Taking the Blame

June 7, 2015　　The Sunday after Trinity. Proper 5

First Lesson, Genesis 3:8-15

8And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” 11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Everybody knows the Bible story about Adam and Eve. It is easy to understand because each one of us is an Adam or an Eve.

When I was in Sunday School, I remember thinking that if Adam and Eve had not eaten that apple, then the world would be a wonderful, peaceful place with no sin and no problems and no death or disease. I blamed them for all the problems of the world, and especially for all my own personal problems and sins and disobedience, etc. And then sometime I realized that if Adam and Eve had not eaten that apple, then I would have. I would have eaten it and caused all the problems and started all the sin of the world. This would have been a huge responsibility. So we cannot blame Adam and Eve, because we all, in our own time, in our own way, repeat their sin. We eat an apple, or a peach, or do something that becomes our own first sin, and then the curses of God fall upon us, too.

But we love to blame Adam and Eve because that is what they did. They blamed someone other than themselves. Adam said, it is not my fault, “the woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Eve said, it is not my fault, “the serpent deceived me and I ate.” The serpent did not get a chance to escape blame and was cursed by God, but given the chance, the serpent would probably said something like, ‘do not blame me, you are the one who created me this way.’ [The serpent was cleaver and knew whose fault it was and did not try to justify

Children learn early on to blame others. ‘It was not me, my brother broke it.’ ‘My sister started the fight.’ Students say, ‘It is not my fault that I get bad grades, the school is bad, the teacher is bad.” Adults also hate to admit their fault for their bad conduct or unsocial able behavior. The weather is bad, the government is bad, my boss is bad, my coworkers are inept, my salary is too low. I have a disability, I am sick, I am addicted. The devil made me do it. The temptation was too strong. I had to get revenge and hit him. I am just human. Ultimately, the only one left to blame is God. He made me this way. Why does God punish me for just being human?

Perhaps there are different categories of sin. There is deliberate sin, when we know what is right but choose the wrong anyway. There is accidental sin, when we lose our temper and lash out at someone. There is ignorant sin when we do not know that something is bad or insensitive. And there is what we call in the church, original sin, which is the original sinful condition of being separated from God. This last condition is the worst, and it must be taken care of first.

Just like Adam and Eve who hid in the garden from the presence of God, so sinners have hid from God. Some people try to run away from God in shame or anger or fear of punishment. Some people are so hidden that they do not know about the existence of God. They are separated from God in the condition of sin. It becomes impossible for people to find God, so God had to come and find people. And that is the record of the Bible. God looked for the man and the women in the Garden of Eden. “Adam, where are you?” he called out. Later, God searched and found Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and the Prophets. And finally he sent his own Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus said this about his work, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus found us. He made it easy now for us to find him, as he hung, lifted high upon the cross. He said, “Repent and believe the Gospel.” When we repent we no longer try to make excuses or to blame someone else. And when we believe the Gospel, we trust in Jesus who forgives us and restores us to his presence.

Today we celebrate with Misa and Chiyuki. We celebrate that Jesus has found them. The Holy Spirit has revealed the love and grace of God. They are no longer hiding in the Garden, they are walking with Jesus their Savior.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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