"Deceiving God by Hiding From Ourselves," September 18, 2016

Genesis 2 Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 Luke 16:1-13 As we begin this morning, I confess to being struck by how we seem to live from crisis to crisis, yet when crises happen, we avoid responsibility, and like ostriches hide from ourselves. Instead of questioning what did I do, where were my priorities, we blame others and ask “Where is God?” “Why did God not do something?” “Is there a God?” In the time when Jeremiah was very young, King Josiah had all of the little chapels and churches and altars across the countryside, that people went to every day to pray, torn down, so there was only one, and it was The Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. Annually every person could come to Jerusalem to worship, making sacrifices to God and Taxes to the King, the King and the Temple were at Jerusalem, so the Nation would be assured of prosperity. The people of Israel made the assumption that no matter what, God would protect them. Like the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz, they believed God had all the answers; they may have to endure invasion or embarrassment, but because Jerusalem was the City of God, where God chose to have God’s Temple was built, they believed God would protect them, all the while doing whatever fulfilled their desires. The problem was not only that they sinned, not that they fell short of the glory of God; but that they did so self-righteously pursuing their own desires, hiding from themselves, without regret. Throughout human history we have based our development and actions on the rules and assumptions given us, but our world is radically changing, not only in careers, technology, cars that start with a button, parallel park themselves, drones able to deliver pizzas, but such radical change people have questioned what is real and true, and our assumptions of identity are being challenged. In my short experience in Central New York, 35-40 Century-old companies have closed. So what is Camillus without Camillus Cutlery and Camillus Casket Co., what is Mottvile without the Mottville Chair Co? We went swimming the other day, Skaneateles Lake is down at least a foot in depth, what is Skaneateles without Skaneateles Lake? The Wills and estates given to the church over our first 130 years came with donor instruction “to be invested as the most prudent person would do.” After the Great Depression, for the next 70 years, that was changed to “invested as a reasonable investor would” because they recognized that without taking some risk you would lose major opportunities. Today, the economy and markets are so different, our most basic assumptions of “whether to trust” are challenged. So we must ask, What is important, what is vital? If you were going to lose everything, what would you do? As a pastor, I get very excited when there is direct application of the Bible to our lives. I love the stories of Moses parting the Sea, a voice coming from a burning bush, or the prophet Balaam about to curse Israel when his donkey tells him he is being an Ass, Jesus walking on water, or kings and wisemen kneeling before the Savior of the world, but it seems “The Word of God is rare,” because Biblical events are rare. For 50 years our Presbytery owned and operated Vanderkamp, up in Cleveland, NY. “Owned and operated” translated as “incurred debt” and was a constant source of controversy. Cost of the camp and interest on debt were built into the Operating Budget of the Presbytery; but there was also a mortgage from the purchase of the land; and a 2nd mortgage for the building of the Lodge; and annually costs exceeded expectations; as well as being a rustic camp where kids often got broken arms or bee stings and the Camp/Presbytery were sued. But those who first met at the camp fell in love and married there, were blind to the costs; while those who were paying the bills could see nothing except increasing debt. To be completely transparent, I had a reputation of closing and selling Church camps: when serving one church I turned the camp into a Conference Center and the grounds into a Medieval Festival like at Sterling and Fairhaven; in another church, I sold the camp to the Nature Conservancy to protect the endangered Glass-bellied Lizard. So when a Balloon Payment on the mortgage was coming due for refinancing, I asked that we research the total that is owed. The Camp had new Managers who came to the meeting where the Presbytery would debate the costs and deficits of the camp, fearing that they would lose their jobs before they ever got to start. Hearing the total costs and recognizing that regardless of what we did, the Camp was part of the identity of the Presbytery, I followed the example of this parable and made a motion; that by keeping the Camp in debt, we had limited what they could do, so let us forgive the amount owed by the Camp to the Presbytery and also pay off the mortgage. If the Camp then succeeds, well and good; if not, the camp would be without debt when sold and those who did use it would have received the best possible experience. In our culture, everything seems to have a price tag, a cost or value. Years ago, a woman died, her Will specifying that she wanted to have given to the Church $100,000 and that she wanted to give her children $100,000 each. When she did die, her costs for care and final expenses used up everything she had. And you know, that does not matter, because we know, and her children know, that although she had no money, we were so important to her she wanted to give us this. Of all the stories of the Bible, one of the best known is the Genesis Story of the Garden of Eden. There is a basic human acceptance that in the Garden, as originally created, we were sinless and righteous, we were in right relationship with God. But when they ate the apple, they hid their nakedness from God, and when asked who told you you were naked, Adam’s reply was “The Woman, whom you gave me, she did this.” There is no sense of responsibility that: I am sorry, we did, or I knew better and I chose to… the first response to accusation and loss, has been to hide, seeking cover by shifting blame to others and to God. Reading this afresh, I have tried to get away from all our preconceived notions about what this story is about, and hear it afresh. Why, when Genesis 1 described Creation with humanity as the final accomplishment, and God rested… why is there the story of humanity being the first of God’s creations with responsibility for naming other things? Reading the two chapters back to back, I have come to believe that the first faith statement is about God, “In the beginning there was God” nothing else. God creates every element of creation gifting responsibility to humanity; that is the meaning of “God rested,” not that God was tired, or gave up, but that the story shifts attention from God to being about humanity. Which then raises the second question about God: Why, if God is all knowing, did God put the tree of knowledge in the Garden? Why not in another Garden, why not with a fence or river around it? Did God want us to fail, want us to be tempted to sin? How do we imagine God the Creator, as Judge and Punisher, or as a Teacher? Do we still believe as the Choir sang: Teach me O Lord the way of Thy Statutes and I will Follow!”? When God came looking for humanity, walking in the garden in the afternoon, was God hunting them, accusing “Who told you You were naked?” or teaching them to recognize that they had made a choice separate from God, separate from being part of creation, in fact opposed to God and creation even opposed to each other. The basic understanding of Sin is not that there are Sins and Blessings, Good and Bad, but that anything, anything and everything, which we choose to hide from ourselves, from one another and from God, that which we cannot admit to ourselves is Sin. The word which leaps out at me, in this passage is “subtle” the serpent was more subtle than any other creature. The issue of faith is not black and white, not about always right and always wrong, but discerning what is vital, what is true, what destroys relationships and what builds. When they chose to eat of the tree the humans did not die, but something in them did die “their relationship of trust with God.” When trust is broken, it takes lifetimes to rebuild and if not attended to the broken trust is passed on from generation to generation. The point of Jeremiah’s question “Is there no balm in Gilead?” is that at that time, Gilead was the medicinal center of the Ancient world, Gilead had an herbal balm for every malady. Just as the Temple of God was at the Center of the City of God, but when the balm does not take away pain, when the Temple ceases to be a place of God, do you blame the balm, do you blame the Temple, do you blame God, or do we seek deeper answers questioning the value of relationships, questioning what we have been doing, and maintaining integrity: try differently?