Sermon for March 15th, 2023
Genesis 2
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Over the last several weeks, we have talked about a religious philosophy that often masquerades as Christianity. We call it moralistic therapeutic deism. You've heard the definition twice in a row now, but I'm not going to spare you a third one. That is moralistic means that the purpose of religion is to inculcate morals to make you a good person. Therapeutic means that it is there to make you feel better about your life. And deism is the idea that God is far off, looking down on creation from very far away. This philosophy that That Masquerades as Christianity has five core beliefs. First, a god exists to create it and orders the world and watches over human life on Earth. Second, God wants people to be good, nice and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. Third, the central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. For God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem. And finally, five, good people go to heaven when they die. You know, I did not make these up. These came from a survey in a book called soul searching spiritual and religious life of American teenagers that came out in 2005. Now, the first night in Lent, we tackled the first one. And we we learned that God is not far off, but here amongst us and in control of everything. Last time, we talked about how God is not here to build character, but to make dead people alive, which is what he does for us through Jesus Christ. And tonight, we're going to take a look at the third goal, or the third doctrine, the central goal of life is to be happy, and to feel good about oneself. Now, the big piece of this sermon series is that these doctrines are in the church, and very often a part of the way, either Lutheran churches talk about it, or the churches around us. And so we have to say, what Christians actually say that, right? Does any Christian go out and say, the whole goal is to be happy and feel good about yourself? No, usually not. Most people aren't quite that crass. But we do so say things like, God has a wonderful plan for your life. All you need to do is find it. Have you heard that one before? I bet you have. We use Bible verses to support things like that. Perhaps the most misused one comes from Jeremiah 29, verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Which of course is not written to Christians, but to exiles in Babylon. It's not for us. Similarly, we use Romans eight, where it goes all things work for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose, which most people simply shortened to all things work for the good, right. Or even I can do all things through God who gives me strength, right. congregations will also do sermons about how God is there to tear down the obstacles in your life, so that you can get to success. Perhaps the most famous one is the story of David and Goliath. You've heard it preached this way I know it. If you just trust like David did, God will take down the Giants in your life. Or, Joseph, the story of Joseph is often preached. If you are in a tough spot. You're just like Joseph, God is getting you ready for something amazing. Which is misusing the Bible. The promise to us is not the same as the promise to David The promise to us is not the same as God's promise to Abraham. The church is not here for happiness. God is not calling you to be happy and feel good about yourself. It's not just because that's not what the Bible says. It's also because it is really bad for us, as humans. When the goal of life is to be happy, you measure your morality, based on whether it reaches happiness. And that means your day to day life has no moral significance. What do I mean by that? No moral significance. What it means is your actions are not part of a larger story. God has not placed you in the midst of the narrative of creation. You are just an amoeba chasing pleasure, and fleeing pain. Doesn't that sound bleak? When you get to it? Doesn't that sound empty? A moral wasteland? With difficulty to walk through it? In that kind of life, you ask a question, should you stay in a difficult marriage? The answer is only if it makes you happy. Should you get up in the morning and feed your kids? Only if it makes you happy? Should you go to work on time? Only if it makes you happy. And then all of a sudden, the things of this world how you serve people, is only important if it gets you something and makes you happier. difficult work hard jobs, menial labor is no longer important. In fact, it's a problem. Does that sound terrible? Sounds like it to me. The movie that just won all of the Oscars is called everything everywhere all at once. Has anybody seen it? You need to see this movie. This is the reason why I love science fiction. Because what it does, is in an action movie, it tackles the question. How do you live in a meaningless world. And it's this meaningless world that America is living in? Because we all think the goal is to be happy. So they ask how do you live in a meaningless world and they do it by looking at the multiverse. The multiverse for them is that every decision you make is a branch in reality and creates another universe where the same you made a different decision. And so every choice is happening in every instance, in an infinite number of universes. Which essentially means if everything is happening everywhere, all at once, nothing matters. And the movie asks a question, how do you live in that world? There are two characters and I'm not spoiling this. Don't worry. One character represents. Do whatever you want. Because nothing matters, burn it down. And the other character represents nothing matters, but we should love each other. You'll guess which way the movie goes. Love each other, of course. But there's no reason why. If nothing matters, and nothing's important. If everything is meaningless, who cares? What you do? Neither answer is right or wrong. But even worse, if the goal of life is to be happy, suffering is failure. There is no reason to sacrifice for others. No reason to work, no reason to do good. Any kind of suffering is failure. Which is why I think we are in such a despairing world is because we don't have a way to process the pain of existence. And people are grasping for any kind of meaning they can whether it's conservatives who are outside trying to fight a culture war.
Or liberals who are fighting social justice, and eliminating our gas stoves. What they're grasping for is some sort of meaning in their life. And they the meaning for them cannot be in giving food to your family. Because that doesn't matter. It has to be a big deal thing. That's what happens when your happiness is at the center of the Christian life, you lose it all. But that is not the Christian universe. We do not live in a morally insignificant universe. We live in one that is significant. Our daily choices are part of God's cosmic narrative. The story of all creation is being played out in your life, every day. And we know that because of what God gave Adam to do. Very simple, I actually lengthened my first reading, because it would have been too short otherwise. Here it is. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, to work it and keep it small verse one sentence that wouldn't have made a very good reading, Right? but profound, because when God put Adam in the garden to work it, he was making Adam a partner in his creation. That means Adam was creating with God. His job was to do the god stuff on Earth. And that meant farming, taking care of the trees, doing the stuff. Unfortunately, it also means that since Adam and Eve fell into sin and the curse of sin came on creation. It means that doing the gods stuff hurts. That life is suffering, that going to work and doing the things that God has placed us in this creation to do is going to be no fun. So when you wake up early, on a Sunday morning, after daylight savings, time hits, and you say I don't want to go to church and your wife says to you, but they'll miss you, Pastor.
You still have to go, even if you're exhausted. Because it's not just you, you're a partner with God in creation, right? When you feed your kids, you're being a partner with God in his cosmic story. It's not a meaningless activity. It's part of God's central plot for all of reality. When a person goes and does a job that many people think is menial, and silly or boring. They are part of God's plan for all of creation, by serving the people that God has sent him to serve. We call that vocation, in the Lutheran church, the God has placed us in His creation, to be his creators, to partner with him in reality. The things that seems small and insignificant, have cosmic scale. And the promise that we have in Jesus Christ is that despite Adam's fall into sin, and how he ruined everything and made work hard, we have a Savior who will come back and turn it around. The death and suffering and pain came into our reality through Adam. Life comes to us through Jesus Christ. And He will come and wipe away every tear, defeat death forever when he raises us from our graves. As St. Paul says in Romans eight For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, their creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in pains of childbirth until now. All of creation is waiting for that day when Jesus makes all things new, just like us. And the work that God has given us in creation will finally be a joy. I'll get to spring out of bed after daylight savings time, right? I'm ready for the day. Because the grace that Jesus gives us. And so our duty, it's gonna hurt. But we can process that suffering, the suffering of life, as part of God's cosmic plan. We do it because we're working with God, and it's worth the pain. But it's not just God's creation, that in which we have cosmic significance. It's also in redemption. Christians have something beyond just the work that God has given us to do every day. We're also united with the suffering of Jesus Christ. By being one with Him, we participate in the pain that he went through. It's not, it's not an accident that Luke puts Jesus is prediction that the Son of Man will be rejected. And then says, If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself take up his cross daily, and follow. It's the pattern of Jesus that God calls us to the walk to eternal life is to follow the footsteps of a Savior, who was rejected, who must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and chief priests and scribes and be killed, and on the third day be raised. following the footsteps of our Savior, he's following in the footsteps of his suffering. Or, as Jesus puts it, in John chapter 15. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world. therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. Jesus promises that life in Christ comes with suffering. We are not of the world, we are called out of the world destined for eternal life and resurrection with Jesus. And what that means right now is we become like him. Suffering, rejected, hurt, sometimes broken. But that's what Jesus went through right? For you, for me, and we've follow that path. Now, you may be saying to yourself, Well, Pastor, this is a big downer. What are you doing? This doesn't mean that every moment of every day has to be pain, or every moment, suffering. But what it does for us is it helps us see when we do face difficulty. We're now part of a cosmic scene, we have a way of processing it, of incorporating it into God's story. When we don't have that we get what happens everywhere right now. When something bad happens, people leave the church, you've seen it, right? It used to be when something bad happens, they come to the church seeking help. But now when suffering comes, they think to themselves, God has failed. He's not making me happy. We need to think through that and how we talk about Christ. How we talk about At our salvation the purpose of Christianity is not to become happy but to follow Jesus and he took a path to the cross in his name amen
Transcribed by https://otter.ai