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where do you come from? What's your story? Typically we each find ways of introducing ourselves to one another on a deeper level when we share our beginnings , what brought us here. But have you ever

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considered that maybe you need a new story? That may be the one that you've been telling about yourself is not the only story about you. Now. I want you to consider the story we tell as

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christians about our beginnings during lent. We journey towards the cross, but we start here in genesis with a story about a woman in a garden. We all know her name, Eve and it's a name

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that's been much maligned throughout history because of this story . But what if we need a new story? What if the one we've been telling about? Eve is not the only story we can tell about our

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beginnings as people of faith. This text is included in the election erI only here, this first sunday in lent, right after ash Wednesday on year A And all these texts that we hear today are focused

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on sin because lint is when we charge our paths to the cross, acknowledging our sinful natures and our need for repentance and redemption. So the way we tell our story, the way we begin lent has

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been to tell the story of Eve and what has been labeled the fall that Ive eats the fruit, gives it to Adam who also eats and they commit the first sin against God. This story of Eve

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talking to the snake and eating the fruit from the tree. This single episode becomes the archetype for all future human sin. And it's a story that christians have used to connect Eve as the source of all

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of our problems. I can tell you about figures in history who have used this text and the name of Eve to justify domestic violence, but instead of historical figures, Let me give you one that's a

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bit more recent. Ive has made a cameo on Tiktok. For those of you that are unfamiliar. Tick tock is an app that allows people to post videos of less than 60 seconds long, typically set

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to music. I'm not a Tiktok user, but I was on the website checking out some of the videos the other day and one caught my eye was a video of a young man who was wearing a

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T shirt draped over his head to make him look like he himself was actually a girl. And there were words written at the top of the screen that said girls first day in heaven when she sees and

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then a blank and then the blank keeps having new words added and the person on the screen acts differently accordingly. So the first word to fill in the blank is a stranger and the girl waves and then

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the blank changes to the word her ex and she looks away embarrassed. Then the word that appears is Hitler with question marks following Hitler's name and the person's face is filled with shock and incredulity that Hitler would

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make an appearance in heaven. And then the last word to fill in the blank is Eve. In all of a sudden the person on screen turns aggressive and starts to pretend to beat someone up off screen

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throwing punches at an invisible person for supposedly quote funny short video. This action says a lot about how the creators of this video feel about the person of Eve, someone who is to blame for everything,

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someone so terrible that they want to be violent towards this person, Someone who elicits a stronger gut reaction than the person of Hitler. What does this say about how people continue to view Eve today? And

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what makes the story we tell about Eve so dangerous is that it is part of a holy book deemed sacred by millions of people and it forms part of an origin story, a story we tell to explain

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how we got to where we are today. We use the story of Eve to explain the origins of human sin. That's a lot for one story to carry and it's had devastating effects on women. The

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story of Eve has been used to justify domestic violence and allowing the ongoing oppression of women. It's a story used to justify keeping women out of church leadership even today. So what do we do with this

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story? How do we tend to Eve in women who have experienced violence both physically and psychically because of this story? Well, sometimes the best way to challenge the traditional reading of a story is to hear

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a different story south of here in the mountains of Guatemala and southern Mexico. The Mayan people have a book written down in a language unfamiliar to the Spanish when they came and tried to destroy all of the

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books of the Mayan people in the 1500s. But this book survived and it's called the po po view . In these pages, we can read of another creation story where the gods created animals and then humans

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using first mud and then would and finally corn to create humankind. But there's also a story about a woman. She is the daughter of the Lords of Hell and she is forbidden to go near a particular

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tree. Warned that she would die if she ever came near it. But of course this woman was curious because she noticed the tree had been barren and now it was full of fruit. So she said

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to herself, I cannot go without tasting one of these fruits. I'm sure I will not die. She was thinking this when a voice from the tree said, do you really want of this fruit with

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all of your heart? And she said, yes , I want it. And the voice told her , stretch out your hand. Now you may be thinking, I'm just re telling you the story of

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Eve. But I'm not. The woman in this story is named Z Quick. And the Voice from the trees, not a serpent, but a skull . A head from a slain hero that the lords

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of the Hell have placed in this tree. And it's that slain heroes head. Which invites her to extend her hand. And when she does, the skull spits into her hand. When she looks at

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her palm she saw nothing in it but the skull tells her the spittle I threw to you is the mark of my descent that I leave to you go walk up to tell you the earth and you will

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not die. The passage ends with these words. All this was accomplished by the order of huracan chip calcula and rocks a Calcutta who are the heart of heaven and she escapes to earth, where she bears

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twin boys who grow up to be heroes, men who slay the lords of hell and put an end to evil. Aren't these similarities marvelous Ive being told not to go near a tree, but does hears

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a voice speaking to her and stretches out her hand . Z Quick for big, forbidden to go near another tree even at the threat of death, but goes and here's a voice speaking to her and stretches

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out her hand and both women also had two boys . And yet that seems to be where the similarities end. Z. Quicks twin boys grow up to defeat the lords of Hell. Whereas Eve's son kills

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her other son and Z Quick seems to fade into the background of the Popol vuh, you never really focused on as a character again. But Ive, however, retains the spotlight as the villain in the

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christian story for millennia, Only to be saved by the birth of one who was conceived by a miraculous conception. A miraculous conception like the sons of C Quick. And yet rather than jesus's mother, mary

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and Eve being opposite mary, the woman who is the god bearer who submits to God's will. Compared to Eve, the original sinner who is charged with defying God's will. Nz Quick. They are the

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same person, the one who both defies the order of the Gods to not touch the tree is the same one who miraculously bares Children born to defeat the powers of hell. If Eve walked into the Popol

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vuh, Ooh, I imagine that she'd want to stay there to join with Z quick and learn from her about her struggles to leave hell so that she may bear her Children in a safe land. And

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as the inheritors of Eve's story, we are also invited to walk with the Quick and learn from her . If we better understand our similarities are connections to one another through our shared humanity. Maybe we could

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work harder now in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are still trying to escape the Lords of Hell , The Lords of Hell that rule in the name of racism, sexism, nationalism, and xenophobia.

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We may not be able to undo the damage of the telling of Eve's story has wrecked on the lives of so many. But maybe we can learn from one another's stories listening deeply to them and together chart

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a new story for redeeming the world we live in . Now. You know, there are Mayan people still struggling to get their Children to a safe place . Mayan people were among those most affected by the

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Guatemalan Civil War, a war propped up by the US. government. Over the course of 36 years , Mayan peoples were systematically targeted for violence, particularly against women. And although their civil war ended in

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1996, the people of Guatemala are still faced with the intergenerational trauma of war and genocide and organized crime continuing to create an atmosphere of terror. So many Mayan people are still trying to find their way out

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of hell at the US border. Many of those trying to seek refuge have been indigenous Mayans and because they do not speak spanish or english, they are especially disadvantaged interpreters trained in one of the many Mayan

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languages report that some Mayans have been separated from their Children at the border because border agents assumed they could speak spanish and many of them were deported or separated from their Children because they couldn't understand the questions on

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the forms given to them in spanish, the story of Z. Quick, bravely escaping hell has not protected women from the same violence inflicted upon women who have inherited the story of Eve and the story of

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her escape from hell may not ensure that her descendants are given an opportunity to escape their modern day experiences of hell. But maybe her example still offers hope and strength to women and men who continue to resist

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the lords of help. There may not be a story that we can tell that can undo the violence of history that we keep repeating. Whether we read the bible or the Popol view or rely on some

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other source for our sacred stories. Women and men continue to experience violence and perpetuate violence, and maybe that's the story that we need to remember that violence against one another is the origin of sin, not

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a mythic figure eating fruit from a tree we have in our bible. Another early story, of course , cain and Abel, in which CAin kills his own brother out of jealousy, and when God asks

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pain about Abel's whereabouts echoes this callous reply, Am I my brother's keeper? Perhaps this story rather than the story of Eve needs to take center place in our linton reflections on the origin of our sin as

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humanity. On a side note, did you know that the story of CAin and Abel is nowhere in the election erI So if your election, every preacher preacher, you'll never preach on CAin and Abel.

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But you know what? I am, my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, we are each other's keeper. Remembering this during the Lenten season , points us outward, not shamefully looking inward at

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ourselves as somehow marked by sin, because we have been labeled a sin because of our gender or sexuality or race or nationality, but looking outward at our brothers and sisters, who need us to respond to

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the violence in this world by being a safe haven for the eaves and the Z quicks and the Abeles of this world. Don't let the story of IV be the only origin story you tell, because it's

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not we have others to choose from. This doesn't mean that we have to let go of Eve's story , but it does mean that it's very important that we detach our understanding of sin from this one person

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, the person of Eve, and instead consider sin more broadly in terms of violence. If we just view sin as a woman going against God by eating a piece of fruit, we miss the larger picture

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of the christian tradition that shows that even our religion can get in our way of loving God. Our practices and beliefs can be ways that we deny the dignity and image of God in one another. And

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we can start to tell new stories about who we are and how we got here. We can stop blaming Eve for all the sin in the world. We can stop using this story to justify patriarchy abuse

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and misogyny. We can tell a new story that we are all in this together, that we all came from nothing as one human species, and we are all in this together trying to survive on this

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fragile planet. We need one another. We can tell the story of how we have all come from God. We will return to God and that we belong to God, all of us bearing God's image

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. So what story will you tell about why you are journeying to the cross this Lenten season, men