Self-examination is one of the pillars of Lent that I find to be often overlooked. Today’s lessons provide an opportunity to examine ourselves and our stories, the stories our ancestors told about themselves and that we continue to tell about ourselves. The stories about the genesis of humanity also allow us to reflect on the stories that have been told about God across the generations. The Genesis reading about boundary setting and boundary breaking is accompanied by a psalm  to a God whose faithfulness in and through nature endures even when humanity transgresses the limits set for us, a theme picked up by the epistle. The gospel evokes the garden imagery of Genesis and as a Lenten reading may be construed to call for self reflection and self examination before, and perhaps instead of, assessing others.