The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Lent 1, Year A
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Dear heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit on us so what was ruined can be restored and made whole again through the work of Jesus Christ. Amen.
It used to be perfect, but now it’s ruined.
A man and woman are walking in a garden full of delights to the senses. It’s exciting to see, feel, taste, and touch all these wonderful creations for the first time. Everything’s perfect. They even delight in each other’s perfection. But then they cross the line by desiring and obtaining something that wasn’t theirs to have, and suddenly discover everything’s no longer perfect. They attempt to cover up the imperfection, but no matter how they tried to cover themselves, they can’t hide what they’ve done. Even the excuses they later make can’t hide the fact they’ve broken all their relationships. The perfect harmony between humans, creation and their Creator God has been shattered. Division and distrust now separates them. Conflict has entered the world.
It used to be perfect, but now it’s ruined and the same story continues today…
Not only does creation groan and buckle under the weight of sin, but boyfriends and girlfriends break up time and again, and even so called ‘perfect’ marriages are strained by conflict or infidelity and the once-were-lovers separate. ‘Perfect’ families often try to hide the real struggles for harmony behind the scenes as conflicts ripple between parents and children, brothers and sisters. Friends at school or work constantly fight and argue with each other.
Let’s face it, we’ve all experienced some sort of conflict in every relationship in our life, and most of us hate it. We hate the way it divides us. We hate the way it ruins our lives and ruins the people we love. We hate the feelings of despair, fear, anger, and grief caused by conflict. Even though we dream and hope for perfection, in reality our relationships are often ruined. The fairy tale ending of ‘they lived happily ever after’ remains just that – a fairy tale, and has nothing to do with reality.
Yet this biblical account of the first conflict is foundational for our faith and the work of God. This story describes our sinful state which results in conflict, and the rest of Scriptures reveal God’s plan to deal with our sin and how he heals our broken relationships through reconciliation.
Firstly it helps to understand what normally causes conflict. What often causes conflict is:
- Misunderstandings
Now maybe Adam and Eve misunderstood God’s instructions, but it’s most likely they were led to doubt God’s Word by the deceptive whispers of the devil. Even today the devil whispers in our own ears and minds in order to breed doubt and fear and lead us into conflict. We’re deceived when we question people’s motives and words before asking them about it or by seeking to gain a deeper understanding. We mouth off at others before letting them explain their side of things, and only reluctantly mumble an apology if it turns out we misunderstood them. It would help if we sought first to understand; then sought to be understood. For this reason, good, open, and honest communication can help in times of conflict, remembering to listen first, and speak later.
- Differences in values, goals, expectations, interests, or opinions
There seemed to be different opinions as to what God said or intended. Again the devil’s questions about God’s intentions planted enough doubt in Eve’s mind to make her also question God’s clear instructions. But even today we have a habit of turning people’s “no’s” into “yes’s” and vice-versa. God might rightly ask “Well, what part of ‘no’ don’t you understand?”
And when we gather as a community to worship together, we all have different likes, dislikes, expectations, interests, and goals and often try to assert our own values and opinion onto others. Some, with their stronger personalities and loud arguments push the thoughts and opinions of the quieter people aside as if they’re unimportant or invalid. Like the devil, we may also be tempted to use, or rather, misuse God’s Word in order to get what we want, and then wonder why we experience conflict. Since this is often based on differences in opinions or values, it’s easy to blame everyone else as if they’re the only ones who got it wrong. Yet no matter how much we cover up our own selfishness, we can’t hide our selfishness from God.
- Competition over limited resources
While there were many trees in the garden, in Eve’s eyes there was only one which would give her the wisdom to understand the difference between good and evil. Good she already knew, but she may have felt God was being unfair by not letting her also know about evil. Of course these days we only wish we could know life without evil in all its ugly forms.
In our relationships we feel it’s unfair when we don’t get what others have. There are fights over land, water, money, the TV remote, the computer, and the last biscuit in the box. If we get our way and others miss out, we wonder what they’re complaining about. ‘Get over it!’ we say. But of course, when we miss out, then all hell breaks loose!
- Sinful thoughts and desires that lead to sinful words and actions
While many may consider the original sin is disobedience to God’s instructions to not eat fruit from the forbidden tree, it actually goes much deeper than that. The sinful action of disobedience was the consequence of the original sinful thoughts and desires. What Eve desired was…to be like God.
We too often want to be number one. We want the world to revolve around us and get upset when someone tries to make the world revolve around them! Also, we often turn our goals into gods and our desires into idols. Of course, every man made god or idol demands sacrifices. So we sacrifice our time and effort and money in order to obtain what we want. If we’re not willing or able to sacrifice ourselves, then we willingly sacrifice others.
In this sense our conflict reveals our idols and then becomes a 1st Commandment issue. Whom or what were Adam and Eve worshipping? Whom or what do we worship? If we’re not fearing, loving and trusting God, then whom or what do we fear, love or trust?
In Adam and Eve’s case, they feared missing out on knowledge of good and evil, they loved or craved to become like God, and they trusted themselves and the devil’s whispers instead of God’s Word.
Perhaps, instead of fearing God most, we fear someone or something else. Fear becomes our master. We’re afraid of missing out. We’re afraid of failure. We’re afraid of losing control. We’re afraid of not being loved. We’re afraid of losing someone. We’re afraid of financial crisis.
So in order to serve our fears, we’re willing to sacrifice many things and people, including ourselves. In fact, idolatry always ends up in death or destruction of the idol or the person worshipping that idol. Therefore, it would be good for us to identify what we’re trying to preserve or avoid at almost any cost, and instead of sacrificing ourselves for the idol of fear, we should sacrifice our fearful idol.
Instead of loving God the Creator, we often love or crave or desire something he created. For example we might desire popularity, respect, control, equality, success, possessions, sex, or perfection. Our desires are soon elevated to demands and obsessions and can take control of our life. Again, we may be willing to sacrifice so much for what we desire, and we want to judge and punish all those who stand in the way of our desire.
To identify our cravings or desires, it’s helpful to take notice of what’s consuming all our thoughts or what keeps us awake at night. Are we sinning because we’re not satisfied with what God has given us and craving the one thing we shouldn’t have?
Instead of trusting God, we trust ourselves to the point we have a prideful or condescending attitude. We turn into the judges and juries who condemn, look down on, and eliminate others who get in our way. Even in church we want to thump people on the head with the bible because we think we’re right and everyone else is wrong. We turn into the judge and jury and willingly punish those around us or even ourselves.
So this first conflict in the Garden of Eden is representative of all our own conflicts and exposes the consequences of our inborn sin. Our failure to obey the First Commandment is played out again and again as we seek to become our own little god or when we succumb to temptation and submit to our own self-made idols.
As Lutherans, we believe this inborn sickness of sin is so ingrained, we can’t save ourselves – not even in part. Every attempt to work our way into heaven, every attempt to hide ourselves, and every attempt to bargain our way into eternity, fails, and takes away from the work and glory of Jesus Christ.
You see, there’s only One who succeeded in remaining sinless, and he’s the One who comes to restore, recreate, renew, and reconcile his broken creation. He is the One who in the end out-tested the tempter and killed death. Jesus is the One who came to restore our broken relationships – making peace between us and God, making peace between us and God’s creation, and peace between you and I.
By ourselves and under our own power we’re unable to restore our broken relationships, but as forgiven people of God – forgiven for the sake of the suffering and death of Jesus, we can in turn forgive others. Forgiveness is the power of God at work which renews, recreates, and reconciles what was once ruined.
Yes, the world was perfect until Adam and Eve ruined it, but since the coming of Jesus Christ, what once was ruined is renewed, re-created, restored, and reconciled and made perfect once again. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can participate in Christ’s renewing and reconciling work, beginning here in our community of faith, continuing into our families, our friendships, our work places, our sporting fields, and even among our enemies.
While Adam and Eve once ate forbidden fruit which broke and ruined relationships, now we can come to eat the fruit of a different tree to celebrate the reconciliation of what was once broken and has now been made whole again. Whenever we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we can come to the table of reconciliation and receive Christ’s body and blood which once hung on the tree of the cross. We can feast to celebrate the restoration of what was once ruined.
The peace of God, which only God can bring to reconcile broken relationships, and which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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