EAST OF EDEN

Scripture: Genesis 2:1-14; 3:1-13, 22-24 & 4:16

Revelation 22:1-7

INTRODUCTION

When John Steinbeck wrote his classic novel “East of Eden” in 1952, he was fifty and I was five years old. What I did not know back then was that this famous author and future Nobel Prize winner (1962) lived in the same village of Sag Harbor where our family lived, out on eastern Long Island. And although Steinbeck never came to our Presbyterian Church, he was surely knowledgeable about the Bible.

In fact, the story he wrote revolved around a troubled family struggling to survive on their farm in California just before World War I. The rivalry between two half-brothers in that family named Adam and Charles is set in the context of the biblical saga from the Book of Genesis, chapters three and four, where Adam and Eve fell into sin, were expelled from the Garden of Eden and compelled to till the ground in hard labor (Genesis 3:23). An angel with a flaming sword was stationed at the east of the garden to keep those first humans out (3:24), and after the tragic death of Abel, murdered by his brother Cain, the Bible says that Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:16)

Steinbeck’s novel, reminiscent of that old, old biblical story, has been resurrected recently by Oprah Winfrey, whose book club has helped to sell more than a million copies of Steinbeck’s novel since it was re-published last June. And if you have not read this monumental work, then I commend it to you. Because Oprah is on to something important here – not only Steinbeck’s literary masterpiece, but also the epic story of Eden which has profound implications for our lives today.

As best we can determine through biblical, historical and geographical research, the ancient garden described in the Book of Genesis is the same region known as modern-day Iraq (#1). Two of the rivers mentioned in our text this morning from Genesis 3 – the Tigris and the Euphrates – still flow through or nearby to Baghdad in the heart of what was once called “the fertile crescent,” that place which our biblical forbears believed to be the cradle of civilization.

Sad to say, what was originally created by God as a beautiful garden of peace and joy, a paradise of hope and security, has now become a wasteland of war and sorrow, a desert of despair and fear. The public, pervasive and complicated conversation about who’s to blame for all the violence reflects a painful division between America, Great Britain and the other “western nations” now engaged in conflict with Iraq, Afghanistan and their allies in the Middle East.

Dr. Charles Kimball, professor and chair of the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University, has written a book recently, “When Religion Becomes Evil,” about the “warning signs” that have escalated between radical adherents of Islam, Judaism and Christianity, wherein the battle lines have been drawn and each side accuses the other of being “evil.” Kimball reminds us that the evidence is available in the headlines of our daily newspapers: “…’Serbian Christians stand trial for atrocities against Bosnian Muslims;’ ‘Palestinians killed by Jewish settlers in the occupied territories;’ ‘Muslim militant kills twenty with suicide bomb at Jerusalem pizza parlor’” (#2)…And nearly every day now we read about more deaths of Muslims and Christians, soldiers and citizens, men and women and children in Iraq.

So who is to blame for all the violence and the growing divide that separates us – east of Eden, west of Eden, north and south of Eden – in this world today? It’s so easy, almost a reflex action, to point our fingers at our adversaries and enemies with self-righteous indignation!

But let us remember and never forget what Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote in “The Gulag Archipelago” after all those years of hard labor in a Russian prison camp in Siberia: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being” …which of course includes you and me.

II.

And those words take us back to the Garden of Eden, where something went wrong a long time ago. Biblical scholars and theologians call it “original sin.” Where it came from exactly we can’t say for certain – the Book of Genesis describes it symbolically but also realistically, as a serpent that tempted those first human beings to eat from the one and only forbidden tree.

Then the blaming began, as the man accused the woman and the woman pointed her finger at the serpent. It was all downhill from there and finally out of the garden – the main point being that the relationships were broken between God and Adam and Eve. And when their sin turned to violence and self-justification in the next generation, with Cain killing Abel and asking in defiance Am I my brother’s keeper? the Bible says that was the last straw: Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 3 and 4, selected verses).

Except that it wasn’t the last straw, because the rest of the Bible goes on to tell the story of God’s love and forgiveness and grace, of God reaching out to the whole human race, seeking to save and redeem us from our sin and to bring us back into a right relationship with Him and with our sisters and brothers in the whole human family on earth.

The Hebrew Scriptures lift up the law and the commandments, the patriarchs, matriarchs and prophets of the Lord who called the people to repentance and pointed them toward the promise of redemption if they would keep their covenant with God. And in the New Testament, through the birth and the life, the miracles and teachings and ultimately the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the whole world has been offered the gift of salvation and the hope of heaven if only we will open our hearts to receive that greatest promise of all.

So ever since what we refer to as “the fall” – not the season of autumn, but the rebellion and sin of our first human forbears who were cast out of the garden and wound up living East of Eden, it has been God’s purpose and plan to work all things together for good and to bring us back home again.

Our Episcopal friend Barbara Brown Taylor put it this way in her book “Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation”:

“The story of the Prodigal Son is one of our favorite stories because it assures us that no matter how far we have gone from God and no matter what we have done, we are always welcome home. Jesus died with His arms wide open as an everlasting reminder of our pardon, and all who have been baptized in His name have received the forgiveness of sin.

Why then, should we speak of sin anymore? Why dwell on the failures God has promised to absolve? The only reason I can think of is because we believe that God means to redeem the world through us. We have been chosen, in the language of Genesis, not only to be blessed but also to be a blessing to all the families of the earth…If we want to take part in the divine work of redemption, then we will also understand God’s grace as the gift of regeneration – the very real possibility of new life right here, right now – complete with new vision, new values and new behavior.” #3

On this World Communion Sunday, that is what our theme for this church year proclaims: “Christ at the Center – The Hope of the World!” For we as Christians believe that by the power and in the name of Jesus Christ the Lord, we do not live East of Eden, separated from God anymore. Do you have that kind of hope and faith in your heart today?

CONCLUSION

John Walker had it and he believed it deep down in his soul. I was thinking about him this past week as I attended a meeting of clergy and laypeople at the Washington Cathedral where John Walker served as Bishop from 1977 until 1989. I was fortunate and privileged to have met him and known him as a friend, and to invite him to preach at Chautauqua Institution in the summer of 1984.

During that week, an international peace conference was being held there between representatives of the United States and the Soviet Union. There were debates on the differences between our political systems, discussions about human rights and disagreements about the purposes of our defense systems.

When the conference was over, Bishop Walker, who had preached every weekday morning about reconciliation and peace, was driven to the airport in a van with four of the Soviet officials. As they drove on toward Buffalo, they passed by some of those small towns in western New York State with strange names like Panama, Angola and Poland. The Soviet officials saw the signs and smiled. They knew about all of those places which were connected to Communism throughout the world.

But then they passed a sign which they did not recognize. Bishop Walker was surprised. He said, “You don’t know that one?” They said “No,” it was not familiar to them. The sign said “Eden,” and all the way to the airport, John Walker told them, witnessed to them about the biblical story of Eden and the world that might have been except for sin, and the grace and salvation of Jesus Christ who came to set things right and to empower us to live together in peace.

John Walker may never have known how much of his message got through. But of this we can be certain: as we continue to tell the old, old story of God’s love, the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ and His promise of hope to this war-torn, weary world - someday, some way, there will be peace on earth, just as it is in heaven. That’s how the Bible ends, you know. Revelation 22, with a vision of a tree with all of its fruit available to everyone. And John says that the leaves on that tree are for the healing of all the nations. That is our hope and that is our vision on this World Communion Sunday, 2003, as we come from east and west and north and south to sit at the table in the Kingdom of God.

In the name of the father and the son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sermon Notes –

#1 – From an article by Gayle White entitled “Mideast in Antiquity Explosive Too: Nations in Regions Familiar to Readers of the Old Testament,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 19, 1991.

#2 – From “When Religion Becomes Evil,” by Charles Kimball, Harper and Row, 2002.

#3 – From “Speaking of Sin: The Lost Language of Salvation,” by Barbara Brown Taylor, Cowley Publications, 2000.

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