‘Can I, can I, can I….’ If you are a parent or spent any time around kids, you have been through this phase with your children.  It seems from our youngest days we are hardwired to seek and test the boundaries of what we can and can’t do; it’s how we learn and grow and how we also get into trouble.  It also happens to be the central question behind today’s readings and, not coincidentally a key aspect of our communication as children with our Heavenly Father. ‘Can I, can I, can I,’ and then on top of that add 610 more ‘Can I’s’ and you will have the 613 ‘Can I’s’ asked and answered by God the Father for his children in the Old Testament.  There are 613 laws comprising the Old Testament law governing every aspect of life.  Can I eat this? Can I wear that? Can we plant this? Can we sell that?

We tend to shrug off the Old Testament as dark age writings that we have superseded as modern Christians.  If we do, we are dead wrong.  The question of ‘Can I’ was and always will be the central question of our human experience; that’s why it was the first question of Adam & Eve, having nothing to do with apples and everything to do with life. Can we have all this God? Can we own it? Can we defend it? Can we destroy it? Can we rule over it like gods?  ‘Can I’ always has and always will be our blessing and our curse, the question which structures our society and highlights its fatal flaws.  Two big and complex ‘Can I’ questions came up in American civil life just this weekend.