Trinity
7
Gen
2:7-17
7/14/24
It
started with a simple request. Amy asked
if I could build a raised bed for a vegetable garden. By the next year, the
gardening idea had morphed into an interest in raising flowers. A garden area was prepared in the back yard
for this purpose. Since it was on a
hill, eventually I had to build a retaining wall in one corner as it was filled
with soil to level it out.
But
the flower idea just kept growing. What
began as a hobby became a hobby/business.
And then it became a business/hobby. And so in the next several years
there were requests for more raised beds.
I kept building them because Amy was clearly enjoying it, and let’s face
it: Happy wife, happy life.
Today
there are now nine raised beds behind our house. There are plans to build three more. And for the record, I am actually the one who
suggested those when I heard about Amy’s need for more production and looked at
the space available.
The
beds are filled with blooming flowers.
Especially at this time of year there is a veritable Garden of Eden in
our backyard. But that beauty comes at a
cost. There is a great deal of work that
must be done in planting, watering, harvesting, and preparing the ground for
the next season. There is a great deal
of sweat that has been invested by Amy.
In
our Old Testament lesson this morning we hear about the Garden of Eden created
by God. Adam is placed in the garden to work and keep it. Yet this work is not work as we know it. It does not involve hardship or dread. Instead, it is Adam living in the vocation
for which he was created – Adam living in perfect harmony with God’s will and
ordering.
In
Genesis chapter one we get the “big picture” of God’s work of creation. We learn of how God creates the world in six
days. He makes a material world filled
with land and water, and plants and animals.
Again and again we hear that what God made was good, until at the end of
the chapter we are told, “And God
saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”
Chapter two then gives us a close up
that describes how God made the most important part of creation: man. In
chapter one we are told that “God created man in his own image, in the image of
God he created him; male and female he created them.” In our text we learn
more about the specifics of this. We
hear: “then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
became a living creature.”
God creates a physical body and
breathes life into it. In this action we
see that God created us as the unity of a body and a soul. Only in this unity can we be what God intended.
And just after our text we learn that
God did not create Adam to be a solitary figure. He says, “It is not good that the man should
be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” God created Eve from
Adam as the perfect companion for him. In
doing so God instituted marriage as the union of a man and woman for we hear, “Therefore
a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh.”
In the context of our world today, it
is important to pause here and reflect on what God’s word says. God created man as male and female. A person is one or the other. God created the bodies of Adam and Eve to be
male and female. He created them in their difference to be joined in sexual
union with one another in order to create life.
God
continues to create us a male and female – man and woman. He creates us with bodies that identify us a
man or woman – bodies created with differences that leave no doubt about what
we are. God decides what we are by the gift of our body. We cannot deny or reject the fact that God
made me to be a man, or God made me to be a woman. Instead, we receive our body as God’s gift,
and live in the callings that God gives to men and to women – callings of being
husband and wife, father and mother.
God provided the Garden of Eden, and
put Adam there to work it and keep it. This
was work that was not work. Adam found fulfillment as he carried out his
created purpose. And then God commanded
Adam: “You may surely 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 surely die.”
God gave the
entire Garden to Adam and Eve. But he
designated one tree from which they were not to eat – the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. This tree became the means located in their midst whereby
they demonstrated that they feared, loved, and trusted in God above all
things. They showed that God was God,
and they were not, by obeying God’s word and abstaining from this tree.
We know what
happened. The devil tempted Eve by telling her that God was holding out on
them. They could be more – they could be
like God if they would just eat of the tree.
So Eve ate, and then gave it to Adam and he ate. Adam ignored what God had told him, the word
that he had passed on to Eve.
The world we
live in has been defined by this event.
God told Adam, “for in
the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” This sin has
brought death to all of us. We are all
in the process of dying. The aches and
pains, the high blood pressure and elevated A1C are all signs that we are
people who are headed for death.
And the life of work has become real
work. After the Fall, God said to Adam,
“…cursed is the ground because of you; in
pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it
shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the
sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out
of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Pain and sweat - that is what life often
involves as we do what must be done.
Adam brought
sin and death. Yet God’s reaction was
not to cast aside this creature created in his own image. Instead, he acted in
grace. He acted in love. God sent his
Son into the world as the second Adam – the One who would free us from all that
first Adam has caused.
We learn in our
text that God created Adam as body and soul.
To be the second Adam, Jesus Christ had to share in our existence in all
ways apart from sin. He had to live a bodily life just as we do. The Son of God became man, without ceasing to
be God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and
born of the virgin Mary he was true God and true man. Paul told the Colossians, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
Adam’s sin had occurred by means of
a tree. God sent Jesus to deal with sin by the tree of the cross. Paul told the Romans, “but God shows his
love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Christ’s death on the cross was the action that won forgiveness for all who
have followed in Adam’s sinning ways. Paul went on to say, “Therefore, as one trespass led to
condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to
justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the
many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be
made righteous.”
Yet death could not bring complete freedom
from what Adam’s sin had done. Instead,
death itself had to be conquered. And so
on the third day God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul told the Corinthians, “For
as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his
coming those who belong to Christ.”
In his death and resurrection, Christ
has redeemed our whole person – body and soul. As he delivers the benefits of his saving
work he deals with our whole person – he engages our bodily existence.
Through Holy Baptism we were baptized into
Christ. We shared in his saving death
and our sins were washed away. It was
water that was poured on our body in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our baptism into the death of the risen Lord
becomes the guarantee that our body will also be raised. Paul told the Romans, “For if we have been united with
him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.”
In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus uses bread and
wine to give us his true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. The risen Lord comes bodily into our midst as
he gives us the very price he paid for our salvation. We receive his risen body and blood into our
bodies, and in this we have the assurance that our bodies will be raised to be
like his. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
The Holy Spirit has given us new life in
Christ. Yet this life does not simply
consist in the assurance of forgiveness and salvation. Paul told the Galatians, “I have
been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who
lives in me.” Because of this the apostle said that faith
is active in love. And it is here that
we return to Adam’s charge to work and keep the Garden.
Our life in Christ is now one of service in the
vocations – the callings where God has placed us. You become the instrument Christ uses to
bless others. You do this as husband and
wife, when you love and support your spouse, putting the needs of the other
ahead of your own. You do this as father
and mother when you provide for your children and raise them in the Christian
faith. You do this when you do your best
in your job, knowing that Christ works through you to help your neighbor.
These activities can be fulfilling. Yet unlike
Adam in the Garden of Eden, sometimes this work really is work. It’s not always fun. Yet as we live in Christ we know that God uses
this to crucify the old Adam in us. Our
service to others becomes the means by which God conforms us to the image of
Christ.
We do
so carried on by the hope that we have in Jesus’ resurrection. The risen Lord
will return in glory on the Last Day. He
will raise our bodies and transform creation so that it is very good once
again. We will experience life in God’s
presence just as Adam did, and we will know the joy of living in perfect harmony with God’s will.
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