The Fall

This week marks the beginning of “Ordinary Time”!

Having walked through the story of Jesus—his incarnation, birth, life and ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and descent of his Spirit, we move into the time of year where we gather up that story and walk the path of faith.

This week we’ll pick back up with our walk through the highlights of the Old Testament.

We last touched on the story the creation of all things in the first two chapters of Genesis—an absolutely fundamental reality to all Christian thinking.

But equally crucial to understanding what the Church has to say about the world and why it is the way it is (and why we are the way we are) is what is (somewhat tepidly) known as “The Fall.” 

God made all things, but did not make sin. So, the old theologians reasoned, sin and evil must be a kind of move toward non-being, a kind of death. This rings true, to me at least.

And it is the reason the story of the cosmos takes the shape it takes: after the introduction of sin and death, this sickness that turns the world toward non-being, something must be done and only God can do it. 

The mission of God takes the shape that it does because something must be done about the Fall of the world into sin and death—it must be overcome. And, of course, it is in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

But sin must be acknowledged because so much of our lives are marked by it, even now.

If we don’t we are not telling the truth about the world and the way it is—both our suffering from and responsibility for sin and all its correlates. 

Scripture to consider:

• Gen. 3

  
  

Question for your kids

• I wonder: Do you think God wants good things for you? Why or why not? (Hint: Yes! for all kinds of reasons. But the creation and gift of the world in all its beautiful variety is a good place to start.)

Peace,

Danny+