Connecting With The Creator Series

As you might be able to tell from the platform, the signs and the bulletin, Lego has been on our mind lately. Didn’t Stefan do a great job. Do me a favour, don’t touch my pulpit.

The “Lego group” began in the workshop of a Danish carpenter by the name of Ole Kirk Christiansen who began making wooden toys in 1932 and two years later named his new company Lego. Which comes from a Danish phrase “leg godt”, which means "play well".

In 1947 the company expanded into a new technology and began producing plastic toys and in 1949 they produced an early version of their interlocking bricks. And the rest, as they say, is history. Here is an ad from 1958, the kid in the boy tie is Ole’s son and he’s now the richest man in Denmark.

Lego wasn’t a new invention, instead it was a modified design of the Kiddicraft brick from the UK which was a little bit like the Minibrix, also from the UK.

And perhaps you are wondering: So what? What does Lego have to do with church? Well, it’s all about the connections.

What made Lego different than the original blocks that Christiansen started with, was their ability to connect and because of the round pegs that connected them what they could create seemed almost limitless.

Last Sunday I spoke about how we were created to connect. To connect with our creator. To connect with creation and to connect with other people.

This week we are going to dive a little deeper into connecting with our creator.

Last week our scripture ended with the story of the creation of Adam and Eve and finished with these words at the end of Genesis chapter 2 Genesis 2:25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Chapter 3 begins with Adam and Eve being tempted by the Satan to do the only thing that they were told not to do, and that was to not eat the fruit from one specific tree.

That part of the story is found in Genesis 2:15-17 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

And if they had of just been tempted by Satan that would have been one thing. We are all tempted. Jesus was tempted, by Satan. Temptation isn’t disobedience. Disobedience is disobedience. There was just one thing they couldn’t do, they couldn’t eat the fruit from one tree. That was it. They could climb the tree, they could cut the tree down, they could do anything except eat the fruit from the tree. And you know what happened? Yep, fruit salad for lunch.

And the first line after they deliberately disobeyed their creator is found in Genesis 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

Before they deliberately disobeyed they had no shame, immediately after their disobedience they are filled with shame. Hmmmmmm.

And with that shame came a break in the connection. Every once in a while, if you’re playing with Lego you discover they won’t connect. And upon further investigation you’ll discover that someone has used the Lego for a playdough cookie cutter. Yeah, go figure. And because of that the connections just don't connect. They are gummed up with stuff that isn’t supposed to be there.

Adam and Eve’s connection with God had gotten gummed up with something that wasn’t supposed to be there, sin.

Because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience the intimate connection they had had with their creator was damaged. They chose to walk away from him, it was their decision not his.

Reminds me of the story of the old farmer and his wife who were driving along one day in their pickup and she observed “how come we don’t drive all cuddled up like we did when we were younger?” to which he replied, “I haven’t moved.”

And sometimes it seems that we look at God and wonder why we aren’t as close as we used to be, but he hasn’t moved, he’s still where he has always been.

Even though it was humanity who moved away from God, there is still a need to connect with God. Most of us have felt that stirring to connect with our creator. But how? How do we, finite men and women connect with an infinite God who created the universe?