Thomas J Parlette
“The Goodness of God”
Genesis 2: 15-17; 3: 1-7
3/1/2020, 1st Lent
Welcome to the first Sunday of Lent, the forty- six days from Ash Wednesday to silent Saturday, the day before Easter, the day before our celebration of the Resurrection. All around the world, people celebrate Lent as a time of reflection and preparation. We reflect on the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, and we prepare ourselves to celebrate the awesome, life-changing joy of resurrection.
Traditionally, we as Christians celebrate Lent by examining our hearts, repenting of our sins, and giving up something important to us as a way of identifying with Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.
Theology professor Colin MacIver has some ideas about the things that we might give up for Lent. He begins with hot showers or mattresses or beds, because we’ve become so dependent on our own comfort. Any takers? Probably not. Next he suggests the audio equipment in your car, because we need more silent time to listen to God and examine our hearts. Then he suggests maybe we give up Netflix, because we often use entertainment to numb our minds or waste time that could be used for better purposes. Next up, how about giving up looking at your reflection in the mirror for Lent, because it encourages vanity and self-centeredness. Finally, he suggests giving up control of your TV remote, because we hate giving up control of anything.(1) It’s easy to see why Colin MacIver is in the academic world – none of that would fly in your typical congregation!
Last year, Twitter employees sorted through more than 44,000 tweets that referenced the word “Lent” and the words “giving up” to come up with the most popular things that people were sacrificing for Lent. Their top five, in order, were – Social networking (Facebook, Instagram and the rest): Alcohol: Twitter: Chocolate and strangely enough, the fifth most popular thing to give up for Lent was, Lent itself.(2)
Obviously, not everyone likes the idea of self-examination and sacrifice.
Lent is an uncomfortable season in the church year. It’s supposed to be that way. For forty-six days, we are reminded of how much our sin separates us from God and how far God would go to heal that separation. So today’s passage on how sin entered the world is an appropriate way to start the season.
In Genesis 1 and 2, God is very busy. God creates the universe as a place of light and life, order and peace, fruitfulness and beauty. Then, on a remote planet in that universe, God placed humankind in a beautiful garden-world will all kinds of good food to eat. This was to be humanity’s home, a place of safety and provision. Humankind would not have to wander like a hungry nomad searching for food or shelter. Humans would not be refugees.
After reading the Creation account in Genesis, it’s striking how the sad situation of refugees is the polar opposite of what God intended for human beings. God did not intend for us to be homeless, helpless, unprotected, scavenging for resources to stay alive. God intended for us to live in the Divine presence enjoying God’s resources.
Then we read verses 16-17: And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will die.”
I wonder, what if you had never heard of God before, had no concept of God, and someone read you Genesis 1 through Genesis 2:15 – how might you describe the character of God? Based on those verses, probably as a generous, creative being anxious to share what had been created.
An interviewer once asked theologian R.C. Sproul what the greatest spiritual need in the world is. Sproul answered, “The greatest need in people’s lives today is to discover the true identity of God… If believers really understood the character and the personality and the nature of God, it would revolutionize their lives.”(3) This passage is often described as the story of how sin came into the world. But it can also be seen as a story that shows us the true character and nature of God.
First of all, the Creation story reveals to us the goodness of God. You see God’s goodness in creating this beautiful, orderly universe teeming with light and life. You see God’s goodness in creating and blessing human beings with abundant food, fulfilling work and a personal relationship with God.
There’s an old story about a young soldier who was overseas. He was writing his girlfriend. He wanted to send her a telegram because he thought it would be more romantic. So he gave the telegraph operator a message to send. The message was “I love you. I love you. I love you. John.”
The telegraph operator said, “Son, for the same amount of money you can send one more word.”
So he amended the message to “I love you. I love you. I love you. Cordially, John.”(4)
In creation God is saying “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Many of us profess our love for God in return, “I love you too. Cordially, John.” In light of all our blessings we should be overwhelmed with the goodness of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a well- known German pastor and theologian who stood up to the Nazi’s in the days of World War II. In 1943, he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned, then moved to a concentration camp, where he was executed. Not long before his death, Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to a friend in which he said, “You must never doubt that I’m traveling with gratitude and cheerfulness along the road where I’m being led. My past life is brim-full of God’s goodness, and my sins are covered by the forgiving love of Christ crucified.” (5) Here was a man facing death, but he was filled with gratitude and a consciousness of God’s presence. He trusted in the goodness of God.
Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden began when they doubted God’s character. With just one question and one challenge, the serpent was able to plant doubts in Eve’s mind about the goodness of God – “Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden?”
“We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”
And Satan saw his opening – “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat fruit from that tree your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The serpent planted the belief in this first couple’s mind of an unjust God. God owes you happiness, he is suggesting. God owes you power. God owes you an explanation for your every “Why?”
Adam and Eve momentarily lost sight of all the beauty and bounty that God had bestowed upon them. Instead they became fixated on the one thing God had denied them. And they began to justify both their sin and their self-centeredness. They lost sight of the goodness and holiness of God. And we do the same thing when we focus on the things we are denied rather than the ways in which God has blessed us.
Understanding the goodness of God makes the difference between believing in God and trusting in God. I suspect all of us believe in God. The problem is that many of us don’t really trust God. There’s a big difference. Trust means giving up control of your life to God. Trust means obeying God’s limits, even when you don’t understand them. Trust means knowing that God doesn’t owe you an explanation. Trusting God means continuing to praise what you do know about God instead of questioning what you don’t know about God.
On Nov. 21st, 1990, Bill Irwin became the first blind person to hike the entire Appalachian trail, a rugged wilderness trail that stretches more than 2100 miles from Springer Mountain. Georgia to Mt Katahdin, Maine. Irwin didn’t use maps or compasses or any technology at all to find his way. He counted on his aptly named guide dog, Orient, to take him over hills, into ravines and across rivers.
Bill Irwin had been an angry, driven man with a drinking problem, four failed marriages, and battling depression when he began losing his eyesight. A few years later, Bill became a Christian while attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with his son. His depression lifted and he stopped drinking as he experienced the hope and joy of salvation. In gratitude, he prayed, “Lord, I’m so grateful for all You’ve given me and all You’ve done for me. If there’s anything I can do as a way of saying thank you, I want You to know I’ll do it, whatever it is.”
Not long after that, Bill felt God nudging him to hike the Appalachian Trail. Now Bill was not an outdoorsman. He didn’t care for hiking or camping. He was out of shape and not very athletic. And he was now completely blind. Why in the world would he take on something so risky? To anyone who asked him for an explanation, Bill would simply say that God told him to. Bill would later write, “The first clear-eyed thing that I had ever done was as a blind man when I asked God to take charge of my life.”
For Bill Irwin, who died March 1st, 2014 at age 73, his hike was an act of salvation. And whenever he got the opportunity, he would quote the first verse he learned as a new Christian, from 2nd Corinthians 5:7 – “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”(6)
If you really understand the goodness of God, you can trust God with your life. How would that change your priorities and your attitudes? How could God use you if you handed over control of your life? This whole Lenten season is set aside for reflecting on the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. If you were being honest with yourself, are you stuck in the believing stage, or have you moved on to trusting God? Can we really look at the symbols of the Lenten season – the whip, the nails, the crown of thorns and the cross – and still question the goodness of God?
The creation story reveals to us the goodness of God. Adan and Eve’s sin the garden began when they doubted God’s character and goodness. Understanding the goodness of God makes all the difference between believing in God and trusting in God.
So, this Lenten season may we learn to appreciate God’s goodness and move from belief to trust.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Dynamic Preaching, Vol. XXXVI, No. 1, p51.
2. Ibid…p51.
3. Ibid…p52.
4. Ibid…p53.
5. Ibid…p53.
6. Ibid…p54.
