Clayton Presbyterian Church
November 19, 2006
Better Late Than Never
I need to begin this morning with something of an apology. I am beginning this sermon series late. It is already the second week in November and so I am sure that many of you are asking, “Why hasn’t Monte begun his Christmas sermons series yet? Doesn’t he know that there are only 35 days until Christmas left?!” I am not sure why I am so late since the stores have set out their Christmas merchandise a month ago and the Food Lion near our house already has Christmas trees available. (Although I can’t help but wonder how in 35 days they can be anything short of a huge fire hazard.) Well, I am remedying the situation today. I am beginning the sermon series that will take us up through Christmas. It is better late than never I hope.
With 35 shopping days left we are waiting for and anticipating Christmas. We are also doing this in a theological sense, we are looking to the coming of Christ, which we celebrate at Christmas.
The Israelites in the Old Testament were also looking for and anticipating the coming of Christ. How did they know that Christ was coming? Because throughout the Old Testament, which was their Bible, there were promises. In their darkest hours, at times when they are messed up the worst, when they had no hope, God would give them a promise. He would give them hope. When times were good they might forget the promises that he had made. But when things grew dark, they would dusk off those promises and remember what he had said that he was going to do for them. Perhaps you are in a dark place this morning, maybe you are without hope. God has a promise for you. We are going to look at the first promise this morning.
Scripture: Genesis 3:1-15
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 He 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." (NRSV)
My Story
This is such an amazing story. It is the story of Adam and Eve. It is also the story of every one of us. God has created us to live with him and to live by the words that he gives us. But we question those words. We question whether what he said is what he really meant.
The story opens with the serpent questioning Eve about what God has said. He had planted the thought in her head. “What if…?” And once she lets the thought take root, things go downhill from there. No longer does she see the tree as that to which God has said, “No.” Now, she sees that it has fruit which would make a good meal. And the text says that it became on object of her desire. She hardly noticed it before, but now she can’t help but look at it. And so, she picked one. I can just imagine her saying, “I have it here in my hand and nothing happened. It’s only fruit. It’s not that big of a deal and it looks so good!” And she opens up and takes a bite.
I have to tell you, this sounds very much like my story. There have been things in my life that day after day I did not pay attention to. Then, something makes me notice them. From that moment, I don’t just notice them, I want them. I have to have them. I think, “If I could just get them, that would be the road to a more contented life.” It seems like it all started when I would flip through the J.C. Penny’s catalog in the weeks leading up to Christmas, just wanting to find things that I couldn’t live without.
In our materialistic society, we all seem to have a love affair with stuff. We think that more stuff will make us happy. But that is surely the beginning and not the end. There is no end to the things that we desire, that we are sure will make us wise. We all have behaviors in our lives that we have relied on to get what we want in life. Some of us lie with great ease. Others manipulate those around them with their emotions or with guilt. Others give too much of themselves to others thinking that it will make things better. Or, as has been in the news recently, parents try to live out the things that didn’t turn out right in their lives by living through their kids activities and finding their own significance in their kids accomplishments.
None of these things is God’s plan for our lives. And yet, we pursue them anyway. We might think that we can get away from them, but we return to them again and again. Why? Because the power of sin, or, we could say that it is the sin of power and significance. It happens whenever we try to get power or relationships or significance our way and in our time, instead of God’s.
The Lord of the Rings: The Struggle to Give Up Sin
In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, author J. R. R. Tolkien portrays the classic conflict between good and evil set in a mythical land called Middle Earth. After a great battle in ancient times, the Dark Lord Sauron was temporarily defeated and his most dreaded weapon, the Ring of Power, was lost for many ages.
A Hobbit from the Shire named Bilbo Baggins finds the ring and, unaware of its true identity, passes it on to his nephew, Frodo, as part of an inheritance. Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), the hero, is full of humility and uncertainty as he embarks on an epic quest to destroy the Dark Lord's most powerful tool—the Ring.
In one scene, Bilbo converses with his wise and trusted friend Gandalf about departing on a long journey and leaving his inheritance behind for Frodo. The Ring is part of that inheritance, and ever so subtly the Ring begins to exert itself on Biblo, as it does with everyone who comes near it.
As Gandalf encourages Bilbo to leave behind the Ring, Bilbo grasps it and clamors, "It's mine! My own! My precious. What business is it of yours what I do with my own affairs?"
Bilbo casts a suspicious eye on Gandalf and accuses, "You want it for yourself!"
Firmly, Gandalf responds, "Bilbo Baggins, do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks. I'm not trying to rob you. I am trying to help you. All your long years we've been friends. Trust me, as you once did. Let it go."
Gradually Bilbo's defiance fades, and he embraces Gandalf, saying, "You're right Gandalf, the Ring must go."
Bilbo had Gandolf and it is good that he did, otherwise he probably would have given in to the lure of the ring. That is what Eve did. And having given in and eaten it, she also did what so many of us do, that is, we try to get others to do it with us. She gives the apple to Adam, who was with her. And their eyes were opened, as the serpent promised. Only they weren’t given knowledge and enlightenment about the world, they came to see that they were naked. They gained the experience of what it is like to sin, to disobey God, to revolt against his rule. They experienced shame for the first time, and we all know how bad that feels.
Hiding from Shame
You know when you do something wrong, that you know is wrong, you don’t really want to meet anyone else. You just want to hid.
Dallas Willard writes about a 2-and-a-half-year-old girl in her backyard who one day discovered the secret to making mud (which she called "warm chocolate"). Her grandmother had been reading and was facing away from the action, but after cleaning up what was to her a mess, she told little Larissa not to make any more chocolate and turned her chair around so as to be facing her granddaughter.
The little girl soon resumed her "warm chocolate" routine, with one request posed as sweetly as a 2-and-a-half-year-old can make it: "Don't look at me, Nana. Okay?" Nana (being a little co-dependent) of course agreed.
Larissa continued to manufacture warm chocolate. Three times she said, as she continued her work, "Don't look at me, Nana. Okay?"
Then Willard writes: "Thus the tender soul of a little child shows us how necessary it is to us that we be unobserved in our wrong."
Any time we choose to do wrong or to withhold doing right, we choose hiddenness as well. It may be that out of all the prayers that are ever spoken, the most common one—the quietest one; the one that we least acknowledge making—is simply this: Don't look at me, God.
It was the very first prayer spoken after the Fall. God came to walk in the garden, to be with the man and the woman, and called, "Where are you?"
"I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid," Adam answered, "so I hid." Don't look at me, God.
Sin separates. We often feel like God has turned away from us, but we are the ones who have turned away from him.
The Promise of Salvation
The passage ends with the results of their sin. For, our sin always has consequences which are here expressed as curses. The curses are that our lives will be marked by struggle and pain, and by scarcity and lack rather than plenty and abundance. And having begun by embracing sin, we come to find that it is not we who have sin, but sin has us. It’s grasp is so tight that we cannot escape it. What has been done cannot be undone.
The greatest consequence of sin is separation from God. Whereas God used to be close to these humans as they dwelt in Eden, now because of their sin they have been escorted out. There is now separation between God and us. Simply put, they, and we, are stuck in the consequences of our sin.
But in verse 15 is the promise. This is the light in the darkness and the hope in despair. There will be enmity. There will be struggle. But not forever. A time will come when the head of the snake will be crushed. This is the first of the promises in the Bible that death will not reign forever, evil will not spread without limit, and our sin will not have the last word. It is God who will have the last word in all of these matters. That is why the beginning of the story of Jesus, the Gospel of John, says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Jesus is the last word on these matters. And his coming on Christmas is the beginning of the end for sin and death in the world.
It was this promise that was depicted so graphically by Mel Gibson in The Passion of the Christ. The movie opens in the misty darkness of the garden and Jesus is on his knees struggling in prayer. He is praying that God would let the cup pass from him. This is a wonderful piece of filmmaking because he depicts Jesus as sharing our human condition—in the dark, struggling, and praying that God might improve our lot. But through his praying he knows what God is calling him to, not just to share our life, but to share our death, so that we might have life. As he gets up, he steps on the head of the snake that has been at his feet. This is not found in the gospels. Instead it is found in Genesis. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise that God made to Adam and Eve and every human ever since. The promise was that her offspring would crush the head of the snake.
The darkness shall not last forever. Sin shall not win. The separation between God and humanity will not last forever. This promise is for all of us. It is reiterated toward the end of the New Testament in 1 John 1:9-10:
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. (NRSV)
We have the promise that if we go to God, and be honest with him about our sin, and not put up a false front, but be honest and open; if we will confess our sins, he won’t scold us. He won’t say, “I told you so.” He will say, “I forgive you.” And there are no more powerful words in the world than those. They offer freedom and life. The Jews waited thousands of years to hear those words, but we don’t have to wait a moment to be freed from our sins.
Do you have sin your life you need to confess?
Have you done what you know is wrong and feel the guilt?
Do you have a pattern in your life that is sinful and selfish?
Then you need to take it to God and confess it before him. There is nothing like confession to lead us into the life of freedom and the abundant life that God has for us.