Pentecost 2B

2nd Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

A pastor went out one Saturday to visit a church member. When he arrived at the house, it was obvious that someone was home, but nobody came to the door even though the pastor knocked several times. Finally, the pastor took out his card, wrote out "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it, and stuck it in the door.

Revelation 3:20 says: Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. - Revelation 3:20

The next day, the card turned up in the collection plate. Below the pastor's message was written the following notation: - Genesis 3:10

The pastor grabbed his Bible and flipped to Genesis 3, where he found verse 10, which reads: “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

This joke has forever tainted this passage. I always think about it when I read Genesis 3. The other thing I think about in this passage is that this is the section of Genesis that was used in my seminary Ethics class to introduce us to Christian Ethics. The premise we were given is that God did not want us to be responsible to figure out the difference between good and evil by ourselves. His intent was that we would rely on Him to tell us what is good and what is evil. THAT is why He did not want us to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And the more I think about that, the more that makes sense. We can’t possibly know everything that God knows. So God is INFINITELY more qualified to decide what is good and what is evil than any mere human being. That tree didn’t give us infinite knowledge like God has. It only gave us the knowledge of good and evil. But without God’s other knowledge, how useful is this to us?

I think Adam & Eve’s reaction to getting caught tells us the answer to that question. Now that they possess the knowledge of good and evil, look again at what happens. In the verses before today’s reading, they ate, and their eyes “were opened, and they knew that they were naked.” And they made loincloths for themselves out of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. Then God enters the garden, and they hear him and hide. Why did they hide? Because they know they have done wrong.

So God calls to the man “Where are you?” Do any of us think that God doesn’t know exactly where the man is and what he has done? So why did God ask this question? To give the man a chance to do the right thing. So the man tells God - yes, this is Verse 10 - I heard you, and I hid, because I was naked. God asks another question: “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree I told you not eat from?” Now look at what Adam says: “The woman you gave me - she gave me fruit from the tree and I ate it.” In other words, “If it wasn’t for the woman, I wouldn’t have eaten that fruit, and she’s only here because you made her and put her here.” What does that sound like? Sounds like a 4-year-old who just got caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.

Ok, so did the woman do any better? God asked her: “What did you do?” She replies: “The serpent lied to me, and I ate.” Hey God, I know this was wrong, but that sneaky serpent is so clever that he tricked me into eating this fruit. It’s his fault.” I think I sympathize more with Eve here. After all, she’s never been lied to before. She wouldn’t have had to question anything before the serpent told this lie. But even so, after-the-fact, when given the chance to come clean before God, she does what Adam does - she deflects. It’s not MY fault. It’s HIS fault. It’s the woman’s fault. It’s the serpent’s fault. It’s not my fault. Yes, I did something I shouldn’t have, but it’s not my fault. Immediately after eating this forbidden fruit, this new knowledge doesn’t seem to have done humanity much good, does it? Just knowing good and evil doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do the right thing.

So, did it get any better over time? Jump ahead a few millenia - look at where we are now. Ok, that’s way too wide open … perhaps we should narrow that down a bit. Let’s just look at Lutheranism in our country. We have Lutherans who believe that the Bible can be interpreted to say that same-sex marriage is acceptable, and even celebrated, while others believe that the Bible is very clear that same-sex relationships are not to be celebrated, and that marriage is only between one man and one woman. We have Lutherans who believe that women should not be ordained as pastors, while others believe that the Bible clearly shows women in preaching and teaching roles, making women’s ordination acceptable. We have Lutherans who believe that anyone can come to the Lord’s Supper, others who believe that you must be baptized to receive this meal, and still other Lutherans who believe that you must belong to their denomination to receive Holy Communion, following St. Paul’s strict guidance in 1 Corinthians 11:29-30 which says: “For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

So who is right? And how do we tell? I just picked 3 issues that are contentious between the 3 flavors of Lutheranism sitting right here on our corner…and they’re certainly not the only 3 issues. And I’m not even going to touch on the things that we believe that are different from other Christian denominations. Have you heard the joke that says “If your Baptist friends think you’re a Catholic, and your Catholic friends think you’re a Baptist, you might be a Lutheran”? Frankly, we are closer to Catholic than we are to Baptist, but we have differences between us even though we’re all Christians…we’re all part of the Body of Christ.

What would it be like if we just would have said, “God, is it right to let someone who isn’t Baptized take Communion?” And God could just say “No. If they want that meal, let them be Baptized first.” No more controversy. No more difference.

“God, did you really mean that marriage is only for one man and one woman? That was SO 3,000 years ago. It’s OK now, isn’t it?” And God could say “No, when I created human beings, I made a specific order to things, and this goes against that order. Marriage as I intended it was for one man and one woman, and that’s it.” End of story. No disagreements. No division.

You get the point. If we could walk up to God in the Garden and ask Him these questions face-to-face and get a direct, clear answer in our own language (and not have to translate it from a much-different language that leaves a lot of room for interpretation)… how many of these controversies would we even have today? Those things that we’re not certain about… those moral “grey” areas. Should I tell a white lie to spare someone’s feelings? Or should I tell them the truth that will upset them?

How many times in the last week have you had to really sit and think about something to decide what’s the right thing to do in a situation? Where the answer wasn’t really clear? I submit this to you as further evidence that without all of the knowledge that God has, our ability to truly decide good from evil…right from wrong…is extremely limited. Each time we have a hard time making this kind of a decision, it is a reminder to us that God intended for us to look to Him when making a decision like that.

And this kind of internal struggle is, I think, one of the long-standing consequences of that original sin. That’s something I hope you will always remember - our sins have consequences. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells the Scribes that “all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”… so all sins except one will always be forgiven. But that doesn’t mean they won’t have consequences. At the very least, sin damages relationships. I’ll be everyone in here except the youngest of you know this already from experience. That’s the first consequence of sin. There are certainly others. Consequences can be repaired or healed, but they can never be completely erased. And yes, we are still feeling the consequences of the first Sin. The Original Sin.

Now if you try to wrap your head around that - that the echoes of that first sinful act are still reverberating throughout humanity even today, those consequences were truly grave, in every sense of the word. And that sin forever damaged the relationship between God and His children. And that’s what makes Jesus’ sacrifice that much more amazing. That he would take ALL of the weight of that Sin, for ALL humanity, for ALL time, and let it be nailed to the cross with him, and to die with him. That just makes what he did that much more magnificent to me. It makes God’s love for us seem that much more amazing. It makes His mercy and grace toward us that much more mind-blowing.

We’re not likely to resolve all of our differences on this side of Judgment Day. Not that we shouldn’t try…but some of them are areas where there’s no room for compromise. So until we can get a direct answer from God, perhaps we can focus on those things we *do* have in common. Jesus offers us part of that in the last verse of today’s Gospel: “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.” We are all part of the same family of God. We can work with that.

St. Paul offers us even more in the Epistle lesson: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” [The Holy Bible: ESV (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 2 Co 4:13–15.]

We have much in common with other Christians, and this is the most important: the Good News of what Jesus Christ has done for all of us, and what He continues to do. We will celebrate that shortly when we invite all the Baptized to come to the Lord’s Supper and experience His presence - His Body and Blood given and shed for all of us. We believe this, and we are called to speak it. How will you do that in the days to come? How will you speak the Gospel to those who have not yet heard it, or to those who have heard it but need to hear it again? It *is* all for our sake, and it is ours to carry out into the world and extend to that world - the world that so clearly cannot tell good from evil, or right from wrong. Let’s all remember that the Good News we carry could help someone turn to God exactly when they need His help in making one of those decisions. Let’s pray that God would help us to know when that opportunity arises. Let’s promise to keep ourselves open to hearing when He does stand at the door and knock, and not run and hide.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.