8th Sunday of Trinity: Genesis 2:7-17

July 14, 2013; 8th Sunday of Trinity; Texts: Psalm 33:1-11; Genesis 2:7-17; Romans 6:19-23; Mark 8:1-9; Title: Two Trees to One Tree; Rev. Tim Beck

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Before looking at our text from Genesis let me say something obvious, or what should be obvious. It doesn’t seem obvious in our generation - actually any generation - but that’s not because it isn’t obvious. What’s obvious?  The revealed God doesn’t mumble. He speaks, and speaks clearly. He says what He means. Why isn’t that obvious? Earwax and cotton, foam and moss, leaves, peas, about anything that fits in there to make it easier on our ears, is why we don’t hear… so we think God isn’t clear when He speaks. Otherwise we take Scripture as it is: what it says about the fall, about the law, about redemption? Why, it can turn a person’s life around.

          What happens if we take the revelations given to God’s servants as authoritative, normative, determining, as they claim to be? For one, we won’t re-write the Bible, de-mythologize it, mythologize it, or edit it with scissors like Thomas Jefferson did. We won’t guess which Jesus-sayings are authentic, voting with international scholars by rolling colored ping pong balls down a track, and that in nearby Santa Rosa once a year. We will receive it, and it will do a wonderful work in us. Scripture is God breathed; so it rules the church and shall rule the world for a good reason. God says what He means and means what He says.

          So how do you hear Scripture? Do you pray for open ears? One application is Scripture interprets Scripture. So if you fail to understand something, don’t run to interpret Scripture by an ancient Sumerian religion or read it through Greek philosophers. Don’t get suckered by a National Geographic special that says Jesus ought to be interpreted by 2nd and 3rd century Gnostics but not 1st century Christians (that’s the new fad by the way, the Da Vinci Code and all that). Scripture interprets Scripture. If we do that with other writing, why not with God’s word? Further, what is written should be taken in the sense intended, whether poetic, narrative, or figures of speech like parables, taken according to its literal meaning.

          “Meaning” is what many folks choke on… like God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (Jn 3:16).  “Literal” is what folk choke on too, like the literal… Jesus fed the four thousand. That’s not a fish story with some bread thrown in for bait. Don’t choke on the literal meaning: the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. There’s life in the literal meaning. And these examples relate to our reading in Genesis. In fact, all the doctrines of Scripture are outlined in the first 6 chapters of Genesis. There is an amazing cohesion in Scripture, written over millenniums, written by God-breathed human beings, written for your salvation.  That’s why we take Scripture as it is; as God’s word.        

          Let’s consider today’s text from Genesis. Some points may seem incidental, but since everything in Scripture is recorded for our sake, they are not unimportant. First, let me point out two other obvious things, things a bit different then the authority of Scripture. What ought to be obvious is that Scripture is about Jesus Christ. And if you can rightly divide the law and gospel, you see the obvious. Now, about Eden: What does our text say? And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east…  10 A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 14 And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates (all Scriptural quotations are ESV).           

          And who cares? So what if there are four rivers, so what if there’s gold and bdellium and onyx. Who cares that the rivers have names?  Why did God care to tell you this? Is this how you begin a fairy tale? “Kids, let’s click on Goggle maps.” Or for an older generation, “Get out the atlas.”  Eden’s former geography is described, its relative position given, its geographic features generalized. It was a particular place. Get out your prospectors pick and go to Havilah for gold; only, the map doesn’t look the same anymore. There was a big flood and things got rearranged.  Yet, we are reading records that describe what pre-dated Noah. That is both amazing and assuring.

          8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 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 text says “the LORD God.”  Note the obvious, as did the Romanians who chanted en-mass against the repressive atheist dictator Ceausescu: facing his palace, they yelled for hours on end “There is a God, there is a God!”  The obvious is the Divine Being is and does. He created all things. He even revealed a name, the LORD God, literally, Yahweh-Elohim, and that name is a theology lesson in itself. We are also told what the Lord God did: He formed man, literally, “A’dam,” for           the word Adam means “man.” In Adam is the potentiality of all mankind, “man” being both a generic word and specifically identifying the first man, (A’dam) Adam. We’ll come back to that, to A’dam.

          The Lord God formed man and planted a garden for man, a pleasant place to the eyes and for the tongue.  By the way, the word “Eden” means pleasant.  And that too is important. How so? You’ve probably noticed many people don’t believe that anymore... believe what? That God made man and that God made pleasant-Eden and the earth, for man. Popular culture, common jargon, and growing legislation say man, generic man, really doesn’t rank above salamanders or spotted owls. We hear, “The earth is not a God-given gift to A’dam. We must worship it, the little fishes, snails, redwood trees, and get off their land.” That idea rejects not only man’s role as caretaker, but defies the LORD God. It’s true that Adam isn’t to pillage the earth, for the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Adam was given dominion, a service of oversight and care; and before the fall served without sweat, without the curse, before futility set in, before death. So this verse gives not only a reason to object to laws based on a philosophical presumption that we don’t belong on the planet… it tells us Adam had a vocation. There is work to do. Work is good, purposeful, what the Lord God intended and a gift from the LORD God. Eden was no European secularist dream: life in a condominium, a 1-child family, good wine, long vacations, early retirement and then you die comfortably. 

          There is more to life: 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 (soul). Not only are all things made by God, the earth made for man, also A’dam (man) is made uniquely. He shares a physical nature with the creation: formed of the dust, of the earth.  Yet uniquely, the Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. That’s what made man live; a creature yes, but alive as more than a clod of dust. God breathed into man a spiritual nature, in a most intimate picture. God gave man the breath of life not by artificial, but by genuine respiration. That word, “breath,” also translated as “inspire and spirit” is important. God gave man the spirit of life. Man has a spiritual life beyond that of the animals and plants, as much as many people love their dogs and can’t emotionally feel the difference between a puppy and a baby.  Human life is intimately connected to the LORD God, and hence is unique, valuable, purposeful, and potential. This is the real basis for human dignity, and so-called human rights.  Remove the LORD God from the equation and those rights become very unstable. To see what happens when God is removed from the source of human value, look at Stalin’s and Mao’s purges… or a godless dictator of your choice.

          The Lord God values the creation, man in particular. Adam was created for life, for fellowship with God. Adam’s purpose is not just to nurture creation; it is at heart, worship. Remember that God breathed into Adam His life, spiritual life. That life was a righteous fellowship with the Creator in holiness and innocence. Adam delighted in Eden, in the pleasantness of all creatures, caring for them,   tending them as thanksgiving to God; but his chief delight was in the LORD God.  Adam was given a way to express his worship, which was also how God nourished Him in divine life. He ate of one tree and he ate not of the other.  9b The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil… 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

          From the beginning worship was God in His dominion serving man; His gift given, our responding with thanks and obedience. And remember, this is a historical account. There were two trees. And a promise was attached to each of these trees. The kind of fruit is irrelevant, which is why we are not told about the kind of    fruit. What mattered was the promise attached to each tree. Spiritual life, and physical too, was confirmed, signed, sealed and given by eating of one tree. This was a sacramental eating. [“The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was Adam’s church, altar, and pulpit” (Luther, AE 1.95).]  As God promised, so it was, His word attached to a visible sign. And that kind of  eating hasn't changed since the LORD God put His promise on means of grace. On the other hand, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil promised death; was it hard for Adam to resist the tree promising death?  

          Remember, Adam was created righteous. So the command was not difficult, but the way Adam worshiped. Eating from one tree he received life, enjoying fellowship and peace with God. Not eating from one tree He abstained from what would destroy all that. His thanksgiving to God was a simple obedience to a simple command. That was all God required, all else was free. Adam was free in faith to enjoy all things, but one. His thanksgiving to the LORD was to turn away from evil and death.

          It won’t do us any good to speculate why Eve and Adam listened to the devil. It won’t help to speculate about human freedom vs. predestination if by speculation we defy Scripture. It is helpful to acknowledge that Adam’s disobedience resulted in suffering, sorrow, and death. When A’dam lost spiritual life he lost the righteousness granted him. He passed on what was left to his progeny… from dust you came to dust you shall return.  It is helpful to then, as children of A’dam, to confess our depravity, our spiritual lack of life and pray to a merciful God who promises to restore paradise lost. For we, the Adam’s family, so often want nothing more than a nice home, few children, a puppy, good wine, food, little work and a small carbon foot print.

          But you know Scripture and know it is about Jesus Christ for our salvation. You know the whole story: the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. You know the second A’dam restored what the first A’dam lost. He planted Himself on a most unpleasant tree, the fruit of which restores the dead to life. So our passage in Genesis tells us why so many sermons end like this: the sacrament of baptism, the sacrament of the altar, the message of salvation! Here the tree of life is restored, and we partake of it in faith, as did the first Adam before the fall. We partake in a sacramental eating - because of the promise. And that tree bears fruit in us: eternal life, with thanksgiving to God.

          Faith receives re-creation. Christian, you are being restored to the order of creation. We are returned to the sacredness of vocation. We are elevated to the divine purpose of man, of A’dam.  We once again receive God’s Divine Service, and worship.  The Son imputed His righteousness to us. We were adopted as sons of God. Therefore we live again. We have fellowship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The peace of God which passes understanding keep your heart and mind in Christ Jesus our Lord (Amen)