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Sermon Outline
Friday, March 15, 2002, the Rev. Craig J. Lewis

Craig J. Lewis

Texts:
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden: ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

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 af 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?"

Romans 5:12-19

Adam and Christ

¹² Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned — ¹³ sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. ¹⁴ Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come.

¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. ¹⁶ And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. ¹⁷ If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. ¹⁹ For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Title: Life Beyond Temptation

Grace and Peace to you

Forgive us Lord and lead us not into temptation.

Introduction:

Gardner Taylor

"For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many." (Romans 5:15)

• Let us clarify something at the outset this evening. I am a Lutheran, a confessional Lutheran. People often tell me that I sound like a Baptist.
• I'm so happy to be a Lutheran I sound like a Baptist.
• I must confess though that for years I was puzzled and frustrated about why Lutherans are so quiet in worship until one day I found the answer in the bible. There it was in 1Thessalonians 4:16, "The dead in Christ first shall rise."

But I digress. Let me ask you how close are we to being like God?

• Tell the truth and stay in church, what do you think, are we human beings/homosapiens made to be like God?
• Indeed our perceptions of God tend toward the anthropomorphic.
• We do think God is a Super person.

I raise this question for our consideration because the Lenten season encourages us to explore our relationship to God in a more disciplined way. We are reminded that we are sinners not so much because we have broken God's law codes, but rather because we do not seek to commune with God about those moments when we have experienced our human limitations; moments of weakness or of pride; the bad thoughts that we have had even as our faces were smiling and our eyes were glowing, the things we have refrained from doing when we felt the urge to do them because they were right and decent; whole and clean.

Scripture evidences human ambivalence about our essential relationship to God. The psalmist sings:

¹ O LORD, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.

² Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes
to silence the enemy and the avenger.

³ When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;

⁴ what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

yet

⁵ Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.

⁶ You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,

The Message Eugene Peterson, Navipress

"I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade skyjewelry, moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my microself and wonder, why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way? Yet we've so narrowly missed being Gods, bright with Eden's dawn light."

• You see what this song says in part is God, You're great and we're pretty much like you.
• God, you're awesome! And I'm so glad I'm one of us! (Ishtar)
• Rocky Marciano story re: Joe Louis (Mike Douglas Show)

Were we made to be like God?

Let’s review the creation story.

There are two creation stories in the book of Genesis. There they are side by side. Good thing they did not have erasers in those days. Otherwise we would not even understand that even God works iteratively.

• Genesis 2:18 reads "Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner."
• I like the womanist quip that this version of the creation story suggests that Adam Iman was a first draft. Then God did her best work.
• But Look at the other creation story in chapter 1.

  ²⁶ Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."

  ²⁷ So God created humankind in his image,
  in the image of God he created them;
  male and female he created them.

  ²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill
  the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over
  the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

• Human is, to be sure a part of nature, whose most distinctive characteristic is the capacity for rational thought. However, these facts of human nature are not the source of human uniqueness.
• That which distinguishes humans from all other created objects is that we are created in the image of God.
• As the "crown of creation" we tend to see ourselves from the standpoint of God rather than from the uniqueness of our rational faculties or our relationship to nature.
• We humans possess two faculties which permit the self to transcend its locus in time and space. Those faculties are memory and imagination.
• Through the use of memory man can detach himself from his immediate socio-cultural context.
• Through imagination we can see possibilities which have never been
• We are created Imago Dei, a capacity to transcend self.
• And we are tempted to seek the kind of knowiedge which allows us to live beyond creation.

Scripture tells us that there once was a place of perfection, where God and human lived as one.

¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it. ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

• Had a million to one shot at staying on good terms with God, but you know us. We found a way to mess that up. We humans are never satisfied with our circumstances.
• Zora Neale Hurston reminds us in Jacob and the Gourd Tree " we moan to God about our suffering without realizing that we suffer in paradise.
• In the garden lived a serpent

  1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made.

• Crafty? The Hebrew is Arum/Aw room which, I beg you, translate "Subtlety"
• Subtlety is always there in the midst of our human existence, but sometimes you just can't see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, touch it.
• Subtlety is always there waiting to be ignited by your imagination of what could be as opposed to your memory of what was and has been.

  1 Now the serpent was more subtle 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'?"

• By the way I don't get it could serpents? Could snakes talk back in the day? Are any of you old enough to answer that question. My kids think I am.
• Could serpents talk just like that little thing we call a conscience talk?
• I don't know but I believe the b-i-b-l-e and the Bible says, (you can look it up) the serpent 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;

any Harry Potter fans in the house? Maybe Eve was a Parselmouth.

acknowledged that she was in a relationship "WE"

• Yeah all this around here belongs to us and God
• Then she said "but' afterthought, (imagination usually precedes memory among the young)
• yes, we have one taboo, one restriction, one constraint, one prohibition,

  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."'

• Yeah if we eat fruit from that tree we gon' die, whatever dying is. I don't remember anybody dying.
• ( I can imagine dying is not a good thing from the way God said it)

Subtlety spoke once again and 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."

• Wake up girifriend, you been duped, played, bamboozled
• God don't want you as an equal. God wants to be # 1 so he can be in control. "The LORD thy God am a jealous God." You can look it up. (Deut.)
• "God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Well, sisters and brothers, temptation often begins as subtlety, sows its seeds and leaves for awhile, but always comes back again

• I wouldn’t be surprised if Eve forgot subtlety, the serpent, the snake because she was young and when you're young imagination usually precedes memory and has priority over it. The young are more interested/more excited about what can be than what was or what has been.
• There were so many new exciting stimuli in creation. Besides that tree was way over in the middle of the garden
• Then one day she/Eve/ was roaming through the garden having a good time and she spotted the tree
• That tree looked good, delicious, nutritious made her feel ambitious and so she touched it
• And did not die
• She tasted and did not die
• She consumed it and did not die
• And gave it to her life partner/ Here you want some?
• Don't mind if I do (apparently subtlety had come his way too)

  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.

  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.

• Yes, the serpent was right, they did not die, but suddenly they realized they were not gods. They were different from God and from each other.
• They realized they had been overcome by subtlety
• They knew or at least they thought they knew that God would be angry. What do you do when God gets mad at you? First you are ashamed, the ethics of getting caught
• Then you are remorseful
• You either try to hide or placate
• They used imagination to frame a response to their new reality. Humans are good at that, there is nothing more industrious than a desperate liar, trying to stay one detail ahead of your ear
• But suddenly,

  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.

• Where do you go to hide from God? God is omnipresent, omniscient, everywhere all the time
• Where do you go to hide from God? (Martha and the Vandellas) No where to run no where to hide from your guilt, your shame, the truth you know about yourself, even when you have plausible deniabiiity
• The memory of your transgression, your act of sin subtly overwhelms you imagination of how God might receive you

  ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"

The text would appear to make Eve the transgressor and Adam her accomplice but when God initiated the investigation he started with the usual suspect, "Adam 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."

• See, what had happened was. Every parent knows that stories, which begin that way, are usually end as fiction. And God is the ultimate parent.
• When he finished his tortured story God asked one question; one question in two parts.

  ¹¹ He said, "Who told you that you were naked (nekked)? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?"

• How did you know that you were not like me? How did you discover the difference? And what difference does that difference make to you?
• God knows we are different from God. God knows we are creatures not only with bodies, not only with brains but creatures with memory and imagination, liberated from God's limitations/boundaries set at creation.
• We are like God but we are not God.
• God knows that to be human is to be tempted
• And temptation leaves us naked/nekked in the face of God, our family and our neighbors,
• Temptation leaves us humiliated, ashamed, broken, broken down on every leaning side

Celebration

• But there is good news this evening. The eight o clock good news is God will not let you die in your sin, the fruits of your temptation, the results of your imagination.
• God will not let you die. God wants you to live forever with him.
• And so God sent his son into the world. Adam started you and me down the wrong road and Jesus came to lead us back to the path of God.
• We started our Lenten journey following Jesus as he faced temptation
• Lean on him, listen to him, follow him
• His steps this Lenten day seems to head toward Jerusalem and the cross
• And He too is tempted to go another way, he too will kneel at Gethsemane, but Jesus the son of God sees past temptation, past sin, past the cross, past the tomb and down through the grave to early one Sunday morning we call Easter when God raised him up to new life

So sisters and brothers resist the temptation to wallow in your sin no matter how heinous it seems to you, your family and friends

Reach out and hold on to Jesus

"For if the many died through the one man's trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. " (Romans 5:15b)

I was not an eyewitness to Adam and Eve's transgression, but this is my witness, amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind by now I see.

Maybe it's just that I'm older now but I can testify that the memory of Jesus has overcome the dangers of my imagination that I could be just like God.

And that has made all the difference

Amen