Sidney UMC - 1st Sunday in Lent - 03/01/2020 - Sermon - “From Eden to Today”

Sunday 03/01/20 - Sidney UMC

Sermon Title:        “From Eden to Today”

Old Testament Scripture: Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7

                                           

New Testament Scripture: Romans 5:12-19

                                                   

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 4:1-11

          Welcome once again on this our First Sunday in the season Lent. This 40-day season of reflection, of giving up, of giving away, of self-denial, of prayer, and of fasting, designed to draw us closer to Christ. During this 40-days season leading us to Easter, may we draw closer to Christ, and seek to live like and to imitate Christ more.

          In our gospel lesson for this morning from the gospel of Matthew, Jesus fasted for 40-days and nights and was tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Mt. 4:1-11, NRSV). Jesus was tempted with food, as he was very hungry, was tempted with fame, riches, and power, and was tempted to save his own life.

          In Luke 9:23 Jesus tells us:

“Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Lk. 9:23, NRSV).

          It is true to say, as I said at our Ash Wednesday service, that the season of Lent, like the season of Advent, leading up to Christmas, is a creation of the Christian Church. We are not required by Holy Scripture to celebrate the season of Lent or Advent, but these seasons developed in the early worshipping tradition of the church. We also developed different colored paraments on our pulpits and altars, as we began to orient ourselves not to the secular calendar, but to the Christian calendar.

          So, it is true to say that we do not have to celebrate the season Lent, but many Christian Churches have done so for centuries, because we feel celebrating Lent helps us to grow in our faith in Christ.

          In modelling Jesus fasting for 40-days and nights in the wilderness in our gospel of Matthew reading for this morning, we are invited into a 40-day period leading up to Easter Sunday. This period is actually 46-days, as Sundays generally don’t count, as this is the Lord’s Day. We are invited to sacrifice, to cut back, to be more generous, to give up, to give away, and to move closer to Christ.

          Melissa has challenged me for a handful of months now to get rid of clothes that I don’t wear much. I am one of those people that still has a pair of pants from over 10-years ago. Or I was, up until recently!

          A way that we can live and be more like Christ in this season of Lent is to give away things we don’t need. I own much less clothes than I used to, and our church Rummage Sale will be more blessed for it! Some people in this holy season give up a food, or something that they find enjoyable. If doing this though makes you miserable and angry, is that bringing you closer to Christ? No, probably not.

          One year for the season of Lent, I gave up coffee, and that lasted about a day. It was terrible day. This year though, I am committed to giving away more things. Some of us have boxes, closets, and or clothing with the tags still on it. Some of you might have shirt that you bought at AMES 30-years ago that you never wore. Observing a Lenten discipline then is how we feel God is leading us to grow in our faith and love. I have friends that have given up Facebook for Lent. They have done this, because they want to sacrifice something that they love, as Jesus sacrificed everything for them. I know some people who have given up sweets for Lent. Not because they must, but because they want to draw closer to Christ and to be more like Christ.

          The spiritual practice of fasting from food or something else isn’t designed to make us miserable. Instead it is designed to show us that God is our source of life before anything else. These spiritual disciplines draw us closer to Christ, as we are removing the barriers between us and God.

          I have colleague who is a United Methodist Pastor. This person has done full weeklong fasts. During these fasts, this pastor each nothing all day, and at night, he will eat some, or drink something nutritious. The pastor is doing this, so that he will be more focused on God.

          A member of our church told me last week, that one challenge they saw for the 40-day season of Lent, is to find things around your house or your apartment that you don’t need and maybe don’t even want. Grab one thing each day and put them in a bag or a box. At the end of the season of Lent, give those forty things away to someone who needs them.

          Every year since I became a pastor 8-years ago, I have also offered Advent and Lent studies. Since we have these seasons in the life of the church, why not get together and grow in our faith and in our relationships with each other. So, once again, the paraments, the seasons, the robes, and the tradition, was created to point us to Christ.

          With all of this said, my sermon title for this morning called, “From Eden to today,” takes us from our reading from the Book of Genesis to our gospel lesson from the gospel of Matthew, for this morning.

          In our reading from Book of Genesis once again, we have a few verses from chapter 2, and some versus from chapter 3. From chapter two, we hear that God created man, or Adam in the garden. God tells Adam that he can eat freely of every tree, except:

“the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:16, NRSV).

          Eating of this tree will cause death, God says. Many of us know that the Book of Genesis says that while Adam slept, God took one of his ribs and made a companion for him named Eve.

          A serpent, which is the devil, enters the garden, and tells Eve, that if she eats from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” that she won’t die. The serpent, the devil says, it will only open your eyes, and it will make you wise. So, Eve takes of some of this fruit. Notice it doesn’t say apple, as it could have something else, like a fig for example. Eve eats some of and offers some to Adam, and he eats. I will point out that Adam eats voluntarily, for those men who blame the fall of humanity on Eve or women. Not true men!

          So, they eat, and their eyes are opened, and Adam and Eve see each other’s nakedness. In good Garden of Eden fashion, they created loincloths for themselves out of sown together fig leaves. I guess this new reality for Adam and Eve would certainly be hard to hide from God (Gen. 2:15-17; 3:1-7, NRSV)!

          God then expels Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. We call this the fall of humanity. From that point, we will experience sin, suffering, pain, heat, cold, and struggle. We are therefore, in a fallen and a sinful world. We are not bad or terrible, we are just prone sometimes to do bad or terrible things. If you don’t believe me, just turn on the news tonight.

          God demands that we must be without sin. How can we do this though? I, Pastor Paul, despite trying my best, despite seeking Christ, cannot be fully without sin. I think I have less sin than I did 10-years ago, but I am not fully without sin. I have a problem then, as God wants people that are sinless. It is impossible for me on my own to accomplish this.

          This my friends, is why God planned before time itself to send his only son into the world to die for us. Why didn’t God send Jesus sooner? There are various debates on this. What happened to people eternally before Jesus? There are various debates on this. As I jokingly tell people, “I am in sales not management!”

          God sent his son into the world to bleed and die on a cross to cover our sins. We are incapable of being sinless, so God’s son blotted out our sins for us. All we have to do is repent and accept Christ as our savior and follow him. Otherwise, how can we perfect in the presence of God? Only though Christ can we be found sinless and righteous before a sinless and righteous God.

          So, to put this another way, Adam and Eve failed, but Jesus did not. Jesus was only person who ever walked the face of this earth free from sin. As a result, Jesus is the only one who meets the qualifications to be an all sufficient Lord and Savior, who is truly worry of our praise.

          In looking at our reading for this morning once again from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Rome or the Romans, Paul discusses Adam and Eve’s failure in the Garden of Eden. Once again Paul says:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. Yet death exercised dominion from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:12-19, NRSV).

          Paul says that sin came into the world, as Adam failed. Since then we have lived a broken and a suffering world. Jesus came however, to offer us new life, hope, light, love, and forgiveness.

          For me knowing that I am forgiven, loved, and restored through Jesus Christ, makes me in the season of Lent and always, want to be better. I think if we are honest, we can all say that we still have sin our lives. Salvation, heaven, is a free gift through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. On this earth though, I want to continue to become more and more like Christ, so that God might use me even more to transform Sidney and the world. What was that old US Army motto, “Be all you can be?”

          I don’t just want salvation therefore; I also want to be more like Jesus. In this season of Lent, I want further to uproot and remove, with God’s help the sin in my life. This is what this season is all about. This is how we got “from Eden to today”.

          What is amazing to me about Jesus, isn’t just that he was fully God and fully human on earth, isn’t just that he was sinless, isn’t just that he died for our sins, but that he became like us. Adam and Eve chose to be condemned, and so did Jesus. Yet Jesus wanted us to know that God loved us so much that he was willing to get into the trenches with us. Jesus was willing to experience heat, temptation, suffering, and unimaginable pain, just to tell us, that he gets it. He understands our suffering, and even suffered with us and for us.

          In our gospel lesson for this morning once again, Jesus has been baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. After this baptism, Jesus then goes into what I like to call to “basic training”. Jesus is tempted as further preparation for his three-year public ministry here on earth. What does he go through for this 40-day period of time? Probably much less than we will go through if we give up chocolate for Lent.

          Once again, our gospel of Matthew reading for this morning says:

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
    and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” (Mt. 4:1-11, NRSV).

          Where Adam failed in the Garden of Eden, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, passed every test with flying colors. Jesus fasts, goes toe to toe with the devil, and Jesus wins.  

          I invited all of us to observe Holy Lent with me, as we walk to cross of Christ together. May we give up, give, away, pray, fast, love, hope, and care, to grow closer to and to become more like Christ. This is how we to get “From Eden to Today.” Amen.