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The First Sunday In Lent
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted of Satan; Make speed to help thy servants who are assaulted by manifold temptations; and, as thou knowest their several infirmities, let each one find thee mighty to save; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The First Sunday In Lent
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Scripture citation(s): Matthew 4:1-11; Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Matthew 4:1-11; Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19
✛
From Adam to the Altar Rail
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In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
What did the fall of the human race consist of? What constitutes our fallenness today? In this morning’s reading from Genesis, the fall consists of willfulness, the misuse of freedom, by which Adam and Eve chose to step out of God’s grace into disobedience. Having been in a paradise where all was provided, they elected, with the serpent’s encouragement, to disobey God’s prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This they chose over learning and growing through obedience. They were now in a place of their own making, a place where they were no longer safe. Their eyes were opened, and they entered the world of their own private judgment. Embarrassment and shame at the discovery of their nakedness replaced innocence. God expelled them from paradise lest they then eat of the tree of life and live in sin forever. Death would at least put an end to it.
The children of Adam and Eve, as the biblical story proceeds, are born into this environment. The spiritual atmosphere is now polluted, nature and nurture contaminated by the parents. Original or birth sin is passed along and produces yet more actual sin in thought, word and deed. The next generation features Cain and Abel, and the first murder, resulting from envy. In the mid-twentieth century, following two world wars and untold millions of resulting deaths, John Steinbeck’s epic novel, East of Eden, brought the fallen saga up to date in a century of American family history. Steinbeck’s masterpiece is but one of a chorus of chronicles of our fall in the history of great human literature, and its title, East of Eden, from Genesis, says it all.
Jesus has the original grace of Adam, clean and free from sin. He enjoys, all the way from conception to crucifixion, perfect communion with God his Father. It was not possible for death to hold Jesus. He is the true Adam, and to those who turn to follow him, he provides an unpolluted atmosphere in which one can breathe, fresh air for re-birth and new life that no longer ends in death. Just before Jesus began his public ministry putting the kingdom of God on offer to those who repent and believe, he showed solidarity with sinners by humbling himself for baptism by his forerunner John, an action in which God declared him to be his well-beloved Son and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove upon him.
Immediately the same Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by Satan over forty days, during which the fall of our first parents was reversed. Jesus rejected temptations to misuse his relationship with God. If paradise was lost in Genesis, it was regained by Jesus at the start of his ministry; which set the stage for his subsequent words and works leading him to his cross, a new tree of life for his redeemed followers.
As the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we are from birth inclined to self-will, headed for disobedience and alienation from God. Nevertheless, even in this state, we are children God wishes to “adopt back,” to re-integrate into communion with him.
The Church chose all our lessons this morning to dwell on this theme. We heard the Apostle say that the fall, manifested in human sin, spreads universally like an epidemic; that all die through Adam’s trespass. But he says this in order to stress that through Jesus the remedy runs like a medicine to all who take and receive it.
It is said that we human beings do not exercise anything close to our full potential; that we have gifts which we take to the grave unused. This is part of the legacy of the fall. But Christ reveals human life in perfect fullness. He declared that he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. The miracles that he did – giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, cleansing to lepers, forgiveness and fresh starts for sinners, even raising the dead back to life – these are signs of what he does for human potential across the board. He reveals what we were made to be and to do. The invitation to enter a journey into Christ is a call to become our true selves, free from sin, in full communion with God and with God’s children, our brothers and sisters.
What we are about to do – celebrate Holy Communion – enacts the Good News of Jesus. It delivers the prize of the victory Jesus won in his temptation by Satan in the wilderness. Here is how: Jesus said that his “food” was to do the will of the Father who sent him. Not only did he do God’s will every moment of his life, he did it supremely in the end. He went to his cross, on which his body was broken and his blood poured out. We are what we eat. Jesus ate and drank God’s will. His body and blood are the fruit of God’s will. On the eve of the day he died, he had his last supper with his disciples – and there he took bread and wine, identifying it with his body and blood. Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Drink this, all of you; this is my blood which is shed…for the remission of sins. My flesh is food indeed. My blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him. He has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. I am the Resurrection and the Life.
Paradise was lost, but paradise is regained. Jesus calls the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve from east of Eden home to a feast in heaven.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
