top of page
Preaching Roundtable.png

Green Blades Preaching Roundtable

First Sunday in Lent

Year A
February 26, 2023
Pastor John Stiles

Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalm 32
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

 

Here are a few “sermon nuggets” I’m considering for this week’s message which may or may not fit into our ecological frame of reference… mostly focusing on the story of Adam & Eve’s mistakes and redemption…

 

Children’s Time: carrying a file full of paper, accidentally trip and spill it all on the floor.  Talk about mistakes… times when you’ve “dropped the ball.”  Does God love us any less when we’ve made a big mess?  What if someone had tripped me?  What if the mess was made on purpose?  Does God still love us, then?  Even the tripp-er?!  (Tell about a time you “dropped the ball”) In our lesson today, Adam & Eve tripped… they disobeyed God and ate from the tree of the forbidden fruit. But God forgave them and provided for them in their life outside the Garden of Eden. So, too, God forgives and provides for us in all the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chances we are given in life… 

 

How is it that we’re so good at making a mess of things in this life?  I once had a college prof who said, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.” (quoting Churchill, I’m assuming) If it weren’t for all those checks and balances, we would sure get things done a lot faster.  If it weren’t for the need to build consensus things wouldn’t take so long.  Running a government is messy business, but darn it, if we’re really all in this together – that’s what it takes. 

 

So, too, is the process of caring for creation and each other: it’s messy business. Like Adam and Eve, we all make mistakes. We say things we wish we could take back and do things that are pretty stupid sometimes.  We make messes and expect someone else (future generations?) to clean them up. In some cases, there’s zero tolerance for mistakes.  You could be out of a job if your error costs the company. 

 

~When the I-35 bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, we saw how one flaw in design can prove fatal.

~When 3M buried toxic chemicals that leaked into our water sources we saw how those mistakes can have lasting impact on the health of our communities. 

~When a study of fish consumption recently found that eating one freshwater fish was the equivalent of drinking a month’s worth of contaminated water, we see why they’re called “forever” chemicals.

~We’ve made a mess of our atmosphere by relying too much on fossil fuels, resulting in global warming (though, in recent years, there are hopeful signs that this is turning around).

 

Summer camp is one way to equip the next generation for the challenges they will likely inherit from the rest of us.  When you’re on a camping trip, you’re out of your familiar surroundings, away from your safety net, and thrust into a space where everybody matters.  Whether you’re backpacking in the mountains or serving kids in poverty in an urban jungle – the rest of your group counts on you to do your part.  No one gets to sit things out at camp and no one is going to ‘clean up your mess for you.’  In fact, in the Boundary Waters, campers have a lot of work to do in gathering wood, cooking, setting up & taking down camp… and you are expected to ‘leave no trace.’  You are expected to pack out whatever you bring in, leaving the campsite better than you found it.  And yet, simply the majesty of creation (in all it’s beauty and terror) can minister to us.

 

You might consider Jesus’ “wilderness experience” like going to summer camp. Just as Jesus was tempted by the devil to see what he was made of – so, too, our young people need an opportunity to be tested – to rise to the challenge of those experiences, trusting that God will be there when it seems more than you can bear. 

 

When we make mistakes or face challenges, we aren’t driven to despair – we’re driven to the cross, where we meet Jesus who told Satan: “Away with you!” In our everyday lives, we make mistakes.  I’m a parent of adult children, and recently divorced. So, there is a lifetime of mistakes I wish I could’ve done or said differently. Perhaps we’re all dysfunctional from one degree to another.  So, it’s important to give ourselves some slack here.

 

I never imagined that God “expected” Adam & Eve to sin. But that is precisely what Rabbi Harold Kushner proposes in his fascinating little book: How good do we have to be? Kushner tells the story of a college basketball player, Chris Webber, who made a mistake in a national championship game in 1993 (Michigan vs. North Carolina).  He called a time out when his team had already used up all its time outs. So, they lost the ball in the final seconds of the game, and it cost them the championship.  But Webber refused to let that one play define him.  He believed he could be an outstanding player if not a perfect one. A year later he was professional basketball’s Rookie of the Year and went on to become a 5-time NBA All-Star.

 

God expects us to fail from time to time; but we’re still All-Stars in God’s eyes!  That’s why God put that tree in the garden in the first place – he created us in the image of God… and it was high time Adam and Eve grew up into the knowledge of good and evil. 

 

Are we going to still make mistakes?  Oh yeah, and some dooseys!  But we know those mistakes don’t define us.  That’s the difference between shame and guilt. Learn from your mistakes. Own up for your sins, but remember, Christ lives within you.  In the wilderness Jesus withstood temptation.  And because he did, we can too, through Christ who strengthens us. Take up the challenge by going to a wilderness camp. Resist the devil, who will flee from you (James 4:7). But – above all – believe in the Holy Spirit who dwells within you and “sing praise to the Lord, whose anger is but for a moment, whose favor is for a lifetime!” (Psalm 30:5)

 

Prayer: O God, you see the messes we make in our lives and in the world. Show us how to live with the knowledge of good and evil, to admit when we’re wrong, and to rise up to meet the challenges we face through faith in Jesus Christ, who lives within us and among us.  Amen. 


Pastor John Stiles
Pastor John Stiles
Our Redeemer Lutheran Church
Pine City, Minnesota

John Stiles is pastor at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Pine City, a Pollinator Sanctuary Congregation of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod. Our Redeemer was the recipient of an EcoFaith microgrant this year to develop their pollinator garden with direct engagement from their Sunday School children and their youth.

EcoFaith Logo

The EcoFaith Network

NE-MN Synod ELCA with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation

St Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Logo

Find us on 

  • Facebook
©2023 The EcoFaith Network 
bottom of page