There is a picture taken during the weekend of my ordination in 1988 that Kim and I especially enjoy.  It’s not of the service or the reception afterwards, although we certainly enjoy those as well.  It’s a picture of our living room sometime during that weekend.  If I could place my hands on it easily I would have scanned it and shown it to you, but I can’t and besides it’s kind of blurred, so let me at least describe it to you.  Sitting in a circle around our living room are four guys and they’re all laughing.  In the lower right of the picture is Keith, our good friend from Greeley.  Moving clockwise around the circle from there, Keith is pointing at me.  I, in turn, am pointing at my brother, Mick.  Mick is pointing with his thumb at Brian, our associate pastor from Greeley and the one who would preach for my ordination.  And Brian is just sitting there laughing.

Along with being a cherished picture of that weekend, I think the picture is also an image that comes from the story of creation, of temptation and the fall.  It is a picture that speaks to images we all can draw on from our own human experience that finds some resonance with creation, temptation and fall.  This particular picture, for example, reminds me of the finger pointing that occurs in this story.  God asks Adam if he ate the fruit from the forbidden tree.  “The woman gave it to me.”  The woman says, “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”  Brian wouldn’t like where that puts him in the chain of the analogy, but we all can recognize pictures in our own lives of finger pointing and shirking responsibility.

In this story are familiar themes, familiar images of our human experience—the exercising of free will, the subtleties of temptation, the passing on of blame and responsibility, the consequences of disobedience—and over all this is God’s love, mercy and grace.

To begin with, there is our ability to exercise our free will.  God does not creates puppets who must conform to His will.  Rather, He creates individuals who have the freedom to choose to obey or disobey.  In the Garden of Eden, God says, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden.”  God doesn’t create robots He can control to His will.  God creates us with the freedom to exercise our free will.

My sister-in-law used to illustrate this simple point by addressing us as parents.  She would say, “If there existed a pill you could give your children that would make them obey, would you give it to them?  Whatever you said, from ‘Lindsay stop doing that,’ to ‘Jay come here and give me a hug,’ they would obey because of this pill.  Would you give it to them?”  I’ve never heard anyone answer, “Yes.”  Because our desire would be that our children would obey, our children would give us hugs because they wanted to, rather than because they had no choice in the matter.  God is no different.  God desires our obedient response, our expressions of love, not because we can do nothing else, but because we want to.

So, we are created with the ability to exercise our freedom.  The choices we make, the options set before us must be weighed in the light of our understanding of God’s desires for us, but we are free to choose.  We are free to eat of any tree in the garden.

The test of humanity’s exercise of free will in the Genesis story is one tree designated in the middle of the garden.  God says, “You are free to eat from any tree, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  I think that speaks to the image we’ve all experienced of the subtlety of temptation.  I don’t think the tree is different in appearance from the other trees in the garden.  It’s not red in color while the others are green.  There’s no electric fence around it with “Do not eat” warning signs illuminated and flashing at various points.  It looks very much like the other trees.  There are images of temptations in our lives that resonate with that.  To be sure, there are those obvious temptation moments where there are electrical fences and flashing warning signs and, unfortunately, sometimes even that’s not enough to keep us from disobedience.  But, more often than not, the temptations are subtle, in appearance good, certainly pleasurable, and we must be on the alert for them.

Add to that the tempting subtle distortions of the truth and we are challenged to be ever more alert.  The serpent asks, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”  Well, as a matter of fact, God did not say that!  What God said was we are free to eat from any tree in the garden, we just should not eat from this one, particular tree.  Temptations will come that are subtle in their appearance and are distortions of the truth of God’s Word.  We must be alert to that.

And finally on the subject of temptations, they will entice us with our desires to be the masters and the rulers of our lives.  “Eat the fruit of this tree and you will not die, the serpent says. “Rather, eat it and you will be just like God.”  That appeals to us.  To make our own rules, to set our own agendas and standards appeals to our self-centered inclinations.  We must be alert to this as well.

Then, when caught with giving in to a temptation, our first inclination is to run and hide.  We run from God.  We run from our support system of family, friends and church.  Yet, God, out of His compassionate nature and His desire for relationship, continues to seek us out.  Just this morning, as I was driving into church, I heard a song on KLOV that addressed this very thing.  I don’t know the song, it was the first time I’ve heard it, but the singer was asking the question, “Who will be there when I fall?”  The conclusion?  After going through a list of possibilities and being unsure if they—family, friends and the like—would be there, the one sure conclusion was that God would be there.   God sets before us, in that sure presence, an example for us to follow.  When someone is running and hiding from the shame of falling to temptation, seek them out to offer love and support, not rebuke.  If you do that, be prepared for the finger pointing and blame game.  That’s what we do when discovered in some sin and no longer able to hide.  We resort to finger-pointing and playing the “blame game.”  “The woman gave it to me to eat.”  “The serpent deceived me and I ate.”  But, God is much more interested in fixing the problem and not fixing the blame.  In doing so, God sets another example before us.  God seeks us out to restore us and God’s not interested in fixing the blame, He wants to fix the problem.  The apostle John wrote eloquently in his first letter of this gracious nature of God, “If we claim to be without sin,” that is the denial and hiding part of our response, but, when we do that “we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins,” that is, in the realization discovery is inevitable, yet God is also compassionate, “[God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness,” (I John 1:8, 9).  We may try to hide.  We may try to deny.  We may try to disavow any responsibility.  But, God isn’t so much interested in that—He knows the truth regardless.  God is much more interested in fixing the problem and not fixing the blame.

And so, into this scene of exercising free will, of giving in to temptation, this scene of disobedience, disappearance and disavowal, above it all stands God’s love, mercy and grace.  God seeks us out to bring restoration.  Note that God does not remove the consequences for our actions.  That in itself would be a nullification of our free will.  There’s no integrity to free will if there are no consequences for the choices we make.  God does not remove the consequences.  But, God does seek to restore us and remain in relationship with us.

On Thursday morning, when we meet to discuss and work on the various elements of the worship service, someone commented on the “absurdity” of God giving free will to human beings.  Of course, we wouldn’t want it any other way—and, as we pointed out earlier, neither would God—but, as this person pointed out, God surely knew what the outcome would be in giving humans the freedom to make choices.  Indeed, God knew the inevitable outcome of free will and was already at work for its resolution.  Even in the statement of the consequences, God set in motion the resolution of our disobedience.  To the serpent, God describes an enmity placed between the serpent and the woman and between their offspring.  “[The woman’s offspring] will crush your head, and you will strike his heel,” (3:15b).  The fatal blow is delivered by the woman’s offspring and it is a foretelling of the redemption to come through Jesus Christ.  Born of a woman, Christ will deliver the determining blow in the inherit conflict found in the exercise of our free will.  More than that, God does not merely speak of the victorious blow to come, God also provides the covering for the man and the woman.  “The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them,” (3:21).  In that, there is also a foretelling of the redemption to come through Jesus Christ for something gives up its life to provide the protective covering for man and woman.  God certainly knew the inevitable outcome of granting free will to humanity.  Yet, God, out of His compassion and grace, also had in place the inevitable outcome for humanity’s redemption.  Would we want it any other way?

Surely, there are images for you that come to mind when this story is told: Images where you’ve exercised the free will given you; Images of temptations given in to in their subtlety and their distortions; Images of moments of hiding, of denial and disavowal, finger-pointing; Images of consequences suffered for decisions of disobedience.  And surely, there are images for you of where God has sought you out and brought to you, not blame and condemnation, but forgiveness and redemption.  There must be such images as that, for that is surely God’s desire and plan for us.  One of the images for me comes from a song by one of my favorite Christian artists, Bob Bennett.  The song is entitled The Garden Song, and as you listen to it, ponder the images it creates for you.

I hear footsteps in the garden

 and I know the Lord is near.

And He calls me by my name,

 Saying, “Where are you hiding?

Where are you hiding?

  Why do you hide? I miss you, my son.”

And I answer more loudly than I might’ve done,

“I feel naked and ashamed.

I’ve sinned against you, Father,

And I’ve no one but myself to blame.”

And He said, “You are not naked.

You are clothed in the grace of my Son.

Come and let me lead you

 to where your journey will be done.”

Why are you hiding?

 Why are you hiding?

Why do you hide from me, my son?

Why are you hiding?

 Why are you hiding?

Why do you hide from me,

        when I love you so?