The readings
Genesis 3:8-15
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. But the LORD God
called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of you in
the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." He
said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of
which I commanded you not to eat?"
The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me
fruit from the tree, and I ate." 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." The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because
you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild
creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of
your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring
and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.
2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1
But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in
accordance with scripture--"I believed, and so I spoke" --we also
believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord
Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his
presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to
more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even though our
outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For
this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory
beyond all measure, because we look not
at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is
temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. For we know that if the earthly
tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Mark 3:20-35
the crowd came together again, so that they could not even
eat. When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were
saying, "He has gone out of his mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem
said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out
demons." And he called them to him,
and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that
kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will
not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided,
he cannot stand, but his end has come.
But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property
without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered.
"Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever
blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit can
never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"--for they had
said, "He has an unclean spirit." Then his mother and his brothers
came; and standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was
sitting around him; and they said to him, "Your mother and your brothers
and sisters are outside, asking for you."
And he replied, "Who are my mother and my brothers?" And
looking at those who sat around him, he said, "Here are my mother and my
brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and
mother."
The message
Our readings this morning start with Genesis chapter 3,
verses 8-15. This section of scripture
is the end of the second creation story. It describes God’s response to Adam
and Eve’s disobedience. Before getting to what this passage tells us about God,
I want to talk a little about what is going on here, the events of this passage
are central to our faith and tradition, so I do not want to skip over it. Once created, one of the only rules Adam and
Eve, the first people, receive from God is that they are to never eat from the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. That is exactly what they do. Many people of faith over the centuries have
looked to this first act of disobedience to explain how sin and death entered
the world. This is the time when people
and God were no longer in perfect harmony, this is the separation between us
and God that is healed through Jesus life, death and resurrection. The last verse of our reading “he will strike
your head, and you will strike his heel” is seen as a prophesy, through Jesus
suffering and death, the devil strikes God with an almost meaningless hit on
the heel while through Jesus resurrection, the power of evil, sin and death are
struck a death blow to the head and destroyed.
Here, we see our God will never leave us alone to face sin and death by
ourselves.
Before the tangent about the first disobedience, I said
something that might have sounded strange to you, our reading is the end of the
second creation story in the bible.
There are two stories of creation. Each one has a different timeline for
the sun, moon, skies and seas, and a different description of the origins of
people (in the first story, man and woman were created together, in the second,
woman is created later from man’s rib). Since
each story offers different details, these stories were clearly not meant to be
scientific reports about how God made us. (This view was first expressed by St
Augustine about 1600 years ago) Instead, the creation stories reveal
something about who our God is. In Genesis 1:1-2:4 God creates the world over
the course of time, at the end of each day observes it from heaven, from a
distance and notes “it is good”. That is
the distant God, well distant is not the right world, this is the God who we
cannot see or encounter, who is totally beyond our senses and experiences. Our God’s actions cannot be fully understood.
There is trust and mystery in our faith.
Starting in Genesis 2:4 we are introduced to the God who is
revealed. In this second story, God is present in the world, strolling in the
garden, communicating, seeing creation, hearing the animals, smelling the
flowers, and touching the earth.
We understand and explain our experiences of the God we
cannot see and the God who is revealed to us as the Trinity. Over the past few years, I have gone to
Dorothy Sayers metaphor about the Trinity since I am yet to find a better one.
Sayers describes our experience of God as three in one like a book. God the father is the idea for a book, it
exists, complete in the author’s mind but it cannot be read, understood or
touched. This God that cannot really be
known or understood. God the son, Jesus,
is the written book, tangible, readable and accessible, God’s presence, love
and care is made known to us through Jesus.
God the Holy Spirit is the affects of the book, the way it impacts and
changes us, the experiences and understanding it creates. Our God is revealed to us, Our God goes
through great lengths to make sure we can experience God’s comfort, care and
compassion. Our God wants us to know God
is in the world and we are loved.
Now I want to briefly talk about our last 2 readings: In this section of his second letter to
Christians in Corinth, Paul reminds them of the difference between the
temporary and the eternal. God gives us
glimpses of what is to come, promises about things we cannot possibly see and hope for things we can barely
imagine. Our God is the one who freely
gives profound mysteries away to all people and walks with us to make sure we
understand them. Paul also boldly reminds the church of their Easter
responsibility to go and tell the others that Christ is Risen from the
dead. His dangerous, complicated and
frightening missionary work is summed up simply as “I believed and so I spoke”.
Our God gives real grace, the kind that chases
out fear and sin, that calls for justice, comforts the anxious and strives to
make things better, God wants that grace to reach more and more people. That happens when we can say “I believed so I
spoke”
Finally, as we look at the Gospel reading, we are shown the
most amazing part of who our God is.
Right at the end, when Jesus was told his mother, brothers and sisters
were outside, waiting for him, Jesus responds : whoever does the will of God is
my mother, brothers and sisters. Here, people can get lost in this debate about
the Virgin Mary and “how could Jesus have brothers and sisters”. We must be
careful to not overlook the fact that our relationship with God, the all
powerful, mysterious, revealed and unknowable, can be described with such
loving words. How remarkable that Jesus should call whoever
does the will of God his mother, brother and sister, That is our God.
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