Zoom to Uganda with Friends of Sabina! The stars have aligned for our annual meetup with leaders of the nonprofit, Friends of Sabina  (FOS), which will be a completely virtual gathering on Tuesday, Aug. 5, from Noon to 2 p.m. In this case, the stars are the students at Sabina Boarding Primary School and four visitors from Christ Church. The Aribiah family is on a trip to Uganda, enabling Sonni, Teddy, Jonah, and Luke to see Sabina’s improvements in person. Much has changed since the Aribiahs’ previous visits, and we’re eager to hear about it. You’re invited to log into Zoom as your schedule permits; there will be a recording if you must miss a portion and want to catch up later. The Zoom link will be in tomorrow’s This week on Zoom  email. FOS operates the primary school and a nursery program that together enroll 424 students in Sanje, Uganda. FOS Co-Director Ann Marie Davis, who is on site, will lead an informative show-and-tell during the Zoom. She will be joined remotely by Co-Director Maria White and assisted in person by Sponsorship Coordinator Deborah Nakiduuli, Librarian Richard Tumusiime, and Administrator Moses Nsubuga. We’re anticipating another moving performance by the choir and keeping an eye out for sponsored students who remain at Sabina in primary grades: Roger, Herbert, Purity, Geofrey, Lydia and Sharon. Nearly a dozen parishioners at Christ Church began sponsoring individual students in 2020. A photo collage of seven of the youngsters, pictured at that point in time, appears on the FOS page  of the Christ Church website. By now, these students have completed primary grades at Sabina and enrolled in secondary schools. All of these deserving youngsters come from families who otherwise cannot afford their schooling, and sponsors commit to fund an annual scholarship and to keep in touch. One aim is to form relationships, like family across the miles. FOS helps accomplish that goal by encouraging an exchange of letters and occasional video calls. For information on becoming a sponsor, email outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org . Christ Church began supporting Sabina Primary School more than a decade ago by first establishing a library. Besides the Aribiahs, parishioners Steve and Linda Alpern and the late Charlie Hoke and Ellen Boudreau Hoke have traveled there. Consider making a future trip; you can inquire about it during the Q&A portion of next week’s Zoom meetup. Sabina’s library has become a resource not just for the school but for the surrounding community. The Outreach Commission at our May meeting approved donating $3,300 to FOS to pay the librarian’s salary, periodical subscriptions, and a portion of internet service. Funds come from the Vestry-approved, 2025 Outreach budget derived from your pledges and contributions. Thanks to all! FISH and CCC Combine Pantries, Making it Easier for You to Help People in Need by Donating Staples in a Shared Bin and by Volunteering for FISH Phone Duty Recently FISH  and  Columbia Community Care  (CCC) partnered to provide food services for Howard County residents. The two organizations have merged their food pantries. CCC will distribute food, including by home delivery, from the groups’ newly combined pantry. FISH will continue to supply the pantry by picking up donated goods from Christ Church and other cooperating churches, schools, and civic organizations. Keep putting non-perishable food and personal care products in the altar basket. Otherwise, there’s now just one convenient location for your donations: A bin just inside the Parish Hall. Look for a combo label “FISH/CCC”.  Please keep bringing baby wipes and diapers, especially sizes 5 and 6. These remain in great demand, according to CCC’s April Lee, manager of the combined pantry. CCC continues to distribute groceries, staples and baby supplies at three sites on Saturday mornings. For information go online to Get Help . FISH will continue to provide telephone support to Howard County residents to provide guidance and financial support because the personal touch is very important when people are in crisis. You could be the one to lend a helping hand, by lending an ear! FISH of Howard County needs phone volunteers to help our Howard County neighbors in need. You can help from your home by giving just one day a month to assisting those who could benefit from financial assistance from FISH. Training is provided. For more information, ask parishioner and FISH treasurer Andy DeLong or email him at andydelong.fish@gmail.com . Thank you always for your support and for welcoming FISH at Christ Church. Christ Church's LEMS Backpack Drive is Now Underway The students and families at Lake Elkhorn Middle School rely on us each year to help provide assistance with school the best prices. We will then load the supplies into 125 backpacks after the second worship service on Sunday, August 17th, so come downstairs, have a sandwich, and help fill them. If you can’t come that day, plan to visit New Brick on Friday, August 22, at 2:30 p.m. to help load the school supplies into cars and drive them to LEMS. That afternoon, they will have their Annual  Back to School Block Party , where families will register their children and enjoy a picnic from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. You are welcome to stay to help distribute the backpacks to those appreciative students and families. Please email us and let us know if you can come to either or both of these events by emailing Cathy Whittaker  LEMS@christchurchcolumbia.org . Each year, we ask for the congregation's support in providing these school supplies, and you always come through (thank you so much!). We don’t have a line in the church's annual budget for this, so we rely on and deeply appreciate your direct support. You can give to the LEMS campaign by writing a check to Christ Church with "LEMS" in the memo line, or you can give online at  https://onrealm.org/christchurchcolumbia/give/lems . Either way, your gifts are very much appreciated. In general, if you have suggestions about ways to help the community, if you want to get involved, or if you need assistance, please email Christ Church Outreach at outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org . Your help is greatly welcomed and appreciated. Thank you.

Pentecost VII 8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist in New Brick 10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist with music in New Brick Collect for Today: O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Today's Readings: Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm 85 Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19) Luke 11:1-13 Sermon for Today: Parishioner Jonathan Smith provides today's sermon, and you can view it in the livestream video below once the service starts. Holy Eucharist Livestream: Our service livestream begins at approximately 10:20 a.m. this Sunday. The service leaflet for this worship service is here .

God called Abram from the Ur of the Chaldeans and asked him to travel west to a place and land that God would show him. Abram gathered all that he had and departed. Strangely enough, Abram left behind all the gods that he had grown to know and worship. From that time, Abram decided to worship only one God. The call of Israel marked the introduction of monotheism. Beginning with Abraham, followed by Isaac, and then Jacob. For those of us who may not know, Jacob became Israel on the morning after a tussle with an unknown man. Jacob had held on to this unknown man, and when dawn was breaking and the man demanded that Jacob let him go, Jacob wouldn’t let go until the man blessed him. The man blessed Jacob and then changed his name from Jacob to Israel. Israel became the patriarch. And with his twelve sons, who later became the twelve tribes of Israel. One might wonder if Israel didn’t have daughters. He did - he had a daughter named Dinah. But because of the insidious nature of patriarchy, the girl seems to be missing from the picture. The sad part is that to this day, some do believe in patriarchy and the dehumanizing impact on women. Over time, eleven of the 12 sons migrated to Egypt, joining their brother whom they sold into slavery. These became the formative tribes of Israel. Like their ancestor Joseph, the descendants of these 12 sons became enslaved in Egypt. Even as enslaved, they knew they were people who were remarkably different from their enslavers, by one defining covenant established between God and Abraham - circumcision. But they didn’t know the God who first called their ancestor Abraham and promised to make his descendants great and mighty and as many as the stars and the sand at the shore. The call of Moses, through the miracle of the Burning Bush, established for the first time a direct link between the people of Israel and the God of their ancestors. Bear in mind that Moses didn’t know this God, but knew that he was not an Egyptian. The interaction between God and Moses led Moses down a different path - one from being a shepherd for his father-in-law, Jethro, to becoming the shepherd who led Israel out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Granted, he never reached the Promised Land himself; however, his leadership in managing the stiff-necked people from the beginning of his ministry to his death tells a story of a man who was deeply devoted to his people. As you may recall, one of the questions to the God who revealed himself to Moses, and one that still blows my mind, is this: if the people of Israel were to ask your name, what am I supposed to say to them? What is your name? These people don’t know you, nor do they know your name. You are a total stranger to them - tell me your name. And to this question, God responds with God’s name: ‘I am.’ I am who I will Be. With this revelation, Moses, armed to the teeth, hurries to Egypt and tells the people of Israel about their God, the God of their ancestors, and their God’s desire to deliver them from slavery. Through a series of plagues that sometimes appeared to be a competition between the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt, Moses secured the freedom of the people of Israel and led them out of the bondage of slavery. With haste, the children of Israel hurried to the River Nile, and there, with the pursuit of the Egyptians, they experienced another miracle of deliverance. With no real identity, a community begins to take shape as it moves toward freedom. An emerging community of believers begins to identify itself, and more profoundly, claims that up until then, no community had made such a claim - that God is one. And that God was so scared that we cannot fully mention God’s name - YHVH. One of the remarkable formative pieces was the Ten Commandments. This was a defining instrument that established the norms by which this emerging community of people would govern their relationship with God and with one another. By the time the people of Israel reached the promised land, it was a fully formed community - each tribe, with the exception of the tribe of Levi (who were the priestly tribe) was provided a piece of the land that was first promised to their ancestor Abram, and for which he set out from the Ur of the Chaldeans. In a sense, one could argue that the identity of the people of Israel was tied up in the land which was promised to them. There were significant challenges throughout the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. But it became more pronounced after Israel was settled on the land. Their actions singularly remind each of us that at our core, we still deal with the inordinate desires that make us all human. Israel’s greatest sin was idolatry or some might say, syncretism. Israel couldn’t restrain itself from worshipping other gods and copying the cultures of their neighbors. Israel couldn’t stay insular. Israel couldn’t look inward. They looked outward for all the wrong reasons, to the point where the Prophet Hosea referred to Israel as a harlot. Guided by the prophets, poets, writers, and sages, God always sought a way to remind Israel of Israel’s obligations, not only in respect to its relationship with God but with its neighbors. Israel consistently betrayed its relationship with God. God punished them. Israel was taken into exile. Their enemies defeated Israel. Israel was rescued. God showed mercy, again and again. Israel always seemed to get another chance to get it right with God. The question is, were there other people and tribes whom God could have chosen? Absolutely, yes. But God decided to choose Israel. Not because of their size, privilege, power, or anything mysterious, but simply because of God’s sovereign power to choose whomever God chooses to choose for mission. In Exodus 19:5-6: “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.” Israel was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation that would reveal God to all the nations of the world.  In Deuteronomy 7:6-8: “ For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors…” God makes the point that God chose Israel because of God’s love. In Isaiah 42:6: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.” Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles, to make known to the world the light that had been revealed to them, and in which all people ought to live.  In Isaiah 49:6: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Through Israel, God’s salvation would reach to the ends of the world.  Unfortunately, Israel forgot what Israel’s core mission was-to be the instrument through which God’s salvation could reach the ends of the world, to be a light through which the world might see the mercy, graciousness and goodness of God, to be a holy people who pull everyone toward the path of holiness and to be the ultimate example of God’s love in a broken world. Turn the page to Act 4... Jesus to the rescue.  Manny+ (I plan to devote each week to an Act, so be on the lookout for Act IV next week.)

This year, the Bishop of the Diocese of Maryland, Rt. Rev. Carrie Schofield-Broadbent, will visit Christ Church on Sunday, November 30th, and she will confirm all the Christ Church candidates who have completed the confirmation process. The Confirmation Classes will be hybrid (in person and online) and begin next Sunday, August 3rd, at 12:00 noon. Our high school students and any parishioners who desire to be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church should email Father Manny to express their interest - revmanny@christchurchcolumbia.org .

FISH and CCC Combine Pantries, Making it Easier for You to Help People in Need Recently FISH   and  Columbia Community Care  (CCC) have partnered to provide food services for Howard County residents. The two organizations have merged their food pantries. CCC will distribute food, including by home delivery, from the groups’ newly combined pantry. FISH will continue to supply the pantry by picking up donated goods from Christ Church and other cooperating churches, schools, and civic organizations.   Continue to place non-perishable food and personal care products in the altar basket. Elsewhere on campus, you can place items in the bin just inside the Parish Hall (main office) building door; look for the bin labelled “FISH/CCC.”    Please do continue to donate baby wipes and diapers, especially those in sizes 5 and 6. These remain in great demand, according to CCC’s April Lee, manager of the combined pantry. CCC continues to distribute groceries, staples, and baby supplies at three sites on Saturday mornings. For information, visit their site to Get Help .   The personal touch is crucial when people are in crisis, so FISH will continue to provide telephone support to Howard County residents. And you could be the one to lend a helping hand, doing so by lending an ear!   FISH of Howard County needs phone volunteers to assist our neighbors in need throughout Howard County. You can help from the comfort of your own home by dedicating just one day a month to assist those who could benefit from financial assistance from FISH. Training is provided. For more information, ask Christ Church parishioner and FISH treasurer Andy DeLong, or you can email him at andydelong.fish@gmail.com .  Thank you always for your support and for welcoming FISH at Christ Church. SLYC Invites Parishioners to Carpool to its Camp Imagination Showcase in Linthicum at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 31 On Sunday, July 13, we heard from Engagement Coordinator Darlene Clark of St. Luke’s Youth Center ( SLYC ), who described how much its young people enjoy Camp Imagination . Once again this summer, the day camp is being held at a cooperating parish in Linthicum, MD. And once again, we are invited to   St. John Lutheran (& Episcopal) Church , 300 Maple Ave., Linthicum, Md., to see youth perform in the camp showcase at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 31. For carpool information, you can email outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org .   SLYC is  a collaborative of West Baltimore families who together provide youth with life-enriching experiences. It is also in the midst of a campaign to re-envision the historic St. Luke’s Clergy House with the help of a plan by Episcopal Housing Corp . In addition to summer camp, SLYC offers programs  such as “SLYC After School” and “Moms on a Mission.” Please consider volunteering in West Baltimore at SLYC’s partner church when the school year resumes. To view Clark’s remarks during the 10:30 worship service, go to Pentecost V: July 13, 2025  on the Christ Church YouTube channel. The SLYC portion can be seen from 1:03:30 to 1:10:06 in the video. Christ Church's LEMS Backpack Drive Will Soon Be Underway The students and families at Lake Elkhorn Middle School rely on us each year to help provide assistance with school supplies. We have just received a list of the most frequently used school items and are now ordering them in bulk to secure the best prices. We will then load the supplies into 125 backpacks after the second worship service on Sunday, August 17th, so come downstairs, have a sandwich, and help fill them. If you can’t come that day, plan to visit New Brick on Friday, August 22, at 2:30 p.m. to help load the school supplies into cars and drive them to LEMS. That afternoon, they will have their Annual Back to School Block Party , where families will register their children and enjoy a picnic from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. You are welcome to stay to help distribute the backpacks to those appreciative students and families. Please email us and let us know if you can come to either or both of these events by emailing Cathy Whittaker LEMS@christchurchcolumbia.org . Each year, we ask for the congregation's support in providing these school supplies, and you always come through (thank you so much!). We don’t have a line in the church's annual budget for this, so we rely on and deeply appreciate your direct support. You can give to the LEMS campaign by writing a check to Christ Church with "LEMS" in the memo line, or you can give online at  https://onrealm.org/christchurchcolumbia/give/lems . Either way, your gifts are very much appreciated. Somos Amigos Patient Euclides Continues His Recovery after Cancer Surgery, Expresses Gratitude for Help from Fund for Referrals Care  When   Somos Amigos Medical Missions  alerted Christ Church and other supporters in May that its staff member and patient, Euclides, had been diagnosed with colon cancer, we donated to a fund for referrals’ care so that he could be treated by specialists.   In mid-July we got the latest update from Somos Amigos Executive Director and CEO Frank Brightwell on Euclides’ recovery after colon cancer surgery. The father of six receives oral chemotherapy and radiation treatments while staying with his mother at her home. “A  recent message from his physician regarding his condition and prognosis sounded very positive, but his recuperation will continue for some time,” Brightwell said.   “I wish you could experience first-hand the gratitude expressed by Euclides, his mom, his son Johan (who is working with us at the clinic this week), and the rest of his family. They know his future could have taken a much darker path, and they know you helped save his life. How can that be captured in words? They try, and they ask me to pass it along. Thank you again.”   Somos Amigos holds clinics quarterly in Naranjito, Dominican Republic. The next clinics occur Oct. 11-18 and Jan. 10-17, 2026. Go here  for volunteer information.   The Outreach Commission approved $1,000 in donations to Somos Amigos for patients’ referrals, as described in the Outreach Blog of May 1, 2025  and the Outreach Blog of May 29, 2025 . The funds go toward specialty care such as surgeries, colonoscopies, mammograms, and cataract removal. These are Vestry-approved Outreach budget funds derived from contributions to Christ Church. Thank you! In general, if you have suggestions about ways to help the community, if you want to get involved, or if you need assistance, please email Christ Church Outreach at outreach@christchurchcolumbia.org . Your help is greatly welcomed and appreciated. Thank you.

We are pleased to welcome a new staff member at Christ Church - Diya Jackson. Diya will be our Office & Youth Ministry Assistant, so when you hear a fresh voice answering our phones or a new person walking around the office, please be sure to say, "Hi!" Diya will begin her new position later this month, and we are looking forward to having her on staff!

The MOCC has initiated a monthly dinner gathering at restaurants around Columbia, and everyone is encouraged to join us for this fellowship opportunity. The July dinner takes place this Friday at Red Robin at 6:30 p.m., and whether you've gathered before or this is your first time, you'll be met with wide smiles and open arms. More information is on the graphic, or you can email MOCC@christchurchcolumbia.org   #fellowship   #FellowshipAndFun   #fellowshipfriday   #dinnerevent   #hocomd   #columbiamd

Christ Church's Inreach Ministry focuses on strengthening our community by providing personalized services that nurture and care for Christ Church parishioners in need. From wellness checks, meal delivery, transportation arrangements, and other services, Inreach can help coordinate the assistance that best helps connect parishioners to make life more manageable. Visit our website for more details, forms, and contact info - https://www.christchurchcolumbia.org/inreach   #inReach   #inreach_health   #ministry   #ministrymatters   #episcomd   #dioceseofmarylandisacommunityoflove   #christchurchcolumbia

Sign Up for Toby’s Dinner Theater! The WOCC and guests will attend "Saturday Night Fever" at Toby’s Dinner Theater on Friday, September 5th, at 6:00 p.m.  Friends and families are all welcome to join in the fun, food, and music, but act now - the deadline to sign up and pay is Sunday, August 3rd. Sign up in the Narthex, or talk to any WOCC member. For payment, make checks payable to Christ Episcopal Church ( WOCC Toby’s in the memo line) or pay via Realm (select the WOCC fund and write Toby's in the memo line). We’ve got a discounted group rate of $79 for adults and $74 for children (5-12). See you there! And don't forget about our other upcoming events - we'll have our next WOCC meeting on Tuesday, September 2nd at 7:30 p.m. in the Great Hall and on Zoom (details coming later this summer), and we have the Community Flea Market and Craft Fair on Saturday, September 20th - our largest fundraiser of the year. Gather with us for both!

Pentecost VI 8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist in New Brick 10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist with music in New Brick Collect for Today: Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Today's Readings: Genesis 18:1-10a Psalm 15 Colossians 1:15-28 Luke 10:38-42 Sermon for Today: Seminarian Michael Looney from the Center for Spiritual Nourishment provides today's sermon, and you can view it in the livestream video below once the service starts. Holy Eucharist Livestream: Our service livestream begins at approximately 10:20 a.m. this Sunday. The service leaflet for this worship service is here .

The next big thing is the Fall . I have thought about why the use of that phrase. I think the phrase is interesting because it tells of how the cracks began to emerge. Act 2 of a play is when complications are introduced, and tensions begin to arise. The Fall introduces us to the tensions that have begun to emerge as a result of Adam and Eve's disobedience. Here’s a thought about the Fall, or falling: to fall means one may have been standing or on an elevated plane and, without any control, move downward, sometimes hurting themselves in the process. This explanation means that someone who is already down cannot fall. One must be in an elevated position before one can fall. Figuratively, as we have come to understand the events in the Garden of Eden, to fall means losing a position of power, authority, influence, or relationship. And so, when I think, or we talk, about the Fall, we are talking about losing the blessing of a continued relationship with God. When we talk about the Fall, we refer to the loss of our privileged position with God. And the devastating nature of this loss has been that all through salvation history, God has been about the business of restoring the life and vibrancy of the relationship God once had with us. The story of the Fall is unique in many ways because it seeks to explain the chasm between God and humans. For the writer of the story, the divine captures all of human imagination and consciousness. The divine is the source from which everything flows, from which life itself flows. And so, if there is a chasm, then the question is why? What happened? What at all caused the separation between God and humanity? The fact of the matter is that we don’t see the chasm only in the Genesis story. All traditional societies are awash with different narratives that explain the chasm between the divine and humans. African traditional religion has many stories, but my favorite tells of how God lived in the clouds and was so close to humans. At that time, the clouds were so low that even a kid could lift his or her hand and touch the clouds. Bear in mind that touching the clouds meant touching God. However, the proximity of God to humans gave room for people to taint God. God is clean, God is holy, but people simply lifted their hands and cleaned them in the clouds, thereby smearing God with dirt. This particular act made God dirty, and so out of frustration, God pulled away from humans. That, to the African, explains why the clouds are so far away from us that we cannot touch them. This story is similar to the Genesis narrative, not in content but in its overarching goal of explaining to us why there’s a chasm between humans and the divine. A critical element of the stories about the separation between God and humans is that the cause of the breakdown has never been pinned on God but on the inordinate desire that rests in each of us. It is that desire that makes us want to be like the God through whom life flows. It is that desire through which our egos are massaged. It is that desire that makes us want to feel superior to others. It is that desire that drives us to the point of even killing others to make us look good. St. Augustine referred to this inordinate desire as the Original Sin . The theory about Original Sin isn’t about what you have done or what you have left undone. It is about the fact that within each of us lies the proclivity to sin. Within each of us is that inordinate desire. That is what human nature is filled with: desires that can be very destructive. Psalm 51 echoes this sentiment when David is heard saying, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” This is a profound admission that we are sinners even at conception. How could we possibly accuse a fetus at conception that it is conceived out of sin? It doesn’t make sense. But the reality is that that fetus, even at conception, is guilty of the inordinate desire that is alive in every single human being. In his letter to the Romans, Paul also argues that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Paul doesn’t say some, but all. And that includes even children, because they, too, like you and me, are guilty of that same inordinate desire which makes us sin. In the story of the fall, the Serpent goes to Eve and poses this question: “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Eve answers, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” The Serpent responds, “You will not certainly die.” The Serpent goes on to say, “For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Having then proven to Eve that God was not to be trusted to be honest, Eve disobeys God’s command, picks the fruit from the tree, eats of the fruit, and then gives some to Adam, who also eats of it. Both Adam and Eve disobey God’s command. The story does three things for me: first, God establishes human freedom, but God also limits human freedom. The point is, freedom without any limit is no freedom at all. True freedom comes with the ability to make choices, some of which can be detrimental to us. Second, the Serpent only gained access to Eve’s psyche by sowing doubts in her about what God had said. The Serpent presents God as a liar and one not to be trusted. And much as Adam and Eve bought into the narrative about God, so do we buy into that narrative because we want to do what we want to do without any recourse to what God has asked of us. Third, the story of the Fall is a stark reminder that no one is perfect. We are not perfect; we aspire to perfection, but we are not. And that reality should help us be gracious to ourselves and others. It isn’t the case that there was something wrong with us when we were created, far from that. Rather, it is the case that we are so much into ourselves that we miss the abundant beauty that is outside of us. For me, the critical question about the Fall is, who do I want to be? Do I want to be God, or do I want to be like God? If the underlying theory of the fall is the kind of pride that is rooted in the desire to be superior, then indeed, Adam and Eve wanted to be like God. I appreciate that we are created in the image of God, and much as I wish I were close enough to God, I know I cannot be like God, nor do I want to be God. To be God is to be perfect. To be God is to be authentic. And I am nowhere near that. Here is the truth about each of us: no one is authentic because to be a human being is to be an actor. Each of us is wearing a mask, and with that, we create the effect of authenticity. Even children learn how to act on the stage. We learn how to please people. We learn how to make people like us. We learn how to say the right things so that no one gets offended. We learn how to do the right things when everyone is watching. In fact, the person who is being authentic is actually playing that part of being authentic. Due to the lack of authenticity, it is no wonder that Act 2 not only introduces us to complications, but tensions between God and humans also begin to arise. Turn the page to Act 3...  Manny+ (I plan to devote each week to an Act, so be on the lookout for Act III next week.)