16-aug-09

Why? The Rev. Joseph Winston August 16, 2009

Sermon Grace and peace are gifts for you from God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.1 With a single word, an ordinary everyday toddler can terrorize an adult. “Why?” “Mommy is tired.” “Why?” “Because she is packing for a trip to Grandma’s.” “Why?” “That is what we do at Thanksgiving?” “Why?” “We eat there every year.” “Why?” “You need to eat.” “Why?” “Because that is how your body runs.” “Why?” A child practiced in the art of interrogation can keep up this line of reasoning until there is nothing left but those questions that lovers, drunks, and sleepless men and women of all ages ponder. “That is how you live.” “Why?” “God made you that way.” “Why?” “God wanted to.” “Why?” “God made that decision.” “Why?” “Ask God.” “Why?” “Just ask God.” “Why?” 1

Romans 1:7, 1 Corinthians 1:3, 2 Corinthians 1:2, Galatians 1:3, Ephesians 1:2, Philippians 1:2, 2 Thessalonians 1:2, Philemon 1:3.

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Why indeed – Why are we driven to ask these questions? Why do we work so hard? Why do we hunger? Why do we have children? Why are we this way? At one time in the not so distant past, Christians knew the answers to these difficult questions and they were not afraid to tell anyone what had been first given to them by their parents, pastors, and teachers. When anyone asked our ancestors in the faith this type of “Why” questions, they would pick up their well-worn Bible and quickly turn to the first few chapters of Genesis. “It is all there,” they would say. “Here is everything that you need to know to answer these questions.” How right they were. The two different creation accounts found in the first three chapters of Genesis tell us exactly why children of all ages ask difficult questions. Creation gives us the answer why we work so hard every day of our lives. The Bible lets us know why we need to eat. Genesis provides us with God’s reason for children and families. In other words, the Bible tells us what it means to be human. The best way to proceed would be for everyone to pull out their Bibles and read together how God created the world and everything in it. Then we would know how to answer all these questions. Seeing that I am the only one here with a Bible in front of me and knowing that you do not want to spend that amount of time on Bible study right now, I will provide you with an overview of how Christians through the ages have read the two creation accounts as a way of answering these sort of queries. So out of the ground the L ORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he 2

would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field (Genesis 2:19-20a RSV). Can you imagine the scene here? As far as the eye could see, there in front of the man was a line of animals waiting to be named. “Now, what am I going to call that thing with the long neck? I know a giraffe. What about that one with a funny nose? An elephant. Four hoofs, a tail, and eats grass. How about cow?” On and on this question and answer continues until everything has a name. “What should I call this blue mold that cures infections? Penicillin. What name should we give to a ship that takes people to the stars? Rocket Ship. What are we going to call that cat? How about Miss Kitty?” Through the never-ending task of asking questions and then answering them, we all participate in the naming of creation. Not everyone will have a chance to be remembered as the person who named something. That is fine. We all have our God given roles to play. Parents teach their children to speak. Schools at every level need both teachers to provide the answers and students to ask the questions. That is why we keep asking and answering questions. Many people incorrectly believe that life in the Garden of Eden was all play and that work only started after the man and the women left the Garden. Obviously, they never have taken care of any garden at all and they have not carefully read their Bible! Even in a perfect world, one still must till the soil, select the plants, place them in the ground, provide them with food and water, and only at harvest time enjoy the fruits of your labor. It is the same story in Paradise. It takes 3

work to keep the Garden in tiptop shape. The Bible knows this. It tells us, “The L ORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to till it and keep it (Genesis 2:15 RSV).” That is our job too. We take care of the Garden God has given us. Our calling might be a farmer or a rancher. We need the land to take care of us, so we work hard at putting our investments back into the earth for the next harvest. Our homes need upkeep of all sorts. This is something that we must do everyday. We wash dishes and clothes. We water and cut the lawns. We trim the trees and paint the siding. Even if we do not own any property, we all still work in the Garden by making it a better place. Many of us have other jobs that we must do and some of them might even pay us. It is possible that we cut hair, take care of others, or build houses. Other work gives us different rewards. Here people might call us mother, father, sister, brother, grandmother, grandfather, or friend. By giving us these vocations, God provides us with an opportunity to show the world how a Christian acts. Of course, taking care of the land is more difficult today. Weeds now appear in the fields (Genesis 3:18). The climate today does not help matters either (Genesis 3:19). These two changes make it more difficult to work the land and they both are due to our rebellion against God. They take their toll in the rest of our labor. Work is now harder for everyone. That is the price we must pay for our actions. All of this work takes energy from us and this makes us hungry for a good meal. The L ORD knows this. In the Garden of Eden, the L ORD provided plants to eat (Genesis 1:29; 2:16). After the flood, God extended this gift to include meat 4

(Genesis 9:3). God continues to bless us today with food. That is why we work and why we eat. God commanded the plants and the animals to “be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22, 8:17).” The exact same instructions apply to people. God says to us, “be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28, 9:1).” These two orders from God do not take place in a vacuum. God has carefully organized all of creation so that everything has its proper place. Consider the fish. God supplies them a special place to live. They grow in ponds, streams, and oceans and not in shrubs, trees, or in the air. God provides them with what they need. Food might be insects, plankton, or other life forms. Fish live in water. God supplies them with freshwater, saltwater, and all the mixtures of water in between. The list of what God gives them goes on and on. The environment must support their life. God gives it to them. Fish need parents. God provides this also. If the L ORD works so hard at making more fish, consider what He does for humans and their children. The L ORD gives us homes. The L ORD provides us with food and drink. The L ORD keeps creation in balance so that we can live on the earth. The L ORD selected our parents and their parents before them until the start of time. The L ORD even created families as the ideal place to raise families. That is why we have families and children. Now is time for the hardest question of all, “What makes us human?” Another way of asking the same thing is, “What separates us from all the other animals?” or “What makes us unique?” Every society has its own answer to this oft asked 5

question. One ancient group said that bread making defined humanity because no animal has ever made a loaf of bread. Another argued for the use of logic and reason. It is hard to disagree with this idea. Our ancestors in the faith gave a different answer. They said God has a love for those creatures known as humans. We can see this understanding in Genesis. God takes a unique interest in humanity since we are “created in His image (Genesis 1:27).” In Lutheran terms, being created in God’s image means that we have a relationship with God.2 The two creation accounts certainly support this way of thinking. God speaks to Adam and Eve and tells them what is allowed in the Garden and what is off limits (Genesis 1:28-29; 2:16-17). God also is concerned that there is no one to help Adam so He creates Eve (Genesis 2:18-24). As the years progress, we learn more details on how much God loves us. God comes to Abraham and promises not only children and land but also more importantly that the L ORD will be Abraham’s God. God remembers His covenant with Abraham and frees Israel from slavery. In the fullness of time, God the Father 2

Classical theologies have named two human qualities that have been endowed on humans as the image of God or imago Dei: reason and will. Douglas John Hall, Professing the Faith, (Fortress Press, 1996), p. 214. Augustine defined imago Dei as: residing in the intellectual nature of the soul, with its three powers of memory, intellect, and will. ibid.. While Thomas Aquinas defined imago Dei as “rational process”. ibid.. The reformation brought dramatic changes to the definition of imago Dei since the reformers applied the following two principles from Romans 17: 18B I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Thus for Martin Luther, imago Dei is neither reason which can be used for sinful means nor will which is in bondage to sin but instead the image of God is the human’s capacity to be in relation with God. ibid., p. 215.

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sends His only Son to save us from our sins. That is what it means to be human. God has established a relationship with us. Unfortunately, our own ELCA along with many other churches around the world have forgotten this basic teaching. In doing, so they have completely redefined what it means to be human. In their eyes, no longer is humanity defined as God’s relationship with us.3 Instead, humanity now is all about experiences.4 It is easy to see all the problems that this shift in focus causes us. No longer can we answer all those “Why” questions using the Bible because the primary relationship that defines who we are has been dramatically changed. This logic calls every one of our answers from the Bible that we have used for all these years into question. Our new explanation about who we are causes another issue that is even more important. Our personal experience rather than God’s Word is now the primary way of judging disagreements. If earlier discussions on the matter are any indication of what is to come, this 3

The manner in which conservative theologians study the Bible in turn causes the theologians to be cautious in changing any words in Scripture since language is used to make “precise statements” about God. Nancey Murphy, Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How Modern and Postmodern Philosophy Set The Theological Agenda, (Trinity Press International, 1996), p. 61. 4 This reality of our infatuation with the “experience” of life was first explained by Willard Van Orman Quine. In Quine’s twenty-three page article first published in 1951, he describes what many philosophers believe to be an accurate understanding of the postmodern age. In Two Dogmas of Empiricism, Quine writes at every experience can be valid. This can be my experience, your experience, the current group’s experience, the previous group’s experience, or a future group’s experience. Participation is not the only way to understand life. Technical reason, which can be quantified, and other experiences such as feelings and emotions are all perfectly correct ways of describing the world. Willard Van Orman Quine, Two Dogmas of Empiricism, (http://www. ditext.com/quine/quine.html, 1953), p. 17. In other words, all observations, no matter if they are scientific facts or theories, sociological facts or theories, experiences, or beliefs, are equally good ways to understand the world.

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way of thinking will be raising its ugly head during the next two weeks at the Church Wide Assembly. There we will voting on two different proposals, Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust along with Report and Recommendation on Ministry Policies Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality. Large portions of these two lengthy documents stand in direct opposition to what the church has taught about homosexual practice for two thousand years, which in turn is based on the Jewish understanding of this topic. At the mike, speakers will talk about how this issue makes them feel. During numerous press conferences, they will recount the number of people who have been hurt. In sermons all around the country, they will predict the pain people will feel. All this will happen because it is too hard for us to directly address the Bible’s constant opposition to these proposed changes. Despite the mess that we have made for ourselves, Christ has Good New for us. Jesus still invites all of us to His Table. Here He feeds us and sends us to do His work in the world. This statement that every one is welcomed at the Lord’s Table and by extension into His Church, is not some wishy-washy idea that anything goes here in the church. Today’s lesson from the Letter to the church in Ephesus makes this point perfectly clear. The author is writing to people who are already Christians (Ephesians 1:4), when he says this to them, “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise (Ephesians 5:15).” The original language is more precise than this translation that we used today. It says, “Look carefully then how

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you walk, not as unwise but wise.”5 Even as Christians, we all have choices that we can make. One of them is the way of the person without any common sense. This path certainly leads to ruin in the end. The other way, the way of the wise, brings life as the L ORD intended. The welcome to be fed by Christ, acknowledges two basic facts about our existence here on earth. It is God’s relationship with us that makes us who we are. If we deny this reality, if we keep people away from the church, then we literally separate people from the One who gives us life. This makes us responsible for their deaths. Next, in our own special way, we all break our union with God. This hurts Jesus because when we do this, we remove ourselves from His Body. The second creation account in Genesis tells us the root of our problem. We want to be like God and know everything (Genesis 3:6). The rest of Scripture then goes on and describes for us how God will reestablish the relationship that we have broken. That little word, “Why,” still terrifies us since it forces us to admit that we do not know all the answers to life. During the next two weeks, you will hear many different discussions and reports on what Lutherans believe to be the truth about sex. The reality is this. You are not a human since you have the capacity to reproduce. You are God’s child because He adopted you. That is what makes you a human. “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and 5

βλέπετε οὖν ἀκριβῶς πῶς περιπατεῖτε μὴ ὡς ἄσοφοι ἀλλ΄ ὡς σοφοί.

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minds through Christ Jesus.”6

References Hall, Douglas John, Professing the Faith, (Fortress Press, 1996). Murphy, Nancey, Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How Modern and Postmodern Philosophy Set The Theological Agenda, (Trinity Press International, 1996). Quine, Willard Van Orman, Two Dogmas of Empiricism, (http://www. ditext.com/quine/quine.html, 1953), Originally published in The Philosophical Review 60 (1951): 20-43. Reprinted in W.V.O. Quine, From a Logical Point of View (Harvard University Press, 1953; second, revised, edition 1961.).

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Philippians 4:7.

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