Title: Growing-Up
Text: Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:1-7
Thesis: Growing-up people need growing-up grace.
Introduction
We generally associate age with growing up. Age is also a period of human life, measured by years from birth, usually marked by a certain stage or degree of mental or physical development. Aging stages may be described as:
You believe in Santa Claus;
You don't believe in Santa Claus;
You are Santa Claus;
You look like Santa Claus
However, when we think sociologically we mark the stages of life a bit more technically:
Infant 0-12 months; Toddler 1-3 years; Play-Age 4-5; Primary 6-12 (includes preadolescence or pre-teens 10-12); Adolescence (Teenagers) 13-19; Young Adult 20-39; Middle Adult 40-59; and Advanced Adult 60+. (Within this group are descriptive terms like: Octogenarians, Nonagenerians, Centenarians. [And] Super-Centenarians if you make it beyond 110 years of age.
When you hear stuff like this you are supposed to say: “Well, you are only as old as you feel.” Or “You're only young once, but you can be immature forever.”
This morning we are reflecting on our text, which is generally referred to as the story of “The Fall” or ”Paradise Lost.” We begin with the Eden, an idyllic paradise for humankind to live. Then temptation invaded that idyllic place and humankind discovered sin. And after that, human kind experienced life outside Eden.
This morning, as we reflect on the text, I would like to reflect on what happened to Adam and Eve (and to us) as stages we experience in growing up human and how at each stage we experience the grace of God in unique ways.
The first stage Adam and Eve experienced was what I think of as:
I. The Age of Innocence, Genesis 2:15-17
The Lord God placed man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you will surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17
I think of The Age of Innocence as a time in life when we experience God’s grace but we are not necessarily aware of it. God is at work in our lives but it is a prevenient grace that goes before us. That is why we speak of God’s prevenient grace at the time of a child’s baptism or dedication. That grace is an anticipatory grace that we believe accompanies a child as God works in that life to bring him or her to faith.
When God had completed creating the heavens and the earth, before it had ever rained, before there were any people to cultivate the soil, springs of water came up from the ground and watered the earth. It says God then created man and breathed into him the breath of life so that he became a living person. God then created a very special place, a garden in Eden, to the east, and there God placed the man he had made. In that garden God made all sorts of trees to grow up from the ground, beautiful trees that produced delicious fruit. And in the middle of the garden God place the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden.
And the Lord God placed the man in the Garden to tend and watch over it.
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. So God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky… and then God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep and while the man slept God took out one of the man’s ribs and formed a woman and brought her to the man.
And the man said, “Hubba! Hubba!”
Actually the man said, “This is bone from my bone and flesh from my flesh…” Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame. The Garden of Eden. Paradise. A man and a woman. Naked. No shame. Innocent!
In 1965 CBS executive producers tried to kill Charles Shultz’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It was too slow and Schultz was told, “You can’t read from the Bible on network television.”
However that first year, 50% of the nation’s viewers watched “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It went on to win an Emmy and a Peabody award. It was and continues to be a huge corporate moneymaker. During its 40th annual broadcast in 2005 it won its timeslot with 15.4 millions views that included every demographic age.
Charles Schultz’s widow said, “[Charles always] said there would always be a market for innocence.” (PreachingToday.com)
Many of us grew up with a Charlie Brown-like innocence.
I did not grow up in the Garden of Eden but I grew up in a home where I felt loved, cared for and safe. I never worried about having enough to eat or a bed to sleep in or something to wear. My life, like most of us, was a kid’s life. I woke up in the morning. My mother put breakfast on the table. I went out the back door and played ‘til noon when I came back in for lunch. Then back outside to play until supper. (We lived on a farm so we had supper rather than dinner.) Later I went to bed and got up the next morning to do it all over again.
That is not to say there were no rules or restrictions. Most of them were about staying out of trouble and not getting hurt. I pretty much had the run of the farm. Fields and hills and pastures and creeks to explore. Hay loft to play in. Corn crib to climb around in. Orchard trees to climb up in. Dirt to dig in. Dog to pet. Pigs to ride. It was paradise.
But there was one really huge restriction and that was, I could not go down to the pond by myself. Unfortunately, the pond was the most wonderful place on the farm. There were tadpoles to trap in jars, frogs to catch and rocks to skip… and the fact that I was not supposed to go there alone made it all the more alluring.
My parents were not unlike any parent who wants to protect their children. Don’t play in the street. Don’t jump out of trees. Don’t run with scissors in your hand. Fasten your seat belt. If you need help find a person in uniform or a mom with children. Don’t get in a car with anyone. Just say, “No!”
In a first-human beings, child-like way, Adam and Eve, under the loving care of God, were turned loose to fully live and enjoy life. God didn’t tell them to behave themselves or don’t pick any flowers or stay off the grass. God didn’t tell them, “Don’t run too fast.” Or, “Be sure to wear your helmets.” God didn’t tell them to be careful around the lions. In that life in the Garden of Eden was so very idyllic, there was not a lot to be leery of, but God did have one restriction:“You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden – except the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you will surely die.” Genesis 2:15-17
So it was that Satan, the snake, slithered into idyllic Eden where Adam and Eve lived in innocence and, I would add, naiveté. We’ve all lived there…
Then the day comes when you realize you are a moral being.
II. The Age of Discovery, Genesis 3:1-7 (8-13)
The woman saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband and he ate it too. At that moment their eyes were opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. Genesis 3:1-7 (8-13)
Growing up is a time of innocence is not to say any of us were innocent because we were not. But we did not know much about life in the grown-up world. Idyllic circumstances are good places for innocence and naiveté. When you are innocent and naïve you have no suspicions. The world around you is filled with good and gracious people who are no threat to you or their fellowman. It seems everybody is nice. It never occurs to you that not everyone has your best interests in mind.
But eventually we begin to see that not everyone is nice…
A. Discovering evil in others or the world
I don’t care how much you believe in the innate goodness of man and that if given enough time we will clean-up this old world all by ourselves. It simply isn’t going to happen. Adam and Eve blew it, their son Cain blew it and every human being who has ever lived has blown it. Sin is part of our DNA, so to speak. It is part of our human nature. Adam passed it down to us. In Adam, all have sinned. (See Romans 5:12ff)
They say the doctrine of depravity is making a comeback. Even before 9/11 a Newsweek cover story written by Sharon Begley focused on the human capacity for evil. “In their search for the nature and root of evil, scholars from fields of sociology, psychology, philosophy and theology reached a chilling conclusion. Most people have the capacity for horrific evil. They say, the traits of temperament and character from which evil springs are as common [in humans] as flies on carrion. Psychologist Robert Simon, director of Psychiatry and Law at Georgetown University School of Medicine says, “The capacity for evil is a human universal.”
When I read that I thought, “Huh… I never would have guessed that one.”
The day in and day out evil all around us is barely the tip of the iceberg of evil: human trafficking, violence, ethnic cleansing and the atrocities of war, the Vladimir Putin’s of the world, corporate greed, scandals that test the imagination, radical religious and political extremism, and you name it.
Just a few days ago on February 27, the Jerusalem Post reported that the Islamic State and a jihadist group and imposed Sharia (Sha – rea)Law in the Syrian city of Raqa… 500,000 people with Christians among them who have been ordered to either convert to Islam, pay a fine to practice Christianity or face execution in the town square. (The Sharia Law people have found that evil and atrocious justice keeps people in line.) People have the capacity to be as evil as evil can be and be so in the name of God.
However, in The Age of Discovery we also discover and own our own evil.
B. Discovering evil in ourselves
The Age of Discovery is when it sinks in. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” “The wages of sin is death… but the gift of God is eternal life.”
In the Age of Discovery, we come to know there are consequences for our behavior. If you touch that you get your hands slapped. If you say bad words your mother gives you a little taste of a bar of soap. If you get all smarty-mouthed you get to sit in the corner.
When I was a little boy growing up we had a Ben Franklin (five and dime) Store. Across the front of the building, big red letters on a white background spelled out BEN FRANKLIN. The franchise began in 1927 as something of a discount store operating under the motto: “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
Just inside our Ben Franklin store was what seemed to be an enormous display of gum and candy… and one day, while in the store with my mother, I decided I needed a pack of gum. I think I chose Black Jack gum and slipped it into my pocket. We had barely gotten out of the store when my mother discovered my pack of Black Jack gum. She marched me back into the store and up to the clerk where she made me return the gum and apologize for stealing.
I don’t think that was a moral dilemma for me. I think it was an I got caught and I probably won’t do that again moment because I don’t like having to tell the lady at Ben Franklin’s that I am sorry.
The Age of Discovery is the time in life when we are not only aware that you may get your hands slapped or you may have to sit in the corner or you learn to say, “I’m sorry.” The Age of Discovery is a time when you realize that some things are morally wrong. It is a time when decisions we make have moral consequences. There is a time when the decisions we make are not just a matter of uncomfortable consequences but are hurtful and offensive and morally wrong. The Age of Discovery is when we realize we are sinners. We realize we are capable of blatant disobedience to God.
The Age of Discovery is when the realization that I am a sinner sinks in. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” “The wages of sin is death… but the gift of God is eternal life.”
For us The Age of Discovery is both the discovery of our sinful nature but it is also the time in life when we discover the mercy and grace of God as we experience how God makes a way for us to be made right with him. Adam was the first person to experience the mercy and grace of God.
Covering Atonement: In Genesis 3:21 says, “And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and Eve.” One way of thinking of the atonement or the way things are made right between us and God is to think in terms of a covering of sin. The first sacrifice for the sin of humankind was the sacrifice of animals for skins to cover their nakedness and their guilt.
Scapegoat Atonement: There are other ways of thinking of atonement. Leviticus 16:10 describes the practice of selecting a goat upon which all the sins of all the people were placed placed on the head of the goat, so to speak, and the goat was then driven away from the camp into the wilderness carrying with it, all the sin of the people.
Substitutionary Atonement: Hebrews 7, 9 and 10 all speak to how in the Old Testament atonement was achieved by the sacrifice. Everyday priest would make sacrifices for their own sins and for the sins of the people. Hebrews 7:27
But in Christ we have a better way. “Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice for the people’s sins.” Hebrews 7:27 In Hebrews 9:28 the bible says, “Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who eagerly wait for him.” And in Hebrews 10:12, “Our High Priest has offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time.” My favorite is found in I Peter 3:18, “Christ suffered for our sins once for all time… to bring us safely home to God.”
In The Age of Discovery we discover our need for grace and find in Christ that grace and forgiveness.
But that does not mean we remain in our innocence… that does not mean there are no consequences resulting from our discovery. This is when we experience…
III. The Age of Vulnerability, Genesis 3:16-24
[And God said to Adam] “All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from the ground. So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:17, 23-24
Imagine that… it would be like living a privileged life in a downtown penthouse. It would be like having a boatload of money and living on top of the world. Then losing it you find yourself living under the steps of burned out, condemned, abandoned building, burning scraps of wood in a barrel to keep warm. One day you are in an Eden World and the next day you are out in the Real World.
As a consequence of their disobedience to God the bible says God said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.” Genesis 3:17
Of course there are exceptions. Not everyone scratches out or ekes out a living. Some manage to game the system. Others get lucky… Most have to work hard. Billionaire Sam Zell thinks the super-rich work harder than anyone else on the planet.
Sam Zell is ranked Billionaire #345 by Forbe’s with a net worth of 4.3 billion dollars as of March 2014. In an interview Zell expressed his belief that the 1% is being treated by the 99% in the same way that the Nazi’s treated the Jews. He said, “The 1% is being pummeled because it is politically convenient to do so. The problem is that the world and this country should not talk about envy of the 1%. It should talk about emulating the 1%. The 1% work harder.”
In this real world, outside the Garden of Eden, there is a 1% and there is a 99%. And those who live among the 99% live with some sense of vulnerability. We have to make a living. We have to make rent or the mortgage. We have to pay our taxes. We have to put food on the table and clothes on our backs.
And though most of us know little of the Great Depression we all know how fragile and vulnerable most of us are. Not everyone has a job. Not everyone has benefits. Some people lose their jobs and benefits.
But we are vulnerable in lots of other ways… living in the real world outside the garden is a scary place.
Sociologist Brene Brown pushes us to embrace out own brokenness and vulnerability, with the reality that we are not alone in it, that we are or easily could be just one step away from the broken people around us. “We are those people… we are the others. Most of us are one paycheck, one divorce, one drug-addicted kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious illness, one sexual assault, one drinking binge, one night of unprotected sex or one affair away from being those people…”(Brene Brown, TED talk “The Power of vulnerability.”)
The bible warns us to not feel too sure of ourselves: “If you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The [trials and] temptations in your life are no different from what others experience.” I Corinthians 10:12
There is no time in our lives when we do not need the mercy and grace of God in our lives. During the Age of Innocence we may be unaware of it and likely take God’s goodness for granted. During the Age of Discovery we are smacked with the reality of our own nakedness, so to speak, before God. We are exposed for who and what we are and we need the forgiving mercy and grace of God. And as we live in the real world Age of Vulnerability, we are constantly aware of our need for the sustaining mercy and grace of God for all of life.
And so God gives us sustaining grace for living life in the real world outside the garden… God assures us with this word: “My grace is sufficient for all you need. My power works best in weakness.” II Corinthians 12:9
In Romans the bible says it a little differently but in essence the same: “I am convinced that nothing can every separate us from the love of God. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries for tomorrow… not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed to us in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:38-39
Conclusion
The commercial begins with a young girl standing alone in a picturesque meadow. The camera then pans to another part of the field where there is a gigantic rhinoceros. The ominous beast begins a lethal charge toward the little girl whose serene and happy face remains unmoved. As the rhino nears the little girl words appear on the TV screen, “Trust is not being afraid.” A split second before the rhino tramples the little girl, it stops, and the little girl, her smile never wavering, reaches up and pets the rhino’s massive horn. Then across the screen pan the words, “even when you are vulnerable.”
“Trust is not being afraid, even when you are vulnerable.”
We live The Age of Innocence unconscious of the grace of God. We live the Age of Discovery trusting in the forgiving grace of God. And we live the Age of Vulnerability trusting in the sustaining grace of God. Growing up people need growing up grace.
