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Sunday February 21,
1999
Genesis 2:7-9; 15-17, 3:1-7
Paradise Lost and FoundFocus Text: "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." [Genesis 3:7]
Dr. Andrew Weil, wellness and alternative medicine guru as well as a Harvard M.D., wrote a runaway best selling book called, "Eight Weeks to Optimum Health." The second week of the program contains this advice, "Try a one-day "news fast." Do not read, watch or listen to any news for a day and see how you feel." ¹ By the fourth week, the "news fast" is extended to two days.
A genius you do not need to be to understand why. Read the headlines of national newspapers or listen to the first five minutes of national or local news and what do you hear? Murder, mayhem and madness! We read and listen and shake our heads saying something like, "What's this world coming to?" One of my favorite parishioners is fond of saying, "If you stand back and take a good look, this world is insane." He goes on, "We're all on this bus fleeing the asylum with Jack Nicholson in the driver's seat!"
National and international media may exacerbate the problem, but there is truth in what the media moguls like to say, "We don't make the news, we just report it." Of course, you and I know that this is not always the case -- yet there is no serious debate about the fact that the human spirit is seriously impaired. Harry Emerson Fosdick's hymn, "God of Grace and God of Glory," says it well:
"Cure thy children's warring madness, Bend our pride to thy control;
Shame our wanton, selfish gladness, Rich in things and poor in soul..."
It is no wonder then that countless people throughout history have looked around and asked something like, "Now how did this happen?" Have you ever looked up on a brilliant starlit night, or watched the splendor of a dazzling sunset and thought to yourself, "How can there be so much turmoil and violence and hatred in a wonderful beautiful creation like this?"
***
Our Lenten journey this year explores the theme: "Paradise Lost and Found". What happened to God's wonderful creation?
"Let's," as they say, "begin at the beginning." The beginning words of the bible say it best, "In the beginning God..." As you read the first paragraphs in Genesis about origins -- the crown of creation is a garden where God, a man and a woman are living in complete peace, harmony and intimacy. There is a sense of completeness in the closing words of the first chapter of the book of beginnings.
"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." (Genesis 1:31)
On other creation days, the scripture says, "And God saw that it was good..." But on this last day... the day when man and woman completed God's creative work, Genesis says, "It was very good."
Then a jolt! Our scripture reading today tells another story. Suddenly, in this amazing story, Paradise is lost. Innocence is gone. Instead of openness there is hiding. Full acceptance of the man and woman with each other is overwhelmed by suspicion. Immediacy of fellowship with God will become but a longing of the soul -- a memory not quite available to the conscious mind. From this point there will be a hunger of the spirit that is never quite fulfilled, a search that is never fully clear and a discontent that is never really resolved.
***
I do not remember the name of the comedian who told about the time he looked at himself in a full length mirror and noticed the midriff bulge that had him holding his breath and trying to tuck his tummy in enough to button his slacks. "Now how did this happen," he exclaimed. "It must have been the wedding reception last week!" (Right -- As though it had happened without warning from one big meal.)
In my mind's eye, I can picture the man and woman in our scripture -- otherwise known as Adam and Eve -- looking at each other in shock and exclaiming, "Now how did this happen!" As thought there had been no warning -- they are as children who are shocked by consequences that were spelled out for them.
There are three dimensions to this story of "Paradise Lost" that address our spiritual condition and help to set the scene for the redemptive and reconciling ministry of Jesus Christ. There is 1) The crisis in the garden, 2) The consequences of the actions of the man and woman and 3) The inner condition of humanity. In fact, what we will do is explore some new ways to think about what has historically been called "The Fall."
I. The Crisis
The Genesis story of what became of the perfection of the garden is one of the most powerful spiritual / emotional dramas in all of literature. It is rich with meaning beyond the surface elements of a man, a woman, and a divine prohibition. The "Godside" of the story is so very difficult to communicate. In fact, we likely can no more understand the divine perspective than a man can understand what it is like to go through labor and give birth to a child. (Trust me! I actually said to my wife as she was delivering our daughter and saying how it hurt... "I know honey." It did not take her long to inform me that I did not know!)
The classic descriptions of this account is that of a "set up" where the man and woman are given a prohibition and fail to "pass the test". In disobedience, they loose their innocence and their relationship with God. From this "humanside" understanding of the story, the focus is on the power of the temptation to break the prohibition.
The "Godside" is likely more of a parent who does everything to protect a child from the dangers of life and living, knowing that failures will come and pain will follow -- IF, they are to grant the child freedom to grow. God gives the man and woman freedom. As creatures with the divine image, they have freedom to explore life and living to the full. The difficulty in all of this is that the children are not completely able to handle everything that makes up the garden. Here's a way to think of God's warning:
"Don't try to get intimate (have knowledge of) good and evil. You aren't wired to handle it!"
In other words, it is not so much, "If you eat of that tree, I will punish you by expelling you from Paradise..." -- as it is, "The consequences of trying to handle intimacy with evil are powerful. You will loose your spiritual core. It will break my heart -- but your ability to choose to try to 'know'' evil will mean a loss of your relationship with me."
It's rather like the child who chooses to ignore the advice of a loving parent about drugs. They want to try it for themselves. Anyone who has been through the drug addiction of a child knows that addiction can destroy the relationship. Not because the parent is angry or harsh, but because that's what drugs do!
Is this a complete answer to understanding the crisis in the garden? Absolutely not! I hope it's a good clue, but the closest I can come to understanding is to look at my own parental relationship with my children when they get hurt because of bad choices.
II. The Consequences
Here are some very sad words: "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." (Gen.3:7) Can you hear the isolation, separation and loneliness?
"... the eyes of both were opened..." Do you know what the result of this is? The flip side of "their eyes were opened" is -- "and their spirits were closed." Now instead of the immediate communion they had with God there is a kind of homesickness within. The intimate relationship of the man and woman are replaced by shame, suspicion and blame. Instead of openness, they desire to hide. They feel a need to "cover" themselves. You and I call that "defense mechanisms". There is a homesickness that will pervade human lives after the crisis. You can hear that sense of homesickness in statements like, "I don't know what's wrong with me," or -- "I feel lost."
Contemporary physical, educational and social sciences focus on the fact that we are physical, emotional and intellectual beings. Our focus on -- indeed obsession with the physical is evident in most television commercials. (By the way -- is anybody here attracted by all those Bally Health Club ads? You know -- the ones with all the "perfect" specimens running, lifting and cycling? Believe me -- I am not the least bit tempted to join those folks in my "beachwear!)
The biblical view, however, is that above all things we are spiritual beings who were designed for a relationship with God. "...then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being." (Gen. 2:7) Apart from our spiritual nature we are "lifeless" in the deepest spiritual sense. In other words -- "If you attempt to have intimacy with (knowledge in the biblical sense) evil, you will die." Intimacy -- or knowledge of evil has "blown our circuits" in a spiritual sense because, although we are created in the image of God, we are not God. Thought we bear the divine image, we are not the Divine.
This leaves us in a state of needing redemption and reconciliation with God.
III. The Condition
We've pointed out that apart from God we are "lifeless." In one sense, Adam and Eve might have said, "Wow, the snake was right! We didn't die." In physical terms they did not die -- at least not right away. Spiritually, it's another story.
The crisis and the consequences in this story take up precious few paragraphs of the biblical drama. The condition -- namely our spiritual "deadness" takes up the remainder of the 700,000 plus words of holy writ! ²
If you have ever experienced a deep inner longing, but could not quite put your finger on what exactly the object of your longing was -- you have experienced the spiritual condition of humanity. It is a longing for that original intimacy with God and intimacy with each other that only God can give. It is the soul's "not quite conscious" memory of the way it should be.
It is amazing the lengths to which people will go to fulfill that inner hunger. Physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually we search and ingest and try to fill the void -- this God shaped blank as some have called it. And it's never enough -- never quite it.
We never have a clue until we turn our attention to our inner lives and our relationship with the One who made us. Our Lenten journey this year will take us through the various ways Jesus came to lead us home.
I can not promise that you will have all the answers at the end of this journey, but you will have some. You will likely not finish your spiritual journey, but you will be more fully equipped to continue the journey. You will not reach your spiritual destination, but you will know more certainly that you have a destination. I hope you will make the commitment to be here each week for another leg in the journey as we explore: Paradise - Lost and Found.
Amen.
¹ The book is published by Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, Jan. 1997. The program is outlined in abridged form on Weil's website. Interestingly, his program includes a strong emotional / spiritual component. [I've found some of his material personally helpful] Here's a link to the website: http://www.drweil.com
² Just an interesting bit of trivia. The Holy Bible contains just over 700,000 words. The IRS Tax Code has over 10 millions words.v. 2:7 nạphach naw-fakh' "Breathed" Literally is to blow hard... or to inflate. It is the infusion of the divine breath which gives life. Apart from that divine breath of life, we are dust. ("breath of life" = neshạmạh nesh-aw-maw' -- which used of God means inspiration / soul / spirit) To leave out or lose the spiritual dimension of who we are as human beings is to turn us into zombies. (Perhaps one of the things that accounts for some of the bizarre behavior in the world is that human beings apart from their spiritual / divine roots are actually bizarre creatures.)
v.2:8 "Eden" - the Hebrew root means "luxury" or "pleasure." In Isa 51:3, Ezek 36:35 and Joel 2:3 it is the symbol of the renewal of the land for God’s people. i.e. Eden is representative of the ideal environment for fulfillment of the divine design for our lives. Whether Eden, Israel for the O.T. or the New City of Revelation -- the key is intimacy in the relationship of God and the people of God. In Eden, God walked with the man and woman -- in Revelation, God dwells in the midst of his people.
v. 2:15 The purpose of humanity translates to intimacy or fellowship and partnership with God in the work of creation.
v. 3:1ff One of the tragic dimensions of this story is that the "crafty" (not simply a negative term -- but also "adroit with wisdom") serpent lures the woman and the man into wanting something they already have -- as though they could have more than their relationship with God. They have life and they are already "like God" in that they are created in the image of God. There is something subtle in the "never enough" syndrome which captures the spirit of so many. This mechanism / suspicion lies behind the sense some folk have of "not getting my due". Reference the story Jesus told of the man who hired workers to work in his vineyard throughout the day and then gave all the workers the same pay regardless of how many hours they had worked. God has already given the man and woman all they need -- it is not their "needs" but their "wants" the snake is angling for.
Temptation ~ Matthew 4:1-11
If you choose to deal with the Matthew passage on temptation, you can use the sermon on temptation based on the Lucan parallel from our archives.
The link is: "In The Thick Of Temptation"
Qualities of Christian Living ~ Romans 12: 12-19
The focus in this idea is to take the five positive qualities of verses 12-13, define them and include a note sheet in the bulletin to let folks rate themselves on a scale of 1-10. One means, "I need lots of work on this" and Ten means, "I've got this one nailed."
1. Rejoice
|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
To be filled with cheer and a happy, positive attitude -- trusting and
hopeful.
2. Patient
|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
To bear trials with patient endurance -- without complaining.
3. Persevere
|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|
[in prayer]
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
Consistently building your prayer life -- constant in praying for others.
4. Generous
|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|
1 2 3
4 5
6 7
8 9
10
The word "contribute" means to share generously with those in the
fellowship who have needs.
5. Hospitable
|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|____|
1 2
3 4
5 6
7 8
9 10
A consistent attitude of welcoming the stranger -- opening yourself and
your resources to others -- having God's "welcoming" spirit.
A Call To Worship (Psalm 32 adapted)
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, All you
People of God,
and shout for joy, because your heart seeks God.
Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
May all your people offer prayer and thanksgiving
to your Holy Name.
O Lord, you are a hiding place for us;
You help your people in times of trouble;
You cause our hearts to be filled with glad cries of
deliverance!
Amen.
A Prayer of Dedication
You have promised great joy and blessing, O Lord, to all
who open their hearts
to the needs of your children everywhere. The gifts we bring today are the tokens
of our desire to love and serve your Holy Name. O fill our hearts with the joy of
giving. Amen.