Friends in Need

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.

Did you forget about that one? Like I’m still trying to figure out the point of this ridiculous nursery rhyme and why on earth we would ever sing or read this thing to our children. But everyone knows it right? Giant egg guy hanging out where you most definitely should not hang out if you are made of very fragile egg shells. Inevitably he falls down from up high and shatters, and you probably know that once an egg is cracked there’s no uncracking that sucker. It’s over.

So maybe that’s the moral of the story? I don’t know. No one ever explained it to me. Like my 3 year old mind was just supposed to be like “oh dang. Don’t wanna be like Humpty Dumpty. Better not hang out in places that are dangerous for me.”

But we’re all generally adults here, so maybe the story of Humpty Dumpty is actually a story for us… like hey mom, dad, grandparents, teachers, guardians… here’s a reminder for you… remember to stay safe out there. Don’t get into any thing that you know is going to bring you trouble.

Are you wondering where I am going with this? Yeah that happens to me up here sometimes too.

So here’s where we are going. We are in a sermon series called “The Simple Gospel” and we are asking the question “what is the Gospel?” What we’ve determined so far is that the Gospel is the announcement of the Good News of a new King, and that king is our Lord Jesus Christ. And the really cool thing that makes this good news for us is the fact that this new King comes with a kingdom that we have been invited to be a part of.

But before we can be part of this Kingdom and truly live out the good news of Jesus in our world it’s important for us to understand why we were created and then why we need Jesus in the first place.

Last week we looked at the very beginning of our Bible and we saw that God created humans for a purpose… to be stewards and caretakers of creation and to rule over it on God’s behalf. When God created the world he said it was “Good.” So at the base level we’re looking at the human purpose being a vocation of keeping the world “good.” We do this as representatives of God, people who carry God’s image.

But I’m sure you been out there in this world and you know. You know it’s not good right? We’ve got wars and poverty and violence and kids with cancer and like everything that hurts our souls to think about.

And if you’re like me, you probably have come to the realization that no matter how hard you try, you’re not always very good either. You’ve had times in your life where you’ve looked in the mirror and been like “what is wrong with you?”

Don’t be discouraged friends. It’s really ok. Look the Apostle Paul who is like the most famous Jesus follower of all time penned these words about himself in his letter to the Church in Rome:

Romans 7:15–24 NRSV

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

Paul’s really having a crisis here, and that crises points us to what lies embedded inside of us. There is this deep struggle within humans between doing what is good and doing what we know we shouldn’t do but it seems good for even just that most fleeting moment. Where does this come from? And how is this related to the original human vocation of caring for the world on behalf of God?

Well, so glad you asked. If you turn in your Bible, all the way back to the beginning of it, on page 3 we find that the plot is about to thicken for our first humans.

So just before this God has taken the first human and put him in the garden to work it and keep it, but he is alone and God’s like well that’s no good. So he made a female out of his side and they are happy, living it up in paradise. God says to them have at it friends, just don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil alright? And they are like no problemo boss, whatever you say is good is good. We’re on board with you’re wishes.

And I don’t know how long that lasted but… it doesn’t seem very long because the story moves along super quickly.

Genesis 3:1–3 NRSV

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “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 shall die.’ ”

Every good story needs an antagonist… a bad guy. And so that’s what we’re introduced to here. We have this crafty serpent figure who speaks — which is weird but ok. Clearly not a regular old serpent. Something else is going on here but all we know right now is that this guy is beginning to sow seeds of doubt in the mind of the woman.

First he’s like “did God say you can’t eat the fruit here?” — there’s this insinuation that God isn’t good and isn’t willing to provide for the people he’s created.

The woman is like oh no we can eat. She passes the first test. But then something curious happens, she says “we can’t eat or EVEN TOUCH the fruit of the tree at the middle of the garden. Which is not really what God said, but she’s kind of doubling down on the restriction which is fine for today.

Let go on:

Genesis 3:4–5 NRSV

But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Here we go. This is so critical ok. This is the crux of the entire biblical story and the relationship between humans and God.

In Genesis 1 God makes humans in the image of God

Here in Genesis 3:5 this serpent antagonist character says… if you eat that fruit you will be God. You’ll know good and evil: and this doesn’t just mean knowing right from wrong. If you are God then you are the one who determines what is Good and what is Bad. You become the moral authority.

That’s what’s being offered. This is very important, because this is the fundamental problem with humanity still. We want to be God. We want to define right and wrong. We want to decide what is good on our own terms, not on God’s. So let’s carry on.

Genesis 3:6 NRSV

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.

So here it is. She saw that the tree was good, it was a delight to her eyes, it would make her wise so she took and ate and gave.

Now here’s the deal. We like to get down on Eve, but Adam was right there. And also, here we are an eternity later and I have to tell you this story. So my son who is coming up on 3 years old has a picture bible. And on the page of this story every time he sees it his eyes light up and he says “snake! look snake! oooo apple!” So there you have it. We’re all in the same boat still.

So here’s the deal, we’ve got to fast forward this thing. They become wise alright. Wise beyond what they bargained for. They realize that they are naked and they feel shame for the first time and they hide from God. And God’s like hey whats up why are you hiding and they are like oh we were naked so we hid. And God knows right away what’s happened.

So he blames his lady and God for creating her, she blames the serpent it’s a whole thing. And what ends up happening is that these humans have broken this social contract that they had with God.

God made humans and said live here on my terms and all will be well. Humanity proved that they could not obey God, that the desire to live and rule over the earth on their own terms was too strong, and so the cycle of rebellion began. The next 8 chapters of Genesis detail all of these attempts to bring disorder into God’s ordered and good world. The first offspring of Adam and Eve kills his younger brother and then from there human violence takes off. In Genesis 6 we are told about some sort of spiritual rebellion that is a long rabbit hole I won’t go down, and then in Genesis 11 one last time the humans make an attempt to build a tower to the heavens so they can be like gods.

And this is like the raw unchecked reality of the human heart. We were created with the purpose of preserving God’s world, spreading God’s goodness, and caring for everything on God’s terms and we failed miserably. Even when well meaning, humanity has fallen short. We, like Paul in his discourse, are friends in need of help. Like Humpty Dumpty — sitting on a wall he darn well knows he shouldn’t be sitting upon. Disobedience is just so very natural to us, even when we know the dangers… Even now, as people who belong to Jesus.

And that’s really the truth that we need to sit with for this week. Wherever you are in your walk with Jesus, just checking things out, fully devoted, flirting around the edges… this is our default. We want to do what God wants us to do but we end up trying to manufacture good in our own image. We want to be god of our world. And the message of the Gospel is that there is a king, a God of the universe and you ain’t it. And that’s really really hard for us to accept sometimes. But it’s something that we must accept, or else the gift that we will talk about next week won’t be something that we can truly accept. The solution to our problem won’t be very attractive if we can’t see ourselves as the problem.

The good news, the Gospel, is that we don’t have to stay in a state of self delusion, self exultation, and self will. We can and will move into a state of self realization, Christ exultation, and of doing God’s will with the help of the one who came, saying Repent, The kingdom of God has drawn near. And so let us together as a church body, pray this prayer of repentance and confession.

*on screens*

Merciful God,

We confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have failed to be an obedient church

We have not done your will,

We have broken your law,

We have rebelled against your love,

We have not loved our neighbors,

and we have not heard the cry of the needy.

Forgive us we pray.

Free us for joyful obedience,

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.