i was lying in my bed / a creature void of form

been so afraid of everything / i need a chance to be reborn 

A sermon on the so-called "fall"

Are you ready?!? 

Well? Are you?!? 

Folks, just sitting there isn’t exactly the hearty “yes” I was hoping for! But I get it. I know it’s Sunday morning. I’m sure you’re a little groggy. And I bet you just want to sit there like a bump on a log, too! 

You know what? You’re not going to get off that easily! Sorry! No, you’re going to have to participate a little this morning! 

Because I’m feeling extra punchy, it’s not one of those subjective questions you can just answer with whatever idea pops into your pretty little head, either! No, you’re going to have to put in some work! You’re going to have to think! This question has a right and wrong answer. Fun. Right? 

Wow. If your first response was half-hearted, I think the other half of your heart must have just died on the line! But don’t worry. This isn’t a trick question. In fact, I’m going to set you up to give the right answer. How does that sound?

C’mon! Would it kill you to nod?!? I’m setting you up to get this question right! That’s a good deal! Isn't it?

Ok. Thank you! The answer to today’s question can be found in your *bulletin. It comes from today’s Scripture. And if that wasn’t enough, I’m even going to tell you what paragraph the answer is in. It’s the *third paragraph, the one that begins with, “Now the serpent.”

Folks, I can see you’re not even opening your bulletin! I want you to get this right! But how can I help you if you won’t help yourself?!? For heaven’s sake, at least pretend to fiddle with your bulletins! 

There. That’s better. Thank you. And even though you’re only barely participating, I’m going to give you another hint! The answer is in the *last sentence of the third paragraph. In your bulletin, it’s on the *second to last line. 

I’ve really teed you up. Haven’t I? I told you! I want you to get this right! I want you to knock it out of the park. And remember, this isn’t a trick question, either! I’m going to lob this over the plate. Ok?

Are you ready?

All right. Here we go. Here’s the question: What do Eve and Adam learn after they eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? It says, “Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew…” What do they know? What do Eve and Adam learn after they eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

Whammo! You got it! Home run! They knew they were naked. That’s right! They knew they were naked. Nicely done!

…Are you sure, though? I know I said this wasn’t a trick question, but that answer doesn’t seem altogether right, either. Does it?

Adam and Eve had already been traipsing all over Eden in the buff! Surely, they must have noticed their uncovered differences! Right?!? Plus, Adam named all the animals au naturel, too! 

And this part has been cut out of our passage, but after the creation of Eve, Genesis tells us in the 25th verse of the second chapter that, “And the man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.” You don’t need to be a middle-schooler to pick up what Genesis is putting down! Do you? But, despite all that, you mean to tell me Adam and Eve didn’t know they were in the nude during their nuptials?!? C’mon! That’s a stretch!

Lest you think I’m being a bit too irreverent here, I would like to direct your attention to a little exchange between Adam, Eve, and God. This comes right after our passage, in chapter three, verses nine and ten. It’s when God asks Adam and Eve what in the world they were doing hiding. In response, Adam says, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked.” 

Then, without missing a beat, God fires back, *“Who told you that you were naked?” Folks, that has to be the first punchline ever delivered! And it’s a pretty darn good one, too! Who told you that you were naked?!? That’s comically lighthearted and playful, considering the gravity of what just transpired!

If you’re having trouble hearing the zinger, just imagine Desi Arnaz delivering the line. “Who told you that you were naked?!?” And if that offends your piety, I would remind you that you don’t need to be more sanctimonious than God. In Christ, God is thoroughly shameless. Christ was known for keeping all the wrong kinds of company. And he had a reputation for enjoying the buffet line and free drinks just a little too much, too!

But you know what? I’m not going to try to convince you that God’s not afraid to get mixed up with sin. It’s true! St. Paul tells us in Second Corinthians that God made Christ to become sin itself! In Christ, God’s not afraid of sin. And the sooner you come to grips with that, the better. 

Why, Luther was so bold to say that, at the cross, Christ becomes the world’s greatest sinner! And that’s not all, either! Luther went even further! He said, at the cross, Christ becomes the world’s only sinner! In Christ, God gets so close his skin smokes! That’s Luther again!

Beloved, we have a God who’s not afraid to crack a joke at the expense of the world’s first sin! Yes, sin is a real catastrophe. But God’s not going to deal with it with priggish self-righteousness. No, truth be told, in Christ, God saves the world in such an ungodly fashion that, if you didn’t know better, you’d think it was a joke!

…But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Isn’t it? We’ve still got a question on our hands. We have yet to deal with the whole matter of Adam and Eve’s newfound knowledge! How in the world did they not already know they were stark naked before they ate that fruit?!?

Well, I’m so glad you asked. And I’m happy to hold forth, too. But you know what? I don’t think you need me to give the answer. No, I think you already know. That’s right. I think you know how Adam and Eve learned they were naked yourself. 

Clearly, Adam and Eve knew God gave them birthday suits for romping around Eden. That information couldn’t have been anything new to them. No, the only difference is that now they see their nakedness as a deficiency! A deficiency. Before taking that fruit for themselves, all they saw was all God’s provisions. But, once they swallowed the lie that God may be holding back, all they could see was inadequacy everywhere.

You know what that’s like. Don’t you? Of course, you do. We all do. 

This is why you don’t need me to stand up here and exposit on today’s passage. Do you? No, it speaks for itself! We all get the painful loss of innocence when we act on our doubts.

Not only does it introduce all sorts of unpleasant suspicions, but it also doesn’t even ever work! On the contrary, it only exacerbates our bothersome worries! Instead of casting our burdens on the Lord, we try to carry them ourselves! But all that does is put the problem back on ourselves! Only now, it weighs twice as much! Now, you’ve added to your own burden by trying to lug it around yourself! 

Why would we ever think that would work?!? How is carrying the thing that’s weighing you down going to lighten your load?!? Why, it’s even more absurd than God dealing with sin by becoming it! Isn’t it?!? In contrast, we try to ease our worries by indulging them! It’s comical! But not the good kind. 

…This, by the way, is the sinister game that dastardly serpent wants you playing, too! You can even see the snake dealing the deathly cards. First of all, he goes to Eve. And remember, Eve had not yet been formed when God told Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil!

But that’s not all! The serpent also phrases the question innocuously! “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The answer, obviously, is “No.” 

That’s what Eve should have said, too! But instead, she tried to correct the serpent. In the process, though, she only revealed all the anxiety you and I have about death. Eve can’t even bring herself to say the name of the tree! And she also heightens its importance, too! She says the tree is in the middle of the garden! 

Then, for good measure, Eve adds to God’s prohibition! Just to be safe, Eve tells the serpent the tree isn’t even to be touched! And with that, the serpent takes his trick. He plays his winning hand at all our expense. 

Now, the serpent does the correcting. And, with just enough truth to make the lie believable, the serpent suggests that all the hemming and hawing is merely because God doesn’t have our best interests in mind. On the contrary, insinuates the serpent; God doesn’t want us eating from that tree because God doesn’t want us to be like God. 

You caught that sleight of hand, right?!? The serpent makes the boundary a barrier! The serpent says the prohibition is a problem! The serpent suggests we might be better off deciding for ourselves. 

But that’s just not how it plays out. Is it? No sooner do we think we should decide for ourselves than we have to! The only fruit of that act is that now we believe we must act on our own worst fears ourselves!

And the rest, as they say, is history. Isn’t it? It’s why you and I repeat this same sad pattern ourselves over and over again! It’s why we can’t seem to help ourselves! 

They talk about inherited sin. Well, here it is! Isn’t it?!? And this is deeper than biology, too. It’s more like a pathology! It’s a dysfunction we all live under every blasted moment of our lives!

…But I don’t want you to think that now that you know better, you’ll do better! That’s a flat-out fallacy! If information is so redemptive, how come our great inventions always seem to be just on the verge of destroying us? Or why didn’t we all clean up our act in Kindergarten?!?

No, original sin goes deeper than data. It’s impervious to information! After all, don’t miss the fact that the serpent invites Eve to do a little critical thinking herself! No, our malady is congestive, not cognitive. 

That, dear sisters and brothers in Christ, is why Luther, as shocking as he may have been, was right! The only cure for this disease is to pass it on to someone else! And that’s what Adam and Eve try to do, too! Adam blames Eve. And Eve blames the serpent, and so, its creator, God.

It doesn’t work, of course. That’s just blaming the doctor. And finally, that’s what we’ll try to execute at Golgotha, too. But don’t forget, God is a shameless God. God isn’t too good to care for ungrateful patients. In fact, God will even incorporate that very ingratitude into God’s intervention! 

At the cross, Christ forgives sin! But remember, Christ is God’s word made flesh! Christ is the word of God himself! Christ is the word God creates from! What I mean is, when Christ says, “Father, forgive them,” he’s not just moving his lips. No, he’s moving heaven and earth! 

When the Son asks the Father to forgive our sin, something really happens! At the cross, the Holy Spirit of Christ’s obedience and God’s love takes all our sin and puts it on Christ himself! Christ truly becomes the world’s only sinner! And when Christ dies, so does all our sin!

Our sins are not forgiven because God wishes it were so! No, our sins are forgiven because, in Christ’s death, they actually cease to be! When God forgives your sins, God simply declares what really happened to them on the cross! At the cross, Christ became the host that carried all our sin to its utter demise!

…In Christ, the power of death, sin, dies itself! Christ is the death of death! But that’s not all Christ is! Christ is also the way, the truth, and the life! The life! Christ is the death of death because he is, in all truth, life itself! In Christ, death dies because he lives! 

That’s what the Easter proclamation means! Alleluia, Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Christ is risen, and death is thrown down!

In his resurrection, Christ kickstarts a new creation! Remember, Christ is the word of God! Christ is what God creates from! And by the Holy Spirit, this new creation is something God does over and over, again and again! 

Including today! When Christ crushed the serpent’s head, he inverted the curse! Christ doesn’t just take a hit out on death. He also ushers in new life! God makes the cross the Tree of Life itself! And in communion, the Holy Spirit gives you its fruit of eternal  life!

And good savior that he is, Christ has one more trick up his sleeve! Christ also clothes you in himself! When Christ was stripped naked at the cross, he covered all your sins with his righteousness! Know this: at the cross, you are dressed in the indestructible love of God, come what may!

You no longer have to hide from God! God already knows where you are anyway. What’s more, it’s God who brought you *here today! You once were lost, but now you’re found! And God’s brought you here to crack one more joke! And it’s at the expense of sin, too!

Do you want to hear it? Ok. Here goes: As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

In Christ’s death, your sins are buried in his tomb! And in his resurrection, you live as fresh as a his ever-new mercies! You may be wearing your Sunday best, or not, but underneath it all, you’re clothed in nothing but Christ from head to toe! 

Trust me, it’s a good look! You’re all decked out! So, let’s party! Our Hymn of the Day comes from the All Creation Sings hymnal. Hymn number 1049, Before the Waters Nourished Earth. All Creation Sings hymnal. Hymn number 1049, Before the Waters Nourished Earth. Let’s sing!

Before the Waters Nourished Earth, ACS 1049