Isn’t it interesting that what makes Adam ashamed is his nakedness?

It has nothing to do with fig leaves or fashion. Adam is ashamed because he is vulnerable, exposed, unprotected. Adam is ashamed because he can be nothing but honest.

What a terrible place to be.

What a terrible place to be when all of society prescribes anything but honesty.

Be cool. Be in control. Be anything but open. Find something, anything, to cover up, to hide the naked truth.

Surely one of the greatest failures of the church is our unwillingness to be open and honest with either God or each other. So much of congregational life is based on pretense, on lies, on weaving new fig leaves. We dare not confess our need for each other. We dare not cry out our despair or our doubting for fear that others will think we don’t have it all together.

One of the greatest therapeutic discoveries of this century has been the realization that the best source of emotional healing is found not with the experts but with the experienced. Alcoholics Anonymous, cancer support groups, divorce recovery organizations, these are the places where real healing is taking place. It is not coincidental that these are the places of honesty, openness and vulnerability. These are Gardens of Eden and should serve as models for a, too often, dishonest church.