I always like coming into church and seeing it decorated for Christmas. The theologian in me says that Easter is the high holy festival of the church year, but the sentimental sap in me likes Christmas best. I like seeing the twinkling lights, the green garland, the bows and ribbons, the ornaments and brightly colored presents. To me this truly is the most wonderful time of the year. I like singing Christmas carols and hymns. I like eating Christmas cookies and candies. I like Christmas parades and parties. There is a lot that I like about Christmas, but the thing I like most of all is telling the Christmas story. I am looking forward to sharing that story with our community at our live nativity, but even more than that I am looking forward to sharing that story with you.
Throughout the season of Advent, we will be listening to the Christmas story under the theme, “God so loved the world”. We will hear how God so loved the world that He: promised His Son, prophesied about His Son, prepared for His Son, conceived His Son, and then finally and most importantly we will hear how God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
This year the Christmas story begins in Genesis 3:1-15. Admittedly, it seems an odd place to start, a man and woman full of fear, shame, and guilt cowering before the LORD their God, it seems an odd place to start the Christmas story. But none the less, it is where we must start, that is if we want to start at the story’s beginning.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The LORD God looked at all that He had created and called it good. Adam and Eve, a king and a queen of that creation, couldn’t agree more. What God had called good was a perfect paradise. Adam and Eve lived in a piece of that paradise known as the garden of Eden. This garden was designed by the LORD God to meet and exceed all their wants and needs. I wish I could spend more time talking about the garden of Eden, but that is another story for another time. Today we are starting the Christmas story and unfortunately the Christmas story does not begin with Adam and Eve enjoying the perfect paradise the LORD God created for them. It starts, as I said, with Adam and Eve cowering before the LORD their God.
We learn about the cause of their cowering in verses 1-7. As you know, this is not a flattering part of the story. This part of the story is full of deception, arrogance, and seduction. 4 “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 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 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” As soon as Adam and Eve sank their teeth into the forbidden fruit the eyes of both of them were opened, but not in the way the expected. The serpent promised they would be like God, knowing good and evil. In truth, they became the opposite of God, they who were created good, with this act of rebellion, became bad.
Sin had opened their eyes; Adam and Eve saw what sin had done to them, and they did not like what they saw. So, when they “8… heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day”, “they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden”. They hid. Innocent people don’t hide. Guilty people hide. Guilty people hide because their guilt fills them with shame: they are ashamed of what they had done, ashamed of what they had become, ashamed to stand in the presence of the LORD God.
Adam and Ever were ashamed of their sin and so they hid in the bushes. Where do you hide? Some people hide in the crowd. They surround themselves with people who are as guilty or better yet more guilty than they so that by comparison they might be overlooked as they stand in such a crowd. Others hide behind their good deeds. They believe if they are able to cover themselves with generous gestures, humanitarian efforts, and community service that the LORD God will not be able to see the sin that lies beneath all those good deeds. Still others physically hide. They stop going to church, stop reading their bibles, stop folding their hands in prayer; they avoid anyone who might dare to ask, “why are you hiding?” Adam and Eve hid in the bushes. Where do you hide?
Hiding in the bushes is no way to live your life. As long as Adam and Eve stayed in the bushes they stayed in their sin. The LORD God did not want to abandon His people to their sin so “9 … the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” The question is asked not so that the LORD God might gain information but so that Adam and Eve would have the opportunity to give a confession. Even in his sinful condition, Adam understands that the LORD God is not really asking him where he is hiding but why he is hiding. I hid, answers Adam, because “I was afraid”. Fear was a new feeling for Adam and Eve. Once they walked in perfect harmony with God. Now they were filled with a “a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”.[1]
Adam and Eve broke one command and it so filled them with fear that they hid in the bushes. How many commands have you broken? Do you want me to review them with you? There are 10 of them. No? Not necessary? If you were to venture a guess, how many commandments do you think you have broken? One? Two? Three? More? Sounds like you have more reason than Adam and Eve to be filled with a “a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”.[2]
The LORD God wanted Adam and Eve to understand why they were afraid. So, the LORD God asked them, “11…Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” After some blame shifting and backstabbing that so sadly demonstrates what a hot mess sin makes of our lives, both Adam and Eve eventually confess, “I ate”.
It took some effort to get them there, but eventually the LORD God brought Adam and Eve out of the bushes and led them to confess their sin. Often it takes some effort to get us to confess our sin. As sinners we hate to confess our sin. We will do anything we can to evade the guilt and consequences of our sin. But as long as we are content to hide in the bushes as long as sin remains unconfessed, the Christmas story cannot continue. Only when we stand cowering before the LORD our God simply and plainly confessing that we have sinned, only then can the story of Christmas continue.
After dragging Adam and Eve kicking and screaming to a confession of sin, the LORD God turns His attention to Satan who through the serpent had deceived Adam and Eve. However, it is good for us to note that though the LORD God’s words are addressed to Satan they are spoken in the hearing of and for the benefit of Adam and Eve. To Satan the LORD God said, “15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” With these words the LORD God promised to bring about three kinds of enmity, that is three kinds of hostility and hatred that would exist.
First there was to be an enmity between Satan and Eve. Eve thought Satan was her friend. She believed her friend had her best interests in mind, and if the LORD God did not intervene in their friendship, Eve and all of her offspring would have spent eternity with that friend.
The second kind of enmity was to be between Satan’s offspring and Eve’s offspring, that is between unbelievers and believers. The hostility is a result of believers trying to live a life that gives glory to God while at the same time being in close proximity to unbelievers who want to gratify the desires of their own sinful flesh. Unbelievers do not want to be disturbed as they peruse a life of sin and they hate believers for standing in their way. But this enmity serves to protect the believers. It separates us from each other and reminds us that those who follow Satan are not our friends.
The third kind of enmity is between Satan and one of Eve’s Sons. The enmity between Satan and this Son would result in a crushed head and a struck heel. You see, the LORD God knew what this enmity would cost Him. He knew what would happen to this Son once Satan sank his teeth into Him. But because the LORD God so loved the world, He was willing to send this Son and pay that price. He was willing to pay the price because He knew that it was the only way to crush Satan’s head and save Adam and Eve, and all of their descendants, including you and me.
Up to this point the LORD God had shown Adam and Eve how much He loved them through the paradise He created for them and through the perfect communion they enjoyed with Him. Now He promised to show them a new manifestation of His love, a love for sinners. He would show them how much He loved them by promising to send His Son.
Sinners cowering before the LORD God might seem like an odd way to begin the Christmas story, but here is where the story must begin. It must begin with our confession of sin and the LORD God’s promise to send His Son. Next week the Christmas story will continue as God shows His love for the world by prophesying about His Son. Amen.
[1] Hebrews 10:26-27
[2] Hebrews 10:26-27