April 12, 2009
“In the Beginning: The Surprising Twist”
Genesis 3:20 – 24
Easter time is spring time. Easter and spring go right together. At Easter time, trees are budding, flowers are blooming, green grass is growing and neighbor’s lawn mowers are starting up. Uhg! Never mind, it’s spring time, a time of new birth. Little yellow chicks are hatching; new born bunnies are experimenting with hopping. It’s the time of year when people bring home puppies as pets. We might think puppies are all the same, but look at the paws. We can tell something about a dog early on by the size of its paws. Little paws in the beginning means a little dog when it’s grown. Big paws in the beginning means a big dog when it’s grown, and huge paws on a little puppy means it will become bigger than you want– or can afford. A person can tell something just by looking at the beginning.

A person can tell something about God, too, just by looking at the beginning. Over the past weeks, we’ve probed into the beginning of the Bible to find out some things about God. For instance, first book of the Bible, first chapter, Genesis 1, we learn that God creates the universe. God is the Creator who creates wisely, wonderfully and well. We discover that we humans are the high point of God’s expressive creative abilities. We are made in the image and likeness of God. Wow. We find that God has given us the task of managing the earth, not to abuse but as God’s managers of the earth, on his behalf.

More truths about God roll out at the beginning. We find that God is a gift-giving God. God gives us life, bending down and almost kissing into us the breath of life. Life is a gift. Work is a gift from God, at least as originally intended. Place is God’s gift to us, somewhere to call home. And, perhaps most precious, God has given us each other to known and to share life with and to love. This early part of our history ends with a mountain top description  –
“The man and the woman were both naked and unashamed.” We humans are created for relationships that are accepting, open, and loving.

And then, the story turns. In the place where God puts the man and the woman, there is a particular tree. God says to Adam and Eve, “Do not eat the fruit of this tree.” Now, lest we start thinking that God is negative and always saying ‘You can’t do this’ and ‘you can’t do that,’ keep in mind that we’re talking about one commandment only.. Everything else was open to Adam and Eve. The first humans could do whatever they wanted, except for eating from the 1 tree. The tree, you see, was just an indicator of their inner drive.

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A group of psychologists used an indicator to set up an experiment. They wanted to test the level of honesty in the general population. So, they put a wallet with a $20 bill in it in the back seat of a taxi to find out how many people would tell the taxi driver about the wallet and how many would just pocket it and try to leave without saying anything. Now, the psychologists didn’t have to use a wallet. They could have used a bracelet or a fake credit card. The wallet was just an indicator of what was inside the people; whether they were honest or dishonest.

In the same way, the tree that God set up was also an indicator of how humans would respond to God’s commands. If the humans did not touch the fruit of the 1 tree, it would show they willingly come under God’s authority. From then on, they would continue to live God’s way. Or, if they ate the fruit, the humans would show they are choosing to break away from God’s authority. What happened? Adam and Eve decide to eat the fruit. They indicate they will decide for themselves what they will do and what they will follow. Every since, every generation chooses the same way, to go their own way independent of God.

Parents see this independent human nature early on. They talk about the terrible twos. At this stage, baby is tasting the fruit of independence. For the first time, baby is saying things like, “no,” and “NO.” Particularly in grocery stores and other large public areas. It is the same trait that is part of the human race from the day we are born to the day we die.
We are our own master. We choose to do it our way.

There’s a famous song that begins with these words, “And now the end is here and so I face the final curtain….” It goes on t say, “I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway….” And then Frank Sinatra would come to the refrain, “And much more than this, I did it my way.” People would get up on top of their seats and cheer. If only they had known they were describing the devastating results of human stubborn self-will apart from God, they would have been sitting and weeping. The results of trying to do it our way are littered all around us. We can see it from almost the very beginning,

Right after the Man and woman eat the fruit of the tree, their eyes are opened. They realize that they are naked. Embarrassment, shame and covering up become part of human relationships and you and I know what that is like. These first humans try their best to hide from God, from the very God who gives them life. Guilt and sin become the result of wanting to live life our way and you and I know what guilt and sin is like. God confronts the man and says, “Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat?” and the man said, “The woman You gave me” – see it’s your fault God, “she gave me to eat” – see it’s her fault God. Defensiveness, evasion and self-preservation at the expense of another person enters the world and you and I know what that is like. Children who are meant to be such a joy to us are born by pain and we know what that is like. Part of the curse is that the woman’s “desire will be for her husband and he will rule her,” and marriage becomes a power contest for control and domination, and you and I know what

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that is like. The ground becomes cursed and work becomes cursed, and you and I know what that is like. It all unravels, beginning from the mountain-top experience, down, down, until their son murders their son, not by accident but Cain hatefully and jealously destroys the life of his brother Abel.

The result is that death enters the world. Just as God warned, so death enters, a reminder to us that we are not captains of our own souls; we can not live forever.

There is also a reaction from God to these first humans who have destroyed the life God has given them. God does something to those who have turned their backs on Him. God, it tells us, clothe Adam and Eve. God provides for them. Rather than turning away from humans who have rejected Him, God provides for them. He keeps on loving them. Amazing! How unnatural, how grace-filled.

I’m reading a true story about a homeless man named Denver. He lived for years on the streets, ate his meals at the homeless mission. An 85 year old homeless man comes one day to the mission. Denver offers to help him. The man shrugged off his help, becomes angry and calls Denver a nigger. The old man, Mr. Ballentine, refuses to go to downstairs for the meal because he hates Christians as much as he hates African-Americans, so Denver asks for two plates every day, one for himself and one that he takes to the old man. Ever day he would bring a meal and every day Mr. Ballentine would curse him and call him nigger. Later the old man is moved to a place that accepts homeless people who can’t take care of themselves. Denver walks 2 miles to see him, finds him in bed, with hardly any clothes on, lying in a puddle of urine with trash all around him and half-eaten trays of food; scrambled eggs crusted hard yellow, shriveled meats, smelly school cafeteria sized milk cartons. Denver would clean him up. For three years Mr. Ballentine would curse him and Denver just kept coming. Just like God.

It is God’s nature. God reaches out to us always. His reaching for us is interwoven into his very being. From the start, God shows who he is by providing animal skins to shelter and provide for these human beings, even after they mangle the life God has given them; even after they try to overthrow God.. It is the glory of God to be the providing God. We turn our backs on God, God loves us in return. We reject God. God pursues us in return. We spurn God. God holds his hands out to us all day long. What wonder! What love!

God’s great love doesn’t end with providing animal skins. He goes on to provide an animal. In the Old Testament, the priest lays his hand on an animal, symbolically placing the sins of the people on the animal. This animal is slain, that the people might recognize the horror of death and know that this animal was killed in their place. They deserve  death, but God places the penalty of their sins to on the animal to die in their place, a substitute.

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This continues until that day when Jesus Christ becomes the substitute for our sins, dying in our place. And, in the resurrection, Jesus breaks the power of sin and death and dying and evil, so that the curse of Man’s living for himself might be reversed. We can live no longer for ourselves, but for God. Once again, we can come under God’s authority and live for him. All because of God’s sheltering, providing nature. It is God’s ceaseless nature, to seek us, find us, draw us back to Himself and give us true living.

A vacating family drives along in their car, windows rolled down, enjoying the summer breeze. All of a sudden, a big black bee darts through the open window and buzzes around inside. One of the children in the back, a little girl, allergic to bee stings, shrinks back into her seat. If she is stung, she could go into anaphylactic shock and die. “Daddy,” she cries out, “It’s a bee! It’s going to sting me!” The father quickly pulls the car over to a stop and reaches back to try to catch the bee. The bee flies forward, bumping against the front windshield of the car where the father traps it in his fist. Holding it in his closed hand, the father waits for the inevitable sting. The bee stings the father’s hand and in pain, the father let’s go of the bee. Again, the bee starts buzzing around. The little girl panics, “Daddy, it’s going to sting me!” The father says, “No, honey, it’s not going to sting you now. Look at my hand.” Embedded in his hand is the bee’s stinger.
Or, is it a nail?

In the cross, Jesus absorbed the sting of our sin. In the resurrection, Jesus now gives us life, meaningful life, true life. Jesus has risen. Alleluia!

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