“The God-Shaped Hole” – Sermon on March 13, 2011
March 13, 2011
Scripture
Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 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.”
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’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 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.’“ But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
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. 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.
Matthew 4: 1-11: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, 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.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’” Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.
Sermon: The God-Shaped Hole
By Rev. Doreen Oughton
I’m touched by these two stories of temptation. Touched by the innocence of Adam and Eve, touched by their vulnerability to temptation, to seduction. They are living in Eden, surrounded by an abundance of goodness, delicious fruit of all kinds, beauty, even the presence of God strolling with them. And still they are vulnerable to dissatisfaction. It seems that even with all this, they can be led to question whether there is more that they could have, more that the should have. The tempter, the snake, poses a question that is false, but holds a kernel of truth, and that catches Eve’s attention. “Did God say you couldn’t eat from any of the trees?” “No, just this one.” Does snake know something about these human beings that they are vulnerable this way? The snake accuses God of deceiving the two, of trying to keep them from being God-like. The snake calls into question God’s motives, and the seed of doubt is planted. Can God be trusted? Is God treating us fairly? Does God really have our best interests in mind, or is God keeping us down for some selfish reason of God’s own?
I’ve heard such suspicion about God before. I’ve heard the accusation that God is all about having his ego stroked, having people bow down, worship and obey. Do you ever feel this doubt, this suspicion niggling at you as it did at Eve.? Have you ever had that anxiety develop that there is something you are missing out on? Is there more than what God offers here, she wonders? Could we be on more equal footing with God? Shouldn’t we be? What is God up to? It is that anxiety, that doubt that leaves them vulnerable to the temptation, that leads them to disobey God. If they doubt that God is trustworthy, why should they do or not do as God says? In their doubt of God, Eve and Adam make themselves untrustworthy.
I have mixed feelings about the story of Eve and Adam eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Perhaps it is my own anxiety and discomfort with not knowing, my hunger to know and understand more, but part of me questions why it was such a terrible thing. Isn’t it the only way we can really be responsible – accountable for our actions and choices, to have such knowledge. Otherwise we are like mere babes – as innocent as little Ethan there. Can’t be condemned for grabbing someone’s hair and pulling. He doesn’t know it is wrong. I understand the problem with disobeying God. They had every reason to trust God, who had created them in love and given them everything they needed. But why did God not want them to have this knowledge of good and evil?
And then we have the story of the temptation of Jesus in the desert. This is quite a stark contrast to the garden of Eden. Here Jesus is surrounded by parched land under a hot sun for forty days. He is fasting. There are no beautiful shade trees bearing tasty fruit, no flowing rivers, no abundance of plants and creatures of every kind, no human companionship. We can imagine a little bit of his time out there, praying, looking closely, finding the single flower poking out of the hard earth, watching the sun rise and set, the shape of the moon change each night. He would feel himself growing weaker and hungrier by the day. Perhaps he had a way to mark off the days as they passed. Did he feel his Abba with him constantly, or did he experience a deep sense of aloneness, perhaps fear and anxiety? And finally, at the end of his time in the desert he meets his tempter. Called Satan in this story, the tempter tries to play on anxiety here also, “If you really are the son of God, then prove it.” It strikes me that there is also a bit of scriptural and logical truth in the series of proofs he asks for. If you are the son of God, you can find bread in the desert, you can command food and it will be there. There’s truth there, yes? We think of the manna that God sent to Moses and his people. And Jesus, later in his ministry will indeed create an abundance of food out of just a few loaves and fishes.
And there is the second challenge: throw yourself down and let the angels come to your rescue. There is truth that God cares for all his children, has done miracles of rescue and had always planned to resurrect Jesus if the worst happened and he was killed. The third temptation, Jesus’ power and authority over all the kingdoms of earth is what we all pray for each Sunday in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come.” It is what is promised, that it has come and is coming still. So just as I wondered about God keeping knowledge of good and evil from Adam and Eve, so I wonder what would have been so bad about Jesus succumbing to Satan’s tests.
I think the answer is in the notion of “not yet.” For Jesus in the desert, it wasn’t the time and place to make bread. He would make bread and fish multiply, but to feed his people, not himself. He would be cared for, ministered to by angels, but he had to go through his life first. He had to teach and preach and heal and love and understand his mission more fully. He will reign in God’s glory, but not through displays of power, and certainly not by bowing down to Satan, but will reign out of his act of great sacrifice, out of his willingness to rely on God and trust God’s power and plan rather than resisting evil through worldly ways.
I wonder, then, if God had always intended humans to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, just not then. Who knows what we might have needed to do to prepare for this awesome knowledge, for the constant challenges of discernment and choice. We can think of all the developmental milestones that we went through, that Ethan has before him. We can think of them from the developing perspective, how eager we were to dress ourselves, choose our clothes, go to school, walk to the store alone, date, shave, drive. We pushed constantly, restless and striving. And we can think about these milestones as adults, looking out for the children in our lives. Are they ready? What will this mean to them? Do they understand enough, will they get hurt? We don’t want to keep them down, hold them back, but we have a bigger perspective.
There is nothing wrong with the striving, with the restlessness, with wanting more even when we live in the Garden of Eden, even when we have everything we need. In fact I think we were created by the loving God to be this way, to strive, to feel restless, always looking for the next challenge. More than one theologian proposes that we have an emptiness in us, a hole of longing, a God-shaped hole. It leaves us restless, striving, often anxious. I think it was put there so that we stay connected to our source, to the God who created us in love. But I think we need to get better tolerating the sense of emptiness, the aching and longing; and channeling it to God. Perhaps we can even embrace it, linger in it and let it be a reminder that we belong to God. This hole is a way for God to be part of us, and us to be part of God. But too often we succumb to temptation to try to fill that hole with other things, with food, alcohol, sex, ecstatic experiences, new experiences, material goods, power, all manner of things. I wonder what we are losing when we do that. What sort of shaping and training experiences God wanted us to have instead?
I’d love to stand here convinced and convincing that if only you would resist such temptations you will know joy and peace and the glory of God. But Jesus resisted temptation and he had many more trials, lots more suffering, and in one Gospel account, even doubting God’s loving presence while he was dying. Adam and Eve, after eating from the tree, were sent out of the garden. They would no longer be provided for, but would have to work and labor for their food. There would be pain in childbirth, and enmity with the snake. And right away they lost an innocence and unselfconsciousness. They were sent out of the garden, but they didn’t go alone. God left the garden with them. God continued to watch them, guide them, bring beauty and truth to their lives.
When you resist temptation and when you succumb, God will be there to help you take the next step. I don’t mean to say that it doesn’t matter what you do. Of course it does. There are consequences to the choices we make. We are children of Adam and Eve, with the awesome knowledge of good and evil. We may be immature in our understanding, we may not be able to handle it sometimes, but we have it. Our choices matter tremendously in the impact of our own lives, and in the impact of others, those close to us and those we don’t know at all. But God will never abandon us. God is trustworthy and eternally reaches out to us, continually invites us to find in her that missing piece. In the words of St. Augustine, may our hearts be restless until they rest in you, o God.
