Repentance and Renewal: Lent 2020. The Snake in the Garden
Genesis 2:15-17 and 3:1-7
St John’s March 1 2020
Preached by Joshua
In the film “Stranger than Fiction” Will Ferrell plays the part of a tax auditor called Harold Crick.
Harold has a pretty ordinary life, until he starts to hear voices.
But not just any voices.
It turns out the voice he hears is a narration of his life.
As Harold works this out, he realizes he is a fictional character in the story of a writer. He starts to freak out and spends the rest of the story trying to work out what is going to happen, where will the plot lead? He visits a professor of literature begging him to help out figure what kind of plot he is living in. Is it a comedy? Is it an epic, a drama, or heaven forbid a tragedy?
You’ll have to watch the film to see what happens.
I really enjoyed this film because it named for me a central human question that we ask all the time – what is the story of which I am a part? What is the plot? What does it all mean? Is there even a meaning?
Currently the dominant secular narrative is as memorably put by writer and pastor, John Mark Comer, that we are “animals with time and chance on our side.”
This secular narrative says there is no overarching meaning or story of which we are a part. We are simply biological beings that came about by virtue of a complex accident and we are invited to make meaning of our lives where we can. “Animals with time and chance on our side.”
With this view in mind, we must create meaning via choosing our own stories either consciously or just by muddling through our daily existence.
This kind of “choose your own adventure” plot is one the dominant ways of looking at life today.
We hear phrases like “YOLO” – You only live once. “Live your best life”
“Do what’s right for you.”
The individual is left floating in a sea of choices about which story to live out of, like Harold Crick searching for some semblance of a plot and hoping that things will work out well, if not, at least ok.
Yet for many people I meet, this “choose your own adventure” plot isn’t working out. Many people find themselves exhausted as they search for something to make sense of their story.
Today we read a very ancient story. We heard the story of Genesis 2 and 3, a story that wrestles with themes of power and freedom. This story makes a different claim from the dominant secular story that we are simply “animals with time and chance on our side.”
The story of Genesis makes the claim that we are so much more and that life is about so much more. It claims we are made by God, given a purposeful role by God, and yet we find ourselves often enough struggling with God as we seek to find our own way…
So, turn with me in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis 2:15-17
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…
In verses 15-7 the Old Testament Scholar Walter Brueggemann says that here we see a remarkable statement about what it means to be a human being.
He says that we see three things about being human here.
Humans before God are characterized by:
1) Vocation
2) Permission
3) Prohibition.
Vocation: First we see vocation, or work. And it is good. People are given a role in the Garden – till it and keep it. God invites humanity to keep order with Him, to take care of the world, to be creative and to take responsibility. Work at its best is good. We can find great satisfaction and meaning in our work.
John Calvin said this about the goodness of work:
“From this it follows that men were created to work, and not to be inactive and indolent. This labor truly was pleasant and full of delight, entirely free from all trouble and weariness. So, nothing is more contrary to the order of nature than to spend all one’s life in eating, drinking, and sleeping.”
We know this instinctively to be true. We find great meaning in creating works of art, taking care of gardens and buildings, raising families, teaching, healing, providing goods and services – God has created us to work, to produce and create. This is good.
Permission: Secondly, we see permission in this passage. There is much freedom for Adam and Eve. God says, “You may eat freely from every tree of the garden.” There is ample provision for them.
Prohibition: Third, we see a prohibition. There is only a single prohibition – “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…”
In the garden two trees are specifically mentioned. First there is the tree of life. This tree is presented as a tree which brings life and flourishing to those who eat from it.
Then there is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are debates about what this tree is about, but this is to miss the point.
The main point is God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from it. There is a prohibition. The tree in this way represents the limits on humanity and their proper place in obedience to their Creator, to God.
The threat that follows disobedience is this: if they eat from the tree they will die. Not just there and then, but as we will see as the story unfolds they will experience a kind of walking death – a separation from God through their disobedience.
Let’s look at what happens when Eve encounters the tree and a crafty serpent:
Genesis 3:1-7
3:1a – The Serpent
What is the snake about? To the Hebrew readers of this story it would have all kinds of connotations.
Serpents in the ancient world were often viewed a demonic and hostile creature. In some ways, not that much has changed. If I found a snake in my garden I might view it that way too.
In the world of Egyptian gods and goddesses, the snake represented the forces of chaos.
The snake in the Genesis story is described as crafty or shrewd, but the first readers would have these ancient connotations of evil and chaos in their mind too.
In Christian interpretation, the snake has been interpreted as Satan, using the form of a serpent. This isn’t obvious from the actual Genesis passage but is legitimate when considered in light of the whole Bible. In Revelation 12:9 Satan is referred to as that “ancient serpent” and in Luke’s Gospel Satan and demons are associated with serpents. In today’s reading from the Gospel, we also see that Satan plays the role of the tempter, just as the snake in the garden.
3:1b – So what does the snake say?
There is a subtle moment in how the snake speaks, using the term “God” rather than the customary “Lord God” in Genesis. There is a hint of the snakes distance from God.
The snake opens with “Did God say you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?”
See what he did there?
The snake casts doubt on God’s good intent, by highlighting the prohibition not the permission. The serpent twists God’s words and makes God look miserly and spiteful, as if God is withholding something good.
3:2-3 Eve buys in to the focus on prohibition, even adding another prohibition “you shall not touch it”
Eve’s reaction is so familiar. She buys into the negative, the prohibition. Can’t we be like that too?
We always want what we can’t have. Isn’t that true of human nature in general?
3:4-5 Once Eve has given an opening, the snake boldly offers half-truths. The snake says “you won’t die”, and paints God as jealous and controlling.
3:6 – And so Eve eats, and so does Adam. The story tells us he was with her and joins in.
3:7 – As they realize they are naked and they awkwardly make some coverings out of fig leaves. Later on they hide from God. In their shame and in their hiding from God we can see what has happened. The death they experience upon eating the tree isn’t so much a literal one but rather a separation from God, a rupture of relationship. Later they will be expelled from the garden and they will die.
But first they experience the walking death of sin, which isn’t about doing naughty things, it is about a broken relationship with God, of which harmful and destructive actions are a symptom.
Autonomy vs trust and accepting our Creation.
So what does this story tell us about what it means to be human?
A big theme in this story is autonomy vs trust in God
Eve and Adam reach beyond what they were made for.
Commenting on this, Walter Brueggemann says:
“The destiny of the human creature is to live in God’s world, not a world of his/her own making. The human creation is to live with God’s other creatures, some of which are dangerous, but all of which are to be ruled and cared for. The destiny of the human creation is to live in God’s world, with God’s other creatures, on God’s terms.”[1]
We often want to push against this, right?
We live in an ages which asserts the rights of the individual to do what they want. However, the right to do what we choose has not really produced the freedom we hoped for. One look at the news shows us the fruit of this narrative of rights rather than responsibilities. Consumers degrading the planet for cheap goods, extremists pushing their views through violence, and just plain selfishness leaving a debris of broken relationships.
Genesis 2 and 3 tells a story in which humans were created for relationship with God and with limits.
We are given boundaries within which to live, so that we might flourish, not because God is miserly or wants us to have no fun.
But we so easily break the boundaries, casting off God, going out on our own.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent, the season of preparation for Easter, a season of 40 days of fasting and prayer.
Lent is a season we remember that we are but dust, that we are broken and fragile sinners, in need of God. The fundamental sin at the heart of each of us is reflected in the mirror of Genesis 2 and 3. It is this – that we seek to be independent from God, we reject God, and we go our own way.
Lent invites us to embrace practices of repentance that recognize that we are creatures made by God, loved by God, and given boundaries with in which to live well in creation.
The season of Lent is a time to repent, to turn around and come back to him, the one who has made a way back through Jesus Christ.
When we feel the guilt and the weight of sin, we ought to rejoice. When we feel the need for new story we ought to give thanks.
As Mark Sayers puts it:
“When God lovingly shines a light on an area in which we fall short of His standards, it is an act of mercy…The divine sword comes, but its intent is to cut us free of the net that ensnares our hearts.”[2]
In the Genesis story, Adam and Eve try to cover their own guilt, they grab fig leaves to cover themselves. In a stunning act of love and grace, God takes back his role, and at the end of chapter 3 he clothes them and makes a promise that one day he will restore humanity.
The promise is fulfilled in Jesus, who in his life, death, and resurrection has restored our broken relationship with God.
We are simply invited to trust in Him, to turn to Him and to say yes this day. Yes, I need you Jesus.
COMMUNAL PRAYER TO FINISH
Holy God: in this season of Lenten fasting, we remember Christ
Who went out into the desert to fast and undergo temptation.
We confess that we are often distracted by material comforts
And tempted to value them above the Kingdom of God.
You, God, are our help in difficulty;
Christ is our inspiration.
We confess that we do not live by bread or worldly provision alone,
But by every word that comes from Your mouth.
May we fill our mouths, our hearts, our minds now with your words
That we might be transformed and renewed.
May we, with renewed hearts and minds,
Better serve the purposes of Your kingdom.
May we, by setting aside worldly distractions
Become more like Christ.
May we, with purified motives and deeper understanding,
Receive Christ when He comes to us.
Lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil. Amen[3]
[1] Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.
[2] Mark Sayers, Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of our Post-Christian Culture.
[3] http://www.franpratt.com/litanies/2016/1/30/lent-series-litany-for-lent-week-1