Adult Ed.

Last Sunday I found myself at a Bible study.  Our church has two services on Sunday morning.  Between the services, there is an hour for Sunday School and Adult Education.  The Adult Education slot is a bit of a mixed bag, sometimes it's a Bible Study, sometimes there's a speaker brought in.  Since the boys are in Sunday School, we need to hang around during this time period.  Even so, I attend Adult Ed. sporadically, mostly dependent upon whether I can find anyone who wants to go to the coffee shop across the street or not.  On Sunday, my wife was helping with Sunday School and my normal coffee cohorts had already shuffled into the meeting room so I went in as well.

The Bible Study was on Genesis, the serpent, the fruit, the banishment from Eden.  I like our pastor and the way he presents topics.  Everything is very cerebral.  He discussed some of the ways the text had been interpreted over time and how some of these differences can be seen in the various strains of Protestantism today.  I found the lecture interesting and I felt like I learned something.  I was educated.  I would have been happy if we could have left it at that.

Sadly, we did not leave it at that.  The last portion of the meeting involved an activity where we broke into two groups.  I really don't care for this sort of thing.  I tend to say as little as possible, not out of shyness but because I'm not prepared to speak on the topic.  Give me a few days to cogitate and I'll get back to you.

Some people don't need this extra time.  We had one person in our group who spoke eloquently and had some interesting points to make.  Alas, she was the exception.  Most blurted out the sort of responses I remember from Sunday School ("When in doubt, answer 'Jesus' or 'because God loves us'").  I mostly kept my mouth shut, but inside I was feeling a tad ornery.  We were supposed to be answering a set of questions based on a set of verses that the pastor read before each question.  The pat Sunday School answers weren't supported by the specific verses being read but nobody seemed to care.  In my head, I was arguing these points.  It's easiest to win an argument when you keep it to yourself.

The deceptive nature of the serpent kept coming up, but I was having trouble finding any deception.  From the verses that were read, everything the serpent said seemed to be true.  Yes, the serpent was tempting them, trying to get them to do something against God's wishes.  But did the serpent lie?  I don't think so and I believe the story is much more powerful because of this.  If the serpent had been lying, then it would be easy to shift the blame to him, "He told me I would get all these wonderful things.  He made it impossible to resist."  Instead, the serpent pretty accurately described the package that came with eating the fruit.

This is why I need a few days to ponder things before breaking into groups.  On Sunday, I couldn't see the deception. Today I see that the deception isn't in the description of what the fruit would bring, it's in the assertion that these things were worth disobeying God.  Okay people, let's put our chairs in a circle, I'm ready.  What's that?  You'd rather get coffee?  That sounds good, too.