Messages, Meditations, and Musings on the Life of Faith by Rev. Dr. Scott E. Olson, Interim Pastor, Christ Lutheran Church, Preston, MN

Sunday, September 9, 2012

"Into the Garden and Out Again" Sermon Pentecost 15B

“Into the Garden and Out Again”
Pentecost 15B
September 9, 2012
Genesis 2.4b-7, 15-17; 3.1-8, 21-24

We love our stories. We love to listen to them and we love to tell them over and over again. We like the real ones best, but we’ll take the made up ones, especially if they ring true to life. Stories are powerful because they invite us into a world that can touch us and when they touch us they can change us.

Because we tend to read the Bible in pieces, we forget that the Bible is, at heart, a story. We forget that it’s in fact one story made up of hundreds of shorter stories. Like any good story, the Bible has people we call characters, both good and not so good, a plot, and a point. We also forget that the biblical story doesn’t begin with Jesus, though he is central. As Martin Luther said, the Bible is the manger that the Christ child is laid in. Finally, to say that the Bible is a story does not diminish its character or importance for us. This story is important, not just because it’s our “back story,” our history. It is, as Brian McLaren says, The Story We Find Ourselves In. We are not only living out the story; the story is lived out in us.

That’s why we are beginning to use the Narrative Lectionary today. Using this lectionary will reacquaint us with the grand sweep of the biblical story, from creation to consummation and everything in between. This fall we’ll focus on some Old Testament stories and prophets, which will lead into the Jesus story in Advent, Christmas and beyond through his death, crucifixion, and resurrection. Following Easter, we’ll read about in the book of Acts how the early church worked out the resurrection life. To help fill in the gaps, we have some nifty resources that give background for each story as well as daily readings to fill in the story between Sundays.

Today we start with the second creation story in Genesis. Did you know that there are two creation stories? In Genesis 1, we hear how God creates in six days and rests on the seventh, with humankind being made in God’s image as the crown of creation. In the second story in Genesis 2, we uncover an important truth. Humans are not only like God, we have something of God within us. The word breath in the Bible can also mean wind or spirit. God’s very Spirit enlivens us. We are both soil and spirit. We skip the verses about the creation of a partner, woman, from man’s rib, but the point of the story is one that flows throughout the Bible. We belong to God and to each other interdependently. We are meant for community.

However, this good creation of God’s doesn’t last as Adam and Eve rebel against God’s good intentions for them. A few things to note: nowhere in the text does it say that the serpent was Satan or the devil. That is an idea that was imposed centuries later. The serpent is simply a crafty animal. Also, note that it was not Eve who coerced Adam into disobedience, sexually or otherwise. Although Adam remains silent, he was right there along with Eve through the entire thing and ate when she did. By the way, for those who are tempted to quip that a woman was the last created and the first to sin, remember that it was women who where last at Jesus’ cross and first at his empty tomb. The point is not so much to explain the origin of brokenness, but rather the mystery of sin. Sin is a mysterious force that arises from within God’s good creation, which is a risk God takes for making a truly free creation. The story reminds us of the reality of what it means to be human and exposes our mysterious tendencies to rebel against God.

There are consequences to living outside of God’s good intentions for us. This is graphically shown by humanity’s expulsion from the Garden. Thankfully, that is not the end of the story; there is more. With God, there is always more. Adam and Eve do not die and, in a gracious act of care and love, God provides them with clothing and sets them to meaningful work. Neither creation nor sin is the last word, for God continues to be involved in our world and lives. Not only will God continue to pick us up and clean us up when we fall and bloody our noses, God will insist on working in, with, and through we who are deeply flawed for his purposes.

This story that we find ourselves in provides us with several important and provocative questions. What does it mean that we are made in the image of God as dust and breath, soil and spirit? Look around the world and in your life and ask where you see God creating and recreating, bringing new life out of death. Can you see places where God has worked through broken people to bring mercy and love? We will be asking these questions in different ways as we take our journey through the Bible. Through it all, we will see repeatedly how God continues to be faithful to us even when we are not faithful to God. Thanks be to God! Amen.

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