Incident in the Garden

We all know the story of the man and woman in the Garden of Eden who ate the fruit from the forbidden tree. What were they thinking, anyway? Clues in the text suggest that it was an attempt to lift their status from nobodies to somebodies. Ambition still drives us today. Is that bad or good? These are the questions that I explore in this week's sermon.

Is there anyone who doesn’t know the story of the forbidden fruit? Everyone in the Judeo-Christian tradition knows it. Even people who have never set foot in church know it. God told the first man and woman not to eat the fruit of the tree that grew in the middle of the Garden of Eden, but they ate some of it anyway. And the snake was behind it all, smoothly suggesting that God didn’t really mean it when he forbade the man and the woman to eat that fruit. Sure, we all know that story. But there’s more to it than we pick up with just a casual reading. It’s more than just a story of disobedience. It’s a story that warns us about the glamour of status. When we unpack the story, it tells us a lot about ourselves even now.

So let’s start by taking a close look at that snake. Most people don’t like snakes. When they run into one, they run the other way. But that wasn’t the case in the ancient world. In the world of the Bible, snakes were symbols of wisdom. The symbol of the Greek god of healing, for example, was a staff with a snake twined around it. Far from being feared, in the ancient world snakes were honored. So when the serpent struck a conversation with the woman, she would have been flattered at his attention. And she would have taken what he said very seriously: “When you eat the fruit of that tree, you will be like gods.”

Like gods! Really? That would be a real advance in status! At the end of chapter 2, we read that the man and his wife were naked; and that they weren’t ashamed of it. That little verse is a comment on their lack of status – and on their ignorance about it. In the ancient world, the only people who went about naked were slaves. Everyone who was anybody wore clothing! And the better your clothing, the higher your status. It’s not that much different today. Teenagers would much rather wear Calvin Klein jeans instead of jeans from Sears! What you wear reflects who you are. The man and the woman were nobodies – and their lack of clothing was proof of it. So when the snake suggested that eating the fruit from the tree would make them “like gods,” it occurred to the woman that she would like to raise her status and become like a god. Making herself better sounded like a good idea.

Well, you know what happened. They did eat that fruit, and when they did, they realized that there was a difference between good and evil. That made them want to decide about good and evil for themselves when they made a choice. They didn’t want to just take orders from God any more. But, of course, there were problems with that. They may have known about good and evil; but they didn’t always understand the difference between the two. They certainly possessed more knowledge; but they didn’t always know everything that they needed to know. And they certainly didn’t always understand the consequences of their choices that they made. But their status had changed, and it had changed permanently. So, to show the world that they had bettered themselves, they made aprons out of fig leaves. They weren’t naked slaves anymore; they were something else. They now had a higher status than the animals, but a lower status than God. Oh, yes, that snake was crafty when he appealed to the woman’s desire to better herself.

The desire to become better still drives a lot of what we do. And ambition isn’t always a bad thing! I’m reminded of that every time the Olympics roll around. Athletes who have trained for years to better themselves in their chosen sport perform in remarkable ways!

·         They achieve excellence, like Gabby Douglas who won a gold medal in women’s gymnastics. She was better than any other woman in the world on the balance beam, on the uneven parallel bars, on the vault, and on floor exercises.
·         Some athletes achieve sustained excellence, like Michael Phelps. He is now the most decorated Olympic athlete in history, having won 22 medals over 3 Olympic Games.
·         They achieve despite handicaps. We’ve all seen pictures of Oscar Pistorius, the South African runner who competes on artificial legs since both of his lower legs were amputated as a child.
·         They achieve despite injuries. In the men’s 4x100 meter relay race just a few days ago, American sprinter Manteo Mitchell finished one leg of the race on a broken leg.
·         They achieve even though it may put them at personal risk. Sarah Attar and Wojdan Shaherkani, are the two women who represented the country of Saudi Arabia for the first time in the Olympic Games. They have been repeatedly insulted, and even threatened by conservative Islamic men who believe that women should not compete alongside men.
·         And they achieve even though they appear to have no chance to achieve! Claressa Shields grew up in inner city Flint, Michigan, living next door to drug addicts and crackheads. As a child, she wanted to learn the sport of boxing. Although her father told her boxing was only for boys, she took up the sport anyway. She used worn-out equipment, and sometimes even had to make her own. Her family was the poorest of the poor. She was quoted as saying, “I went without a lot of meals growing up.” What chance was there for someone in those circumstances? But she never gave up; and last week she won a gold medal in the very first appearance of women’s Olympic boxing.

No, there’s nothing wrong with ambition. I am inspired by the athletes of the Olympic Games who work so hard for a chance to prove that they are better than everyone else in the world! But it also makes me wonder what might happen if we Christians channeled our ambition the way that Olympic athletes channel theirs. What if we used our ambition for the good of others? Instead of striving to better our status through big homes, fast cars, and designer clothing, what if we tried to improve ourselves through what we can do for God? We know how to do that. Jesus told us to work deeds of mercy, to share what we have with those who have less, to visit the imprisoned, and to befriend the unloved. What might happen if we worked as hard to improve our Christianity as Michael Phelps did to improve his swimming?

That’s exactly what God wants us to do, you know. We aren’t God’s slaves any longer. In Christ, God has adopted us as beloved children; and made us partners in creating the kingdom that God intends for all creation. But our job is still the same one that God originally gave us in the garden – to take care of the world by nurturing and cherishing it and everything that lives in it. If we tried to outdo each other in following Jesus’ example of love, what might we achieve? If each of us took an interest in just one lonely child, a whole generation might grow up experiencing love as an alternative to hate and violence. If each of us bought just a few extra cans of food for others when we shop for ourselves, food pantries would be full of good things to share with hungry families. If all of us practiced prayer as diligently as Olympic athletes practice their sport, we would live our whole lives in touch with God! Yes, our human ambition got us in trouble way back there in the Garden of Eden; but God can transform that drive into something that can be used for the good of the Kingdom.

We will always want to make ourselves better. It’s human nature. If we would only work to follow in the way of Jesus Christ, we could make the whole world better, as well.

Corresponding to Him

Did God create men to be superior to women? Many people think so; and they quote the Bible to prove it. I'm not so sure! This sermon examines Genesis 2:18-25 to see if there is any support for the idea that men are superior to women. What do you think?

It is said that when God decided to create woman, God first consulted with the man. “If you give me an arm and a leg,” God offered, “I’ll create a companion for you who will cook your meals, clean your home, and run all your errands.” The man considered; and then replied, “I don’t know. An arm and a leg is a lot to lose. What will you create if I only give you a rib?” And the rest... is history!

The relationship between men and women: We cry about it, we fret about it, and we certainly joke about it. The great philosopher Socrates is reported to have said, “My advice to you, young man, is to get married. If you find a good wife, you’ll be happy. If not, you’ll become a philosopher.” More recently, the humorist Will Rogers commented, “There’s two theories about arguin’ with a woman; and neither one works.” Even the science-fiction writer Ray Bradbury put in his two cents’ when he said, “Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea.”

But when all the jokes have been told and all the clever lines have been said, we’re left with a serious question: What should the relationship of men and women be? Many people have claimed that one is superior to the other. The early Christian thinker Augustine concluded that women are fit only to bear children. The medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas stated that women are defective, while men are complete. And the reformer John Knox stated flatly, “Woman was made for only one reason: to serve and obey man.”

Is that right? Are men superior to women? That is what some Christian denominations teach; and they claim that the Bible supports it. They use texts from both Old and New Testament to prove their point; but the story on which all of their thinking rests is the story of the creation of man and woman in Genesis 2. So maybe we’d better take another look at that story. What does it really say about the relationship between men and women? How does God intend for them to relate?

Some people find meaning in the order in which humans were created. They say that man is superior to woman because man was created first. But that argument doesn’t really hold up when we look at it closely. If you’re going to argue that whatever is created first is better, then what do we do with the story in Genesis 1? Remember that in Genesis 1, men and women were created last. Is that story saying that everything else in creation is better than human beings? Of course not! Genesis 1 says that human beings are created in God’s image, meant to rule on earth in God’s place. In Genesis 1, the best thing in creation – humankind – is created last. The relationship between men and women can’t rest on which one was created first.

But if we look closely at the Hebrew words that are used in Genesis 2, we can find a really big clue as to what God intended the relationship of men and women to be. We find it in how God refers to the woman before she is even created. In verse 18, God decides to find an ”ezer k’negdo” for the newly created human. That’s the Hebrew for what God is looking for: an “ezer k’negdo.” What does that mean? Well, the first word, “ezer,” can be translated as “helper.” But that word “ezer” doesn’t refer to a servant! An “ezer” is someone who is strong: a nurturer and a protector. In fact, the word “ezer” in the Old Testament is most often used to describe God! When Psalm 121 confesses that our “help” comes from the Lord, the One who makes heaven and earth, the word for “help” is “ezer.” No one in their right mind would describe God as the maid! An “ezer” is the help on whom you can always rely.

So if “ezer” means a strong, reliable help, what about the Hebrew word “k’negdo”? Like many Hebrew words, it’s hard to translate. The closest that we can come is that it means “corresponding to him.” The New International Version says “suitable for him,” while the New Revised Standard Version translates it “as his partner.” It’s really a question of status. Someone in the Ancient Near East who was “k’negdo” had the same social standing that you had. “K’negdo” is neither above you nor beneath you. If you put the two words together – “ezer k’negdo” – it describes a social equal who is a source of nurturing strength. If we trust the words that the author of Genesis used, that’s what God intends women to be – partners who are not only the social equals of men; but who also nurture them, protect them, and are a source of their strength.

Of course, we all know that in the Genesis story, this ideal relationship hardly gets off the ground before it is spoiled. When the first two humans eat the fruit of the forbidden tree in the middle of the garden, their equal relationship turns into something very different. We’ll consider that story in a couple of weeks. For now, it’s enough to say that although women are subservient to men, that situation is not what God originally intended.

But in Christ, that relationship is mended. Jesus accepted all people – both men and women – as God’s valued children. He modeled God’s original intent for men and women. In the eyes of Jesus, neither was less valuable than the other. Paul understood this, and reminds us in his letter to the Galatians, “There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” Through Christ, the relationship of mutuality that men and women can and should have is restored. We may not be back in the Garden of Eden; but we can live as though we are!

Unfortunately, living like that is hard to do. There are areas of the world in which men are legally in charge, and women have virtually no status. Saudi Arabia comes to mind. Women aren’t even permitted to drive a car in Saudi Arabia! Girls are forced into marriages that benefit their fathers financially; and showing any independence might lead to their being stoned to death. Our own culture even buys into the inequality. For years we have heard that women aren’t as valuable as men. And girls are caught in a cultural bind. On the one hand, the media portrays them as shallow, stupid, or scheming. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, just watch one episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County. On the other hand, Madison Avenue holds women to impossibly high standards. Have you ever seen an aging, overweight woman – somebody who looks like me – in a clothing advertisement? I didn’t think so. It’s no wonder that little girls grow up not knowing who they are!

Hopefully it’s here, in the midst of the body of Christ, that women can see what God intended for them. It’s here that men and women can live in mutually supportive relationships that nurture both of them. It’s here that men can put down the heavy burden of always needing to be in charge, and let someone else carry their heavy loads for a while. It’s here that girls can learn that they are valuable children of God just as much as boys! Hopefully here, in our congregation, both men and women can learn how God intended them to relate to one another, even as they learn how God wants them to relate to Jesus Christ.

Yes, the relationship between men and women is a complicated, controversial topic. That isn’t likely to change any time soon. And each one of us has to work out for ourselves who we are, and how we relate to one another as women and as men. Maybe the best way for me to end this sermon is the way I began it – with a quote. It’s by Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet. He said, “Let us treat both men and women well. Treat them as if they were real. Perhaps they are.”

In God's Image

What does it mean to be made in God's image? Those of us in the Judeo-Christian tradition affirm that humankind is made in God's image. But what does that mean? This sermon offers some suggestions to that question. If you choose to read it, I'd be curious to know if you agree with me -- or if you have any suggestions of your own.

In God’s image. We are made in God’s image! What a marvelous affirmation of humanity! We are made in God’s image! It’s a statement that we take almost for granted; but it’s breathtaking when we stop to really think about it.

In the Ancient Near East it would have been almost unbelievable. That’s because, at the time when the book of Genesis was written, human beings weren’t considered to be anything special. In the opinion of most ancient religions, humans were created only for the benefit of the gods. For example, in the ancient Babylonian text Enuma Elish, human beings were created from the blood of an executed monster as servants to the gods. The gods didn’t want to work (after all, they were gods), so human beings were created to do their work for them. As far as the ancient Babylonians were concerned, we humans were only useful as long as we were building temples to the gods, feeding them through sacrifice, and honoring them through worship.

That’s an amazing contrast to what we read in the biblical text. According to Genesis, human beings were created with honor – in God’s image – and placed on earth to rule with God’s authority! We’re not slaves! On the contrary, we’re kings and queens, princesses and princes! We don’t wear the rags of a slave; we wear the robes of a monarch! Psalm 8 (verses 4-6) says in amazement,

“What are human beings that you are mindful of them,
and mortals that you care for them?
Yet you have made them a little lower than God,
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands,
and you have put all things under their feet.”

We might ask the same question if we really stop to think about what Genesis says. “What are human beings that you are mindful of them?” Why did you honor us, God, by making us in your image?

That, of course, is a question that (in this life, at least) will remain hidden by the mystery of God’s will and Gods’ ways. But it begs another question, one that we might come closer to answering.

“What does it mean to be made in God’s image?”
Ponder that for just a moment.
“What does it mean that we are made in God’s image?”

It clearly does not mean that God has two arms and two legs, eyes and ears and a nose, a head and a bottom. Even though Michelangelo painted God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel as a dignified old man, most people know by mid-childhood that God the creator is spirit. So, since we can rule out a physical body for God, we’re back to the question that we asked a few minutes ago.

“What does it mean to be made in God’s image?”
In the end, the book of Genesis doesn’t really tell us; but I do have a few suggestions to offer.

The first suggestion comes from the wording of verse 26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…’” Did you notice that verse refers to God in the plural?

“Let us make humankind in our image…” “Us?” Who’s the “us” in that statement?

There are a variety of opinions; but many Christians read this ancient text and catch a glimpse of the Holy Trinity when God’s refers to “us.” In their understanding, the “us” is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, existing in an eternal mutual relationship of love.

That’s the first aspect of being made “in God’s image” that I want to suggest. If we are created in God’s image, then we are created to be in relationship. In Genesis 2, God states “It isn’t good for a human being to be alone.” I think it’s not only “not good” for us to be alone; it’s not in our nature to be alone. God’s nature is to be in relationship – with the other persons of the Trinity, with us, with creation, and with the universe itself. Since we are created in God’s image, it’s our nature, too. God’s intends for each one of us to be in a network of relationships that nurture and sustain us: relationships with other people and with creation, all founded on a healthy relationship with God. We were made in God’s image not to be “you” and “me,” but to be “us.”

As well as being relational, God is creative. We explored that aspect of God in our worship last week. God seeks continually to construct new situations, to create new opportunities, to increase the variety of our lives. And God doesn’t create out of need. God doesn’t need a single thing – not a star, not a mountain, not even you and me! God creates out of the sheer joy of creating – for the same reason that Leonardo da Vinci created the painting “The Last Supper.” Da Vinci didn’t need that painting loto cover a crack in the plaster in his dining room wall. He painted it because he loved creating – and so that he could share beauty with others. God is just like that. God’s creativity is always for the benefit of others. God uses creativity to help us realize our potential, so that we can be as fulfilled as we can possibly be. When we create for the benefit of others, we are reflecting God’s image. Maybe that means inventing a new strain of corn that yields more bushels per acre; or creating a new outreach program to help those who are unemployed; or just figuring out how to make more time in our own busy lives to visit a friend in a nursing home. However we are creative, if we use it for the benefit of someone else, we are reflecting the image of God.

And that brings us to the third way that we are made in God’s image. We are made to love. The relationships that we are part of and the creativity that we use for the benefit of others – all of these things spring from the love that God has put at the very center of our soul.

Love is the reason that we were created in the first place! Love is the reason that God chose Abraham and Sarah to be the parents of a people. Love is the reason that God liberated the Hebrew slaves from Egypt and led them across the desert to a land flowing with milk and honey. Love is the reason that God journeyed into exile in Babylon with the Israelites; and love is the reason that he led them home again. Love is the reason that God came to us as Jesus Christ.

If you don’t believe that God is love, just look into Jesus’ face. Jesus lived among us in human flesh because of love. He healed the sick, forgave sinners, cast out demons, and taught the people because of love. He endured prejudice, ignorance, rejection, and hate because of love. He suffered and died on a cross because of love. And that amazing love is the reason that he rose from the dead on Easter morning.

Love is who God is – and who we are. As we try to follow Jesus Christ and to be more like him, what we’re really doing is trying to polish up the image of God in us that has become so clouded by sin – to make it all bright and shiny again, so that we can reflect God’s love to everyone that we meet.

Yes, we are made in God’s image. We are made to be in loving relationship with others and to use our creativity for their benefit. How gracious God is that he created us this way. And how gracious God is that he helps us keep his image bright in our lives as we follow Jesus Christ!

Creative Genius



When we talk about God's creativity, we usually focus on the natural world. And that is appropriate! Genesis tells us that God is responsible for the diversity of the natural world (however you understand that the diversity came about). But what about God's creativity in other ways? Does God still create -- or did God stop creating after Day 6? This sermon might make you think about other ways that God shows creative genius far beyond our own!



It is impossible to go to a zoo, or an aquarium, or an aviary and not be overwhelmed by the diversity of animals there! Animals have four legs, six legs, eight legs, and sometimes they have no legs at all. Some animals swim in the ocean, some walk on land, and some soar in the air. If you go to a zoo, you can see lizards, armadillos, polar bears, penguins, and frogs… and that doesn’t even count the myriad species of insects that exist!  You can see road runners, flamingos, ostriches, hummingbirds, and all sorts of parrots. And if you go to an aquarium, you can see stingrays, jellyfish, hermit crabs, and great white sharks.

The diversity of creation is impressive for anyone to ponder; but there is an extra dimension for those of us who believe that a loving Creator caused all of it to exist. The Creator who made elephants and lightning bugs, earthworms and oysters, storks and koala bears must be incredibly creative! How else can you explain the diversity of life that coexists on this planet that we call Earth? And our Creator is not one who always does the same thing at the same time in the same way. No, God chooses to create sometimes in one way and sometimes in another. Lizards, for example, come in little (geckos), medium (iguanas), and big (Komodo dragons). If you fly, you’re not necessarily a bird. You might be a dragonfly or a bumblebee – or a bat! And some animals don’t seem to know what they are! The duckbilled platypus, for example, has a bill like a duck, webbed feet like an otter, a tail like a beaver, and even though it’s a mammal, it lays eggs like a bird.

If all this weren’t enough, life exists in places where we didn’t believe it could live at all. Whenever I hear someone saying that “no life can exist” somewhere, I smile to myself, and expect that in the next few months, scientists will discover a new form of life that lives in that place where “no life can exist.” One particular type of insect, for example, lives more than a mile below the ground in the total darkness of caves. It finds food with its antennae that can pick up tiny traces of chemicals in the surrounding air. Fish and crabs can live more than 5 miles beneath the surface of the ocean in the deepest chasms on earth. And some bacteria make their home in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park where the temperature is just a few degrees below boiling all year round. God can create form of life that we can’t even imagine!

Now, I’m not spending so much time on the diversity of creation just so that you can marvel at God’s creativity where animals are concerned – although I certainly hope that you do that! No, I’ve given you such a long list of different kinds of animals to demonstrate that God is capable of great creativity. If you agree that God’s creativity is reflected by the diversity of life in the natural world; then we can probably also agree that God is capable of being creative in other ways, as well. God is creative in situations, too; especially situations where we see no way out – no solution – no way that anything could possibly turn out well. Those are the times when God uses divine creativity to open new opportunities for us where there are none that we can see!

You’ve probably heard the saying, “When God closes a door, he opens a window.” Maybe you’ve even said it yourself. It’s a good saying; but I don’t think that it goes far enough. I think it would be better to say, “When a door closes, God creates a window.” I think that’s a better saying because God is not always responsible for the doors that are slammed in our faces. Much of the time – most of the time, maybe – other people are the ones slamming the door on us. That’s when God not only opens a window for us; God uses divine creativity to make a window where there wasn’t one there in the first place!

Maybe a story will explain what I mean.

In the year 1847, a boy was born in the Midwestern United States. I’ll call him “Ed.” Ed was curious, but his mind jumped from topic to topic seemingly at random. Today, Ed would be labeled as ADHD and treated with Ritalin; but in the 1850’s, no such diagnosis – or drug – existed. Ed lasted only 3 months in school; and then the teacher in his one-room school house expelled him. His hearing was always poor – it was probably an inherited condition – and it was made even worse when Ed was boxed on the ears. It left him deaf in one ear and with only 20% hearing in the other. By the age of 14, Ed was virtually deaf, had only 3 months of education, and suffered from ADHD.

It doesn’t sound like Ed had much of a future, does it? I don’t see any door that could open for a boy like that. But our creative God can create windows where there are no doors!

The first window came in the form of the young son of the local stationmaster. One day, the boy wandered onto the railroad tracks in the path of an oncoming train. Ed happened to be nearby and saved the little boy’s life. As a reward for Ed’s bravery, the stationmaster taught him Morse Code. At the time, being able to use a telegraph was like being able to use a state-of-the-art computer today. Ed was able to work as a telegrapher, first for the railroad and then for Western Union. As he worked, he travelled; and everywhere he went, he soaked up the education that life sent his way. But his inability to focus eventually got him in trouble. Western Union finally fired him for "not concentrating on his responsibilities and for doing too much moonlighting." Ed borrowed $35, and went to New York, because he had heard that there was opportunity for work there.

But there were no doors for Ed in New York, either. He lived in there for three weeks sleeping in the basement of a building in the financial district, eating scraps of food that he begged from street vendors. But then, God created window number two. One morning, Ed was wandering through the office building in which he slept. One of the brokerage firms that he passed was in a panic: a critically important stock-ticker in the office had broken down, and no one had any idea how to fix it. Ed had been doing a bit of snooping around, so he had a pretty good idea of what that stock-ticker was supposed to do. After spending a few seconds examining the device, Ed pushed a loose spring back to its proper place. The stock-ticker began to run perfectly again; and the office manager hired Ed on the spot to make all such repairs for his company for a salary of $300.00 per month – a virtual fortune at that time. With a job that allowed him plenty of free time and a salary that he could live on, Ed was able to pursue what he loved to do – tinker with things. Although his mind was unable to focus on normal tasks; but it had the ability to picture not only how things worked, but also how things might work. Because of Ed’s limited hearing, he was able to channel his thinking without being distracted by the noise in the world around him. And because he had experienced only 3 months of formal schooling, Ed had never learned that “this won’t work” or “that won’t work.” He tried what he thought might work – and before he died in his 80’s, he patented over 1,000 inventions.

Oh, by the way, you know Ed. His full name was Edison – Thomas Edison. He invented the incandescent electric light bulb, moving pictures, the storage battery, and the mimeograph (for those of you who are old enough to remember what that is).

Now, maybe you never imagined that God created those crucial windows in the life of Thomas Edison. Maybe you’ve always called them “coincidences.” But how else do you explain the fact that a boy who suffered from ADHD, was nearly deaf, and had almost no formal education turned out to be one of the greatest inventors the world has ever known?

It sure sounds like God to me! It sounds like the work of our creative God, who creates windows when no doors are available!

Has God ever done something like that for you? Has God ever created a window when you couldn’t find any doors? Has God ever guided you out of a dark place into the light when you didn’t know which way to turn? Think back over your life… and I’ll bet that you’ll answer “Yes.” I know that I can remember times like that.

I hope that when you leave worship today, you’ll enjoy all the diversity of God’s creation. I hope that you’ll appreciate the creativity that God showed in creating turtles and dogs and butterflies and goldfinches. But most of all, I hope that you’ll have renewed faith that God’s creativity didn’t stop after Day 6 of creation; and renewed hope that God uses it for our benefit all the time! After all, God is still creating! Thanks be to God!

A Space to Live

This morning, I began a series of sermons based on the first three chapters of the book of Genesis. Today's sermon focused on Genesis 1:1-13, the first three days of creation. It was also communion Sunday; so I considered God's first creative actions as preparing a place for us to live in peace amidst the chaos of the primeval universe. When we come to the table, we come to the peace that God intended for the entire world. What do you think?

I am convinced that we don’t know who we are if we don’t know where we came from.

Did you get that? Let me say it again. We don’t know who we are if we don’t know where we came from.

Human beings need a context, a bigger picture that can help us to understand how we got to where we are right now. Why else would people spend countless hours (and countless dollars) researching their family history? Finding out where we came from is a search that is crucial to establishing our identity! Were our ancestors immigrants? If they were, what country did they come from? Why did they leave? Were they persecuted? Did they seek religious freedom; or was some long-ago ancestor escaping the long arms of the law? It’s human nature, after all, to want to place ourselves somewhere; and questions like these are basic if we want to understand who we are and where we belong in the world.

We can say the same thing about ourselves as Christians. We don’t know who we are as Christians if we don’t know where we came from. That’s why, during the months of July and August, I’ll be going all the way back to the very beginning – to the first 3 chapters of the book of Genesis – and exploring where we came from with respect to our faith. We’ll be thinking about questions like, “Why are we here?” “Who does God intend for us to be?” “Are we the people that God intended?” If that answer is ‘No,’ then, “What went wrong?” And as we look at where we came from, the past will shed some light on our identity as people of God right now.

So let’s go all the way back to the beginning – the VERY beginning – before there was even a universe. Genesis tells us that in the beginning there were two things: God, and something else. That “something else” is usually translated as a “formless void,” a “watery abyss.” Maybe the closest that we can come to describing it is to say that it was chaos. It wasn’t exactly nothing, but it wasn’t really something either. In it there was no up nor down, no here nor there, no present nor future. It was and it wasn’t, all at the same time. Only God could comprehend it; and God decided that it something needed to change.

And so, as the first act of creation, God created light. Light is a profound symbol in the biblical text. Light isn’t just the ability to see with our eyes; it stands for all kinds of things – knowledge, wisdom, and relationship. With light comes the potential to discern good and bad, right and wrong, truth and falsehood. That kind of light was the very first thing that God created. And then, God separated this light of discernment from the darkness of chaos, and created time. Now creation had the beginnings of a structure – past, present, and future – and the first day occurred.

But the watery chaos still surrounded everything; and so, God created a space in middle of that chaos. Genesis tells us that God created a raquia – a firmament – a dome – a ceiling – and pushed back the waters of chaos to make a quiet space in between. Oh, the chaotic waters are still up there. (After all, said the ancient writers, the sky is blue; so there must be water up there behind that ceiling.) Some of the chaotic waters are still down here, too. But in the middle, where we live, things are peaceful, and time is going quietly by.

That was a good start, but it still wasn’t enough for God. The chaotic waters down here were still causing a ruckus. So God gathered those waters together and said to them, “Now, you stay here in the oceans. This is your place. The dry land will be a peaceful place. None of your chaos is allowed there!” The book of Job (38:8-11) describes the event like a mother taking charge of a rebellious toddler:

"God shut up the sea behind doors,
diapered it in clouds and dressed it in darkness.
Then he fixed limits for it, and set a gate in place.
He said, ‘You may come this far, but no farther.
You have to stop here.’"

God did all of that so that living things would have a space to be. Life, after all, can’t exist in the middle of chaos. Life needs structure: up and down, here and there, present and future, good and bad, right and wrong. And so, God’s first acts of creation carved out that space for the good of all life – oak trees and daffodils, pelicans and bluebirds, giraffes and hedgehogs – and, eventually, you and me. God made a place where all of us could live in peace.

Now, today we know a lot more about the universe than the authors of the book of Genesis did. Telescopes and spacecraft have shown us that there isn’t any ceiling above the sky that is holding the waters of chaos back. But don’t think that chaos is gone. Oh, my, no – chaos is still all around us. When a spot shows up on an X-ray and our doctor orders more testing, we see the shadow of chaos. When our checking account is empty and a collection agency phones, we can hear the whisper of chaos. When we hear reports of riots in Syria and roadside bombs in Afghanistan and suicide bombers in Israel, we can feel chaos breathing down our neck.

But chaos is not in charge! That’s the message of the authors of Genesis in their account of the very first days of creation. Chaos is not in charge. God is in charge; and God has gifted us with a space to live that is intended to be a place of peace and plenty. God carved out a place in the middle of chaos so that we would have a space to live.

Now, that space doesn’t feel very peaceful sometimes; and God’s plenty frequently seems far away. When we feel like that, God invites us here – to the table, where Jesus Christ waits for us. Here at the table is the space where we live as Christians.

The night that we remember at this table was the scene of a battle with the powers of chaos. Oh, we can call it Satan or the devil or Evil if we like – but it was chaos that put Jesus on a cross and snuffed out his life. Jesus embraced that chaos, went right through it, and came out the other side triumphant on Easter morning. And when he did, he gave us a space to live that not only offers us peace that passes all understanding in this life, but also eternal life in the kingdom of God.

So, this morning, come – come to the table. Come to the table where we live together in peace, and where even the chaos of death has been overcome. Come to the table where we are nurtured and valued and loved. Come to the table that Christ has set – his space, where we are invited to live with him forever.

Don't Throw That Away!

In this sermon, I consider the question of what is useful for contemporary churches to keep in their search to remain relevant in today's world. To analyze today, I look at Christian history as summarized by Phyllis Tickle in her recent (2008) book The Great Emergence. Many ideas of the past have been thrown away as the Christian church has moved through history. If you choose to read this sermon, think about what the church of today should choose to keep -- and what it might choose to throw away!



Well, we made it through the garage sale, didn’t we? It’s been nearly a month now since our church garage sale took place, and I hope that we’re still rejoicing about the $1500 that we made for our new playground equipment. Some of us are also rejoicing about the newly de-cluttered rooms in our homes!

That garage sale wasn’t easy! Garage sales never are. They involve lots of all kinds of work: sorting, organizing, displaying, and cleaning up afterwards. And, of course, there are always disagreements – disagreements that seem to center around the question of what should be donated and what should be kept. A box might be filled with items that, in one person’s opinion, are great things to donate to the sale! But before that box can be hauled away, someone else appears out of nowhere. “What’s in the box?” he asks. “Can I have a look?” And waaaay down in the bottom, there is always sure to be something that person thinks should be kept. “Oh, don’t throw that away!” he says. Hmmmm….

What should be kept… and what should be thrown away? It’s not just a question that churches ask when they sponsor a community garage sale! In fact, Phyllis Tickle, a specialist of religion and society, claims that Christianity as a whole asks that question every 500 years. In her recent book The Great Emergence (Baker Books, 2008), Tickle has observed that “about every five hundred years, the Church feels compelled to hold a giant [garage] sale.” She claims that it takes that long for the faith to get cluttered up with all kinds of activities and traditions and doctrines that actually keep more people away from the faith than they do to welcome them in. And so, every 500 years, the Church gets rid of some of the clutter. Let’s take a quick tour through the past 2,000 years of Christian history, and see what our garage sales of the past have looked like. All you have to do is to step into my WayBack machine and fasten your seat belt. Here we go!

Our first stop is in the city of Ephesus (in what is now the country of Turkey) in about the year 55. Paul of Tarsus is preaching to a crowd of Jews and gentiles that Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Messiah, and that what God really wants of us is to follow Jesus and to model our lives after him. According to Paul, we can throw away all the Jewish ritual laws – temple sacrifice, keeping kosher, and circumcision. The Jews in the audience are objecting, “Don’t throw that away!” but Paul insists. The gentiles, on the other hand, are delighted to hear that Paul says they don’t have to keep all the Jewish laws! It’s ironic that Christianity itself was born in the midst of a garage sale of epic proportions.

Now let’s fast-forward the WayBack machine 550 years, to the year 600. The Roman Empire is dead; and the barbarian hordes that have overrun the city of Rome have decided to stay there. Quite a few have become Christian themselves; but most of them are illiterate. Their form of Christianity is as much magic and superstition as it is living in and through Jesus Christ. We are standing in the entrance to the cloister where a small group of monks live together. It’s dark and quiet here in the cloister; and we can hear the monks chanting as they join in worship. Unlike most Christians, these monks can read and write. (Their scriptorium is right over there, in fact, where they meticulously copy Bibles and other books by hand.) They have been organized by Pope Gregory I, who is now called Gregory the Great. Gregory understood that if Christianity was to survive, the treasures of its past must not be thrown out. Manuscripts, books, and church tradition must be preserved for the education of future generations. So, he organized groups of monks and nuns to do just that. Fortunately, in the garage sale of the 5^th century, Gregory the Great kept some real treasures from being thrown out in the dumpster!

Here we go again. We’re off to the year 1054. This time, we’re in the sanctuary of the Hagia Sophia, the Church of the Holy Wisdom, in the city of Constantinople (now called Istanbul). The bishop is announcing to his parishioners that their whole church has been excommunicated by the Bishop of Rome because of a theological disagreement. Today, we call this the “Great Schism”; and these two major sections of Christianity – Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox – have not yet been reconciled. In the garage sale of 1054, for better or for worse, Christian unity was the victim of the decluttering efforts.

OK, one last stop. The year is 1517; and we’re standing in front of the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany. There’s a long piece of paper tacked on the door – a list of 95 theological points. A monk named Martin Luther wants to debate them with authorities in the Roman Catholic church. If this last stop is more familiar to you, I’m not surprised. Luther’s 95 Theses were the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Lots of old ways were thrown out in this garage sale! Traditional practices were reexamined in light of the corruption that had infiltrated the Roman Catholic church; and a new emphasis on opening the Bible to non-clergy sprang up.

And that brings us to today. It’s not quite 500 years past Luther’s time; so we’re about due for another Christian church garage sale. In fact, Phyllis Tickle argues that we’re in the middle of one right now! Churches are reevaluating all kinds of things that have been taken for granted until fairly recently. If we look at Christian churches around the country (and even around the world), we will find that there is no one way of “being church” any more. Congregations have thrown out all kinds of things as they move into the future!

·         Some churches have reinvented their worship practices. Many worship on days other than Sunday. Worship spaces have been redesigned so that the seating can fit the needs of any particular day’s worship experience. Ancient worship practices like Taizé worship (an experience of scripture, music, and meditation) have been rediscovered. Worship is no longer simply a keynote address with a few prayers.

·         Others have discarded “programming” in favor of “service opportunities.” These churches are organizing to work on Habitat homes, serve in soup kitchens, and help out in disaster-stricken areas. They are hear Jesus’ call as not to be “organized religion,” but to be “religion organized” in the service of others.

·         And Christian education is undergoing a huge change. The morning Sunday school model fits so few churches these days that many congregations have even donated it to the garage sale! These churches are integrating their Christian education into all aspects of their church life. All ages work, worship, and fellowship together; and in the process, they learn about Jesus and his call to love God and one another.

Yes, it’s all up for discussion these days. What shall we keep, and what shall we throw away?

Unfortunately, my WayBack machine can only travel to the past, so I can’t show you what Christianity will look like 500 years in the future. Who knows what things will look like then? But I do know that in the midst of our decluttering the church from everything that is holding us back, there is only one thing that we really need to hang on to. We can find it by getting in the WayBack machine one more time and going way back – all the way back to 15 years before the time of St. Paul, about the year 35. As we step out of the WayBack machine, we’re in a small upper room in the Middle East in the middle of a celebration. Men and women are shouting with joy, crowding around a young man who is standing in their midst. Just a few days ago, on Friday, they were frightened and grief-stricken – but today, on Sunday, their joy knows no bounds. Jesus, the one they thought was gone forever, has returned to them with his message of love and salvation. They are ready to do anything in his service, because Jesus is risen!

In this morning’s scripture reading (Revelation 2:1-5, 7), we heard a message to the church in Ephesus. In part, it warned, “Don’t lose the love that you had at first.” That love is the love that Jesus’ disciples felt on that first Easter Day when they realized that Jesus would be with them forever. It was the love that sent them to all corners of the known world, to preach the gospel to Jews and to gentiles, and even to go into the arena as martyrs! We dare not lose that love as we respond to today’s realities and to tomorrow’s challenges. Our identity as people of Jesus Christ must continue to be our foundation as we reevaluate what we do in our churches and how we go about doing it. Otherwise, we will have discarded our love for Jesus Christ – and that’s the one thing that we must never throw away!

Ebeneezers

This is a sermon for the Sunday when our congregation honors our high school and college graduates. As they look forward to a new time in their lives, I suspect that they have mixed feelings. (I know I did!) They're ready to leave the past behind, but... what does the future hold? "Ebeneezers" looks at the story of Jacob's dream as a model for recognizing the presence of God in our own lives, even when we don't expect to find it.

I don’t very often build a sermon from a word in a hymn. But this morning, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Some of you may have noticed that my sermon title today – “ebeneezer” – appears in the second verse of today’s opening hymn. (The hymn is “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and the verse begins “Here I raise my ebeneezer; hither by thy help I’m come.”) You might be wondering just what an ebeneezer is, anyway! An ebeneezer is another word for a stone monument – a pillar that someone sets up so that everyone who goes by can see it. But an ebeneezer isn’t just any stone monument. An ebeneezer is a monument that recalls God’s help in a time of need.

The word “ebeneezer” actually comes from two Hebrew words that mean “stone of help.” “Eben (stone) ezer (help)” – “ebeneezer” – “stone of help.” Jacob set up an ebeneezer like that in this morning’s story from Genesis (28:10-19). But… I’m getting ahead of myself. To fully appreciate that ebeneezer, you need a little bit of background first. It starts with Jacob and his brother Esau.

To say that Jacob and Esau didn’t get along is a major understatement. It would be like saying that the Hatfields and the McCoys weren’t the best of friends. Jacob and Esau took sibling rivalry to a whole new level! As today’s story opens, Jacob is running away from Esau to save his own skin. Esau has threatened to kill him because Jacob stole a blessing from their father Isaac that should have gone to Esau. So Jacob is heading for his uncle Laban’s place at Haran, nearly 500 miles to the north, on what is now the border between Syria and Turkey. It was far enough away that Esau couldn’t get to him; but it was also far enough away that Jacob was leaving his home far behind. Jacob – the son who didn’t like to hunt or herd – the boy who liked to help his mother in the tent – was leaving the only home that he had ever known, heading towards an unknown future.

I wonder how Jacob felt as he stopped to rest on that first night. I imagine that he was frightened and lonely. He certainly didn’t know what to expect on his journey. What kind of dangers would he run into? Would he have to fight wild animals or bandits? When his food and water ran out, would he be able to find more? And, if he arrived at Haran safely, would his uncle accept him; or would Laban send him packing right back where he came from?

If you remember a time when you started a new chapter in your life, I’ll bet that you felt a little bit like Jacob. Maybe you started a new job, or moved to a new city. Or maybe you were a brand new graduate! It’s exciting to be a new graduate… but it can also be scary. Like Jacob, you know what the past was like; but you don’t know anything about what lies ahead. You ask yourself all kinds of questions. Will you be up to the challenges that you meet along the way? Will you meet folks who are friendly and helpful; or will you long for the days of old familiar faces? Will you be a success… or a miserable failure? Oh, yes – leaving the past behind and starting on a journey into the future brings a whole new set of questions!

And Jacob was leaving more than just his home and his family. As far as Jacob knew, he was leaving his God behind, too! In Jacob’s day, everyone believed that gods were territorial. You worshipped the god where you lived! If you lived in southern Canaan, you might worship Baal; but if you lived in Tyre or Sidon or Ur or Haran, you worshipped a different god. Each area had its own god. I’m very sure that Jacob believed that God – his god – had stayed in the home that he left behind. We do that ourselves sometimes. Oh, we know in our heads that God is everywhere and that God goes with us wherever we go. But are our hearts convinced of that? When we move on to a new school, a new place, or a new job, do we expect God to be there with us, too?

I’m not sure that Helen expected God to go with her after her marriage broke up. (Helen isn’t her real name; but her story is true.) When the dust settled after her divorce, Helen moved to another state, and began attending a tiny church near her new home. The church was nothing like the one in which she had grown up. There was hardly anyone her age; the music was pathetic; the preaching had no point that she could find; and they offered no programs to speak of. On the first Sunday that she visited there, she wondered why she had bothered coming. If God was there, he was very well hidden! But something told her to keep coming back. I’ll bet that you’ve already guessed the end of the story. That little church offered Helen a non-judgmental love that literally gave her food when she had none, friends when she needed them, and refuge when she had nowhere else to turn. Every day God helped Helen through the loving church folks who offered what she needed.

On our journeys into the future, we find God in places that we never expect. Jacob had that experience, too. On the very first night of his travels, Jacob had a dream. In that dream, he saw a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, with angels going up and down on it. At the very top of the ladder sat God – the God that Jacob thought he had left behind. And then he heard God’s reassuring words: “I am with you, and will watch over you wherever you go; and I will bring you back to this land.” When Jacob woke up, he set up the ebeneezer that began my sermon – Jacob’s stone of help. He set it up to commemorate God’s presence with him when he least expected it. He had felt lonely and frightened and uncertain… and now, with God’s help, he was reassured, secure, and confident. “Surely,” he said, “surely the Lord is in this place, and I never even knew it.”

I don’t know if Jacob’s ebeneezer is still standing in Israel. But do I know that there are plenty of other monuments that witness to the God who appears to offer help when we least expect it. One example is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, what we now call the Dome of the Rock. According to Jewish tradition, it marks the site where Abraham attempted to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, but was stopped by God himself who substituted a ram for the sacrifice. A second example is the church in Lourdes, France. Just over 150 years ago, a young girl in Lourdes saw a vision of the Virgin Mary there. From that time to this, the water in its grotto has been associated with miraculous healings. Much closer to home is St. Paul’s Episcopal Chapel in New York City. St. Paul’s stands directly across the street from the former location of the Twin Towers. On 9/11, it miraculously escaped destruction when the towers collapsed. It became a place of refuge for firefighters and police officers who were offered hot food, warm beds, and trauma counseling, in addition to as many prayers as they needed. It remains a place of witness to God’s presence with us, even in disaster.

Jacob’s story is actually our story, too. It happens over, and over, and over again: we turn our faces to the future; we leave our past behind; and we step out, not knowing what we will find. When we travel through unfamiliar places, it’s hard to sense God’s presence with us. But then, something happens – and we realize that, even when we didn’t feel it, God has been there with us all along.

And so, I have some advice for all you graduates this morning. You may be graduating from college, from high school, from junior high school, from kindergarten, or just from another year of life – my advice is the same for all of you. Don’t worry about the future! Step out with courage! Don’t be afraid of the tough times – and there will be some. During those times, it might feel like God is a million miles away! But he won’t be. One day, like Jacob, you’ll look back at those times, and you’ll be amazed! You might even put up an ebeneezer. Because on that day, you’ll say, “Oh, my gosh! God was right there with me all the time!”