Eve and the Serpent

March 13, 2011 1st Sunday of Lent

Genesis : 15-17; 3: 1-7, Romans 5: 12-19, Matthew 4: 1-11

Eve and the Serpent

I am going to admit to you all here that I am not a very good housekeeper. I'm doing very well if I make up my bed every day. Coming from an era when a woman's home was a reflection of her devotion to home and family...(the 1950's), I sometimes get pangs of guilt over lack of housekeeping, my dust bunnies, and my spotty windows. I said sometimes, not very often.

One of the best motivations I have to clean up around the house is when company is coming. Now I don't do a lot of cleaning, but I will vacuum (or entreat Ed do it), clean the bathrooms and put out clean towels...maybe even dust when I know that someone is coming to visit. I like to clean up my house for a visitor because I want them to feel good about being in my home. I want them to feel welcome and like I've prepared for their visit.

House cleaning. That is one way to think about the Lenten season. You probably noticed that the cross is draped with purple today. Purple is the seasonal color for Lent, and it signifies the color of royalty and the kingship of the Lord Jesus. When you see the purple on the cross, think...it's time to clean out, clean up, and get ready to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord.

This past Wednesday, which we call Ash Wednesday, was the beginning of the Lenten season. We had a service here at the church and quite a few people came by to receive the imposition of the ashes on their heads, which symbolizes for us, our repentant hearts. We prayed together prayers of confession, prayers of offering and prayers of commitment for this special time called Lent.

During the 40 days of Lent, people intentionally commit themselves to drawing closer to God. It is often thought of as a time of shadows, sorrow, and grief over the things we have done against God. During Lent people do special things in an effort to seek forgiveness and know God better. They may fast, devote themselves to prayer, read Lenten materials and practice daily devotions and the like.

In my mind Lent is a little like when I clean house for a visitor. During our lives we all have times when we are a little less than pious, a little less than virtuous; times when we sin. Those sins ultimately begin to eat away at our faithfulness and devotion to God. So Lent is a time for cleaning up our inward homes for Jesus; a time when we can take ourselves in hand and examine just what we have been doing or not doing.

In the early church, the forty days of Lent was a time when persons prepared themselves for baptism. They learned scripture, doctrines of the church and how to live faithfully before God. Then at the end of Lent, on Easter they were baptized. On Easter they were plunged beneath the waters, received the anointing of the Holy Spirit and began their Christian journey with God.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent, and it is fitting that our texts draws us to the matter of sin. In our Old Testament reading this morning is the accounting of the first humans and the first recorded sin (s). It is the story of "the fall."

This story has exerted a great deal of influence over humanity since it was first told. The "fall" is thought to be the reason that all humans long for God; the reason that Blaise Pascal said, "“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”[1] How many of us have heard a preacher say sometime that it is because of the "fall" that sin entered the world. Eve and Adam sinned and we have had to pay for it ever since? The "fall" is where everything went wrong.

You probably know this story by heart. God created the first human and placed him into a beautiful garden to work and care for it. The human, called Adam, had the run of the place. He was able to enjoy everything in the garden and eat anything he wanted. He was allowed to eat of the beautiful tree of life which gave to him eternal life (3:22).

There is only one limitation...God said that Adam must not eat of or even touch the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The reason...God said...was that it would kill him. If he ate it, he would (not maybe)...surely die. (You want to know why we die...well here it is.)

After being given that commandment, God made Adam a companion, and Adam called her Eve. Eve, otherwise known as the first snake handler; the first human to be tempted to sin. The text tells us that the serpent came to Eve, who had not heard God's commandment directly (though Adam must have told her that they were not supposed to touch or eat from the tree), and the creature began to speak to her.

I want to stop here a moment and let us think about this creature called the serpent. The text says that the serpent was a "crafty" beast, more crafty than any other. But apparently the creature was okay to look at, as Eve was not frightened of the serpent. In fact she easily conversed with the creature. That tells me that the serpent was likely intelligent, able to think, able to reason. Apparently the serpent also had the ability and the desire to beguile Eve, to be crafty and to lie about God. As we listen to the story we might even get the impression that Eve and Adam were well acquainted with the serpent, maybe they were even friends.

Anyway, the crafty ole serpent begans to place doubt into Eve's mind. He said, Umm. Just a question. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Can you just see the wheels of Eve's mind turning? She began to explain...(when we begin to explain God we always get into trouble, don't we?) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, ³ but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ After her explanation when her guard was completely down, the serpent called God a liar, saying, "no...no...no you won't die...you'll only become like God if you take a bite of its fruit."

And here it comes. Eve's began to think outside of her relationship with God. She began to think for herself, to put herself before God. She devised her own plan for what she would eat. She disobeyed God's command and let go of God's protection. She bent to her own desire to have something that God said she mustn't have. Eve turned from God to herself. Eve became the god of her life. That was the "fall." That was her sin, and that is what happens to every single one of us when we sin.

The "fall" or as it is sometimes called "original" sin has been examined for centuries. It has been called the reason we are sinful...because Eve and Adam sinned we are born into sin. John Wesley did not believe that we are born sinful, but rather that humans are born in purity. God created humans in the image of God, which included the liberty to choose. We have the free will to choose to obey God or not. Wesley said, "And having this power, a power of choosing good or evil, [man] chose the latter: He chose evil." ^{^[2]}

It is not that because the first humans sinned that we are sinful. It is that they are a good example of what we do...actually all of us who mature to the point of knowing right from wrong...will sin. Jesus who was the perfection of human nature did not sin. The bible tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way that humans are tempted, yet just as in did in the wilderness, Jesus always retained the perfection of humanity by never sinning against God (Heb 4:15).

We can make a comparison between Eve and the serpent in the Garden, and Jesus and the serpent (Satan) in the wilderness (our gospel lesson today). Eve turned from God and disobeyed God's plan for her life, and Jesus did not.

Paul teaches in Romans that all of us sin. Like Eve met the serpent in the garden, and even Jesus met the same in the wilderness, we too will have similar occasions in our lives. People can tell the story of Judy and the serpent...Richard and the serpent...Becky and the serpent. Because of our self interests, our desire for things, our need to have worth in the world, our propensity to be the god of our lives...we do all sin. Eve's sin was not eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good an evil, but rather it was being self-centered.

Regardless of the serpent's lie, our sin does indeed, just as it did for Eve and Adam, bring death into our lives. (No Eve did not drop dead the moment that she ate from the tree, her death came later. Eve and Adam were removed from the garden where the tree of life was (Gen 3:22). They died, just as God said they would.)

But, the story of the "fall" is only the beginning of the story. The story continues. From Genesis through Revelation we have the rest of the story. It tells of God who is motivated by love for all creation to re-establish, restore the life that we've lost through sin. In Jesus, our life has been redeemed. By faith in God and God's gracious gift to us, we are given a new life; one that is in Jesus, one that is as pure, as holy and as everlasting as he is.

What serpent is tempting you today? I want you to know that you too are a snake handler. Just like Eve you will handle the serpent. The serpent may be friendly, fun, and desirable. It may be beautiful, reasonable, and completely secret. The beast may captivate you, charm you and lie to you. The serpent will come at you when you are most venerable, hungry, thirsty, in need. The goal of a serpent's existence...is to try to kill you...by causing you to sin against God.

The good news is that God is ready for that crafty beast. God is there to help us. The Holy Spirit is with us to strengthen you when we are handling a serpent. The scriptures offer words of encouragement, "God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. ^{^[3]} We can keep from sinning. God makes a way for us.

But when we do sin? When we sin, we must remember that our sins will be forgiven. When we are beguiled, lured, and charmed into sin by a crafty serpent, God will forgive us. God will also let it go from memory.

When I am cleaning up for company to come, when the dust is vacuumed, and the beds are changed, and the dirty towels are washed, I forget about the dirt. What was once dirty is clean, so why would I dwell on the fact that the house used to be dirty. I am happy that it is clean.

God is so much greater at this that we are...God forgives and God forgets. And not only that, when we are forgiven...no matter how many times...God restores us into the beautiful image that we are created to be.

I hope that today you will believe what I am telling you. Where there is the dirt of past sins, take them to God for forgiveness. During this Lenten season, I pray that we all listen to the sorrows of own hearts, that we purpose to seek out God on a deeper level, to put God first in our lives, and stop being the gods of our existence. May we all become adept at handling the serpents that crop up before us. Amen.

[1] http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there_is_a_god_shaped_vacuum_in_the_heart_of/166425.html

^{^[2]} John Wesley, Sermons, on Several Occasions (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1999).

^{^[3]} The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), 1 Co 10:13.