February 10, 2008

Scripture:         Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

Sermon:           “The Naked Truth”

            We’re going to read a very familiar story together this morning.  So turn with me to the beginning of the Bible and look in the 2^nd chapter of Genesis.  That’s on page 3 of the pew Bible.  As it is the first Sunday in Lent, we’re going to read about the first transgression of the first man and woman, Adam and Eve.  The story is in verses 15 through 17 of chapter 2 and then the first seven verses of chapter 3.

            Now, before we do that, let’s put aside all of our rather modern arguments over science and history.  The ancient Israelites used to tell these stories to each other and their children for purposes much larger than the things we wind up arguing about.  And I would argue that the point of many of these stories has little or nothing to do with the hows and whys the universe came into being the way it did.

            You get too caught up in all of that and you’ll miss some really special stuff.  When old men would gather children at their knees at tell these stories to young boys and girls, they wanted to shape their lives to reflect their faith in God.  And that’s what these things are all about.  If you want to build a case for teaching Intelligent Design in public schools or teaching evolution instead, you’re probably going to miss the heart of the stories themselves.

            So, let’s listen to the trials, temptations, and failings of Adam and Eve as if it were the first time we ever heard it.  Listen for the Word of the Lord.

            The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 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.”

            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.’”  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.”  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.  Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

            That dog gone serpent!

            I’ve got a lot of different kinds of blood mixing around in this body of mine.  I’ve got blood from folks from all over the world.  In the parlance of dog lovers, I’m a purebred mutt.  And that means that I’m loyal, lovable, and not much to look at.

            Strangely, though, there is this one set of genes that has just seemed to make its way to the surface in just about every generation of men on my Dad’s side of the family.  And they come from old England, apparently—from a family called Pinckney.  As convoluted as my family tree is, I can still trace my ancestry back to some folks who were granted land down in South Carolina by the king himself.

            The unfortunate part of that story is that there are a whole lot of black folks in South Carolina who also have the name of Pinckney.  And that means that I am the descendent of slave owners.  The other side of that coin is that my mother’s family in another part of the world were once slaves themselves, although I couldn’t tell you much about that.

            It just so happens that I am the seventh great grandson of one Charles Cotesworth Pinckney from Charleston, South Carolina.  He was a wealthy and influential man.  (I’m still trying to find out where my inheritance might be.)  And he lived during the heady times of the American Revolution.  My seventh great grandfather put his signature on the original draft of the Constitution of the United States of America.  How about that.

            The consequence of all of that is that I have been able to find a few portraits of ‘ole Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.  The first time I saw one was in the historic Exchange Building in Charleston when I was visiting as a student.  I’ve found one on the internet, too.  And when I look at that man’s image, I am frightened to see a picture of my own father sitting there in an old Revolutionary army uniform with one of those powdered white wigs on his head.  I look like my dad.  He look like his dad.  And apparently that trend goes way back to who knows when.

            It’s amazing what we inherit from our families, isn’t it?

            I watch my daughter grow up a little more every day.  She just turned 1 this week!  And I see bits and pieces of me in her.  But, it’s still a mystery what she’s got all jumbled up in her genes.  I hope that she looks like my wife more than she looks like me.

            I guess all of that stuff that our parents’ families have in their histories can really go a long way in making us who we are.  And not just in looks.  You ever see or hear someone who is just naturally gifted at something like music?  I watch Chad play the piano, for instance, and he just fits right in with the keys like he is a natural born musician.  I know his parents, though.  I don’t know where it comes from.

            Some people are natural born leaders.  They have a charisma about them that others just pay attention to.  My wife is one of those.  She’s a second generation minister and I can see where she gets her leadership skills.

            You are a natural born something.  Each one of you.  Different for you and you and you.  But, you’re all natural born something special that most others cannot do without trying too hard.  Something comes naturally to you.  You get it from all of those folks whose genes and DNA are jumbled up in there somewhere.

            Now, some folks say that we’ve got this other trait within us that we’ve inherited from our ancestors.  We’re all natural born sinners because of that thing that happened in the garden way back before people had the sense to cover up their private parts.  You ever heard that before?

            I don’t know who first began to see things this way, but the Apostle Paul says that we all die because of Adam and Eve and their desire to eat the one thing that God told them not to.  In Romans 5:12 he said, “just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned.”  It’s like we inherited this man’s genes as well as his sin.  He said, “one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all.”

            Now, is that the way it is?  Boy, it sure seems like it sometimes.  The naked truth is that you and I are pretty capable of some rather bold transgressions.  Maybe we did inherit that from a long time ago.  Maybe that’s the way you and I are wired.  We’re imperfect.

            Now, we could debate the scientific merits of such a thing.  The Church has come up with a few ways of saying this throughout the ages.  You’ve heard of Original Sin.  You’ve heard of the Fall of Man.  I can’t tell you for certain that there’s anything scientific to it.  But, it sure does describe the truth of who we are.  We’re sinners.

            Adam and Eve may have done the deed long before any of us were a twinkle in our own parents’ eyes, but their story sounds pretty much like our own.  There’s a crafty little serpent saying, “You’re not going to die!  God just doesn’t want you to experience the great joys all around you.  Stop being such a goody-goody.  That’s just a bunch of hogwash and God knows it.  You’ve got to experience everything around you to truly make this life worthwhile.”  That’s our story!

            It’s just like the Apostle Paul also said:  All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  That’s our story.  We’re sinners.

            The trouble is that we can come to believe that this is the only truth about us.  We develop this very negative evaluation of who we are.  And we develop this faith that tells us that God must not want anything to do with us but punish us for our sins.  And faith itself becomes little more than an escape.

            I have an uncle that refers to his faith as a “fire insurance policy”.  Ever heard that one before?

            There was an influential Puritan preacher, Jonathan Edwards, whose most famous sermon was titled “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.”  That’s a pretty good illustration of what I mean.  We’re sinners.  God is angry.  And punishment is our just reward.

            The great reformer of the church, John Calvin, summed it up with his declaration of the human condition:  We’re totally depraved.  Pretty bleak, isn’t it?

            But, we Protestants aren’t alone.  We’re just building on the traditions of others before us.  St. Augustine went so far as to say that unbaptized infants are destined for hell because of Original Sin.  It’s something we’ve inherited, you see.  And there’s nothing we can do about it.  We’re an evil lot.

            I take issue with this thrust of Christian thought about us and God.  We’re sinners, alright.  But, that picture is incomplete.  It is not the only truth about us.  And it certainly doesn’t fully describe the nature of God with all of this hostility, anger, and desire to punish us.

            Let me say this, too.  If you’ve been so beat down with all of this Christian fascination with sin and the awful nature of who we are, I am so sorry.  Some of you have been singled out and abused and condemned and left for dead by the church because it’s just filled with folks who can’t lift people up.  And that’s not the good news of Jesus Christ.

            All of this depressing evaluation of who we are as people is built upon the story of the very first transgression against God—right here in the 3^rd chapter of Genesis.  And it is as if folks just looked right past the very first chapter of the book, the very first chapter of the Bible.  Let me read to you what it says there:

            God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”  So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  (Genesis 1:26-27)

            And then in verse 31 the Bible says this…listen:

            God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, IT WAS VERY GOOD.

            So, it had to be that these very good creations, Adam and Eve, lost sight of that goodness and did something against that nature in themselves.  They did what was evil.  And it happened the same way it happens to all of us now and again—they had stopped listening to God.  They started listening to the voices around them.  For them it was a wily serpent.  For you and me it can be just about anything.  But, that was the problem.  It wasn’t that they were such bad and evil things, totally depraved as it were.  They just started listening to voices other than the Lord.

            What if we built among ourselves a faith that claimed the inherent goodness of who we are?  What if our faith proclaimed that there was God’s very image within us and that Christ helped to uncover that truth by getting past all of the sin and distortions that the world thrusts upon us?  What if our faith really took seriously that we are and can be what God proclaims to be very good?

            I’d say that we might just have a chance at hearing God’s voice a little more clearly.  We just might follow that man called Christ a little more faithfully.  After all, we’d know that it was possible to be God’s beautiful creation.

Rev. David James Brown

Park Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)