Lent 1A - Genesis 3:1-21 - by Don Neuendorf
It's hard to preach on Bible stories that are hyper-familiar. Like the Noah's ark wallpaper and toys that cause our people to forever think of Noah as 6 inches tall, the story of the Fall Into Sin is too familiar. It is not familiar in a good way, because people have studied and understood it. But it is familiar in a bad way, because people have skimmed it many times and think they know what it means...
Just think of it this way: if this were a story in the newspaper, an article reporting on why there are suddenly so many weeds in the world, it would be at least 10 times as long as it is. A journalist would spend time identifying this serpent - describing him - reviewing his background. And there would be some back and forth about who said what, and why. We'd look for some more digging into why they suddenly felt shame when they realized they were naked - probably a picture of Adam and Eve in their home-made clothes.
God's report of all these events, which happened hundreds of years before Moses wrote them down, is very formal - brief - stylized. It is not written to give us a dramatic picture of events or to develop the characters. It is written to convey just ONE piece of information.
Death entered the world through sin.
So how can a pastor preach about such a text? I think it's really important to find a connection that people can understand. For most people it just doesn't seem that bad to take a bite of fruit. In fact, our use of the phrase "forbidden fruit" is calculated to make it seem attractive - not horrible. Eating such a fruit might result in some unpleasantness (if we get caught) but not in an eternal cycle of death.
What could seem that bad? Perhaps we need to compare it to an action that would betray a trust - destroy a relationship, a family, an entire life. We know that there are some actions that might seem small, but which would have terrible consequences in broken hearts and lives. If we can understand our human hurt when we are betrayed, perhaps we can have some tiny glimmer of understanding for God's hurt when he gave, literally, everything to Adam and Eve - and asked so little of them - and they betrayed him.
And yet... we end with the Gospel. We would not want to take back the adulterous and untrustworthy spouse. But look at God. He makes the first animal sacrifice to cover their sins. He kills an animal who had done no sin, another creature he had created and loved. But he sacrifices that life in order to cover the shame of his lost children.