SETTING THE CONTEXT

When we preach we usually try to have at least one Scripture include a Gospel lesson that is a story about Jesus from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Then we will often use one other Scripture usually from the writings of the apostle Paul and sometimes from the Old Testament or the other books of the Bible. What we realized was there are some wonderful and some very challenging stories in the Old Testament that we never have taken the time to reflect upon in worship. They are a part of our story, a part of our history. We decided to spend time with a few of those stories and begin a new sermon series called CSI (Christian Story Investigators). Over the next six weeks George and I will be using some of our best detective skills and tools to wrestle with these stories from our past. The first story I will investigate has attracted a great deal of attention over the years. There have been many arguments if this is a science or wisdom story, I ask you to set that aside for a moment. We can all agree that it was placed in our Scripture to instruct us and so let us agree to allow it to speak to us again as we investigate it together.

THE SERMON

          To start, we have to go back to the beginning of the story. “In the beginning when God created” that is how the whole story begins. I’m talking about the whole story; those are the first words of the Bible. And this story is lovely to read. In the beginning God said and there was. God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.” This part of the story is exciting; it is full of wonder, majesty, awe and beauty. God speaks and creates day and night, earth and sky, seas and dry land and after each wonder is created God looks over it and proclaims it is good. Oh, and as I read this part of the story I had to do it, I ran out and got a nice ripe peach and as I read “Then God said, Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and fruit trees of every kind bearing fruit,” I bit into that peach and I could taste the goodness of the Lord’s creation. The story went on in this way and the feeling is “Wow!” In the beginning, man gave every creature its name, there was harmony and intimacy in the story; God’s creation was original blessing. With this first part of the story firmly planted in mind, now we come to the story for today.

Let’s begin by looking at the 1^st two verses. Read Verses 1 - 2 Notice that the serpent was one of the animals made by God and in the story there is no distress between the serpent, the woman, and the silent man; the conversation is presented as nothing unusual. There is a word play in the Hebrew words in the introduction of the serpent and the verse before it; the two words are “more crafty” (ārum) and “naked” (ărummîm) from “And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.” (Genesis 2:25.) Scholar Terence Fretheim suggests that this word play is to say that human beings may be exposed at times to shrewd or crafty elements in the world.ⁱ The serpent asks a question that seems harmless, “Did God say you can’t eat from any tree in the garden?” This innocent sounding question opens up a dialogue which allows the serpent to present options to the human beings, some of which could turn them away from God.

Read Verses 2 - 5

So now we have the conversation between the serpent and the woman. She repeats what God told Adam that they can eat fruit from any tree except one. She clearly knows and understands the prohibition. She added, though, not touching the tree of knowledge, God did not say that in the prohibition in Gen 2:17. Perhaps that addition comes because of the fear of death. It is at this point that the serpent works. The words are true, but the spirit is deceptive. The serpent says, “You will not die (and we know that they did not die) for God knows (here is where the serpent places that seed of doubt, the insinuation is that God is being self-serving in hiding the knowledge from them, that God is somehow placing God’s self-interest above their interests) God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Here is a crucial point in the story, will the first woman and man trust God? Writer Scott Peck said this is where Eve and Adam made their mistake. Can anyone tell me what would have changed everything? I wonder what would have happened if Eve or Adam had just said, “hold on a minute, while I call out to God and ask about it”. Peck said the first sin came from not communicating with God. Isn’t that where so much of our separation comes from? Isn’t that where so much of our misunderstanding, our hurt, our broken relationships with the ones we love come from? Doesn’t it often start with miscommunication or a lack of communication? Right here at the beginning of our story, we see the trap of, first, one who craftily deceives us by placing a seed of doubt, holding to the facts, but distorting the spirit and we believe them. But second, we have to accept our part in walking into this trap and closing the door by not checking back with our beloved to find the truth. How many times has that trap been sprung over the course of history! So why don’t we ever learn?

Read Verses 6 - 8

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, looked good & made one wise, she took its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. The man doesn’t resist at all, he doesn’t ask any questions nor does he challenge his wife’s actions. They will stand together “as one flesh.” Then their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together. And artists for the next 2 millennia had great fun portraying them. The distortion of the serpent has set before the humans a destiny not envisioned by the Lord of creation. In the previous chapters, we heard how God created this marvelous creation. In chapter 2 is a second account describing the Garden of Eden. Here God puts Adam in the midst of the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it and they were naked and not ashamed, but now there is a disruption for they know shame. Scholar Walter Brueggemann said that earlier before our part of the story began the humans relationship with God was characterized by vocation (caretaking the garden), permission (which plants they could eat for food), and prohibition (the tree they couldn’t eat from). Now that relationship had shifted to include self-interest and preservation, there was no energy left for vocation, the permission was perverted and the prohibition violated.ⁱⁱ The knowledge of good and evil took away their innocence. Part of CSI (Christian Story Investigation) is to ask questions that are for imagining, not for right and wrong answers, “wondering questions” like we ask in Godly Play; this leads to a very interesting thought. I wonder what our world would be like if human beings had remained innocent, if they never received the knowledge of good and evil? I wonder what the world would be like if humans could do neither evil nor great good? The words of the crafty serpent put the creative word of God at risk giving humans something they were not intended to have. As the story unfolds it leaves us with the question, how will God react?

Read Verses 8-13

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. This marvelous story of creation that began with those feelings of awe, majesty, wonder, joy takes a turn here in this story to suspicion, and now shame and estrangement. This is where the first separation between humans and God, the first sin is described. It makes you want to cry, doesn’t it? The intimacy between God and human beings, an intimacy, I believe we long for, has been ruptured. So when the Lord God confronts the guilty man and woman what do they do? They try pass to the blame. But the Lord God called to the man, Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman, she made me do it.’ The woman said, ‘The serpent made me do it.’ Their focus continues to be self-interest and self-preservation. We’ve gotten that blame game down very well by now, don’t we? It sounds just as weak and just as unconvincing an excuse now, I’d guess as it does in the story, too. The blame game takes you no where. I wonder how the story might have been different if Eve had jumped up and said, “Lord I really messed up. I ate from that tree and I am truly sorry. Will you forgive me?” I wonder how the story might be different?

The verses of the story that I left out were the particulars of the punishment. This story that began in trust and obedience has now become a story about crime (violating prohibitions) and punishment.

Read Verses 20 - 24

The amazing part of this story is that God did not carry out the punishment, the first humans did not die, and in fact the Lord clothed them. My Bible professor used to say always ask “what does this passage say about God” first and then ask “what does this passage say about us (humanity)” second. We see the grace of God portrayed even from the beginning. But there are consequences to the choices Adam and Eve made and they are driven out of the Garden for creatures including humans are made to live and die. The story ends in alienation; the first humans are alienated from God, yet God will continue to care for them. This promise is very visible and continues to run through the Old Testament. I realize that there is controversy about whether this is science or wisdom story and I asked you to set that aside. I ask you to consider does this sound like a science report? Does is contain measurements and hypotheses? Or does it teach us about something impossible to measure and outside the scope of science? Does it teach us about the relationship between God and humanity, a relationship characterized by humanity’s misguided selfish choices and the first sin; a story we know that has been repeated over the course of human history again and again. Does it teach us about an idea that is almost impossible to grasp, a creative God who withholds the punishment that is due, but who offers loving care while the rebellious humans suffer the consequences of their sin, a loving God who helps them to bear and overcome the sin they freely chose? What does this story say about God? What does this story say about us? Until next week... Amen.

Sermon delivered by Rev. Nancy Cushman on July 11, 2010.