16^th March 2015

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 22 February 2015

Lessons - Genesis 2:8-17; 3:1-7; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 1:9-13

     The serpent said to the woman, 'Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree

     in the garden?' (Genesis 3:1)

The second creation story pictures a world full of good and beautiful things.

The earth produces lush vegetation, tasty food, refreshing water, rich minerals. Adam and Eve delight in each other and share the task of caring for the earth. Their feet planted firmly on the ground, they are to enjoy life to the full and to take pleasure in the environment that it has pleased God to create. 

In the middle of this delightful garden stands the Tree of Life, the symbol of Divine wisdom that enables us to flourish. Adam does not want to be in the centre but is happy for his life to revolve around it. In this idyllic picture, he is free to enjoy the earth with childlike innocence. 

Alas, as in other creation stories, the state of bliss does not last. Nearby, also in the centre of the garden, stands the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the fruit of which Adam, on pain of death, is forbidden to eat (2:9,17). For the first time, Adam is faced with a dilemma. Life is problematic. Enjoyment of the earth is threatened. Even his inexpressible joy at the creation of the woman (2:18-25) is to be short-lived. 

In Hebrew, when 'good' (tob) and 'evil' (ra) are used together they mean 'everything'. A person who does 'neither good nor evil' is said to do 'nothing'.  Knowing good and evil, therefore, is to 'know everything' about right and wrong, pleasure and pain, beauty and ugliness, and the like. 

The point of this gripping saga is that fullness of life, which is God's will for us, is threatened when we try to usurp God's power and wisdom over everything. Instead of receiving all things as gifts of grace so that we worship God gladly, love one another and care for the earth, we rebel against the 'limit' placed on us.  The prohibition against us 'knowing good and evil'

is an affront to our pride. Our human possibilities are 'limitless'. We, not God, will decide what is right and wrong, wise and foolish, powerful and weak, desirable and undesirable, and so on. We will not give in to the restrictive demands of an authoritarian Deity. We will determine what is desirable and life-giving! 

In Chapter 2, Adam and Eve do not yet realise the full impact of the prohibition. Their eyes are opened only when the serpent enters the fray. The 'serpent' is a very familiar figure in the myths of many religions. It can be a symbol of fertility and sexual desire, or of divine energy that brings life and immortality. It may also signify rebirth and renewal. 

However, in Genesis, it does not have divine qualities. It is a seductive 'creature' which, inexplicably, turns against humans and the One who created it. Its question to Eve is very clever! (3:1) 'Did God say ...?' God did not say that they could not eat from any tree in the garden. They can enjoy almost everything! Only one thing is out of bounds. Eve is quick to correct the record (3:2,3), not realising that an opportunity for sin has opened up.

If that is the case, says the serpent, surely God who has given you such freedom to enjoy the earth will not hesitate to share his wisdom with those he loves. It is not asking much for God to add 'the knowledge of good and evil' to the pleasures that you now enjoy. It would be out of character for him to refuse! 

Eve and then Adam agree with the serpent. But the result of 'eating the forbidden fruit' is not what they desired. Instead of experiencing a deeper unity with God, the bond is broken. Humans are not Divine! We over-reach ourselves when, not being content to be 'stewards' of the earth who love one another and joyfully worship the Creator, we aspire to be like God and determine for ourselves what is good and evil. 

This is the story of every person and all human communities. Our world revolves around our lives, not the Tree of Life. We are not satisfied to be 'truly human' in receiving 'everything' as gifts of God's free grace, but aspire to be God-like in seeing ourselves as the 'centre of everything'. 

The result is disastrous! No longer is the world experienced as a place of joyous freedom and pleasure. Nakedness is now a source of shame, with the 'fig leaves' (3:7) attempting to cover the deeper guilt of having tried to become like God. The consequences are dramatically spelt out in Chapters 1-11. Life turns nasty. The man blames the woman; she blames the serpent. The serpent eats dirt, the battle of the sexes begins, childbirth is awful, work is unbearable, death is inevitable. Cain slays Abel. Power-hungry empires are belligerent, barbaric and immoral and blind to the needs of the vulnerable. 

It should be clear now that this is not an historical account of what took place 'in the beginning'. Nor is it an ancient myth to be ignored. It is a profound and imaginative picture of what happens when humans (represented by Adam and Eve) give in to temptation to become like God and decide what is good and evil on our own terms. 

Nor does it let us off the hook by blaming Adam, Eve, the serpent, Satan or God. Instead of saying 'how' things went so wrong long ago, it tells us who we are. In the light of God's incredible goodness and grace, our behaviour is inconceivable, inexplicable, inexcusable! No wonder Jesus tells us to pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' Why? Even the most strong-willed person is not equal to the challenge of resisting the seductive ways in which desirable, God-given blessings are put to us. 'Did God say ...'  that we should not enjoy life, sex, nature, family, learning, work, leisure and so on? Certainly not! 

However, God did say that we are not to 'play God' in deciding what is 'good' about them. When that happens, the one ' limit' set by God for our well-being is overstepped. When according to the God-like 'wisdom' of the day, life, sex, nature and the like are deified, then inevitably they are demeaned.  

Temptation still fascinates us. Magazines, novels, films, TV programs, et al play on our infatuation with desire and power. They exploit our desire for sexual intimacy, economic security, political power and self-worth.

Christians, too, are prone to twist God's word into something we wished God had said! The tragic effects of giving in to temptation are everywhere to be seen.  

If evil is so beguiling, what is to be done? Happily, there is a second temptation story in Scripture. Christ's refusal to submit to temptation is cause for hope. As the One called to embody God's Word on earth, his temptation was far more severe than any that we experience. He is tempted to abandon his God-given mission. His resistance to the creature-like Devil marks the triumph of grace. Satanic power is defeated in the One who identifies with our humanity. In principle, evil is stripped of its crippling power in him. 

Therefore, as those who have been called into communion with Christ, we share, by grace, his victory over temptation. As the writer to Hebrews says, no temptation of ours is so great that it has not already been experienced and defeated by Christ. As he is the fully human Son of God, we are assured that, even in our most severe trials, we are not alone. Jesus is a 'high priest' who sympathises with us in our temptations (Hebrews 2:14ff; 4:14-16) and identifies fully with us in our humanity. He is like us in all things, but without sin. 

This does not mean the end of our temptations. We must pray for courage to withstand the many beguiling threats to life in the world - challenges which can easily lead us into 'evil' and for which we are no match. We do so, confident that our temptations are borne by the Lord whose Cross is the Tree of Life that stands in the centre of the earth as a perpetual monument to the sacrificial grace and power of God.

_________________________________ 

Rev  Dr Max Champion is Minister in St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia.

Dr   Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.