SinandSacrifice
Genesis 3: Sin and Sacrifice
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The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil."
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The Christian Gospel says that God Almighty came in human flesh to lay down Life, that we might have Abundant Life.
The book of Genesis says the same thing. When Humanity broke covenant, God Almighty made sacrifice to cover their nakedness and restore them.
In the 1500's the missionaries asked Native people to tell them their sacred stories. The particulars vary from tribe to tribe, but the story of First Mother--Selu,--Corn Mother, says that in the beginning Selu gave her life that people might have life. Every meal involved Corn, and Corn was the gift of Selu's body.
The missionaries were shocked. "Oh, you poor cannibalistic savages," they said. In the 20th century, the anthropologists came. "Tell us your ancient stories," they said. So once again, Native people told them about Selu laying down her life for her children. The social scientists were shocked. "Oh, you poor pitiful people! You have been so influenced by the Christian Gospel that you are now telling it as your own story."
Neither the evangelists nor the anthropologists understood. The cosmos is designed to reveal how God gives Life that we might have Life, and have it more abundantly.
You are here today because Life has been laid down for you. Christians call that gift "Eucharist." Native people call it "Selu." That gift is given that you might have unlimited, unfathomable, eternal life.

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