Original Sin

Sermon given at Grace UMC 3/6/16

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Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Genesis 3:1 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'?" ² 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 middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; ⁵ for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ⁶ 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. ⁷ 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.

Have you ever done something that is totally outside the rules that your parents set for you? Maybe you came in way after curfew or were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe you were asked to watch the cows and keep them out of the upper pasture because the grass was too high and you come home and discover that some of them are going to better at being dinner rather than providing milk in the morning. How did you explain it to your parents? Did you suddenly get this immense wisdom and decide to blame it on the devil. There is the story of a beautiful young woman, a snake and the bridge that has been flooded out. The woman begins to prepare to swim across the river when the snake asks her to carry him across so he won’t die. But you will bite me, she says to the snake and I will die. No, I won’t say the snake, I promise. So he gets on her back and they begin to work their way across the river. About half way across the snake bites the woman and she begins to die. But you said you wouldn’t bite me, she cried out. But it is my nature said the snake and I could not help myself.

John Wesley preached this sermon in 1759 as a response to a paper that was published Dr. John Taylor who suggested that we are born in inherently pure and that we can overcome our sinful nature. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines and dogmas. The philosophic movement was led by Voltaire and Rousseau, who argued for a society based upon reason rather than faith and Catholic doctrine, for a new civil order based on natural law, and for science based on experiments and observation. This is the world that John Wesley lived in that on one hand began a political view that would lead to democracy across the globe but also became anti-religious in its philosophical view.

Paul reminds us in Adam that all died and without God we have no eternal hope. Before the flood God had looked upon the earth and generations had left behind any knowledge or desire of God. But God still had mercy even in that time when God chose Noah to reclaim the creation story. Noah built his ark for 120 years and during that time tried to no avail to bring those around him to return to God. God saw the imaginations of the heart which included every word and action, inclination, affection, passion, appetite, every temper, design and thought Wesley said.

We are constantly reminded in our world today of what original sin looks like. It is all around us each and every day. Our inherent desire to be in control is constantly driven by our inherent need to follow not the will of God, nor the will of the people or culture, but to do what we want to do when we want to do it. When we finally realize that God is real we come back to God as our eyes are opened and realize that what we were before was a life where God did not exist because we did not allow God to exist. But even without the knowledge of God we create God all around us. We create idols to take the place of God in order that we might have someone or something to worship and look up to. But over and over and over again these false idols fail at providing the one thing we desire, to be loved completely and unwaveringly.

In the age of enlightenment the scholars began to believe that good will always overcome evil in the world and that it was the natural order of things. But is that the world that we see? Evil permeates the world around us and when we desire and hope for justice, all too often it is evil that prevails. But Christian thought has a different outlook on life, seeing life in the context of eternity rather than the physical dimension of time we have placed on ourselves. In that context God’s love does prevail against evil but only due to the intervention of God. If not for the cross we would all face a terrible judgment that cannot be overcome. So what are we to do?

We must begin acknowledging that original sin is part of our makeup. It is part of our inherent nature and because it is there, we cannot cure it alone. There is a message that comes from those who have addictions and it is that until you acknowledge what must change, nothing ever will. Or more succinctly, if we know what is wrong we can then begin to work at making it better. In golf one of the most troubling things that can happen to you is when you lose your swing and have no idea how to make it right. It is a terrible thing to watch a good golfer go through that.

When Billy Sunday was converted and joined the church, a Christian man put his arm on the young man’s shoulder and said, “William, there are three simple rules I can give to you, and if you will hold to them you will never write “backslider” after your name.

“Take 15 minutes each day to listen to God talking to you; take 15 minutes each day to talk to God; take 15 minutes each day to talk to others about God.” Billy Sunday was deeply impressed and determined to make these the rules of his life. From that day on throughout his life he made it a rule to spend the first moments of his day alone with God and His Word. Before he read a letter, looked at a paper or even read a telegram, he went first to the Bible so that the first impression of the day might be what he got directly from God.

Original sin is not an excuse to fall back on as Flip Wilson used to say, The Devil made me do it”, but rather a realization that God created us with free will to choose to believe in a God who loves us or the neon sign Simon and Garfunkel wrote about. We sit here today and have the ability to change our worlds, one person at a time, beginning with us first. Original sin reminds us that our basic nature is to be selfish and stubborn, intent on getting what we want when we want it. But God desires a different nature in us and to allow us to see that nature God sent us God, in the form of Jesus to set an example of how we should live. Jesus spent His day in prayer listening to God’s guidance in how to do everything, how to talk to folks, how to heal, how to feed the hungry and how to change the attitudes of those around Him. We have been given that ability through creation to do the same thing. If we first acknowledge that God is love and that God alone has the answers we seek, then begin the process of allowing God to work within us to transform us in the creation God intended, it is then that we can become the person we were meant to be from birth. It means reflecting on each thought, each deed and each action by inviting our hearts to be open to God just as Jesus did. When we come together as a people in that understanding and frame of spirituality, we can change the world.

“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence."[i]  

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[i] From the Sounds of Silence by Paul Simon, 1966