Lost in Sin
Where are you? Where are you?
What have you done?
Oh no, why did you do that?
I wonder if you ever heard your parents ask these questions when you were younger?
Maybe you did something you knew you should not do, and then for shame and guilt you hid from your parents or avoided them?
I wonder if you still follow these same patterns today, do you avoid those who you have wronged? Do you hide when you see them coming up the driveway, or into your work place?
I wonder also if you have ever avoided God, His Word, and His forgiveness because of some sin you knowingly did although you knew it was wrong even before you started doing it???
We all hide. We hide not only from those we have wronged, but we hide from God and the forgiveness he can give. We hide from admitting our sin and in so doing, we become lost. Lost in sin, and we cannot free our selves.
The bible text that this sermon is based on is Genesis 3:8-15.
"And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, 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?” And 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 of 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 of 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 deceived me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on 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 her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” (ESV)
So, God was walking in the Garden, taking his regular stroll amongst all that he created. But something was missing, a special part of creation was not there with him. His son and his daughter were not with him. I wonder about the feelings that would have been felt by God. How would you feel if your son and daughter did not want you to see you? Would you have fell sad, maybe abandoned or even feel despised by them? I wonder if you would be scared for them and maybe even hope that they would return to you, no matter what they had done???
But what were Adam and Eve felling? Do you think they heard God's sadness and His pity. Or do you think they heard their maker condemning them for what they had done? When we do wrong in the eyes of God how do we feel God's sound? Is it a sound of pity and sadness or is it anger and judgement?
God knew what Adam and Eve had done, he even knew where they were... He Is God. He knows. But what is it that God did? Did he go up to them and yell at them for being naughty little man and wife? Or did he call them to himself, trying to bring them to repentance, to bring them His forgiveness, to help them find the way back to Him.
Where are you?
God's first call to repentance is right at the start of this reading. God knew where Adam was, both physically and spiritually. God wanted Adam to acknowledge his sin and to turn back from this sin. But Adam did not do this, He instead tried to excuse himself by saying that He was naked so He hid himself? He did not admit his sin; but he sure did become trapped in His sin. By saying that he was naked, he inadvertently told God what he had done wrong.
Is this any different from us, when we have done wrong? Think of when someone lies, or tells a half truth. No matter what they try to do, they get caught eventually in that sin. We all become trapped in our wrongs and the truth does eventually come out.
But unlike us at times, God doesn't gossip about our wrongs to others, that doesn’t even cross his mind. What he does do is call us again and again to repent of our sin. To admit and turn back from what we have done wrong. The same way that He called Adam to himself again: "Have you done what I told you not to?
This time Adam admits to a bit more of the wrong he has done, but instead of saying sorry for what he knew was wrong and turn back on this sin, he blames Eve for his wrong doing. And again I ask you, are we any different?
When we are trapped in our sin, do we readily admit to the wrong we have done? Or do we try and highlight the errors and misjudgments of all those around us. Plenty of news articles in resent weeks show us how this is true especially today in our society.
And so, moving on from Adam, God calls Eve also into repentance. What is this you have done? God already knows what Eve has done, but again He is calling her too account; or in other words, giving Eve the opportunity to repent of her sin. But again, like Adam, she chooses not to apologize but to blame another for her sin. And, funnily enough, the hebrew word we translate as deceived in, "the serpent deceived me" can also be translated "the serpent caused me to forget"...
Do we also try to hide behind our short term memory loss to excuse our wrong doings? do we try to say that we were tricked into sinning? Did the "devil make me do it?". Or do we even hear our selves saying "I was so busy or stressed that I forgot I was not suppose to do that".
CONCLUSION
We all have many excuses, most of which sound great and well thought out... But no matter how much we try to hide and how lost we get in our sin, God knows where we are. We can not hide from our creator.
But the thing is, we shouldn't be hiding at all, it is because we are hiding that we become lost.
God isn't walking around wanting to dish out His divine punishment; wanting to zap all His beautiful creation into oblivion. He is walking, searching, calling you constantly back to Him so that your sin can be removed, so you can be forgiven, so that you can once again walk with Him, IN HIS PRESENCE.
The sound that you hear as death, punishment and judgement, is Not God's voice calling you to you. It is sin calling, trying to get you to hide from God, it is the knowledge of good and evil trying to keep you away from God.
Hear the sound of God. Hear His tears calling you to come, to come to him for His forgiveness that was won and given for you at the cross of Christ. Where Christ once and for all trampled on the head of the serpent, the deceiver, and gave us the chance of once again being in God's presence, the way that God had intended it to be from the very beginning. Not lost in sin, but found in the peace of God which passes all human understanding, that will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. The redeemer of your life.
Amen.
