“Hidden Humans, Crouching Sin”
Genesis 3:8-13; 4:1-7
Last week we read the creation story.
Actually
we read several accounts of creation in our scripture.
But
the first story in Genesis One is where God looks
At
each day in creation and says “It is good!”
And God looks at the creation of humans
and says: “It is very good!”
It seems like we humans were off to a
great start until we read
Genesis
3- the disobedience of Adam and Eve;
And
Genesis 4- the murder of Abel by Cain;
And
Genesis 6- the wickedness over the whole earth and the flood;
And Genesis 11- the building of the
It seems like not sooner had we been
created in the image of God;
Not
sooner had we been walking in communion with God;
Than
we disobey God, hide from God,
And
break our relationship with God and each other.
That’s
the sin God is talking about when he says to Cain
“Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is
for you,
but
you must master it.”
Now it seems like this is a good time to
break from the Biblical text
And
ask “Is that your experience of life?”
Because
the scripture here is trying to help people understand
The
question Paul ultimately asks in Romans 7:19-
“For I do not do the good I want,
but the evil I do not want is what I do.”
We do have an idea of what God wants for
us in life.
And
yet so often in big and little ways,
We
do the exact opposite.
If
that is your experience in life, then this series of texts is for you.
Sin
is real. Sin is whatever causes us to be
seperated
from God and
each other. Sin is crouching at the
door.
The first text for today reminds us that
contrary to the songs we sing
Where
we are seeking God, looking for God, trying to find God
That
in reality, for much of our lives we are hiding from God
Like
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Notice
that they were hiding from God
like little
children hide from their parents
when they have
done something wrong.
I
believe that’s the way we are with God.
We
know in our innermost heart the struggles and
The
failures, the sins that are crouching at our door
And
like the little child we hide from God
At
the very time we need God the most.
And
like the loving parent who seeks out the child,
God
seeks us out, forgiving us and restoring us
To
relationship with God and with fellow humans
Like
the father of the prodigal son
who welcomed
the hungry prodigal home
even before
he could get
the
words of repentance
out
of his mouth.
And
invites the son back into relationship with
Both the father and his brother.
God
is that loving, seeking father
And
we are the hiding, prodigal
And self righteous elder.
Sin is whatever separates us from God.
We
have several words for sin. Our Lord’s Prayer testifies.
H’amartia means “missing the mark, mistakes:
Ophelamata means being in debt, living beyond
ourselves;
Paraptomata means trespasses,
walking where we
shouldn’t;
And
all are elements of sinfulness and yet no one word
Not
set of Ten Commandments fully describes sin.
It
is whatever separates us from God and each other.
We
each struggle with sin.
Even
Brother Lawrence who wrote the spiritual treatise in 1600’s
“The
Practice of the Presence of God” and encourages us
to experience God in whatever we do, slaving over a hot
stove or cleaning pots or pans-
we still can
experience God, not because we will it
or because we are
searching for God
but because God is
searching for us.
Brother
Lawrence, who acknowledged his own sinfulness,
Did
not dwell on sin but confessed his sins and moved on
Knowing
that it was not his own work or sinlessness
But
the love and grace of God in Christ
That
allowed him to enter into God’s presence
In the most menial tasks.
The two temptations with sin are to
think that we are free of sin
Or
that we are completely captured by sin
And
both perspectives are themselves sinful.
No
one is free of sin and the love and forgiveness
Of
Christ is greater than any sin we commit.
That’s pretty hard to believe, but its true.
Or even Mother Teresa, one of the saints
of our day,
Confessed
to her spiritual mentor Rev. Michael van der Peet:
“Jesus
has a very special love for you but as for me, the silence and emptiness are so
great, that I look and do not see…listen and do not hear…the tongue moves in
prayer but does not speak…I want you to pray for me, that I may let Him
(Christ) have a free hand”
In
a recent book “Mother Teresa: Come to the Light”
We
are given a glimpse into the struggle that
even Mother
Teresa had in her relationship with God.
We
get a sense of her feeling of separation from God
Even
as she was engaged in God’s ministry to the
Poorest of the poor.
The
purpose is not to diminish Mother Teresa’s witness among us
But to give hope to the rest of us.
We sometimes feel like we are so
captured by sin and distant from God
That we are outside God’s love and forgiveness.
When
we realize that even Mother Teresa felt that
Same
separation from God, then there is hope for us.
And
our hope is not that we will conquer sin
Once
and for all, but rather that our savior
Jesus
Christ has conquered sin for us.
That’s what the Bible tells us.
God
is constantly choosing sinful people to do his will,
To be a witness to the love and forgiveness of Christ.
God
chose Noah when the whole rest of the world was wicked
But
do you know how the Flood story ends.
With
Noah on dry land lying drunk and naked in a tent
And Noah’s sons making fun of him.
God
chose King David to take the place of King Saul,
And
yet David is the one who is challenged by Nathan
When he takes Uriah’s wife Bathsheba to
be his own.
Jesus
chose Peter to be a disciple and in fact to be the rock upon
Which
he would build the church and yet Peter denied Jesus
Three times in the garden outside of Jesus’ trial.
And
Christ chose Paul, who was the greatest persecutor of the Way
To
become the greatest evangelist of the love & grace of Christ
Paul said it well in Romans 3:
“Since all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
they are now justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
The final temptation is to discount sin
and to say
Since
everyone does it, it must not be that bad.
But
that is not the word of God to Cain
“Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is
for you,
but you must master it.”
We are challenged to master the personal
sins that plague us
Like
the sin of disobedience that Adam and Eve struggled with
Or
the sin of pride and murder that Cain struggled with;
But
we are challenged to master the corporate sins
That are ever before us as in the wickedness of the world
In
the story of the flood and the corporate sin of
Pride and power in the
Karl
Menninger, in his 1973 treatise “Whatever Became of
Sin?”
Challenges
us to realize that sin is not just the individual
Sins
that we are so aware of and that the tabloids
And
television shows lift up in celebrities
But
the corporate sins against the poor, the environment,
Those
who are sick, and the powerless.
Jim
Wallis is challenging the current day politicians to
Recognize
that moral living is not just about sexual behavior
And
reproductive choices but also poverty, war,
Health
care, capital punishment and racism,
Sexism, classism.
So the struggle with sin goes on. It is crouching in the door waiting
And
God challenges us to master it,
And
God offers us his own Son, to walk with us,
Guide
us, pick us up when we fall and
To
forgive us when we feel we are worthless.
The good news about sin is that it
doesn’t win the day.
It
is all around us , it is crouching in every doorway
and it has been
from the beginning of time.
But
the Bible is the story of God walking with God’s people,
Even
when we try to hide from God
So
that we don’t have to succumb to sin
Or face the
consequences of sin on our own,
But
we can face sin head on knowing that Jesus Christ
Has
paid our debt, forgiven our sin and released us
To live the next day as his chosen disciple.
That is God’s word for you today. Amen