Sermon Cloud

^3/2/08

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

Do you remember playing Hide and Seek?  Maybe you remember playing it when you were little… or maybe you’ve played it more recently with younger children.  I imagine it won’t be too long before I’ll be running around the house playing it with Sophie.  But I remember playing when I was younger.  I remember the tension that would build as the “it” person started counting.  I’d run from here to there… looking for the spot that would conceal me perfectly.  As the numbers of the counter got higher and high my desperation would increase with them.  Until finally there were only two then one seconds left and I’d quick dash into what I hoped would be my wining location.

Finally in my spot, I’d do what I could to try to calm my breathing so as not to give my secret location away.  Sometimes I’d peak around the corner to see if the “it” person was anywhere near.  Then, do you remember the feeling when the “it” person was only a few feet away and you’d hope and hope they wouldn’t see you?  Every-so-often I’d get lucky.  They’d keep going, and I’d breath a very quite sigh of relief.  And as I stood there I would wait, and wait, and wait to hear the phrase I was waiting for… the phrase that I knew meant the game was over… the phrase that I knew meant I had won.  “Come out!  Come out!  Wherever you are!”  When I heard that phrase I knew the seeker had given up and my hide had been successful!

I don’t know about you, but for me, the game of Hide and Seek brings back a lot of good memories.  It reminds me of the fun games that children play.  I’m not sure, though, that our games of hide and seek always stay in our childhood – or that they always stay so fun and innocent.  Let’s read our passage for this evening, and you may see what I’m talking about.  Let’s turn to Genesis 2:15:

^15 The Lord God took the man (that is Adam) and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. ^16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ^17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” 

The Fall of Man

3     Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

^2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, ^3 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.’”

^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. ^7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

^8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ^9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

^10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

^11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

^12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

^13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

^14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

“Cursed are you above all the livestock

and all the wild animals!

You will crawl on your belly

and you will eat dust

all the days of your life.

^15 And 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.”

^16 To the woman he said,

“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;

with pain you will give birth to children.

Your desire will be for your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

^17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;

through painful toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

^18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

^19 By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your food

until you return to the ground,

since from it you were taken;

for dust you are

and to dust you will return.”

^20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

^21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. ^22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ^23 So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ^24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

There was always one thing that you could be sure would ruin a good game of Hide and Seek – and that was a cheater – especially a counter who peaked while they counted.  They always knew right were everyone had gone and was quick to find them.  While, God didn’t cheat, because he never agreed to play the game, but can you imagine what it must have been like for Adam and Eve when they started the first ever game of Hide and Seek, and the stakes were high.  When you and I played Hide and Seek, the results probably didn’t mean anything more than who would be “it” and who would hide the next time around, but God had told Adam and Eve what the results of their little game was going to be.  The result was going to be death!  They were not to eat of the tree of good and evil, because whey they did, they would die.  Well, now they had eaten, and if God found them, they would die.  They did what they knew was wrong, and when they heard God in the garden they hid – and their time must have been limited.  God didn’t count to 50 – he didn’t count to 20 – he didn’t count to 10.  He didn’t count at all.  He just wanted to commune with his creation… with his very good creatures.  He wanted to talk with Adam and Eve.  But, being God, he must have known what had happened.  He must have known where they were.  God is omniscient – he knows everything – there is nothing Adam or Eve could hide from God, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to hide nonetheless.  Looking back, it seems kind of silly, doesn’t it.  They hear God coming and think that a tree or a rock can really keep their sins a secret.

ut even though God knows where Adam is, he calls to him anyway.  It seems to me a bit like the parent who knows what their son’s done, but asks him if there’s anything he would like to share with them anyway in the hopes that he might be honest before having to be confronted with the truth.  So God asks “where are you?”  Then Adam, probably realizing how frivolous it is to hide from God, says, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”  How long had Adam been with God… how long had Eve been with God… and every day they were naked, but it had never before been a concern.  Why would it be a concern now?  God knew why it concerned Adam now.  God knew what had happened.  God knew Adam… God knew Eve… had sinned.  And to say he was disappointed is an understatement.

Have you ever gotten angry with Adam and Eve?  I don’t know, maybe it’s just me, but I have.  All they had to do was avoid the fruit of one tree.  How hard could that have been?  They had plenty of food.  They didn’t have to work for it.  But because that one tree looked good, you and I have all been born into sin.  We all struggle with any number of temptations.  We all toil day in and day out.  We all experience pain.  And one day we will all experience death.  What would life have been like had Adam and Eve been able to resist that one temptation?  Do you ever wonder that?  I know I do.  And it frustrates me.  If Adam and Eve had only been a little smarter, my life could be a lot easier.  Anyone who thinks they can hide from God can’t be too smart…

Ooo… wait a minute.  Did I just say that?  Anyone who thinks they can hide from God can’t be too smart?  Are you feeling very smart right now?  Because I sure am not.  I know I’ve tried to hide things from God – have you?  You know… those sins you do when you think no one is watching… those thoughts you think that you don’t think anyone will ever find out about.  I think they’re my little secrets, don’t you?  They don’t affect anyone but me, and no one but me knows about them, or so I think.  How quickly I forget that I’m never really alone.  It’s easy for me to call on God when I want him… when I need him…  When I’m going through a tough place in life it’s comforting to remember that God will never leave me or forsake me.  But I so quickly forget this promise when I would just as soon not have God looking over my shoulder… when I would just as soon not have God know my every thought.  I hide from God, and while it may not be behind a tree or a rock, it’s about just as foolish.

As I said earlier, God is omniscient, and there’s nothing I can do to keep him from knowing all of me.  I can lie to others… I can lie to myself… I can make up excuses… I can pretend it’s not that big of a deal…  But the truth is that my sin is real, and the consequences for my sin are just as real as the consequences for Adam and Eve’s.  If I want to blame Adam and Eve’s stupidity for my sin, I better be pretty quick to admit that my own stupidity only adds to the stupidity of all humanity, and therefore the sinfulness of all humanity.

Pretty depressing story, when you stop to think about it, isn’t it?  Adam sinned.  Eve sinned.  I sinned.  You sinned.  Everyone who has ever lived has sinned.  And the result of that sin is toil, pain, and ultimately death.  If that were the end of the story, there wouldn’t be much to live for, but as you probably know, that’s not the end of the story.

The game is over.  God knows you and he knows me… he knows everything we might try to hide from each other, or even ourselves.  We all deserve death.  But when God calls out “Come out! Come out!  Wherever you are!”  It isn’t so that he can dish out the punishment that you and I deserve!  It isn’t a threat!  When God calls out “Come out!  Come out!  Wherever you are!” he’s seeking the thing he was seeking the first day humanity fell.  He’s seeking communion… he seeking a relationship with you and me.  When we hear “Come out!  Come out!  Wherever you are!”  We could try to hide… ashamed of what we’ve done… what we’ve thought… who we are… but even as God already knew how Adam looked with or without his fig leaf, so also God knows how we look with or without our sin? 

But if we’re born sinful, how could he possible know what we look like without our sin?  Well, you probably know where I’m heading with this.  I said earlier that everyone has sinned, and that’s true, with one notable exception.  Jesus never sinned.  And although you and I will one day die, our death is not permanent because a sinless Jesus died in our place.  The price has been paid for our sin so that we ultimately do not have to die.