Where Are You? Series

Intro

BLUF:

Today I’m going to talk about two questions God poses to Adam & Eve and later on to Cain.

These two questions are Where are You? and Where’s Your Brother?

I’m going to weave in the concept of Fellowship within the story -

Question 1 is about our fellowship with God

Question 2 is about our fellowship with each other and how one affects the other.

It’s a question God asks us every morning - Where are you? and where’s your brother?

This past week I had to write a “Self-Verbatim” in addition to writing a sermon.

This is part of my training in healthcare chaplaincy. Verbatim is a document I write which is the interaction I have as a chaplain with a patient. I write what I said and what they said. In there I say what I was feeling while I interacted, my thoughts, why I said what I said, what I didn’t say.

Then I share it with my colleagues along with my supervisor. In this case, I was the chaplain to myself. I was the patient and the chaplain. I would talk to the chaplain and the chaplain would listen, reflect, ask questions, etc.

I shared my theological themes (where is God in this?) within the verbatim. I shared a song that I thought was related to my verbatim and other themes.

Since this was a made-up encounter I could write this in such a way that it would make me look like such a great chaplain and at the same time, the patient was so transparent and open (me).

After we all read out loud the “visit” they got to give me some feedback. It is amazing the things people pick up about us that we don’t even realize about ourselves.

One point that stood out, when talking about the feelings that stood out in the verbatim, one thing was missing from the chaplain… there weren’t any feeling words.

That was like a punch to the gut because I do use feeling words and expressions during real visits, but when it came to myself, I didn’t seem to be too sympathetic to my own story. Which probably means I’m not always sympathetic to other people’s stories.

OUCH!

But you know what? If I had shared this in a different context, where people had said the same thing I probably would have gotten defensive, put up my walls, and shut down.

But since I was in a group of people I trusted and we had covenanted to help each other grow, I knew that any feedback I received should be listened to, processed, and put into action.

That’s the clinical method of learning - ACTION, Reflection, New Action.

After reading each verbatim the first question asked is, so Pedro, what are feeling after hearing what you said to yourself - it’s like the question God asked Adam

Where are you?

This is one of two questions asked by God that will challenge us and I hope inspire us today.

The First Question - Where are you?

Adam & Eve had just had an encounter with the devil himself and they blew it. They rehearsed the story they heard. You won’t surely die. God doesn’t want you do have what he has, you’ll actually be like God. They went over and over how they got sucked in and then how it was so convincing that Eve convinced Adam.

So God shows up and asked them, “how are you feeling after hearing yourself and remembering the story?”

thank you God for loving me enough to come to my rescue.

So after blowing it, God takes the first step.

Point #1 - God approaches us when we fall short

God enters our space and brings us close to him - Fellowship (closeness with).

God takes the first step and doesn’t wait for us to go to him.

Since the Bible gives us examples of how live life better, god’s example here is something to consider. We see God taking the first step to restore fellowship with broken people. followers, imitators, we too bring others into fellowship - closeness with one another.

A life principle of being an initiator when it comes to bringing others close to God and closer to ourselves. We take the first step and we don’t wait for others to come to us.

We ask others “Where are you?” What are you feeling? What’s going on in your heart and mind?

Look at Adam's response -

I heard the sound of you and I was afraid.

What sound did he hear that would instill such a response? The sound of God getting close.

He didn't even see God and he ran. Does that sound familiar?

Their nakedness was a problem and they tried to fix it by “hiding” their nakedness with “fig leaves.”