June 28 - Genesis 2:15-23 - "Are we... better together?"

MPC 28th June 2020.

Pete Kutuzov

Good morning church. To the visitors amongst us, thanks for being with us. My name is Peter. I'm looking forward to being in the Bible with you this morning.

Now, as COVID restrictions ease - perhaps temporarily, who knows - we're going to fill in the mid-year break with a mini-series called "Better Together". The idea is looking at some key passages in the Bible that talk about being together, as God's people. And genuinely ask the question, "Is it... better together? Always?"

I do have a promise for you. I am not going to give you a list of reasons why it would be helpful for the church or productive for your faith, for you to leave home, and group up. That would be perfectly good to do, but that's not what we're doing this morning.

Because I think to start with the cost-benefit analysis is the wrong way to start thinking about being together.

Of course we have to do it at some point, weigh the risk of infection against our level of vulnerability and those sorts of calculations...

But if we start thinking there, then we're starting where a middle manager starts. Or a president. Rather than a worshipper of God. It frames the question in terms of economics, not Jesus.

So instead this morning I want to stroll through the story of God and his people with you, and pick a few of the more beautiful flowers along the way, so that as we ask, "Is it really... better together?" God will open up our eyes to see his universe as it is.

EPISODE 1 - LONELINESS, FRIENDSHIP AND SHAME

We're going to start at the beginning, a very good place to begin. In a place that God called, "very good". The Garden of Eden.

Or, at least, he did until he noticed something that wasn't good. And it wasn't someone doing something wrong, or anything like that. The first thing that God notices in the universe that was not good, is in verse 18.

God said, "It's not good for the man to be alone." The first problem in the universe, as far as we know, was that there was no-one with the human.

And so God parades the animals in front of Adam, but it becomes obvious that none of them, even the glorious blue cattle dog, was sufficient to be with the man.

Adam needed someone physically like him. Of the same stuff. To be physically with him.

And the bible doesn't stop getting physical there. The whole passage is about who is in what physical location

In verse 15 God takes the man and places him in the garden. Where he is matters. God forms the woman and the brings her to Adam. Which is the reason that a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife.

And if you know chapter 3, you'll know that even the omnipresent God, who is just as present with the stars on the opposite edge of our universe as he is present right here in the studio, and right there at your home, somehow, visits specially.

The God who is everywhere comes to the garden, to walk with his people, his images, in the afternoon breeze.

If you know this story you'll know it was the first recorded instance of social distancing, as when God visits, Adam won't come within four square metres of him.

Most things in this story are about arranging people in the correct physical distance.

Not because of a virus. Though the cause is quite like a pandemic. Spreading to every person on earth. Causing death wherever it goes. That deadly sickness, sin. That divides people from each other more effectively than COVID-19.

And to protect Eden from Adam, and Adam from God, God takes the people that he'd placed in his garden, and places them outside. They still get to be with each other, but they don't get to be with him.

Physical proximity, being with, is so important, it's such a factor, that even God who has no limits interacts with humanity in specific spaces.

And the removal of humanity from this presence is what kicks off the plot-line of the whole Bible.

Do you see how physical presence is the point of the whole story of the Bible and the loss of that presence is the problem that the rest of the Biblical story tries to solve?

Primary school kids who're brave enough to still be listening, you'll know all about these.

Any story worth its salt has ...

The action-movie version is fairly simple, usually someone's daughter is kidnapped. Hollywood generally deems that sufficient reason for an hour and a half of action scenes.

The standard rom-com one is boy meets girl, but girl doesn't like boy (or vice versa) because they've come across as arrogant even though really they're just misunderstood and they don't know that really they're meant to be together and the rest of the movie solves that problem that they've created

I talk to youth all the time and they completely get this. So many struggle to pray, because, it doesn't feel like God is 'there'. Because you can't see him. We can't hear him. We can't give God a hug because he's not there. It sucks, doesn't it?

It has, since the day we were removed from his presence.

EPISODE 2 - STRUCTURE AND CORRUPTION

If you've only joined us since we've gone online, I'll let you know what we did earlier in the year.

In term 1 we divided up the Bible's storyline, God's narrative arc if you like, using film terminology, into 5 chapters, or episodes. Phil did this funky diagram, showing where the biggest events fit on the plot.

We just covered episode 1, but in episode 2 of our universe's big story, God tries all sorts of ways to fix the problem. To re-unite humanity with himself.

He picks a bloke, Abraham, and grows his family into a nation. Then he rescues them from slavery in Egypt. And he makes this promise. He says, "I'm going to put you in a good place, like I did with Adam and Eve. And I'll live with you. I'll come be with you, if you'll be faithful to me."

You can make this little house for me, we'll call it a temple. And you can come see me there... It won't be able to be like we used to. This virus is still around, so you'll have to keep your distance. But at least we can kinda be with each other. And I've written up a bunch of house rules, so that at least if you follow them, you won't die. It'll be great!"

But that virus sin had infected every nation on earth, including God's people. And they opened their arms to foreign gods, and just could not be faithful to the God who called them. And it happened so many times over that even the perfectly patient God of the universe said enough is enough. And he left.

His presence left the physical Temple location and Israel themselves were very physically kicked out of that land. Just like Adam and Eve.

This is the point in the movie where you're meant to get worried that maybe everything won't turn out after all. It's meant to be tense! Because nothing has been able to resolve the problem of sin causing physical distance from God.

Do you see how big a deal physical proximity is in our universe's story?

EPISODE 3 - COME NEAR BUT SO FAR

It's such a big deal that the final defeat of the problem is only able to be solved by God - not just showing himself in a physical location - but becoming a physical human being.

And coming physically so close to his people - that they could reach out and...

Arrest him.

Spit on him.

Drag him to court.

Walk him up a hill.

And hang him on a cross.

At a physical location. In between two criminals. Paying for the sins of everyone who was once near, but had become distanced from God.

And when he came close enough for sin to affect him, close enough for people infected with sin to destroy his body, he destroyed the power of sin. Like drawing poison from a wound.

EPISODE 5 - REALLY TOGETHER

And that's what makes the final episode in our universe's story possible.

When God refused to keep his distance himself from sin forever, he could destroy its power and so he solved the problem that the bible story had been trying to solve for so long. The problem of how could God and his people be reunited. And this is a physical reality as well.

One day, if you trust Jesus, you will see him, face to face. Not metaphorically face-to-face, but literally face to face. Actually face to face.

That is how this story ends. That is how this universe ends. That's where you will be, for better or for worse. With God, reunited with people. In his, real, place.

If you follow Jesus, you will stand next to someone praising Jesus in a language that you don't know! (If you want to read the ending, *spoiler alert* it's in Revelation 5.)

EPISODE 4 - ALL TOGETHER NOW

Those of you who are morning people and super on-the-ball will have noticed something. I missed something out.

That's right, episode 4. Because that's the episode we live in. What do we do with this story? How does it affect our chapter in it?

#1 - We're not there yet. We're in episode 4, not 5. Which means that for now, sin's damage still affects the physicality of this world. So there'll be things like deadly viruses, which, for the love of the vulnerable, we will choose to forego

But even this is an expression of what God's been planning from the beginning. A people who serve him and love each other from the heart. It's that love and concern for the health of others that has stopped us from meeting.

People who will give up something that's good for the sake of another is the kind of human that Jesus died to create.

So for now ... there'll be loving reasons to stay distanced. There'll be days we pray and sometimes feel like the words bounce off the ceiling. But it won't always be like that.

See, sometimes I think we think that God works like technology. Starts out in person, low-tech... you had to go to the temple... but then, he upgrades to the Holy Spirit poured out across the whole world! Jesus dying on a cross in one place, but effective now across the whole world. It's like God's gone from a landline to Wi-Fi! As if that's an upgrade.

Now, the Holy Spirit living in the heart of all believers is definitely an upgrade on a physical temple on a dusty hill in Palestine, don't get me wrong. But it's not the final upgrade!

The reason that John doesn't see a temple in his vision of heaven in Revelation 21 is because "God and the Lamb are its temple". Not because we've moved beyond physicality, but because we'll have physical access to God himself.

In one sense, the Holy Spirit's presence in Christians now is a just a stop-gap. Like a phone call to a loved family member telling them that you're on your way home from the airport, the purpose of the call is to get home, and see them face to face.

#2 - We meet together physically because that's the purpose of the universe.

In a way, it doesn't have to be encouraging for Christians to want to meet together. It doesn't have to be convenient. The singing doesn't have to be amazing. Or even good. We meet together physically because that's the purpose of the universe. To have that happen.

We meet together, praise God, listen to God and love each other because God has spent the course of human history arranging for that to happen. It's what he wants.

When Jesus returns... A massive number of these, beautifully God-like beings, from all over the world, every nation, language, tribe, subreddit, will be in the one place. Living together, in love, with God.

Table of Contents

EPISODE 1 - LONELINESS, FRIENDSHIP AND SHAME

EPISODE 2 - STRUCTURE AND CORRUPTION

EPISODE 3 - COME NEAR BUT SO FAR

EPISODE 5 - REALLY TOGETHER

EPISODE 4 - ALL TOGETHER NOW