Sermon
6-10-18
Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our
Lord and savior Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, amen.
Families are complicated, aren’t they? And there is at
least one in every family who is always stirring things up, or just rocking the
boat by doing something unexpected. It’s sort of comforting to know that in HIS
family, Jesus was the “black sheep” … that even Jesus’ family was complicated.
One of the ways that we cope and explain our own families
is to tell stories about where we came from… Maybe that’s why we’re suddenly
obsessed with send-away genetic tests like “23 & ME” or from “Ancestry.com.”
We have always tried to answer questions like: “Why is my family this way?”
“Where did we come from and how does that effect who I am now?” And last but
not least… “Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons or not?”
Of course, I am referring to THE Story about the whole human family that we have all
heard at some point: the one from Genesis, about creation and the fall. It’s a
story worth hearing again in its entirety – since we only heard a small part
today - so I’m going to give you the cliff-notes/ twitter version. The story of
creation, first of all, is so epic that there is not just ONE version of the
story but TWO (You can look it up for yourself on Page 1 of your pew bible)…
and at the end of the second one,
God gave the man free reign of the Eden, but told him, “You can eat from any
tree in the garden, except for one. Don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, or you will die.”
Then Eve enters stage right, and all seems great… until
there is trouble in paradise. The snake convinces Eve to try the fruit from the
forbidden tree. Eve eats, then Adam eats. Their eyes were opened, and they knew
they were in big trouble.
Which is right where our story picks up for today, as
written in your bulletin. God goes for
the usual walk in the garden with Eve and Adam, but they hide from shame, and
God knows something is wrong. They point
fingers and try to pass the blame but God still lays out the results of their
actions: for the snake (No more legs), for Eve (pain in childbirth), and for Adam
(endless toil for survival) and eventually, death for all.
Let’s take a look at what is ACTUALLY IN this story… like
in our family histories, the retelling gets a little muddied over the years.
We’re going to play a short quiz game about the story, but don’t worry… I’m
going to make it easy. You don’t have to write down your answers and I’ll even
allow this to be “open book” if you want to open your pew Bibles to Genesis
chapter 3.
(I had this little quiz on a slide show, and I'll just share the questions with answers in bold:)
1 When did this story take place?
a.
6,000 years ago
b.
More than 10,000 years ago
c.
It doesn’t say, and it isn’t all that
important to the point of the story.
2
What is the serpent?
a.
Just a talking serpent
b.
Satan in a silly mustache
c.
Santa Claus
3
What kind of fruit did Eve eat from the tree?
a.
An apple
b.
A pomegranate
c.
No one knows!
4
Where was Adam when all this happened?
a.
In backyard mowing the lawn
b.
Taking a nap with a tiger
c.
Right there next to Eve
5
Who is at fault in this story?
a.
Eve
b.
Adam
c.
The serpent
d.
Everybody (including you and me)
Did any of those answers surprise you? I hope that they
did. Have any of you heart of the YouTube series “Adam ruins everything”? This
show closely examines things we take for granted… and in this case, in this
story, we might say this is the ORIGINAL “Adam ruins everything.” If you recall,
Adam was RIGHT THERE when all this went down, and, when God questions Adam
about what happened, he passes the blame onto Eve AND God, saying, “The woman
WHOM YOU GAVE ME, SHE gave me the fruit.” Like a little kid. Then Eve, in turn,
SHE TOO passes the blame to the snake, blaming it for tricking her…. And the
snake got the short end of the stick because there was no one else to blame.
 |
| From the Museum of Biblical Art |
Surely NO ONE HERE has EVER passed the blame when they’ve
done something wrong… I know, me neither! Haha, just kidding. In reality, this story, originally told thousands
of years ago in a distant country in an unfamiliar language… somehow THIS STORY
still tells OUR STORY. A story that tells us about who we are, where
we came from, and why we are the way we are.
Going back to what this story DOES and DOES NOT say… First, what this story DOES NOT SAY… it does
not say that Eve was a seductive temptress and therefore all women are
inherently more sinful than men. This story has been used and abused as a
reason to mistreat us and keep us from being taken seriously.
This story is not
a science textbook.
And this story is NOT a primer on WHO IS ALLOWED to get
married – if you will notice, no mention of vows, bridesmaids, a white dress,
cake, or the chicken dance is mentioned.
So then, what DOES the story tell us? This story tells us
about God, and it tells us about ourselves. Families are complicated. Life,
love, and relationships are messy and problematic and broken and full of
mistakes and blame. Sometimes we are passive like Adam, to stand by and watch
while objectionable things happen and do nothing to stop them. Sometimes we are
Eve - curious, testers of limitations and seekers of knowledge, risk takers,
who sometimes make HUGE goof-ups while daring to wrestle with hard choices.
This is a story about growing up, becoming an adult by
moving out from the perceived perfection and simplicity of Eden, to make
choices in a thorny and chaotic world. It’s the same story we tell ourselves in
just in a million different ways in almost every coming-of-age story.
In one of my favorite of these stories, Matilda by
Roald Dahl, the title character finds herself – as many child protagonists do –
gifted with special powers but thrust in a world where she is at the mercy of
the grownups. Like Eve, Matilda longs to have control over her life, and in themusical version, she and her friends imagine with one another how awesome it
will be once they are adults:
“When I grow up,” they sing, “ I will be smart enough to answer all the questions … and… I will eat
sweets everyday, and …. I will go to bed late every night… and … I will be
brave enough to fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each
night to be a grown up.”
But we all know, when you grow up…
sometimes the creatures under the bed still gets you know matter how brave you
are.
But fortunately for us, this story also tells us about
God. God, who hovered over the waters of creation at the very beginning… who
created all the land, water, animals, and us… is also the God who walked in the
garden with Eve and Adam, the first members of the Family of God. This is a God
who created US and who walks WITH US even when we would rather hide in shame
over the confusing mayhem we find ourselves in or have created for ourselves
and others.
Death and brokenness and sin may be the legacy our first “parents”
have passed on to us… but God does not leave us in this state. This may be the
origin story of our family, but it is not the end of the story. Adam may explain why we are the way we are, but
Jesus tells us a new story about who
we belong to and where we are headed.
We belong to a new family because of Jesus. A new family
where our siblings do not necessarily share our genes, but instead share our
passion for the gospel. A new family
where our siblings might not be related by blood, but instead united through
the blood of Jesus. A new family brought together not by the waters of our
mother’s womb but by the waters of our baptism and the promise of an empty
tomb.
And this is pretty much going to be the exact opposite of
the family interactions we are familiar with – not “family” as we are used to
with drama, disagreements, hurts, and grudges. This will be family as we are
meant to be – God’s Family.
Jesus calls this new family – still full of imperfections
–to be a new kind of kingdom, a kingdom where everyone is treated with fairness
and respect, where all feel safe, welcome, and valued, both within these walls
and without. Every Sunday, every day, every moment, is a “family reunion,”
minus the potato salad. Only – it’s a RE-UNION as “members of the Body of
Christ, part of one Family of God” as I begin the service every Sunday.
“Welcome. There is a place for you here….” …Right here, in God’s Family.
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