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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Where are you? What have you done?
2ND in a series on Questions from the Bible

By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

1 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'?" 2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 3 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.' " 4 But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; 5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." 6 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. 7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. 8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" 10 He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." 11 He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" 12 The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." 13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate."

We are in a series of sermons that look at some of the questions from scripture, questions that our book asks of us. We are beginning at the beginning, with the book of Genesis. In the first chapter of Genesis, we hear the first story of creation. It is a majestic portrayal of a God who only has to speak and the universe comes into being! Each of the six days of creation, God spoke. There was light, then stars and planets, then land and animals and birds, and finally the crowning glory of God’s creation, the human beings-male and female. God created them.

One of the scientists in our congregation reminded me this week that someone had called Genesis 1, a poetic account of the Big Bang theory of how the universe began!

In Genesis 2, we get a less majestic story and perhaps a more primitive picture of God and the creation. It is a different story with a different chronology and a more person-like image of God, more anthropomorphic. God takes some dust from the ground and breathes into the man and with that breath, the man becomes a living being. The next thing God creates is a garden. God places the man there and later creates the animals for the man so he will have a companion. The text says that a suitable companion was not found for the man, so God put the man to sleep and took a rib. In this story, the crowning glory of God’s creation is woman!

You know the story, God takes them on a tour around the garden and tells them what He has created for them to eat and cautions them about one tree. He tells them not to eat from it because if they do they will die. Later they are told that if they eat from this tree they will be like God.

The next chapter introduces us to a talking snake, a snake that has a conversation with the woman. By the way, the story does not mention Satan or the devil, just a talking snake. Both members of the couple eat the fruit, (there is no apple in the story.) Their eyes are opened and they see that they are naked. They make loin cloths and then hear God walking in the garden in the cool of the evening. Then they hide because they have broken the boundaries God has given to them. They are afraid.

Isn’t this an interesting picture of God, taking a walk in the cool of the evening? The story gets even more interesting! God seems to not see them and calls out to them, Where are you, and later, What have you done?

We said last week that these are good self assessment questions that we need to ask ourselves at various points in life. January of a new year is a good time to do that self evaluation. How do we feel about the questions, where are we and what have we done?

I thought of those questions in the past few weeks as we have been involved in three funerals in our congregation, three members of our church who made lasting contributions in distinctive ways.

Hank Esser’s funeral was last Tuesday afternoon. Some of you know Hank from his work as our St. Andrew accountant for many years. Hank worked most of his life in the aerospace industry on intercontinental missiles and satellites and in that role traveled the world. Cindy Bates described him as a humble man of quiet reserve who believed in fairness and always had the integrity to do what he believed to be the right thing. She said that underlying his gentle quietness and humility was a great strength that came from a great faith.

Jon Dutton was another long time St. Andrew member whose life we celebrated here in the sanctuary a few days ago. Jon also worked in the aerospace industry and was a key player over the years in our country’s space program. Jon received several coveted awards from Martin Marietta before it was Lockheed Martin. He received awards from some of the astronauts themselves. Jon never talked about those accomplishments and many of us who knew Jon did not know of his distinguished career as a rocket scientist. His family members who talked about Jon spoke of their love and respect for his patience, his high standards, and his gentle spirit.

Do you see how the questions from the book of Genesis have taken on some new levels of meaning: Where are you in life? What have you done?

The third person whose life we commemorated a few days ago was Don Snow, one of our beloved World War II veterans. Don received a tribute from, Tam Curfman, his Disciple Bible study teacher for several years. Tam gave examples of Don’s irrepressible humor. Don was memorialized by Cindy Bates and fellow Disciple class member Bob Ryerson as well as very movingly, by granddaughter Meghan Risley, and sons-in-law Jeff Klaus and Steve Risley. Both Jeff and Steve are active in our congregation.

Among the many affirmations Jeff offered about his father-in-law, was that Don taught me that happiness does not come from the things we have but from how we live and how we love. Steve talked about the label Tom Brokaw has given to the World War II generation, The Greatest Generation, and Steve said; Like his peers, Don grounded his life upon the foundational values of hard work, loyalty, compassion, self sacrifice, and of course, family.

Where are you? What have you done?

One of the Christmas presents I gave my daughter was a book of poetry that contains the poem on the front of your bulletin by Mary Oliver. She says that at the end of her life, she does not want to wonder if she has made something of her life, something particular and real. She does not want to find herself sighing and frightened or full of argument. She does not want to wind up simply having visited this world.

Where am I? What have I done? There are many times in our lives when we need to do that self assessment and to think about how we feel about our answers. I deliberated about those questions in the days before brain surgery last October and felt, and feel, that I have a lot more work to do. I am grateful for the chance to continue that work now with a clean bill of health after my three month checkup with my surgeon this week.

There are other times we look inside to ask those questions and unfortunately, in our current economy, the questions are being asked by persons who have been laid off or fired or who have chosen to change careers. Business guru Harvey MacKay wrote, four years ago, about some of those experiences in his book entitled: We Got Fired. In this book he interviews many people who have been laid off or fired including; Robert Redford, Michael Bloomberg, and coach Lou Holtz. He relates how they used the experience for good. He tells about his own experience of being fired and how he used it as a positive learning event. In fact, it is the subtitle of his book that is the most powerful. The whole title is: We Got Fired!...and It Is the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us!!

Perhaps your answers to the questions from Genesis; Where are you and What have you done are similar to the statement from one of our very active members who told us a few months ago: I am at a time in my life when I feel a strong desire to give back for the many blessings in my life. Many of us can identify with that feeling.

In your bulletin this morning is a report that I put together for our leadership orientation meeting yesterday morning. It is one person’s answer to where we are as a congregation in year forty eight of our history as a church and rapidly approaching our 50th anniversary in 2010.

Let’s go back to Genesis chapter 3. The creatures have tested the boundaries that the creator set. There are always boundaries and limits. The other instructions in the Bible make up those boundaries and limits and they work, they are important. The Ten Commandments give us boundaries or limits and there are reasons for them. We are to respect each other’s property because that is a way of respecting each other. We are to respect the covenant of marriage. We commit ourselves to telling the truth because we could not function if we do not trust each other to be truthful. We treat each other the way we want to be treated, and when we live that way, we have a community and a world that is healthy and works together.

You may have noticed that at the end of the story the snake was right. How is that? When the snake is offering the fruit of the tree that will let the couple be like God and the woman says that if we eat from that tree, we will die, the snake says: no, you will not die. The snake was right. The trust between creator and creature was broken, but the creator is merciful even when we test the limits. There were and are consequences, but God is still merciful. God evicts the couple from Eden but they are alive and given a second chance. He even makes some clothes for them to wear. They are fired, if you will, they are evicted, but they are not abandoned and they are given a second chance.

God does not abandon us and God gives us a second chance and a third chance, no matter how we answer those questions: Where are you? What have you done?