October 2, 2011 Sermon
Genesis 3:1-24
In our video this morning, we saw some funny examples of common sins: anger, gluttony, lust, judgmentalism, legalism, denial, deceit, pride, sloth, envy. Can anyone give simple definition or example of …..?
So, based on these sorts of sins, what do we say the meaning of “sin” really is?………
Let’s look at the bible to see what sin has meant from the very beginning.
- It certainly is not a problem of eating apples, right?
- Is it simply being disobedient—not following God’s rules? Yes plus something more perhaps.
- What is the decision that Adam and Eve made here? What did they want to get?…….the ability to make choices between right and wrong without God—to be like God in saying what is right and wrong!
So, how many of us have never taken it upon ourselves to decide
right from wrong on our own? How many of us do not think that this is what being a grown up is all about?
I can remember as a child begging to get to make my own choices and I know that my children have done the same. This is something that seems hardwired into us, doesn’t it? “Let me choose, please!” is a regular refrain among children and adults alike.
As Americans, we have elevated this to nearly a constitutional right of first importance. We can choose whatever we want, when we want, how we want, unless it is illegal—no matter how damaging it is to us and others around us. As long as I don’t drive or go outside, I can drink as much as I want, even if it destroys my family. I can spend all day long watching junk on a screen and never work a minute. I can tell anyone off if I please, unless I threaten them with bodily injury. I can be mean, unfriendly and nasty in a lot of places. I can be a pig and consume anything I want, while others starve. I can lie to anyone, as long as I don’t do it on my taxes or to a judge or police officer. We have a right to do whatever we want, sort of…
But we don’t think of it this way, do we? We just want to choose what we think is best for ourselves, and we try to do a good job choosing. I want to choose chocolate ice cream, because I like it better that vanilla. I want to choose soccer, because I like it better than baseball. What do you want to choose?……….
Do you notice that we are choosing between two good things or a whole range of good things? There is nothing wrong, we say, with vanilla or baseball or…… And that is basically true when we are dealing with simple things.
But what happens when the choices we make actually lead to bad results? I could choose to wear leather bottom shoes to school, and then slip and fall on some wet or icy spot. I could go off to school with no jacket, and catch cold when the day gets chilly in the afternoon. I could eat Halloween candy—lots of it because it tastes good, and then get an upset stomach or worse. Good things can lead to bad results.
So, what do we do about these choices that seem to go wrong?….
- Make rules? Pass laws?
- Be careful and think things through?
- Ask for help from others in making decisions?
- Try not to make choices at all?
- …….
None of these things really work very well do they?
The problem is that we can’t get out of the problem of making bad decisions that hurt us, others and the world. We are not as smart as God, so we will always make partially correct decisions, even as we try to act like God. Even if we follow all the laws, have huge government regulatory bodies that try to gather all the facts, we will still make big mistakes.
Of course, we hope that we personally don’t have to pay for the mistakes. We want others to pay the price. If I build a huge tower and it falls over, I don’t want to pay for the damage. If I pollute the air, I don’t want to pay to clean it up. If I dump trash in the river, I hope some do-gooding kids will clean it up next spring.
Consider this: over in India and China, there are children no older than many of you here, who work 12-16 hours every single day making the clothes that we are wearing here, and they don’t get paid enough to buy healthy food and shoes of their own. We get to choose the clothes we like at Walmart or Pennys and we don’t have to even care about the people who suffered making those clothes. We like our choices!
Sin is making choices without consulting God and letting God guide us in those choices—something we all do, most of the time. And God told Adam and Eve what would happen because of this: we would be frustrated, over worked, and suffer. Our relationships with each other would be messed up and lead us into pain. This is not because God was angry, but because our choosing by ourselves will always produce this result.
Does anyone have an idea about what God is doing to help us out of this mess?……
When we decide to trust Jesus more than ourselves, and allow Jesus to put the Holy Spirit inside us, then the Spirit can guide us, help us and lead us to make a different sort of decision—a decision that helps to make things a little better for us, for others and the world. We still have problems—plenty of them, but God is beginning to put the broken pieces of the world back where they belong through our choices! And we can really sense that we are growing closer to God and more like what God wants for us. So, if we want to make really good decisions, what do we need to do?….
Trust Jesus and let the Holy Spirit guide us in the little decisions we make—if we do that, then the big decisions we begin to change for the better too! Amen.
