Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Sermon

Lent 1, Year A

March 9, 2014

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

(Just as a warning, this sermon is going to require some movement in a minute, if you’re up for it.)

Are you all familiar with the choose-your-own-adventure books?  When I was a kid, I loved these books where at each important choice you could decide what the main character would do next.  It was such fun to be the star of the story.  Such fun to have power over the story line.  Such fun not only to be able to choose what would happen next, but also to be able to go back and un-choose it if things didn’t go well.  Such fun to get to see all the alternative possibilities that could come from one starting place. 

I always thought it would be wonderful if life could work that way.  If only we could have the wherewithal to really see that we were making a choice in the moment of action rather than just sort of moving unknowingly through life so much of the time.  If only we could see clearly the immediate consequences of our choices and go back and fix our choice if it didn’t turn out well for us.  If only we could sometimes sneak ahead and peek at the alternative consequences before making a choice.  If only we could start over from the top and remake ourselves completely and without consequence if things really ended badly.

It would be a handy way to read this story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  We don’t get it in our reading today, but we all know what comes next – God confronts Adam and Eve with what they’ve done and sends them out of the Garden. 

The way that Christians have interpreted this passage has shaped the world.  This story is fraught with possibility for dangerous interpretation.  It has been misused to support the subjugation of women (Eve gave the apple to Adam and therefore can’t be trusted to be anything more than a child-bearer).  It has been used to support ecological destruction (Adam and Eve were put in charge of all creation and therefore can plunder at will).  And it has been used to support the idea of original sin (that because of Adam and Eve’s falling into temptation we are all sinful from our births).

What if we could choose a different ending!  Think of how our Old Testament reading from Genesis would look as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book: The Garden of Eden, by God and Humanity.  Every choice leads to a new adventure! 

This is where the movement part comes in.  I’m going to ask you to respond to the choices by moving to one side of the room or the other (or you can stay in your seat and have the choice made for you).  Just for fun, if a few of you could answer both ways, I’d appreciate it for my sermon’s sake.

You are one of the first two humans created by God.  The Lord God takes you and puts you with your partner in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.  And the Lord God commands you, “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 is more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made.  He says to you, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

If you get into a discussion with the serpent, go to my LEFT.

If you ignore the snake and go on your way, go to my RIGHT.

To people on the LEFT:

You say 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, or you shall die.’”  But the serpent says to you, “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.” 

If you decide to investigate the tree further, stay here on my LEFT.

If you run away from the snake, go to my RIGHT.

To the people on the LEFT:

After investigating the tree further, you see that the tree is good for food, and that it is a delight to the eyes, and that the tree is to be desired to make one wise.

If you decide to eat the fruit from the tree, stay here on my LEFT.

If you run away from the tree, go to my RIGHT.
 
To the people on the RIGHT:
You know the serpent is crafty, and knew no good could come from engaging in its wily tricks.  So you walk away.  And you and your partner and all of humanity who follow you live happily ever after in the garden of Eden.  The End.

To the people on the LEFT:

You take the fruit and eat; and give some to your partner, who is with you, and they eat too.  Then the eyes of both of you are opened, and you know that you are naked; and you sew fig leaves together and make loincloths for yourselves.  Then you hear the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze.

If you decide to hide from God, stay here on my LEFT.

If you think you should jump out and tell God what you’ve done, go to my RIGHT.

 

To the people on the LEFT:

You and your partner hide yourselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  But the Lord God calls to you and says, “Where are you?”  You come out of hiding and answer God, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”  God says, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 

If you decide to blame your partner, stay here on my LEFT.

If you decide to tell God the whole story and ask forgiveness, go to my RIGHT.

 

To the people on the LEFT:

You say, “My partner, whom you gave to be with me, gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.”  Then the Lord God says to both of you, “What is this that you have done?”

If you decide to blame the serpent, stay here on my LEFT.

If you decide to tell God the whole story and ask forgiveness, go to my RIGHT.

To the people on my RIGHT:

You and your partner know the Lord God loves you and is full of grace and mercy.  And so you walk out into the open and tell God the whole story.  How you had listened to the serpent and trusted it rather than God.  How you had forgotten how much God had given you and how God wanted nothing but the best for you.  How you had for a moment thought maybe you could be like God.  And God wrapped God’s arms around you and loved you.  And you and your partner and all of humanity lived happily ever after in the garden of Eden.  The End.

To the people on the LEFT:

You say, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” And so the Lord God reprimands the serpent and says it will spend its life eating dust on its belly and reprimands you and says your life will now have pain and toil and power struggles and will eventually end in death.  And then the Lord God makes garments of skins for you and your partner, and clothes you.  And the Lord God sends you forth from the garden of Eden.  The End.

            Thanks for playing along.  You can go back to your seats now.

            It seems like there were so many opportunities for this to have turned out differently for Adam and Eve, for them (and maybe all of humanity) to stay blissfully in Paradise, in perfect harmony with God, and nature, and each other. 

But could it really have turned out any differently than it did?  This is only page 2 of the story of the metaphorical first people on earth.  This incident with the serpent and the forbidden fruit happened just a couple days, maybe, into their existence.  I’m betting that if it hadn’t been this serpent and this fruit it would have been something else that caused them to stray.  A bigger cave maybe, or a more choice garden plot, or a better-looking humanoid partner.  That is part of the struggle of humanity, right?  We are imperfect, easily distracted from our relationship with God, easily diverted from loving each other, easily convinced to put ourselves first.  Unfortunately for Adam and Eve and all of humanity, I’m not sure it’s realistic to imagine a scenario where anyone can stay in Eden living a life of blissful paradise.  I know I can’t go a day without veering off the path in some way.  It seems like for Adam and Eve, as much as we’d love to rewrite the story, what happened was bound to happen sooner or later.  At some point, a bad choice was going to get made.  They were bound sooner or later not to be strong enough to keep God and perfect love for each other and the world around them always front and center in their minds.

But look what happens even when they do choose poorly. 

Maybe this Adam and Eve story that has been misused by countless generations of theologians is really about the grace of God despite our sometimes bad choices.  

God doesn’t kill off Adam and Eve and end the experiment with humanity right then and there.  God doesn’t banish Adam and Eve from the garden and never come into relationship with them again.  God isn’t turned away by their wrong-doing, their shame, their fears and insecurities.  It may no longer be blissful paradise, but when they stray, God keeps searching for them.  And God doesn’t give up until God finds them in their nakedness.  And, though it isn’t in our reading for this morning, God makes garments for them that are much more comfortable than fig leaves.  God takes them as they are and stays with them, even following them outside of Eden, loving them and wanting to be in relationship with them through the next millennias of not-always-so-great decision making, right up until God gets to us today.  Like Adam and Eve we are sometimes trying and sometimes failing to pay attention.  Sometimes getting it right and sometimes falling apart.  Sometimes seeking God and sometimes hiding away.  Sometimes owning up to who we are and sometimes mired in blaming others.  But still God is right here with us.  Filling our choose-our-own-adventure story with opportunities to choose God, over and over and over again when necessary. 

May this holy season of Lent be for all of us a time when we pay more attention both to the choices that are constantly in front of us and to the loving presence of God longing to be in relationship with us no matter what choices we make.  Amen.