Rev. George Miller
Sept 8, 2024
Genesis 3:1-8
It is not easy to be the New One in “The
Garden” no matter how beautiful and bountiful the Garden may be.
Which is why the work of Women With a
Mission and St. Lucas is so meaningful.
Being an immigrant, a refugee or a recent
transplant to a new place is not easy- it can involve great anxiety,
loneliness, fear.
So when we, as St. Lucas, collectively
answered the Call to gather items for people we never met, it had great
significance.
Doing so was a way to say “You are not
alone.” “God is with you.” And “Let us walk with you in the cool
afternoon breeze…
Today we begin our heavenly stroll through
the Narrative Lectionary, hearing how the stories of our spiritual ancestors
are connected and oh so relatable.
We start in the Garden.
God has created from chaos, using words to
turn dark waters into light and land, sea monsters and swans.
In Genesis 2 we watch as God gets down in
the mud, and gets God’s hands dirty.
God scoops into the rich red earth and out
of clay forms the first human being.
Then in an act of intimate love, God
breathes God’s own breath into the airways of Adam.
Which means the air of God, the breath of
God that brought forth Gensis and moved across the waters is now coursing
through the lungs, the veins of humanity.
Then, in an exquisite act of architecture,
God creates Eve with incredible attention to detail and care.
Genesis 1 teaches us how words have power
to create.
Genesis 2 tells us that we are wonderfully,
intimately made by our Heavenly Parent.
But…as any Parent, or Auntie or or Grandfather
knows, whenever you are blessed to have a child, you are also destined to
experience heartbreak.
And heartbreak is what happens in Chapter
3.
Eve and Adam are in a Garden. Like
immigrants or refugees they are in a brand-new place.
So we should be graceful and understanding
that perhaps they don’t fully “get” the culture or understand the rules.
So they do what they do, and they taste
the new fruit.
But in my opinion, it’s what happens next
that is so tragic.
In verse 8 Adam and Eve hear God walking
in the garden during the time of cool breeze…and they hide.
This Adam, who has God’s breathe within
his body. This Eve who was artfully made
by the Greatest Architect.
They hide.
What makes this so sad is the assumption
that this afternoon walk in the cool breeze with God was most likely a daily
thing.
This divine stroll was something God loved
to do.
This was the most pleasant time of the
day, when a breeze from the sea flowed across the land, replacing the stifling
air that had been rising off the earth.
This is God, as our Heavenly Father, ready
to share the most pleasant part of the day with God’s beloved children.
And what do Eve and Adam do…they hide.
Because of anxiety, because of shame,
because of choices made, they hide.
And God says “Where are you?”
How did God say these words?
Did God say “Where are you?” with a deep
booming voice? Did God say these words
with rage?
Did God say these words with worry, like
when you lose your kid at the St. Louis Zoo?
Or…did God say these words with the
heartbreak of a parent when their child is hurt or has done something to
disappoint?
In the cool breeze of the afternoon, God steps
into the Garden for a daily walk with Adam and Eve…and they hide.
And it is heartbreaking. Their relationship has changed. It’s become broken.
The Garden of Abundance is now the place
in which God’s heart is hurt for the very first time.
How often do we think of that? The Broken Heart of God.
How the God who created with words, the
God who crafted us with hands and breathe and architecture could experience
pain and heartbreak.
But if God is to be real, and we are to
really have a relationship with God, we have to be aware that God feels too.
Perhaps it is not the apple that upset God
so much, but Eve and Adam feeling it was best to hide when they simply could
have-
turned to God, reached out, been honest,
and taken their daily stroll in the Garden?
…The Garden.
Where Genesis takes place.
Where unfortunate mistakes get in the way
of cool breezes and sacred strolls with God.
The Garden…
Which is one reason why Easter is so
important.
Though we are in the beginning of our
narrative journey, it is good to be reminded of where we will end up.
As the Gospel of John, ch. 20 tells us, on
the Sunday after the Crucifixion, at an empty tomb, in the Grden,
Mary Magdelene hears the voice of our
Master, and she chooses to respond, and not to hide.
John brings us back to a place and a time
in which we are in the presence of the Holy.
No matter what sadness, what worry or fear
Mary feels, when the Lord calls out her name, she turns, she responds, and she
wants to hold on.
Genesis 3 shows how we break God’s heart
by hiding when all God wanted was to walk with us.
John 20 shows how we are the broken-hearted
ones, and the Lord comes to us with love, gentleness, and another chance to get
it right and live again.
As the beloved hymn says, “I come to the
Garden…and He walks with me, He talks with me, and He tells me I am his own.”
“And the love we share, as we tarry there,
none other has ever known.”
It is such a beautiful hymn, it is a
beautiful testimony, reminding us
that no matter what we have done, no
matter what we have gone through, no matter what tragic mistakes we have made,
we do not have to hide from God.
No matter what level of anxiety we endure,
no matter the sadness we experience, we are not alone.
We can always turn to God, Our Creator,
and we can say “Here I am Lord.”
And God is more than happy to walk with
us, to remind us who we are and to whom we belong.
For that, we can say “Amen.”
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