you throw your arms around my heart

as if to say you're all i need

A sermon on Eden:

We can’t really talk about what this passage is. Can we? Unfortunately for us, this piece of Scripture is, before it’s anything else, a story of what’s been lost. Eden isn’t the story of what is. It’s the story of what isn’t. 

Why so far removed are we from this account that if we try and imagine it, we're called up short almost immediately? I mean, what, after all, is lost in Eden? Was it Paradise? Was it immortality?

Truthfully, though, if I try to picture any of that, I lose interest after about 30 seconds! Sure, it sounds fun to romp through that picture-perfect Eden. But only for a while! What would I do after that? 

And immortality is no better, either! In fact, it’s worse! Add immortality to our estimations of Eden, and you wind up doomed to Paradise! Stuck in the Garden forever, twiddling your thumbs with nothing to do! No, thank you! 

Sure, life east of Eden may be imperfect, but at least it’s interesting.

However, let’s suppose Scripture is to be trusted. Since, after all, Scripture is to be trusted. In that case, my ambivalence about Eden is nothing more than a failure of imagination. And I can’t help but suspect that, on one level or another, you know it, too. 

Honestly, I hope my little crack that life on this side of eternity is at least interesting struck you as altogether dull. Because it is! Yawning at the prospect of paradise is like the child who refuses to try Maytag blue cheese because they prefer craft singles! It’s as silly as it is pitiful!

…Despite how callow our approximation of Eden may be, deep down, we all know better. Don’t we? And Scripture makes no apologies for the simple portrait of Paradise, either. On the contrary, it holds up this humble Edenic existence with a sacred awe and reverent aspiration. 

And even we, on our better days, are no different. Are we? This passage can still make our hearts skip a beat. It can even take our breath away and captivate our thinking, too. Can’t it?

This is a good thing! Yes, this passage may tell of a past far gone and long-forgotten, but it’s still our past. This halcyon heritage is our heritage! This glorious birthright is your birthright. And mine, too. It’s our birthright by right of the simple fact that you and I are descendants of those first inhabitants of Eden, Adam and Even.

That begs the question, though. Doesn’t it? If a paltry paradise and a soulless immortality aren’t what’s lost in the Garden, then what, exactly, is?!? What are we missing out on in this ol’ life estranged from Eden?

…That question, though, takes us beyond the scope of this passage. Doesn’t it? Why, that’s perfectly clear from the unequivocal note of divine triumph this passage concludes on. Today’s Scripture ends fully ensconced within Paradise. Our passage ends as the first couple embrace without the least bit of shame and full of nuptial joy, too. Thus, they inaugurate the first and, sadly, last perfect marriage.

It’s not until the next chapter that we hear of the expulsion from Eden. What happens is, our glorious heritage is poured down the drain all because Adam and Eve —yes, Adam was there— all because Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

And while we’re correcting mistaken assumptions, let's get another thing straight here. It’s not the tree of knowledge. It’s the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Cut it out with all that shortening of the tree’s name, will ya? It leads you astray! 

Adam and Eve are not forbidden from knowledge per se! In fact, they’re not forbidden much of anything! Not really, anyway. The tree of knowledge of good and evil is just one tree in a veritable nursery of endless variety! 

Nevertheless, what Adam and Eve are forbidden is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And the reason is clear enough, too. Such knowledge is above our rank. 

…And that, as it should happen, is our first clue as to what’s really lost in Eden. Keep it in mind, too. Because, for now, we’ve got to turn our attention to how the fruit from one little tree could ever look more appealing than all of Eden.

As you might remember, the serpent —whose presence in the Garden is never explained— but anyway, the serpent invites Adam and Eve to try their hand at playing bishop of Eden for a day. Feigning uncertainty, the serpent asks, “Did God say.” And when Eve adds to what God said, the serpent knows he’s got them right where he wants them. 

Like a parliamentarian enforcing some obscure point of order, Eve informs the serpent that God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden.” So far, so good. More or less. However, when Eve adds, “Nor shall you touch it,” she loses the thread of the promise that runs throughout Eden.

Never satisfied, the serpent invites the couple to speculate a little more about what God may or may not have said. “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘you will not die.’” And this just goes to show that the devil can tell the truth when it suits his purposes. Really, though, it demonstrates the serpent seems to have understood that when God forbade the fruit, God had in mind something more significant than literal death.

Either way, the serpent knows it’s not enough just to cast a little doubt. The serpent knows he’s also got to make the case for what can be gained. “…when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” the serpent suggests.

And that’s all it takes. Adam and Eve reach for the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But in the process, they lose their grip on Paradise. Sure enough, their eyes are opened. But all they see is that they’re naked! 

The couple decidedly did not learn anything new. Do they? On the contrary, all they learn is that they’ve been naked all along. Only now, they know how to put a judgment on it. And with that, suddenly, something for which they had no shame and only wonder becomes a source of humiliation and helplessness. 

But that’s not all. The added insult to the injury of it all is that now Adam and Eve must live with their wretched knowledge. Now they are stuck knowing full well they were unfaithful to the one who gave them everything and eternity, too. And that knowledge only exacerbates the suspicions the serpent played on. Now, Adam and Even know that if they can be conniving, anyone else could be, too.

…This, by the way, is how it works. Temptations exchange the present for something better, but only better hypothetically. In this case, it’s Eden for the possibility of knowing the mind of God. 

Either way, it’s how it always goes. Doesn’t it? I know every time I’ve done something I really regret, I had always fully convinced myself beforehand that whatever I was doing was for the better. 

No one, not really, ever does something bad for its own sake. No, we always have to convince ourselves first. Don’t we? Bedlam is only ever unleashed when we cross those wires of good and evil in our own mind and heart—which is easy to do. Isn’t it?

And we do well to remember this, too. It engenders due humility about our own point of view. And it helps us understand that those folks we disagree with aren’t taking their stand because they’re evil. No, they’re doing it because their conception of what’s good and what’s evil differs from ours. However, they do hold their opinion just as firmly as we do.

But back to the passage at hand. 

It’s an open question as to how much we become like God from ingesting that fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Isn’t it? What is certain, though, is that it amounts to a knowledge we can’t handle particularly well. Doesn’t it? The knowledge of good and evil seems to be a piece of information we can only ever apply to our own, and the rest of the cosmos’, detriment.

I know that goes against conventional wisdom. Knowledge is power. Therefore, more knowledge is always better. But while that adage may hold in principle, it goes awry in practice. 

And we all have plenty of experience with this unpleasant reality, too. We’ve all had the misfortune of learning something we’d rather not. And I’m not talking about some kind of ignorance is bliss, either. 

No, I’m talking about learning how we're always walking a knife’s edge. I’m talking about learning that others can be duplicitous, too. I’m talking about learning the unhappy trade of assigning value to what is otherwise just a plain fact of existence. 

…True wisdom, you understand, isn’t just an accumulation of information. No, wisdom is the art of discerning how to live well in your own little corner of the world. And not just for yourself, either. No, true wisdom seeks to understand how you can live in such a way that everyone you come into contact with is made better by the experience, too. 

But that’s tricky. Isn’t it? That kind of wisdom can’t be gained by just storing up trivia. No, that kind of wisdom is only learned through empathy and humility. It’s hard-won and easily lost.

And it’s precisely that kind of discretion that’s almost never exercised at the tree of knowledge of good and evil! When it comes to that sort of knowledge, we almost always trade true wisdom for theoretical data. Worse still, we imagine no greater use for this information than applying it to our own advantage. And when that happens, the knowledge of good and evil tilts toward destruction every time.

…Blessedly, fellow learners, there is an antidote to this pernicious thirst for self-serving information. Surprisingly, the antidote is another piece of information. Best of all, though, it’s information that, deep down, we all want to know, too. 

All we really need to know is that God likes us. Wouldn’t you agree?

And I’m not talking about God as an abstract concept, either. No, I’m talking about God as the ground and source of your being. I’m talking about God as the pulse in your veins. I’m talking about God as the vivifying spirit that makes your workaday life more than a list of facts. I’m talking about God as that holy fire that ignites your days with the sacred flame that makes a life out of your day-to-day existence. 

This is the God we all long to know. Isn’t it? This is the God we all desire to be in harmony with. This is the God it hurts us in a visceral way to be out of sorts with. Isn’t it? And this is the God we all desperately need to know is more than indifferent about our existence. Don’t we?

That kind of knowledge, though, is the knowledge of a relationship. Isn’t it? As such, it’s always in motion. It necessitates trust. And it presumes active involvement, too.

But in lieu of that dynamic knowledge, like Adam and Eve, we’re wont to opt for an approximation. Instead of the knowledge of a relationship, we reach out for a kind of certainty. But in so doing, the love that makes a paradise out of Eden slips out of our grasp every time. Doesn’t it?

…Now, of course, God doesn’t just cease to be God after Eden. In all truth, that all-consuming fire I just described is what it means to say that great word, God. The only difference is that after Eden, we lose our direct line on this God. When Adam and Eve trade the promises of Paradise for the false assurances of certainty, they, by definition, lose the capacity to ever really hold any of God’s assurances.

This is what it means to say Sin is its own punishment.

What’s more, it helps us understand that old doctrine of original Sin. It wasn’t just Paradise that was lost in the fall. Was it? No, so was our preternatural innocence. From now on, we’re born with these misgivings that are, for all intents and purposes, inherent.

There’s no point in speculating about theoretical alternatives, either. In fact, such conjectures are just another attempt to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Imagining we could have done otherwise is to postulate, like Adam and Eve, that we could pull off paradise ourselves.

But here’s the deal: Eden was never meant to be that sort of ordeal! No, it’s always ALL been a gift! And that’s true from the very word “Go!” 

Or, in this case, “Let.” Let there be! Not do. Not prove. Let!

It’s all God’s idea of a good time, you dig? It’s all for fun, you understand!? God doesn’t kick-start the cosmos to see if we’ll pass the test! No, God calls the dance so that our joy would know no bounds!

And if you don’t believe me, just read our passage again! God is at pains throughout the entire process of creation to craft a paradise worth its salt. And when God notices Adam’s alone, God gets to back work. God doesn’t stop, either, until God lands upon the masterstroke of woman. 

The knowledge of good and evil isn’t for us because we don’t know how to use it! The best idea we can come up with for that knowledge is to use it to categorize. Categorize actions. Categorize people. 

And the whole sad history of shame, conflict, and bigotry demonstrates all too well the misery we unleash with that sort of knowledge. But God never meant for us to practice that sad science! Whatever else God had in mind for good and evil, you can be darn well sure it wasn’t so that we could get a leg up on God!

…All you need to know is that you don’t have to pass the test of good and evil. Or rather, we’ve all already failed! And what’s more, it was our very attempt to pass that doomed us to failure!

You categorically cannot pass the test of good and evil because it’s not a test! Therefore, passing isn’t an option! You’ve got to know God isn’t like that! God’s not a stickler. And God still isn’t! 

Yes, God may have expelled us from Eden. But that was merely to rescue us from a knockoff paradise like the one we imagined at the beginning of the sermon! Instead of leaving us to an eternity of futilely trying to prove ourselves, God canceled the class. For good, too.

And if you still don’t believe me, just take a look at the cross!

As is God’s way, God flipped the script on the serpent’s proposition. Instead of demanding humans be like God, God became like us. In fact, God went further! God became incarnate. God actually became human! Fully human.

In Christ, God is not holding back! In Christ, God is not waiting for us to get our act together and figure out the alchemy of good and evil. On the contrary, in Christ, God has let the two forces come to rest in his empty tomb now and forever!

When we demanded Christ pass our test of divinity, he just flouted the rules. In fact, he flunked the exam. And by all indications, he did so Intentionally! 

By his cross, Christ has broken the curve! All there is to know now is that by an exceedingly evil act, Christ pulled off the supreme good! At least as far as the Holy Trinity defines it!

By his cross, Christ has opened the path to Eden back up all over again!

…You don’t need to be like God. God, in Christ, has become more like you than you can imagine! And anyway, you were always made in God’s image all along!

But that’s not all! In Christ, a new humanity has been birthed! In Christ, the new Adam, a people freed of the curse of Sin and Death, have been born at long last! And you, by your baptism, are born into this new creation!

*And if you’re not baptized, just let me know. We can take care of that as easy as Eden!

What was lost in Eden wasn’t some-thing. Was it? No, that’s way too small of stakes. No, what was lost in Eden was some-one, God. But in Christ, you now have full recourse to this God!

Christ has come to give you more than was lost in the fall! In Christ, you have a direct line to the God that really is God. But better than all that is that, in Christ, God has come directly to you!

In Christ, the Godhead clothed in humanity, you know all you need to know about God! And that’s that God is not testing you. No, God loves you far too much for any of that nonsense! In fact, on account of Christ, you are now God’s cup of tea! Why, that’s why God is thinking you up into existence at this very instant!

That simple knowledge is the wisdom hidden from the ages. But now, in Christ, it’s on full display. And it’s all yours, too!

In Christ, your innocence is restored. In Christ, your relationship with God is restored. And in Christ, you have an Eden worth having. And an eternity, too! 

And while we’re at it, it all starts right now! Now. Not a week from some Tuesday. No, now.

…And seeing as you have all that, how about we all take a deep breath of this crisp, new, fresh Eden air. But don’t hold it in. There’s nothing particularly wise about that. No, the rarified air of Eden meant to be belted out!

After all, praise is the native language of Eden. The lingua franca. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.

Aright. I’ve had my fun. Now it’s your turn. The hymn of the day is hymn number 831, The God of Abraham Praise. Let’s sing to the rafters!

The God of Abraham Praise, ELW 831