An Unfinished Story: The First Lesson

     I must first start with a disclaimer: this was not an original idea of mine.  "An Unfinished Story" is based off of a bulletin from a church service I attended in South Africa.  I will give credit to individuals throughout the series, but the bulletin is from St. Thomas' Anglican Church, Linden, from the 18th of December 2011 at 6:30 pm.  I edited to make it more modern.

The First Lesson: Humankind rebels and is separated from God

      When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
     He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”
     “Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?”
     The man replied, “It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it.”
     Then the Lord God asked the woman, “What have you done?”
“The serpent deceived me,” she replied. “That’s why I ate it.”

     Then the Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, you are cursed
    more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
    groveling in the dust as long as you live.
And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
    and you will strike his heel."

     Then he said to the woman,
“I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy,
    and in pain you will give birth.
And you will desire to control your husband,
    but he will rule over you.”

     And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
    whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
    All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
    though you will eat of its grains.
By the sweat of your brow
    will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
    from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
    and to dust you will return.”
(Genesis 3:8-19, New Living Translation (NLT))

Remember, O Thou Man 

by Thomas Ravenscroft, 1611

 Remember, O thou Man, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember, O thou Man, 

Thy time is spent. 

Remember, O thou Man, 

How thou camest to me then, 

And I did what I can. 

Therefore repent. 

 Remember Adam's fall, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember Adam's fall 

From Heaven to Hell. 

Remember Adam's fall, 

How we were condemned all 

To Hell perpetual, 

There for to dwell. 

 Remember God's goodness, 

O thou Man, O thou Man, 

Remember God's goodness 

And promise made. 

Remember God's goodness, 

How his only Son he sent 

Our sins for to redress. 

Be not afraid.