J: Do you remember a place called Eden?
C: Growing up in a context where the Bible was considered infallible, inspired, and fully authoritative, I remember beginning every Vacation Bible School (VBS) with the story found in Genesis. Where did you first come in contact with Eden?
J: I don’t feel like it has ever left us. I feel it in my fingertips. I know it in my soul. The entirety of my being yearns to return to a place called Eden. I think we all do. Why does it seem so far away?
C: Eden is here. This is God’s created world. Yet we continually attempt to locate Eden outside of who we are and what we have. I believe the magic of Eden lies in the mind as a state of being. Eden is the place where hearts and God are one. Fear distracts us from participating in God’s abundance. When we are one with God, love frees us into abundance. Why do you want to return?
J: We are already on the way. I believe Eden represents the queerest we can be both as individuals and the world. Eden is our home. Eden is the place where we and God are one. Our hearts will be restless until they rest in God…in that place called Eden. Why do you think we left?
C: We are cultured consumed, not by love for ourselves and others. We are consumed by the search for a safe God, a Santa-Clause-type God. A God that requires nothing yet gives everything we want. We are lost on the search, afraid of the God of Love that requires us to live bodly into our queerness. What is our hope?
J: Eden is our hope. The fullness of love and justice are there. The propensity for Eden is in each one of us. If we are to find it in our world we must first find it in ourselves. Do you think we can make it back there?
C: Jesus has showed us the way. We must courageously take the risk to follow.
J: Love is the way. Love is the Truth. Love is the light. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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