000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

viously unseen devastation in its wake, like a hurricane or tsunami, leaves
us profoundly humbled before the destructive power of nature. The point
of a fast is to ritually act out our humility before the Lord. A fast does not
mechanically produce the desired results (such as the restoration of the
Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina in 2005), nor is it a way to appease an
angry God. Joel does not say that the Lord brought about the plague of
locusts; instead he cries out to the Lord because “fire has devoured the
pastures of the wilderness . . . [and] even the wild animals cry to you
because the watercourses are dried up” (1:19–20).
The whole people is asked to an assembly, including infants and children
(2:16). They are to fast, weep and mourn, rend their hearts and not
their clothing (2:13), because God “is gracious and merciful, slow to
anger, and abounding in steadfast love [hesed]” (2:13). In the next reading
from Joel, the Lord will answer their prayer.
First Sunday in Lent/Year A
Genesis 2:15–17; 3:1–7
First Sunday in Lent/Year A 31
Genesis 2:4b–14 describes the first human being living in a paradise. The
close relationship between the human being and the natural world is evident
in the fact that God made the human being (adam) from the earth
(adamah). God places the human being in a lush garden from which flow
four rivers that water the whole world. The human being works, but the
work is meaningful and satisfying (Gen. 2:5, 15). This is a theology of
work: joining with God in making the world a garden. Only in Genesis
3:19 does labor become negative (Proper 5/Year B).
The human being can eat freely of every tree except the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil (note: as in Gen. 1:29, the human being is a
vegetarian). The phrase “good and evil” (and similar phrases) occurs only
a few times in the Bible, usually in reference to making decisions that can
lead to good or bad consequences (Deut. 1:39; 2 Sam. 19:35; 1 Sam. 14:17,
20). Limitation meant optimum freedom and blessing, for by respecting
the limitation that God placed on the tree, the human being could have
forever enjoyed God’s original design to live in a world that was like Eden.
Genesis 2:17b and 3:14–19 spell out the most dramatic consequences of
eating of the tree.
Genesis 3:1–7 tells the story of how the first couple came to eat of the
tree. The serpent here is a creature that God made, albeit a creature “more
crafty” than others. Interpreters infer from Genesis 3:14 that the serpent