First Sunday in Lent

Richard Davenport February 26, 2023 - First Sunday of Lent Romans 5:12-19 It's inevitable, whenever Paul gets together with his cousins it's like the animals taking over the zoo. 3, soon to be 4, young boys charging around the house at full speed with all of the subtlety of a buffalo stampede. Sometimes they split up and you hear crashing from multiple directions at once. It's not really surprising. They're active young boys and so they play hard. They're having fun and using their imaginations. It would be nice if they made a bit less of a mess of things, but at least they're playing like kids ought to play. Still, it's almost inevitable that at some point one of them is holding something they weren't supposed to touch, or the group is in a room they weren't supposed to go into. Then the parental investigation begins, "Why are you holding that? You know you aren't supposed to mess with that." "Why are you in here? You know this isn't where you're supposed to be." You can almost see the gears turning. I mean, you can't deny you're holding something you aren't supposed to be holding or that you're in a place you're not supposed to be. But, maybe there's a mitigating factor. "He had it first!" "Oh, so you took it from him after he took it?" "Yeah." "So it's ok for you to do something you aren't supposed to do because he did it before you did?" "Yeah." I understand the thought process. If I can make someone else sound like a bigger problem, then maybe I'll be excused, or at least forgotten about. I mean, if a policeman is about to pull you over for doing 10 over the speed limit and suddenly someone goes blowing by you doing 50 over, the cop is going to drop you and go after the bigger fish. The difference is that a lone policeman has limited resources. He just has himself unless he calls in support for a really big problem. So he has to make a choice as to where to apply himself. You, as the parent, don't necessarily have the same problem. Getting all of them to settle down and then recount their stories may take a bit of effort, but it is doable. Then you get the tale of how he took the thing. Then he took the thing from him. The third one wanted to take the thing but he just hadn't had the chance yet. As you sort this out, it becomes clear each of them was in the wrong and each needs to be addressed individually and collectively. Even if you hadn't actually done the thing, the fact that you wanted to do it shows you aren't interested in following the rules. You don't get entirely off the hook just because you lacked the opportunity to do something bad. It all ends up sounding a lot like the garden of Eden. He points at her because she did it first. She points at the snake because he's the one who suggested it. For all of the finger pointing though, none of them actually gets off the hook here either. All of them get punished because all of them did something wrong. God isn't just a policeman who can only manage so much at a time. He's the creator of all things, who sees all and knows all. I mean, you do have to cut Adam and Eve a little slack I suppose. It's not as if they had parents who could have warned them this sort of argument doesn't fly. But even still, they should have known better. In fact, they did know better. Really, anyone who tries this argument knows better. The only reason you try and point the finger is because you know you did something wrong and you're just trying to get the fuzz to chase someone else while you slowly walk away and hope no one remembers you were ever there. St. Paul is dealing with the issue of sin in the epistle reading for today. It's a good place to start the season of Lent. Lent, as the lead up to Holy Week, calls us to remember why all of this was necessary to begin with. As we grow up, we get craftier about our sins. We get more sophisticated in how we think about them, but how we deal with them doesn't change all that much. So, to talk about sin, St. Paul goes back to the beginning, where it all started. He points out how everything wrong with the world came into being through that one simple act. That one rejection of God's Word, of God's authority brough it all tumbling down. I'd say we all suffer for it, but we're also just as culpable. We can do the same kind of finger pointing, all the way back to Adam, but it doesn't change anything. You know you're doing something wrong while you're right in the middle of it. You know you'll be in trouble if you get caught, but you aren't really sorry for what you're doing. In fact, when you get caught, the finger pointing comes out, not because you're sorry, but because you're upset you got caught. You aren't really interested in making amends. You're just trying to get the unwanted attention to go away. Time and time again we dive into things we shouldn't be doing and time and time again we get caught and all we want to do is avoid the consequences. It might be nice to say that we aren't really at fault even though we're right in the middle of doing something we shouldn't be doing. It was all the rage, some 20 years ago, to blame your parents for all of your various attitude problems. It's their fault you are a narcissist or a drug addict or abusive. It's their fault no one likes you or wants to be around you. You shouldn't punish me, because I'm not the one who caused it all in the first place. Well, your parents may not have been the best, but right now you're the one who's abusing your loved ones. You're the one with the pills in your hands. You're the one who thinks you're the center of the universe and everyone else should devote all of their attention to you and turn a blind eye to all of the things you do to others in order to make yourself look good. Each of us is judged based on our own actions. Pointing the finger at someone else doesn't change what you've done. Standing before God and pointing the finger at your parents, or the government, or your mean boss, or whoever, gets you nothing. God will deal with those people as well, but right now he's dealing with you. "Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam." It's true, we didn't come into the world perfect, like Adam did. We have a predisposition to sin. We can absolutely blame him for making that first transgression and bringing death into the world. But, when God walks into the room, whose hand is it that's in the cookie jar? For as much as we might want the policeman to forget about us while he's chasing down someone else, it's a good thing God doesn't deal with us that way. If God only dealt with the one who started the whole thing off, then the rest of us would be left to our own destructive devices. Instead, he reminds each of us of what the rules are and why they are there. We've all heard the rules. We all know what they are. We all keep breaking them anyway. As God points to the rules, the hope is that you come to terms with the fact that no one else put the cookie in your hand. Unfortunately for us, the consequences are a little more than getting sent to our room or going a day or two without sweets. Sin means death. That's what it meant for Adam and that's what it's meant for every single person since Adam. None are exempt. Blaming someone else doesn't excuse your own actions. But God isn't a mean boss. He isn't a dictator. He isn't here to just enforce rules. He is a loving Father who wants to care for his children. He wants us to live and grow and be healthy. He wants to give us a life of peace and joy. So what to do with those who realize they really shouldn't have grabbed the cookie? Starting pretty early in the Gospels, we see how Jesus, in his humanity, is reliving the life of Adam. He's called the Second Adam because part of his job is to undo what Adam did in bringing sin into the world. Where Adam brings sin with his rebellion, Christ will bring life through his obedience. Jesus comes along and gets right everything Adam got wrong. Jesus follows his Father's will right to death, knowing that his Father's will is always good. He also knows you don't have any excuse. Death is what you deserve. By living Adam's life again, undoing the damage of Adam's sin, he brings in a new situation. Pointing the blame at someone else never got you out of the consequences. God deals with each of us individually. Saying, "He did it first!" doesn't change that you did it too. Except now it does. Jesus didn't do it, but the Father treats him as though he did. Jesus doesn't deserve any consequences, except the Father treats him as if he does. Jesus should live in peace and joy for all eternity except the Father has him put to death anyway. And Jesus takes on all of this willingly. One man's trespass brought death to all. Now one man's free gift brings life to all. Pointing to Adam in the hopes of avoiding consequences gets you nothing. Pointing to Jesus with the knowledge you deserve the consequences brings you life. This is what brings us to Lent. Jesus sees the state you are in. He knows you did it, whether you admit it or not. He knows what will happen to you. He comes to set things right. He knows you did it and wants to save you anyway. He knows he'll be taking your punishment, and he wants to save you anyway. Lent reminds us that you are not righteous because you avoided the consequences, but because Jesus loved you enough to take them for you.