Reconsidering Eden
Genesis 1:26-31a; Matthew 3:1-6
A Sermon Delivered by Thomas J. Boone, PhD
Central Presbyterian Church, Jan. 6, 2008

The way it all began seems incomprehensible to me. When I read the creation account I’m burdened neither by questions of science nor of theology. Rather, I’m dismayed at the goodness of it all at one point in time. There was, in human history, a time when it was all very good.

Adam and Eve didn’t need love songs to remind them what they didn’t have; they walked and talked daily with the author of Love Himself. They didn’t need marketers advertising the latest resort or lifestyle to achieve peace and harmony; their comfort in life was a shameless life before each other and God. They didn’t need a plethora of laws to control their behavior. Embedded within the choice of eating or not eating from the tree were the root questions of all sin. First, do we believe that our egos are greater than God? And second, will we put our interests over those of another?

When things were very good, there wasn’t much in the way of technology. They didn’t even see the need for making clothes and apparently food wasn’t a problem. When things were very good, Adam and Eve didn’t squabble about who was in charge: God was, and they were each other’s helpmates in fulfilling His will. When things were very good there were no educational systems, governments, or financial markets because these things came about only once humans tried to recover what Adam and Eve lost: paradise.

Paradise is the realization of all things good, where nothing but harmony exists. And once Adam and Eve lost it humans have been trying to rediscover Eden ever since. Granted our ways of regaining paradise pales by comparison to the real thing. Cain wanted to be favored by God, but ended up killing Abel out of jealousy and anger. How often have we allowed jealousy and anger to mar the good things that God has promised us?

Fast forward a number of years and we see that things hadn’t improved. Genesis 6 puts it this way, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” Human corruption and violence had replaced God’s harmony and peace so much so that it was time to start over again. There’s an adage that says, “Hurt people hurt people.” I wonder what would have been the case had people not become so hurt by one another, but instead kept God as their true center.

By the time there were many humans on earth they tried to reach God, but their pride didn’t let them stop there. No, they wanted to be as great as God even though their great achievement was nothing but a puny ziggurat made from mud and rock. We build businesses, families, homes, educations, bank accounts, and a myriad of other things. How often have we been tempted to make what we build sources of our true security?

If you’ve been following the Bible reading plan you’ve seen that Genesis 1-11 is a marvelous account of how we lost paradise, and since then how we’ve tried to rediscover it. We try in so many ways to get back into Eden, but no matter what our efforts we can’t avoid the inescapable truth: paradise is impossible as long as sin holds us captive. When things don’t go our way, it’s not until we’ve matured a great deal that we’re able to accept humbly that we don’t always get our way. When people hurt us, without transformed hearts it’s easy to continue the cycle of violence even if it’s just in using bitter words and holding onto vengeful desires. When we look at our capabilities it’s easy to forget that God is the one who gave us those abilities in the first place and instead take the credit ourselves.

Humans have been struggling to regain paradise ever since God barred its gates shut. So we fight wars to dethrone tyrants, we come face to face with death and find ways to improve healthcare, we grow up to discover that life is difficult and we want an easier life for our children, we fall in and out of love, and the more we see injustice the more we try to fix it. The human heart wonders what it could have been like to experience life as very good, and our minds puzzle over whether or not it every really was.

If God had never visited earth as Jesus Christ we’d still be searching to rediscover Eden without satisfaction. If the Holy Spirit had not come upon the apostles and then filled everyone who believed on account of their testimony we’d still have no hope for delight. Had God not rescued us from the despair of our sin we could never find contentment, peace, or security, and our quest to find these treasures would wander as aimlessly as everyone between Cain and Mary has done.

But God did come to earth. God did share in our humanity. God did die to save us from sin. God does offer us Paradise again. So, why do we continue to look for it in places other than where God is? When we face anxiety, why do we find serenity in exercise, drugs, Williams & Sonoma, a bottle, or another person? When we face trauma, why do we play the blame game when what God wants us to do is to find peace in Him? When we’re searching for answers why do we turn to places other than God’s Word as our first source of truth?

It’s a tragic thing when Christians buy into the lie that Eden exists outside of God. But buying into the lie is exactly what we do as Christians whenever we sacrifice a mature faith for the sake of finding wholeness without turning to God above all else. If we want to rediscover Eden we must return to the Lord, seek Him with absolute commitment, and allow Him to be the predominant influence in our lives both publicly and privately.

I say it’s a tragedy to do otherwise because Genesis and Acts make it quite clear that the world is absolutely lost without God’s people helping people discover God’s incredible mercy. Without God at the center people in the opening chapters of Genesis moved so deeply into evil that God grieved over even making us! The story that will unfold this year as you read the Old Testament is not a story of a vindictive God who likes to hurt and punish people, but of a God who decided every now and then that enough was enough. How many times will a child rebel before the parent finally decides enough is enough?

And God is calling the church to be the flare in the darkness that guides wayward ships onto course. We have been given a commission from Jesus himself that we are to make disciples out of all nations and baptize people in His name. In short, we are God’s tools for helping people rediscover Eden because Eden is exactly where we inhabit if we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We know what evil and good is, and through Christ and the Holy Spirit’s influence upon our lives we are able to choose right over wrong. Those who don’t know Jesus don’t have this privilege, and if you’ve spent anytime among non-believers you know what I mean. Without Jesus, people are lost despite their best efforts.

This is why Jesus’ ministry was introduced with John the Baptist’s famed cry in the desert, “Repent!” Jesus came to right what had gone wrong. He came to clean up the mess in our hearts. He came not to please, but to save. And the greatest tragedy of our life on earth as Christians will not be that we didn’t attend church regularly, or that we didn’t serve on a committee, or do enough social justice. The greatest tragedy for us will be if we failed in being partners with Jesus in his mission to turn hearts back to the Father. If we’ve not called others to repentance, if we’ve not illustrated the high road of faith amidst great confusion of truth, if we’ve not had the courage in a pluralistic culture to show those lost that wholeness and healing happens in God alone. If we’ve not done any of this, then what does our faith matter? People are desperate to rediscover Eden, and God wants us to show them the way.

But, we do this as broken people ourselves. We, too, have faced the world’s broken promises. We, too, have bought into the empty hopes that our culture espouses. We, too, have been afflicted by trauma, pain, and suffering. We, too, know the scourge of untimely death or severe illness. We know the shame of bankruptcy, divorce, abortion, and affairs. We don’t portray the gospel as perfect people, but as wounded healers.

We may not have life completely figured out, but we have a gift to give because we’ve been given the gift of life. Remember the Samaritan woman whom Jesus met at a well in John 4? She wanted renewal in her soul; she wanted to escape an imprisoned life and experience a mercy-filled life; she want to live fully, not just get by with a “this-is-as-good-as-it-gets” life. Guess what? There are millions of Samaritan women in this world and chances are that we’re in good company with many of them every week. The point of the various scriptures at the beginning of Genesis, Acts, and the gospels is a simple one. God wants us to show people how to turn their lives around so that they can stop searching aimlessly for paradise and at last rediscover where God is.

This is why God doesn’t remove us from life’s traumas and tribulations. It’s why we continue to face the same temptations that every one else does. And it’s why each of us struggle to overcome sin’s authority in our life. We’ve learned that without Jesus there is no way to become whole again. Without Christ paradise is impossible. This is the message we bear to a hurting and lost world, and on His strength we depend. Hallelujah. Amen.