Don’t Tell Me What To Do!

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

March 5, 2017—First Sunday in Lent

Don’t Tell Me What To Do!

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

The LORD God took the man

and put him in the garden of Eden

to till it and keep it.

And the LORD God commanded the man,

“You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

you shall not eat,

for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Now the serpent was more crafty

than any other wild animal

that the LORD God had made.

He said to the woman,

“Did God say,

‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent,

“We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;

but God said,

‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree

that is in the middle of the garden,

nor shall you touch it,

or you shall die.’”

But the serpent said to the woman,

“You will not die;

for God knows that when you eat of it

your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil.”

So when the woman saw that

the tree was good for food,

and that it was a delight to the eyes,

and that the tree was to be desired

to make one wise,

she took of its fruit and ate;

and she also gave some to her husband,

who was with her,

and he ate.

Then the eyes of both were opened,

and they knew that they were naked;

and they sewed fig leaves together

and made loincloths for themselves.

*******

After hearing our lesson,

we might imagine God thinking,

“I never should have taken the day off.

I put all that work into creating the earth,

the sun, the moon, the stars,

the plants, the trees, the seas,

the fish, the animals, and the birds.

All that time and energy;

all that imagination and effort!”

“My final task was to create

man and woman in my image.

And I did;

and it was good,

all good,

very good.”

“That’s how I left it at the end of the sixth day.

So I rested on the seventh day.

I blessed that day and I made it holy.”

“And, since I’d given the man and the woman

a beautiful place to live,

food to eat,

and work to keep them busy

caring for my creation,

I didn’t think I needed to look after them.”

“So, in the cool breeze of the evening,

I went for a walk in my garden.

I was enjoying the sweet fragrance

of the trees and flowers.

I was listening to the birds singing in the trees,

every bird singing a different melody.

I was watching the animals frolic and play.

I took in all the beauty that I had created.

It was good…

very good.”

“But then I heard a rustling sound in the bushes

and I thought that it might be

the man and the woman,

so I called out, ‘Where are you?’

My heart sank when I heard the man’s response:

‘I heard the sound of you in the garden

and I was afraid…’”

“At first I wondered what

I might have done wrong.

Could I have been any clearer

when I said to the man and woman,

‘You may eat freely of every tree in the garden,

but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

you shall not eat, …’?”

“So why did they eat?

Why did they disobey me?

The woman tried to blame the serpent;

The man tried to blame the woman.

The man even tried to blame me:

‘the woman whom you gave to be with me,

she gave me fruit from the tree..’”

“But the simple fact is this:

the man and the woman disobeyed me.

They had a choice,

a choice to listen to me,

and live obediently by my word;

or follow another path.”

        

“They had a choice:

listen to my voice,

or listen to other voices,

including their own.”

“They made a choice;

they made their choice:

they chose not to listen to me.

‘Don’t tell us what to do;

don’t tell us what not to do,’

is what they said to me

Why?

Why?”

We have larded this story with mythology

over the centuries;

we have barnacled it with evil,

temptation,

seduction;

we’ve made the woman the villain;

And in the 4^th century Augustine hung the term

“the Fall” on the story,

throwing a dark curtain over

what God had called “good, very good.”

Strip all that away, though,

and what we find is a story

of a man and a woman

who had two options before them.

two choices,

two roads they could take.

They’d heard what God had said

about one path,

and they heard what the serpent had said

about the other.

And then they made their choice.

For as old as this story is,

it is as contemporary as if

it had been written yesterday.

Your life, my life, everyone’s life

is filled with choices,

choices we make from the moment we get out of bed

to the moment we drift off to sleep at night;

simple choices, like what to have for breakfast

or whether to wear the red or the blue sweater.

And more difficult choices:

Choices that reflect on our discipleship,

on our godliness,

moral choices,

ethical choices,

faithful choices.

Inevitably, as hard as we try to make good choices,

we, just like Adam and Eve,

make poor choices as well,

bad choices,

faithless choices.

God has given us commandments,

his Word to guide us,

his Son to teach us.

But we are such stubborn creatures,

we humans,

and we, like Adam and Eve,

want to do what we want to do.

We don’t want anyone,

even God,

telling us what to do,

telling us what not to do,

telling us how to live our lives.

And so in our stubbornness,

we can’t help but go down the wrong path,

we can’t help but make bad choices,

too easily,

too frequently.

Lent is the time of year

when we should look deep within,

deep within ourselves,

to see,

to acknowledge where we’ve made bad choices,

wrong choices,

faithless choices,

where we’ve gone astray.

                 

We should look at ourselves –

at ourselves, not others-

and see where we have chosen the wrong path,

which is any path that leads us away from God.

Lent is the time of year

when we are to acknowledge our sinfulness,

remembering that the word “sin”

simply means “to turn away”.

where and when we have turned from God,

so that we can repent,

which means so simply “turn back”,

turn back to God.

                                   

Lent is the time of year for us to acknowledge

how quick we are to blame others;

how quick we are to make excuses –

just like Adam and Eve:

“it isn’t my fault –

it’s his fault,

her fault,

their fault.”

Why are we so quick to resist taking responsibility

for our actions, our words, our deeds?

Why are we so quick to blame others?

Why are we so quick to make excuses?

Lent is the time of year

for us to seek forgiveness,

knowing, without a doubt,

that forgiveness is ours

from God through Jesus Christ.

                          

Here’s how we might re-write this story for Lent

to teach us, guide us:

the woman saying to God,

“You are right, O Lord,

I disobeyed you;

I did what you told me not to do.

It wasn’t the serpent’s fault;

it was mine!

I was wrong.

I am sorry.”

The man falling in right behind the woman:

“I too acknowledge my disobedience, O Lord.

I do not deny it.

It wasn’t the woman’s fault,

and it certainly wasn’t your fault.

I chose not to listen to your voice,

I chose not to live by your word, your will.

I was wrong.

I am sorry.”

“Wash me clean,” sings the Psalmist.

That is the song we should sing all year round,

but especially during Lent:

“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you alone, have I sinned…

Wash me clean.”

(Psalm 51)

Lead us, O Lord.

Teach us.

Wash us clean

and then guide us,

that we might walk more faithfully in your light.

AMEN