© Rev. Lance Carrithers, all rights reserved.  Permission required to copy any portion of this message by any means. Email for permission: lance@firstchurchdc.com

Series: Through the Bible in Eight Great Stories

#1 Creation & Sin

"Not How, But Why"

                            Genesis 1-3

           While the Bible has long been reported to be the best selling book of all time, it’s safe to say, many of us know far less about the Bible than we want or wish.   It a book we buy or have, but not necessarily read or understand.

            There are many reasons for this:  Not taking time for regular Bible reading.  Not understanding how the Bible is structured.  Not understanding difficult and sometimes archaic language and cultures.  Never getting around to reading the thing is the first place.  Believing that there are others who know the Bible and when I need to know something in the Bible, someone will be able to tell me “what the Bible says about that.”

            Sound familiar to anyone?  Yet, I wonder if the most prevalent reason many of us know little about the Bible as a whole is because we never have taken the time to learn what the over-arching story, and the great themes of the Bible are?

            That’s what we’re going to attempt over the next 8 weeks, and I want to challenge you to be here each of those weeks to see if together, we can put the big picture together.  Will you do that?

            Today, we begin at the beginning.  Literally, both in place and title.  The name Genesis means beginning.  It is our introduction to the comprehensive story of the Bible.

            And the beginning of the story is about the beginning of THE story—the story of God and God’s unique relationship with all things—God is the creator of all things, bringing light to darkness, order to chaos and interaction and inter-relationship between all things.

            Now, before we go any further, I must say a word about our viewpoint on this story.  Christians are in disagreement over the bible.   Some see it as a text to explain the “how” questions—“how the universe came to be,” “how the world was constructed and the time frame for the project,” or even “how wrong human endeavors to explore science to answer the how questions are.”

            But…perhaps the story of Creation isn’t meant to answer the “how questions” at all.  Maybe we have in our hands a story that is more important than that.  More powerful than that.  Maybe, just maybe, we have here, a story that answers a question science will never, ever be able to answer.  The question of why.  Why was the world created.  And more importantly, why were we created?  And another question science cannot begin to comprehend.  For what purpose? 

            This is the purpose, I believe, of the story of Genesis.  God’s careful, attentive creation of the universe and all that is in it, and God’s loving creation of human beings.  The story is to show us not “how” things came to be, but why, and for whose purposes.  A creator stakes a claim on the work produced.  A “creator” produces the “created.”  And this is not a matter for science.  It is a matter for faith.  The created must understand its relationship with the creator.  We, humans formed in the image of God, must be given a framework for understanding our relationship with the God who made us.  That framework is the story—

            Let me illustrate it this way:  In the first two chapters of Genesis, we have two very different stories of Creation. 

            Genesis 1:26-31 tells us humans were created on the sixth day of creation, following the creation of the world, the fish, birds, and other land animals.   In Genesis 1, humans (plural) were created in God’s image, with no detail as to how.  Humans were then given dominion over the earth, to fill it and subdue it, and were given every plan and tree for food.

            Now then, Genesis 2:4-10 tells us a different story.  God made humans on the same day that the earth and heavens were made.  The first human was a man, formed and given life from God’s breath.  Other creatures were then made as companions for the man, and named by the man.  The first woman was formed from a bone taken from the man.  Humans were put into a garden to till it and keep it.   They were given every tree for food except for one—the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

            Well—which way is it?  Those who are looking to Genesis to answer “how” are in a dilemma.  Did humans come before the other creatures, or after the other creatures were formed?  Did God create male and female together, or did God create first man, then creatures, then female?

            Ah—those are the how questions.  And if we are focused on the how questions, we will always, ALWAYS end up in disagreement, argument, and, I believe, end up missing the big picture—which is this:  Who is God?  (The Creator.)            Who are human beings?  (The created.)  What is the relationship between God and humans?  (The Creator has a claim on the created.)

            But this claim will not result in ownership or enslavement.  It will be lived out in relationship.  And the only way relationship can truly exist is through each partner having the complete freedom to choose whether or not recognize it.   

            This is illustrated in the story.  God places a tree in the center of the Garden, called the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  He tells the man, his created, that he may eat of any tree of the garden, save the one in the middle of the garden.  Of that tree, he may not eat or he will surely die.

            But the tree is not fenced off.   Angelic sentries with flaming swords are not left to keep the humans away.  No, only the man’s will and choice will be in play.  This relationship will demand that the man willingly choose to honor God’s authority.

            And of course, the man chooses to exercise his free will the way we humans often tend to do: he freely chooses to serve himself, rather than his relationship with God.  He eats of the tree, and immediately there are consequences for his actions.

            The man and the woman find themselves ashamed for the first time of their nakedness.  They cover themselves, and try to cover up their disobedience.

     Then, they run away, and hide.  When confronted, they blame—(the man blames the woman, the woman blames the serpent, and they both blame circumstance, claiming to be tricked.) 

            Now then…let me stop and revisit the idea that there are two ways of looking at this story.  One way is to try to relate this story to the question of how.  Specifically, “how did sin originally come into the world.”   Those who believe the Bible is the reference for “how” things happen, will say, “sin came into the world when Adam ate the fruit.”   But those who believe that the Bible is best equipped to answer the “why” question, ask, “why do we struggle with sin?”  And the answer is obvious.  “Because we have been given the beautiful gift and responsibility of freedom—freedom of choice and freedom of will.”  Any parent knows how difficult it is to allow one’s child freedom of will.  For a child will disappoint.  Sooner or later, the child will make the selfish choice, and will be faced with the consequences of such an act.   But this is the nature of our relationship with God.  We are free to love God, but never forced to do so.  Yet, there are consequences for our actions, just as there were consequences for the man and woman living in the garden in the beginning.

            God is a just God—there will be judgment for disobedience.  Children will forever more come into the world through pain.  Food from the ground will now only be produced through hard labor and sweat.   And the man and woman are put out of the garden, never to return.  They will also know death, there will be a limit to their days.

            Once more—do you take this to explain “how” it is that painful childbirth and labor to provide for one’s family came to be?  Or…is there a bigger picture?  Can you think of the why question?    I think the why question comes in what happens next.  God, after pronouncing judgment for the disobedience of the humans, shows mercy.  God notices they have covered themselves with hard, irritating fig leaves.  But the story tells us that the “Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for the wife and clothed them.”

            God would not send them out naked and vulnerable.  With God’s judgment comes God’s mercy.  “Why?”  “Because it is in God’s nature.”  

            We’ll see it again, magnified and universalized in the story of the Christ.  God’s judgment of death for the world’s sin is accompanied by the divine mercy that substitutes God’s own Son to die that the world might be spared.  You see?

This beginning, when seen through the lens of “why” rather than “how” sets us up for the rest of the story—which we will explore over the next seven weeks.

            We’ll learn how much of the entire bible story revolves around God’s desire to be in relationship with God’s creation, especially human beings.  And we will see how time and time again, humans will disappoint God by using their freedom to rebel and turn away from God.  And we will notice how God’s judgment is always accompanied by an even greater mercy.  To the very end.  I can’t tell you how it all really happened, but I can profess this in faith—I believe in why.  And for whose purpose. 

            Thanks be to God.