to Remember

1. We are created basically good, but in need of moral and spiritual development. “The roots of all our desires are sweet, good and holy,” said St. John of the Cross, reflecting the bib-lical teaching that we are made in God’s image.

2. We can grow in ways that twist our ba-sic capacities. Early Christian teachers said that childhood social influences and personal choices can twist our fundamentally good desires and abili-ties in unhealthy and destructive directions.

3. We are capable of both good and evil. God made us able to choose either constructive or destructive actions. Our choices either strengthen the power of virtue or the power of vice in us.

4. Sin (tresspass, ‘missing the target’, dis-obeying God) happens when we harm our-selves, others, the fabric of society or nature and thus violate God’s own goodness in the world.

pps. 2-3, and the questions and reflection on p. 4.

The purpose of the Way of God—God’s desires and directives for human life revealed through Torah, Prophets, Gospels and human reasoning—is to safe-guard and nourish human flourishing in communities of justice, love and compassion as humanity lives con-structively on “the earth, our island home” in space. God wants the human endeavor to succeed. Sin, trespass, ‘missing the target,’ is not breaking arbitrary rules, but behaving in ways that undermine the well-being of self, other, society and world. As we will see in Session 3, God’s response to sin begins with God’s commitment to work with us, teach us, and help us find the most fruitful ways of life possible.

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WHAT Goes Wrong: Three Biblical Viewpoints

1. Grasping for godlike power: overstepping the boundaries. Three out of the five Genesis ‘before-time” tales tell of human beings trying to seize powers that belong only to God. Already made in the image and likeness of God, with God-given powers to follow the Prime Directives, we crave the absolute power and knowledge to control which we imagine “the gods” have. In the Garden Story, the first parents violate the limits God sets in order to “become like the gods” and know absolutely everything—which is one of the meanings of the He-brew idiom “knowing good and evil.” In the Tower to Heaven legend people try to scale the heavens, but in their search for power fall to fighting among themselves and the society falls apart in misunderstandings. In the Mating of Angels with Women tale, likewise, the border between divine powers and human abilities is breached, producing evil through the Nephilim, ancient giants.

3. Impulse control problems plus ignorance. Basically, we can’t control ourselves very well, and we’re too often ignorant of what the consquences will be. These ideas are illustrated in The Two Brothers and The Flood. Cain falls into a fit of sibiling-rivalry anger when Abel’s offering is acceptable and his own isn’t, and kills his brother. This story stands for all the ways in which we fall into rivalry, jealousy, anger and hatred. In the Flood humanity has ‘wrecked its way on earth, and wrecked the earth’ (literal translation) and developed an aggressive, destructive civilization where human imagination was “filled with evil thoughts” (The Jewish stories about this says God gave them 153 years to repent—to no avail). The stories note our run-away impulsiveness. They may hint at moral ignorance on Cain’s part, and socially-induced ignorance of the good in the Tower story. Certainly, some mistakes human beings, and whole cultures make, are because we don’t realize we’re on thin ice till we fall through. The task is to learn wisdom from our errors. But individuals and whole cultures can wander away from the wisdom learned in childhood or past generations.

2. Disobeying God’s Directives: The second theme in all three of these stories is disobedience, stray-ing from living the Prime Directives we studied in Session #1 (see p. 4). Manifestly, human beings do not live together fully in justice and compassion; we do not tend and keep the earth very well; we mistreat other creatures for our own ends; and we fall away from vital connection with God. The Scriptures picture a God who hopes to educate humanity in the right way via a curriculum for good living which we call ‘the Law’ or ‘Wisdom’ and examples such as the truly just and good in every generation, and supremely in the person and life of Jesus. See page four for reflections about disobeying the Prime Directives.

Which of the above biblical viewpoints is closest to your own beliefs about what goes wrong? What in your experience leads you to feel this way? (Choose any that apply)

___Grasping for God-like power?___Disobeying God’s Directives? ___Impulse control problems plus ignorance.

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WHY Things Go Wrong: The Rabbis and Early Church Teachers

As the ancient Rabbis and Christian teachers of the first few centuries pondered these ancient stories, as well as how things went wrong in their own lives and eras, they developed various ideas of why human beings misbehave. The three main explanations are actually different versions of the same basic theme.

1. Choosing evil over good.Jesus of Nazareth says that both good and evil deeds originate in our hearts (see Matthew 12:35; Mark 7:20-23). He seems to have agreed with the Rabbinical idea of “two inclinations” — the good (yetzer tov) and the evil (yetzer hara). The rabbis said the origin of evil was a mystery, but observed that ‘when we are good we are very, very good, and when we are bad, we are horrid’ as an old nursery rhyme puts it. We have the power to choose the good—the way that leads to life, not death. The yetzer hara is not a demonic force: it is satisfy-ing physical and ego needs in immature and unhealthy ways: the need for food becomes gluttony due to the yetzer hara. This idea developes into the Christian ‘sev-en deadly sins’ of ‘inordinate’ (untamed) desire—pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger and covetousness, sloth.

2. ‘Higher’ vs. ‘lower’ nature This is a variation of the two inclinations analysis, con-trasting our basic physical and ego-drives with our more noble capacities for mutuality, service to others, altru-ism, compassion and justice. In the New Testament, the ‘higher’ nature is called ‘spirit’ and the ‘lower’ is called ‘flesh’ which can mislead us. The body itself is not evil, but becomes the “slave of sin” (Romans 6:19) when our “higher nature” or spirit does not rule our more base or “lower” instincts. The body itself becomes the me-dium of holiness and love as we grow in goodness and virtue. Modern brain studies indicate that our “higher” and more recently evolved brains do have the power to override our more primitive survival instincts in favor of complex social norms.

3. ‘The Fall’ and Original Sin Jesus did not speak about “original sin” and never mentions a “Fall.” Early Christian teachers, like the Rabbis, taught that the story of Adam and Eve was a parable about the importance of choice, not a primal catastrophe that totally ruined human nature. St. Paul did say that Adam’s disobedience initiated an avalanche of human disobedience leading to spiritual death: disconnection from God and a more powerful yetzer hara (see above). Four centuries later. St. Au-gustine, living in a time of increating violence and moral decay, taught that the sin of Adam had corrupted human nature so much that we no longer even have the power to choose the good without divine help. For him, this was a fall into “original sin,” corrupting us and all nature. Christians in eastern Europe and the Middle East (“Eastern Orthodox”) have never accepted Augustine’s dark doctrine. Many modern Christians are returning to a more balanced sense of our natural capacities for both good and evil, while others agree with Augustine.

Which reason is closest to what you think about why things go wrong?What in your experience leads you to feel this way? (Choose any that apply)

___Choosing evil over good/two inclinations___Higher vs. Lower Nature___The Fall and Original Sin

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What Goes Wrong in each of the ‘Prime Directive’ Areas

“From the primal elements you brought forth the human race and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill. You made us the rulers of creation. But we turned against you, and betrayed your trust; and we turned against one another. Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight. Again and again, you called us to return...” Prayer Book, Eucharistic Prayer C

In what ways do we disregard and disobey the ‘Prime Directives’ given by God in creation?

Which of the above behaviors concerns you most?What other human misdeeds would you add?

If the offering God seeks is for us to ‘walk humbly, love mercy, and do justice’

how should that affect our behavior in any of these for areas?

Breathing the Breath of Life “The more I called, the more they ran from me.” + We fall away from constant companionship with the Spirit. + We lose a sensitivity to what aligns us to God. + We develop unrealistic ideas about our own power. + +

Living Together in Community “We have one Father; why do we deal treacherously, each against the other?” (Malachi 2:10) + We fall out of cooperation and mutuality + We fall into fear, hatred, and conflict + We refuse to repent, reconcile, and forgive + We build oppressive social structures + +

Naming’ the Creatures “The dread of you will be on all creatures” (Genesis 9:2) + We destroy whole animal species + We misuse animal species for our own purposes + +

Tilling and Keeping the Earth “God will destroy those who destroy the earth” (Revelation 11:18) + We use land in destructive ways + We pollute land, air and sea + +

?Was ‘The Fall’ All Bad?

Some Modern Musingson the Ancient Stories

Knowing that humans evolved from a com-mon ancestor with chimpanzees, rather than being created perfect can lead us to see these stories of the origins of human prob-lems in a different light.

The Garden Story, while meant as a parable about obedience, may well be ultimately rooted in that distant time when human self-consciousness dawned, and with it a more acute awaremess of our fur-less nakedness, our ability to choose, and the consequences of making a mistake.

The banishment from paradise may reflect one of the consequences of this increased self-consciousness; that we became aware of the threatening and dangerous side of na-ture in a more acute way. Instead of simply “going with the flow” as many animals seem to do, and feeling at one with our instincts and nature, we began to be at odds with ourselves, uncomfortable with our instinctive impulsiveness, alienated from nature. We felt less at one with the Spirit of life.

In this modern reading, the “Fall” was, in some ways, a fall forward into our humanity. There was the loss of the old animal sense of oneness with nature, and through it, the Creator, but the gain of greater imagination, ability to make choices, and the capacity to develope, from experience, codes about good and evil.

So, Adam and Eve become aware of shame and guilt, Cain becomes aware that he is meant to be his “brother’s keeper,” the hu-man race experiences the great flooding at the end of the last Ice Age as a judgment on their violent ways, and the people of Babel discover how hard it is to pursue their high (perhaps too high) goals of civilization without falling into warring groups who are no longer capable of listening to and under-standing each other.

Thus, stories that are not literally true in the sense of giving us news reports about specific people and situations may actually reflect the ways early humanity realized, again and again in such typical situations, the ways in which things go wrong. Next Session:

What is the Divine Conspiracy? Covenant, Cooperation and Culture

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