"Getting Back to the Garden: Adam, Eve, and the Serpent"
Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-13, 21-24
Last week I saw a young teenage girl with a tee-shirt which read "We are all mistakes."
When I saw that, it made me sad.
I wonder how many folks, out in the world, wandering the halls, heading to their dead-end jobs, seeking out a lover, reaching for a bottle of pills...
...believe that...
...believe that they are a mistake?
Have you ever felt like a mistake?
Perhaps you feel that way this morning.
Just a little bit before our Scripture reading for this morning it says this: "God created humanity in God's image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them."
That doesn't sound like a mistake to me.
I think one of the problems we have as humans is that many of us interpret God in a negative way.
We might not admit this to anyone, maybe not even to ourselves...
...but I'm afraid that one of the false images of God, which get's between us and a joyful, freeing relationship with God is that we understand God to be against us and not for us, a strict lawgiver, Someone Who has set us up to fail.
In our Scripture Reading for this morning we begin with one of the very first commands that God ever gives humans.
Do you know what it is?
It is in Genesis 2:16: "The Lord God commanded the human, 'Eat your fill from all the garden's trees...'
Then it goes on to say in verse 17: "but don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because on the day you eat from it you will die."
God's first command is a positive command, it's a command to eat from every tree in the garden.
And the Hebrew text actually repeats the word "eat" twice, which is often translated as "freely eat" or "eat your fill."
"Surely eat," could be translated as God saying: "Eat, eat."
So the first commandment from God in Scripture tells us that God is generous, and offers everything God has made to us humans.
God doesn't tell us we have to put a quarter in a machine, check a box every time we eat, beg, plead or even ask for permission.
He simply says: "Eat, eat."
God is surely a terrific Host on this planet God created.
Do you have an aunt or a grandmother or a friend who, when you go over to their house they break open the cookie jar...
...or start cooking a meal...
...or take from a pot simmering on their stove, offer you a seat, and with a big gracious smile say: "Eat, eat."?
Makes you feel pretty welcome doesn't it.
Those kind of people make me smile.
It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling just thinking about it.
Imagine, this is what God is like.
I learned last week, on Facebook that a classmate of mine from high school, Mary Leone, passed away.
Mary Leone was "a person with special needs..."
We used to call it mentally retarded.
We all grew up with Mary.
We all loved Mary--especially the boys.
Now this might sound funny.
Mary had special needs; why did the boys like her so much?
The reason: Mary Leone's "infamous" Top Ten List.
What was that?
Every morning, Mary would come to school with a list she had written up the night before of the best looking boys in our class.
The list changed every day, and all the boys looked forward to Mary's list--for ego purposes, of course.
It was innocent.
It was fun.
It was adorable, really.
In any event, at our ten year high school reunion, Mary topped off the weekend with a new Top Ten List.
The same happened at our 20 year reunion.
This summer our class will have our 30 year reunion.
But we won't have Mary's list to look forward to.
The outpouring of emotion over the passing of Mary Leone was overwhelming.
She was so loved--such a center piece of our memories from high school.
One of my former classmates proposed that we make a Top Ten List for Mary.
Here are some that were listed:
1. Mary was a gentle soul.
2. She was always smiling and happy.
3. She was an interesting person to chat with for those who gave her an opportunity.
4. She had a wonderful sense of humor and an infectious giggle.
5. She was a friend to all.
6. She had a strong, non-judgmental faith in God.
These are just a few.
There can be no doubt that Mary did not think of herself as a "mistake."
And I praise God for that.
Neither did the members of her high school class.
And she was not "a mistake!"
No one is.
God doesn't make mistakes.
This being said, God does make a 2nd Command in verse 17: "but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day you eat of it you shall die."
So God says to us, "Eat, eat from every tree in the Garden. But, watch out. Don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It will kill you."
Is this not God's desire that we avoid danger and death?
I mean, this command, when heard in a grace-filled light, sounds like it comes more from a doctor or a concerned parent--but not a judge!!!
We trust our parents and doctors advice.
If I command Owen not to cross a busy street, I am showing Owen my parental love and desire to protect him.
If a doctor tells us not to eat something; we understand that to be preventative health advice, not a legalistic prohibition, right?
Our trust in our parent or doctor is based on our belief that they care about our health, security and well-being.
They are working for our best interests.
The fact that God does not say, "If you eat of the fruit I will kill or punish you," should give us a pretty good idea of what God is getting at.
"for in the day you eat of it you shall die," is the natural consequence of eating it.
It's not a punishment; it is what will happen.
It's kind of like, "if you smoke cigarettes, you will eventually die of a cigarette related disease..."
...or "if you are fair-skinned and spend a lot of time in the sun without using sunscreen, you will surely get skin cancer."
So, if that is what is going on, how do things go so terribly wrong?
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animals that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, 'Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden?'"
According to the serpent, "God said that they couldn't eat from any tree in the garden."
Well that's not true.
God said, "Eat, eat of every tree in the garden."
So the serpent twisted God's Words around, and actually said the opposite of what God really said.
And in doing so, the serpent makes God out to be the "bad guy," the "stingy guy," the "legalistic guy."
The serpent makes it seem as if God is against everything!!!
How unattractive God would be if the serpent were right.
The good, generous, loving, God Who desires humans to enjoy life and is only trying to protect us from danger is twisted, by the serpent, into a dark, unlovable, miserly God.
And so, the evil one draws us away from our first love by creating a false idol in place of the Real God!!!
The idol is a fake god in the serpent's making.
How many folks have a false image of God?
People are even taught to think of God as cold, heartless, cruel, unbending, and miserly.
No wonder so many folks wander lost, thinking that their lives were a mistake...
...thinking that they are unloved and unlovable.
And the serpent is crafty, and we fall for his lies pretty easily.
I don't know why, but we do.
Notice how quickly the women starts to slip into his trap.
She answers the serpent with this: "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 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 will die."
She added something, didn't she?
She added, "nor shall you touch it."
God didn't say that, but already she is moving from seeing God as a generous, freely giving God to a God of rules and "don't do this, don't do that!"
The serpent goes on drawing his negative picture of God.
According to the serpent, God is not only miserly, God is a controlling power monger, Who lies to protect His power.
As the serpent talks to the women, she begins to focus on this false image of God.
She pulls away from seeing the true and loving God.
And once that happens, she becomes weak and vulnerable to the serpent's advances.
I truly believe that false negative images of God are what separate people the most from God.
Without feeling loved, we become vulnerable to anything and just about everything that comes around.
And then we fall.
And then we break.
And we become lost.
And we come to think of ourselves as a mistake.
If we carefully read the Scriptures we will discover that God is really very, very good!!!
The Lord God made the heavens and the earth, formed humans from the dust of the ground, and breathed into our nostrils the very breath of life.
Just think of the special, up close and personal attention that God gives to us.
God forms us and gives us life--completely by grace--there is no charge.
And God takes the initiative from the start.
God plants a garden, and puts us there.
God causes the vegetation to grow--"every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food."
But after the first humans accepted and acted on the serpents negative image of God--false image of God--it's only natural that they would fear God's presence.
God has gone from being a grace-filled lover, to a bitter judge.
Adam and Eve become so convinced that they have disobeyed a "bad god" that they hide their nakedness and shame.
"They sewed fig leaves together and sewed loincloths for themselves."
And when they hear God walking in the garden, they hid from His presence...
...for they have come to think of the All Loving God as a punishing judge.
And when God calls out to them, they refuse to come to God as a loving parent or a trustworthy doctor.
And God's invitation to the first humans to trust His goodness and return to a relationship of confidence in Him is rejected.
They kick themselves out of the garden.
"And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them."
And God has been seeking to clothe, to take care of, to woo us back ever since.
Do you believe this?
Do you believe that God loves you no matter who you are or what you have done?
Do you believe that, more than anything, God wants to run and embrace you like a lost son or daughter--not judge you or harm you?
Are you sure you aren't a mistake?
God doesn't make mistakes.
