The offspring of the church

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church

Sunday 16^th March, 2014. 11.00

Genesis 12:1-9   Now the LORD said to Abraham, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  ² I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  ³ I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."  ⁴ So Abraham went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  ⁵ Abraham took his wife Sarah and his brother's son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan,  ⁶ Abraham passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.  ⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abraham, and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.  ⁸ From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the LORD and invoked the name of the LORD.  ⁹ And Abraham journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.

Revelation 14:1-7  Then I looked, and there was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion! And with him were one hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.  ² And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps,  ³ and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who have been redeemed from the earth.  ⁴ It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from humankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb,  ⁵ and in their mouth no lie was found; they are blameless.  ⁶ Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth-- to every nation and tribe and language and people.  ⁷ He said in a loud voice, "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water."  

Revelation 21:1-5  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  ² And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;  ⁴ he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."  ⁵ And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new."

John 3:1-17  Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews.  ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."  ³ Jesus answered him, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above."  ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, "How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?"  ⁵ Jesus answered, "Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.'  ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."  ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, "How can these things be?"  ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?  ¹¹ "Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony.  ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?  ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  ¹⁶ ¶ "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  ¹⁷ "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Do you ever have those days where you wonder whether it’s all worth it?

            …Where you wonder just where it’s all going,

                        what the point of it all is?

The stress! the hassle! the disappointment! the frustration!

I’m talking, of course, about church life…

I mean, it’s such a great idea in theory, isn’t it?

            A community of people, filled with the Spirit,

            walking the path of Christ together

                        in loving relationship with one another,

                        and in faithful communion with God.

And yet the reality is so often so far short of the ideal.

Arguments, relationship problems,

            sinful behaviour, and petty politics,

are all too frequently the day to day reality of church life.

Recent research into why people leave church

            shows that whilst many pastors believe that people leave their churches

                        primarily due to a loss of personal faith,

            the reality is often more prosaic, and in many ways more worrying,

                        with a general disillusionment

                                    with the structures and institutions of church itself

                        being far more influential

                                    than any disillusionment with God.[1]

In other words, it’s other people that cause people to leave,

            not God.

And then there’s the numbers issue.

            We might, in theory, believe that through us

                        Jesus Christ offers good news to all people,

            but either we’re not that great at communicating it,

                        or a lot of people don’t want that kind of good news.

And we tell ourselves that numbers aren’t everything,

            and that depth is as important as breadth,

but fundamentally, if no-one comes,

            we’ve not got much of a church.

One might wonder why we carry on?

            And many, in fact, do just that.

I remember reading an article

            in the Baptist Ministers’ Journal a few years back,

written by a recently retired anonymous minister,

            who said that the moment he received his pension,

            he stopped going to church.

He had stayed the course because he had had to be there,

            but over the years he had utterly lost faith in the people of God.

And if I’m honest there have been moments in my ministry,

            when never darkening the door of a church again

            has seemed like a tempting proposition.

So, honestly, is it worth it?

            Is it worth the stress, the hassle,

                        the disappointment, the frustration?

What is the point of being part of this so-called ‘people of God’?

There are many people sitting in congregations across our city

            who are asking what on earth the point is of persevering with church.

And there are many others who used to be in our churches

            who have come to the conclusion that it’s just not worth the struggle.

So, what is the point? Is all this worth it?

Well, I think that this question is addressed is by the passage

            we had read to us a few moments ago from Genesis chapter 12.

Here, in this story of the call of Abraham,

            we find an account of the moment it all starts.

Here, with Abraham, we get the story

            of the beginning of the journey that we are now a part of.

The origin of the ‘called and commissioned’ people of God

            begins right here in Abraham’s encounter with God.

And in this story, which echoes down the millennia to us,

            we find that the call to be the people of God,

                        the call to follow wherever the path takes us,

            is also a call to be good news to all nations.

It seems that the foundational principle,

            right at the heart of the origin the people of God,

            is nothing less than gospel itself

                        – a gospel of good news for all, not just for some.

In the book of Genesis, the move from chapter 11 to chapter 12

            is an important one

because it describes a fundamental shift

            in the story of God’s relationship with humanity.

It is, if you like, the move from pre-history,

            to human history.

And Walter Brueggemann describes it as

            ‘perhaps the most important structural break in the Old Testament’,[2]

and it marks the point of transition

            between the history of humankind, and the history of Israel,

            between the history of the curse, and the history of the blessing.

Up until this point, through Genesis chapters 1 to 11,

            we meet the stories of humanity’s inability to save itself.

From the fall from grace in Eden, which we were looking at last week,

            to the growing hostility between humanity and creation;

from the first murder

            to the more general wickedness of humanity;

from the destructiveness of the great flood

            to the curse of Babel.

Through the first eleven chapters of Genesis

            we find God’s good creation on a downwards spiral,

with the story of humanity up to this point

            leading to nothing beyond barrenness and futility.

In the Abraham story, his wife Sarah

                        is famously unable to have children, having got too old,

            and so the promise from God

                        that he will become the father of a great nation

            is one which seems to them a laughable dream.

The barrenness of Sarah in Abraham’s story

            is in many ways symbolic

                        of the barrenness of the world as a whole,

            which has itself got old,

                        without having borne the fruit of new life.

The way Genesis has been telling the story,

            up until this point, humanity is going nowhere

                        other than an eventual petering out,

                        and a dwindling away to nothing.

So it is into a world that has run its course,

            to a world that is dying without issue,

            that the promise and call of God comes.

Just as the God of creation called something from nothing,

            calling ‘order’ from chaos,

so in the call of Abraham

            the same God calls humanity to new life;

                        calling forth life from a barren womb and a sterile world;

            calling people of death to experience the gift of life

                        which they meet through covenant relationship

                                    with the living God.

This call of God then echoes through history,

            through the prophets of Israel, down to the first century,

and it’s a call repeated in the invitation of Jesus

            who invited his own disciples to ‘follow’ him.

The call of Jesus is likewise heard as a summons

            to move from chaos to order;

            it is an invitation to move from barrenness to new life.

And like the call of God to Abraham,

            it’s a call that is accompanied by promise.

The Lord told Abraham that through his descendants

            ‘all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’

And to this end promised Abraham a new world,

            where humans are reborn, are born again,

            into covenant relationship with their creator.

Through the call of God and the promise of the covenant,

            new way of being opened before Abraham,

                        where that which could not be achieved by other means.

That which building a tower to the heavens at Babel failed to accomplish,

            became possible because of God’s gracious intervention.

Humans could not reach God through their own efforts,

            and had to discover that gift of new life that comes from God

                        comes as a gift from the God of love,

            not as the result of human activity and attainment.

The promise of God is fulfilled by God’s action,

            rather than by the efforts of humans.

The lesson of the call of God on Abraham

            is that people are not ultimately reconciled to God

                        through Abraham’s efforts,

            nor through the efforts of his descendants,

                        nor through the efforts of humanity as a whole,

            but only in and through the one who calls

                        and gives the gift of new life.

But this call to Abraham,

            and the promise to him and his descendants,

            also carried a commission.

God’s chosen people are not to live in a vacuum,

            separated and holy.

They are to live with, for and among the nations of the world.

The good news for Abraham

            is also to be good news for all peoples,

            good news for all nations.

Without qualification, without barrier, without condition.

Just as the Lord called Abraham into new relationship,

            so through Abraham and his descendants

                        the same call must go to all people.

The same promise,

            of new life in relationship with God,

            is for all nations, not just for one nation under God.

In the New Testament,

            we find that both Paul and Peter grasp this truth,

            and see its fulfilment in Jesus Christ as good news for all people.

In his letter to the Galatians,

            Paul says that (Galatians 3:8)

            ‘the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith,

                        declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham,

                        saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.”‘

And in his sermon at Pentecost,

            Peter declares to his Jewish congregation that they (Acts 3:25)

                        ‘are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant

                        that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham,

            ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’’

This is the purpose of the people of God,

            and it has been so from the very beginning.

The Good News is for all nations, for all peoples,

            and has always been so.

This same principle can also to be found in the book of Revelation,

            where the church is described as the Bride of Christ.

Now, I don’t want to get too earthy about this,

            but seeing as we’ve already spoken about Sarah’s child of promise,

                        it seems to me that there is another promise

                        inherent in the image of a bride and a groom.

In the first century world, the celebration of a wedding

            included the hope that it wouldn’t be long

                        before new life came into being,

            as a result of the consummation

                        of the relationship between bride and groom.

All of which raises an interesting question:

            Given that in the book of Revelation

                        John describes Jesus as the Lamb that was slain,

                        and the church as the bride of the Lamb,

            One might well ask who it is that he envisages

                        as the offspring of this marriage that he describes

                        between Christ and his Church?

The Abraham story may help us here:

            The covenant with Abraham

                        was built upon a marriage,

            with the barren Sarah becoming miraculously pregnant,

                        thereby beginning the ‘great nation’

                                    through whom, we are told, all nations will be blessed

                                    (Gen. 15.5; 18.18).

It may be that John’s image of the final consummation

            between Christ and the Church,

                        which he depicts as a marriage

                        between a bride and her husband,

            has in view the ultimate fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham.

If this is the case, then the marriage of the Lamb and the bride

            may not be so much the end of the story, as it’s present reality.

This may not be a marriage that has yet to happen,

            and which will occur only at the end of time.

It may actually be a description of the here-and-now,

            with the church united with her Lord

            in loving and fruitful union.

Rather than seeing the marriage of Christ and the Church

            as the final goal of creation,

we find before us the possibility

            that there is a much greater inheritance due to the Church,

as the embryonic promise of the Abrahamic covenant

            is brought to birth in the proclamation of a gospel

            for ‘every nation and tribe and language and people’ (14.6).

The book of Revelation ends with this picture

            of the church as the Bride of Christ,

and she is seen joining her voice with that of the Spirit

            to call all the nations of the world,

            all those beyond the gates of the new Jerusalem (cf. 22.15),

                        to enter into the city and drink from the river of life

                        which runs through the city (22.1–2).

The covenant which began with Abraham

            thus finds its fulfilment, as the people of God

                        become a source of blessing to all peoples,

            releasing them from their enslavement to the satanic forces of evil

                        and enabling them to enter into the new life

                                    that is theirs when they are born again

                                    as citizens of the heavenly city.

As Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus shows us,

            those who want to enter into the new life that begins in Jesus,

            must do so through being born again, through being born from above.

But they do so as those who are born into the new life

            that came into the sterile world of Abraham,

                        through the barren womb of Sarah,

            at the invitation of the Spirit,

                        by life-giving relationship with Jesus.

This same principle can also to be found in the image of 144,000,

            who are another one of Revelation’s symbols

                        for the faithful and chosen people of God.

Within John’s story, only the 144,000

            can sing the song of salvation to the earth.

Only the faithful people of God

            can speak the gospel to the nations.

However, what becomes clear is that

            through their faithful proclamation of the gospel for all,

            they are seen to be the firstfruits of a much greater harvest (14.4).

The seed is sown, and the Lord brings it to fruition.

This image evokes the Jewish practice

            of offering the first fruits of a harvest

            to symbolize the fact that the whole harvest belongs to God.

Understood in this way, the faithful witness of the Church

            is seen once again to result in good news

                        for all the nations of the earth,

            as the Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled

                        in the gathering in of the great harvest,

                        of which the church are simply the first fruits.

So, to return to the question with which we started:

            Is it really worth it?

            Is it worth persevering in witnessing

                        even through difficulty and persecution?

            Is it worth persevering with the people of God,

                        even when all seems lost

                        and despair, despondency and defeat

                                    lurk round every corner?

Yes, says John, it is!

Because the gospel is good news for every nation,

            and the ultimate result

                        of the faithful witness of the people of God

            is the freeing of all the nations

                        from their enslavement to the forces of evil,

            as the coming judgment of God consigns to the flames

                        all those systems and principalities and powers

                        which distort, demean and destroy the covenant relationship

                        into which God calls the people of the earth.

When seen from the perspective of the earth,

            the people of God might be a feeble, frail and flawed grouping,

            with the good news hard to discern within them.

But when seen from heaven’s perspective,

            those of us who gather

                        faithfully and steadfastly in the name of Christ

            are seen to be the fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant.

We are those who proclaim a gospel

            which is good news for all nations,

and we are those who pave the way

            for the eventual ingathering

            of all those who pass through judgement.

We are those who have been born again and from above,

            and we are those who will in turn bring to birth

                        a nation so great that no-one can count it.

This, surely, is good news.

Good news for all nations,

            good news for all the world.

This is the gospel of Christ.

            Thanks be to God

---

[1] Alan Jamieson, A Churchless Faith, SPCK, London: 2002

[2] Brueggemann, Genesis, p. 116

Flopsy Gets It!

Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church - 9^th March 2014 11.00am

Genesis 1:20 - 2:3  And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky."  ²¹ So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good.  ²² God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth."  ²³ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.  ²⁴ ¶ And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind." And it was so.  ²⁵ God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind, and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it was good.  ²⁶ ¶ Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."  ²⁷ So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.  ²⁸ God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."  ²⁹ God said, "See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.  ³⁰ And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.  ³¹ God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.  ^NRS Genesis 2:1 ¶ Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.  ² And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.  ³ So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

Genesis 2:15-17  The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  ¹⁶ And the LORD God commanded the man, "You may freely 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 die."

Genesis 3:1-7   Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?"  ² The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden;  ³ but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'"  ⁴ But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die;  ⁵ for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.  ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

Genesis 3:20-24   The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living.  ²¹ And the LORD God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.  ²² ¶ Then the LORD God said, "See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"--  ²³ therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.  ²⁴ He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

Matthew 4:1-11   Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  ² He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished.  ³ The tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."  ⁴ But he answered, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"  ⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,  ⁶ 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.'"  ⁷ Jesus said to him, "Again it is written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"  ⁸ Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor;  ⁹ and he said to him, "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."  ¹⁰ Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"  ¹¹ Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

A few years ago now, Liz and I became parents for the first time...

     But, before any of you start to get too excited about this, I ought to clarify.

     We aren't biological parents - we're God-parents.

The young daughter of some good friends of ours

     was baptised in the Methodist church that they attend,

     and at her own request, she’s now our God-daughter.

Some of you will have met her,

     as she comes to worship here with us sometimes.

When we asked our friend what being God-parents involved

     - having slightly worrying visions of us suddenly inheriting a small girl

          if anything were to happen to our friends

     - we were assured that this wasn't what they were expecting at all.

Actually, they put it this way:

     When she’s 18, pregnant, and wondering whether to have an abortion,

          they want her to have someone to talk to

          who they can trust to give her sensible support.

Part of me wondered whether promising to take her in in the event of tragedy

     might prove a more straightforward path,

but anyway, God-parents we became, for better or for worse.

Actually, the task of being moral and spiritual guides to this particular young woman

     has been a challenging and demanding assignment;

          but not because of any misbehaviour on her part.

You see, from a worryingly early age

     she has become something of a theologian,

     not to mention a fairly sophisticated ethicist.

At a very young stage she decided to join her father in his vegetarianism,

     eschewing the occasional chicken-burger and bacon sandwich

          which keep her mother and brother off that particular wagon.

But this love for animals and respect for all living creatures

     took something of a turn for the worryingly extreme

     not long after we began our stint as her God-parents.

What happened was that she contracted conjunctivitis

     - never a pleasant illness at the best of times,

and a trip to the doctor resulted in a prescription for antibiotics and some eye-drops.

Well, the antibiotic tablets were duly if reluctantly consumed,

     but her parents faced enormous difficulty getting the eye-drops in.

It became clear that this was more than the normal dislike

     for having things put in one's eye, that we all share,

and eventually her mum exclaimed in exasperation:

     "It's almost as if you don't want the eye drops to go in!!!"

Well, she went silent at this point...

     And, it turned out, this was exactly the problem.

She didn't want the eye-drops in her eye.

When asked why not, she replied that it wasn't fair...

     Fair on who?

     Fair on the bacteria causing the conjunctivitis, that's who!

The bacteria, she said, have as much right to life as any other living creature,

     and it’s not right of us to take action which would kill them.

So, there followed an explanation about the role of the human immune system,

     and the fact that the bacteria are going to get it in the long run anyway.

But, she said – that’s fine, no problem, that’s nature.

     And this is where it started to get interesting…

She would happily watch David Attenborough’s nature documentaries,

     with lions killing and devouring Bambi-like gazelles,

and that’s fine, because it’s nature.

But the idea of a human taking a wilful action to kill an animal – any animal –

     from cows and chickens to, it seems, bacteria,

posed, for her, a fundamental ethical problem.

Death isn’t the problem. Killing isn’t the problem.

     This is no child-like attachment to the cute and the cuddly.

Rather, I think our God-daughter

          was trying to get to grips with something important,

     something which we might call

          the fundamental nature of human fallenness.

Why was it that, in her childish ethical world,

     it was OK for a lion to kill and devour a gazelle,

     but not for a human to kill and cook a chicken?

Why was it OK for the human immune system to destroy pain-causing bacteria,

     but not for a human to put antibiotic cream in her eye to hasten the process?

Well, in response to her reluctance, her mother told her, with great clarity,

     that what she needed to do was to ask Simon and Liz!

Talk about a pastor never being off duty!

It seems that the role of God-parent

     construed as ethical and theological consultant

     is far from straightforward!

Well, what answer would you have given, I wonder?

     How would you have explained to a small child

          that while Eden-inspired vegetarianism (1:28-29) might be an acceptable choice,

          refusing antibiotics simply isn’t an option?

I think that what we’re coming down to here, as I have already hinted,

     is something profound about the fallenness of creation.

Let’s think for a moment about David Attenborough…

     I’m sure you know his style of wildlife documentary.

The viewer is taken on an emotional journey upwards through the food chain,

     from the small and cuddly to the large and predatory.

We begin with the fluffy bunny, innocently nibbling the grass in the field.

     But then along comes the fox,

          silently and swiftly stalking up behind our little furry friend.

Suddenly Flopsy realises she’s in danger, and tries to make bolt for the burrow,

     but evil fox is far too fast, and the bobbing tail seems more like a target than ever

          as the fox gets his jaws firmly round the bunny’s neck.

But then our focus shifts, as we follow Mr Fox stalking off with the prey in his mouth,

     and we realise that he is taking it back to feed the young cubs in his den.

The camera magically tracks him and we see his little cubs,

     who would certainly die without their meal,

     and we start to feel that maybe the rabbit didn’t die in vain.

So, the fox-cubs grow in strength,

     and in time they venture outside of the den to frolic in the woods…

but then, on the horizon, we spot Wily Coyote, waiting to pounce,

     and so the cycle of death continues.

And what is interesting to me in this presentation of nature

     is that we are all the time being invited

          to pass moral and emotive judgements on the natural world.

The rabbit is cute but the fox is evil,

     the fox-cubs are innocent but the coyote is wicked.

We find ourselves naming evil and good in the created order.

And here’s the question…

Just as Schrödinger’s cat is only known as alive or dead when the box is opened,

     might it not also be the case that the natural world

          only takes on characteristics of evil or good

          when we observe and name it as such?

A fox killing a bunny isn’t an act of violence until we name it as such.

     Watership Down only works because we have the capacity

          to endue the created world with the characteristics of good and evil

                that ultimately exist only within ourselves.

A natural disaster is only a tragedy when humans name it as one

     – without our presence on the earth,

          events such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes

          are simply natural phenomena which result in the death of some animals.

They only acquires moral significance because we invest them with such.

It is our capacity to name and comprehend good and evil within ourselves

     that results in our understanding and naming

     of the natural world as good and evil also.

Without our intervention, nature is just nature.

     Good and evil in nature are human constructs.

And so, the fallenness of humanity results in the fallenness of creation.

We who consume the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil

     have acquired the capacity to become like God,

and so we both create and destroy the goodness of creation

     through our very understanding of it.

Just as in the Genesis creation story

     God gave humanity the ability to name every living creature on the earth,

so also, after eating the fruit of the tree,

     humanity acquired the ability to name creation as good and evil.

And so we see creation inexorably falling along with its keeper.

The innocence of God’s creation is named as evil,

     and that which was created good is re-interpreted as tragedy.

The goodness of creation is undone,

     as evil enters the world through the human thirst for knowledge.

It was Francis Bacon who asserted that ‘Knowledge is Power’,

     and in saying this he struck the heart of the Genesis fall narrative.

Of course, what Bacon said so succinctly,

     the Wisdom Literature of the Jews had already hinted at:

Proverbs (24:5) warns that, ^“wise warriors are mightier than strong ones,

     and those who have knowledge [are mightier] than those who have strength”

This human search for knowledge gives us so much power.

     Power for good, but also power for evil.

     Power to kill, but also power to give life.

No longer are illness and death simply a part of the cycle of life,

          a part of the goodness of creation

     – they are instead understood as enemies to be fought.

The death of a friend of mine to meningitis at the age of 21

     can only be understood by me as a tragedy – as something wrong in the world.

And of course, had his illness been diagnosed sooner,

     and had antibiotics been administered earlier,

     his survival would have been a cause for rejoicing

          – an unambiguously good thing.

And yet when an animal dies unwatched in the forest to an unknown virus,

     this is simply nature taking its course – it is neither wrong nor a tragedy.

The difference between the two lies in our capacity

     to understand and name good and evil.

As we name it, so it becomes.

This is what distinguishes us from the rest of the animals in Eden

     – we are the only created being with the capacity to eat the fruit of the tree.

This is what makes us human.

And having taken the knowledge,

     having acquired the power,

we also, of course, assume the responsibility.

Knowledge, you see, brings its own consequences.

It was only after eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

     that man and woman gained the capacity to comprehend shame.

Up until that point, they walked naked in the garden – innocence personified.

They weren’t shamed in their nakedness

     – because without the knowledge of good and evil,

          their nakedness wasn’t shameful.

After all, when did you last see an animal try to cover itself in shame?

Just as the goodness of creation was named as evil by humanity

     – so also the state of human innocence is ended

          with the consumption of the fruit of the tree.

Knowledge begets not just power but guilt.

And as we take God’s good creation and name it evil,

     there is much to be shameful of.

We have placed ourselves at war with God’s good creation

     and in the fighting of this battle,

          we damage the created order irreparably

Instead of living in harmony with nature

          – part of the God-given cycle of life and death –

     we rather find ourselves toiling to survive

          fighting disease, afraid of death

          determined to overcome creation at all costs

          determined to exercise dominion in our own interests.

The state of humanity in our present is experienced,

     as a time of innocence lost.

This is what the Genesis narrative is seeking to explore.

We may occasionally catch glimpses of innocence within ourselves,

     but our overriding experience is of shame, and loss,

          and of far, far too much knowledge to ever go back.

The flaming sword behind us makes sure of that.

And so we find ways to cope.

     We make clothes to cover our shame,

          we construct ways of containing our knowledge.

Household codes, the Ten Commandments, the Levitical law,

          habeas corpus ad subjiciendum…

          (You should) have/produce the body to be subjected to (examination)

     All attempts to put clothes on ethical nakedness.

And this unlocked human thirst for knowledge is so inexorable,

     and the power and the guilt that it unlocks are so pervasive,

     that we have to find ways to contain our lust for knowledge.

We have to find ways of not always seeking an answer to the question of

     “What will happen if I push this boundary?”

We have to find or impose limits on human inquisitiveness.

     We have to find ways of recognising that with the knowledge comes power,

          and with power comes responsibility.

Jesus recognised this power and responsibility

     when he twice said to Peter and the disciples,

“whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,

     and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19; 18:18).

And he faced the temptation to misuse great power for his own purposes

     when he confronted Satan in the wilderness.

It really does seem that we have become like god’s

     with the power to name good and evil.

The solution suggested by Jesus to this quandary

     lies in giving back to God

     the authority that is truly his alone.

It lies in taking a step back from idolatry,

     and giving God his due.

As Jesus said to Satan in the wilderness:

     'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'

And as he said to the scribes and the Pharisees:

     Love your neighbour as yourself,

     Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength.

Worship, you see, isn’t about making God feel good about himself

     – it is about undoing the fall,

          it is about recreating a new humanity

                where once again God is in his rightful place.

     It is about restoring order to creation.

There is no going back to Eden of course

     – as Genesis puts it, the flaming sword behind us bars the way.

But there is a journey forwards into new creation,

     and it is the role of the church to lead humanity in that journey.

We are those entrusted with the task of binding and loosing in a Godly way.

     We are those entrusted with pointing to love of neighbour and love of God

          as the clothing for human ethical nakedness.

     We are those with the message of God’s intervention in the person of Jesus,

          who died to redeem death, and rose to restore creation.

     We are those who live the assurance

          of a renewed heaven and a restored earth.

     We are those who, with John,

          hear the voice from the throne in heaven saying:

Rev 21:3-4

See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.’

So, where does all this get us with the problem

     posed to us some years ago

     by our then eight-year-old God-daughter?

Part of me wondered whether, given time, she’d just grow out of it

     and that in a few years she’d be popping antibiotics

          without so much as a second thought

After all, it’s inevitable that she will mature

     from her child-like understanding of the nature of the fall

     and of the relationship between humanity and the created order.

Sadly, in due time, each of us must grow from the childish innocence,

          which so closely echoes the innocence of Eden,

     into a more adult, fallen, responsible, expression of humanity.

And once we get there, there can be no going back;

     the innocence of childhood is remembered as a golden age

     with a flaming sword between there and now

One of the great disappointments of growing up, it seems to me,

     is the realisation that Eden is behind us,

     the realisation that innocence doesn’t last.

One of the tragedies of maturing

     is the recognition that all is not right with the world

     and that we ourselves have played our part in that tragedy

The growth into guilt and shame, into toil and responsibility

     is part of the human condition

We each of us eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil

     we each of us find ourselves naming God’s creation as evil

     we each of us find ourselves at war with nature

     we are each of us complicit in creation’s fall

It comes to us all, in the end.

And so, with some sadness,

     we simply ended up saying to our friends about our God-daughter,

     ‘Don’t worry – it’s just a phase - she’ll grow out of it’