July 24, 2016
15 The Lord God
took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God
commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat of it you shall die.”
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any
other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God
say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said
to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 but God said,
‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the
garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” 4 But the serpent
said to the woman, “You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the
woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the
eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its
fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he
ate. 7 Then the eyes of
both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at
the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from
the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God
called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 He said, “I
heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself.” 11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten
from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12 The man said,
“The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I
ate.” 13 Then the Lord
God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The
serpent tricked me, and I ate.” 14 The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because
you have done this,
cursed are you
among all animals
and among all
wild creatures;
upon
your belly you shall go,
and dust you
shall eat
all the days of
your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your
offspring and hers;
he
will strike your head,
and you will
strike his heel.”
16 To the woman he said,
“I
will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;
in pain you
shall bring forth children,
yet
your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall
rule over you.”
17 And to the man he said,
“Because
you have listened to the voice of your wife,
and have eaten
of the tree
about
which I commanded you,
‘You shall not
eat of it,’
cursed
is the ground because of you;
in toil you
shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall
eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat
bread
until
you return to the ground,
for out of it
you were taken;
you
are dust,
and to dust you
shall return.”
20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all
living. 21 And the Lord God
made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord
God said, “See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and
now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat,
and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of
Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 God drove out
the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a
sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Sermon: “The
Divine No”
Jennifer was in the third
grade when her family moved. They
decided to enroll her in a local Christian school in her new town. The first day, she walked into the cafeteria
and saw a big bowl of fruit with an even bigger sign, saying, “Take only
one. God is watching.”
Next to the fruit was a plate
of cookies. And next to the cookies was
a sign a student had scrawled on a napkin: “Take as many as you want – God is
watching the fruit!”
Now doesn’t that remind you
of our story in Genesis? The story of
Eve and Adam is one of the oldest we have in our canon. It’s where we come from; who we are, for
better or worse.
The temptation part of this
story is rather clear:
God made all, and told Eve
and Adam to enjoy almost all.
Everything was good.
One tree was not for eating.
The snake tempted the man and
woman (not just the woman! The man was
with her the whole time, something we tend to forget.)
That temptation was to be as powerful as God and to
cheat death.
They ate.
Eve and Adam realized not
power, not life or wisdom, but nakedness, and this scared them.
God punished them.
And then God made them snazzy
organic clothes.
They were sent out from the
garden.
Sometimes this story is
talked about as “the Fall” (not the pumpkin spice latte kind) or “original
sin.” None of these words are in the
text itself, but the idea of going against God’s will is the main focus of it.
And so often this text is
used to talk about any number of sins or perceived sins. Of course, that’s a tricky business, because the original sin was human beings
trying to be like God. Putting
ourselves in the judgment seat, wanting to know good and evil, and wanting to
cheat death. This was, and is, our greatest
temptation. Unlike our Genesis
story, we don’t see it in the produce section of the grocery store, but we do
see it in many other forms.
When we pray for God to serve
our own needs, even if this means someone else suffering.
When we tell people
everything from a car accident to a good parking spot is “God’s will,” as if
we’re able to clearly speak for the Creator of all creation without pause.
When we claim spiritual
superiority over those who read scripture differently than us.
When we focus, not on the
plentiful blessings in this life, but on the one thing we can’t (and maybe
shouldn’t) have.
And sometimes, the God who
walked through the garden of Eden in the evening breeze, or through Phillips
Park in the morning breeze, says no to such things. That no, like the no to Eve and Adam, is
woven through with grace (God did clothe Eve and Adam to keep them from being
afraid and ashamed, and they did not die after all). But it
is still a no.
No, we cannot speak for the
God who made us – because that God is bigger than our hearts, minds and
opinions.
No, we cannot bend God to our
will to make us feel more spiritually, politically or financially validated.
No, we cannot give God’s
answers to things and events we do not understand.
No, we are not the center of
creation.
No.
The divine no is a blessing,
though that’s not always easy to see.
Because that no means admitting that there are things we’re not meant to
know (k-n-o-w).
Frederick Buechner captures
this well in his book, Whistling in the
Dark, writing:
When you
really know a person or a language or a job, the knowledge becomes part of who
you are. It gets into the bloodstream. That is presumably why the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil was the one tree Adam and Eve were warned to steer
clear of.
When in their
innocence they knew only good, they could be only good. As soon as they knew
evil too, a whole new glittering vista opened up before them. Next to obedience
appeared the possibility of disobedience; next to faithfulness, faithlessness;
next to love, lust; next to kindness, cruelty; and so on. Even when they chose
the good way, their knowledge of the evil way remained as a conscious and by no
means unattractive alternative, preventing them except on the rarest occasions
from being good wholeheartedly. And when they chose the evil way, their
knowledge of good tended to turn even the sweetness of forbidden fruit to ashes
in their mouths. Thus they became the hapless hybrids their descendants have
been ever since. It was the curse God had tried to spare them. The serpent did
its work well.
If the “Fall” or “Original Sin” was borne of knowledge we should
never have had, then repentance, grace and redemption lies in the opposite: in
those most faithful three words, words that scare us as much as Eve and Adam
were scared of their nakedness, “I don’t
know.”
Our prayers and our lives take a very different turn when we
embrace these words. Suddenly, we sit in
a hospital room with a ailing loved one and instead of saying, “It’s God’s
will, so have faith,” we say, “I don’t know why this happened, but I do know
you’re not alone. God is here, and so am
I.”
Suddenly, we hold our sacred text and our imperfect faith with
humility and seek the mystery of God, instead of the lesser god who validates
those opinions we already hold.
Suddenly, we no longer pray for God to place us and our loved
ones in the center of creation, but instead pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will
be done,” trusting that in all things, God is still good.
Suddenly, the church becomes a place for celebrating what we
know and even more, what we don’t, and trusting the One who is beyond our
knowing, but who came to us in a form we can grasp, Jesus Christ.
And then what becomes of the
church, of all of us children of Eve and Adam?
I’m delighted to say I don’t know.
But I can’t wait to find out.
Amen.
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