April 27, 2008 Togetherness
Pastor Wesly Howell

Last week we took a little walk in the Garden of Eden, and you know it does us good. It’s not just because reading the Bible will make you “Holy” or religious. God’s Word…God’s message…for you sits in the words. Luther: “Cradle to hold Christ”. Buechner: “Window to look through to see God’s world.” So let’s get back to the Garden of Eden. We talked about God making hippos and giraffes and bringing them before the Adam to see what he’d call them. But I think it’s so amazing that even before the apple thing God recognizes that there is trouble in paradise. That it’s not QUITE right. “It is not good.” Up to now everything’s been good…good…good: sun…good, moon…good, trees…good. Now…whoa...not good… “It is NOT good that the man is alone.”

God creates animals…it’s like Adam says…nice try Papa…but…well. So God creates Eve. “At last! Bone of my bone…flesh of my flesh.”

It’s all about relationships
 God to human….friendly…caring…intimate…walked and talked
 Human to human….supportive…caring…stand next to
 Human to creation…creation takes care of the humans and the humans take care of creation
 Creation to God…joy…delight.

Freedom got us in the mess. So what is freedom -- the ability to choose? Or is it getting what I want, when I want it…which usually means NOW. And I want it ALL. See…it’s not just freedom…that’s pretty neutral. But when it’s all about me, individualism; there’s the mess. “When they saw the fruit was good to eat…and that they would be LIKE God.”

There is a message for you here too, just as there was for the disciples. When Jesus calls you to follow him he doesn't expect you to be some kind of spiritual super-hero. He just wants you to be obedient to him, to follow him.

I think this is a message that goes against our ingrained cultural predispositions. Why do students go to college? Rarely, in my experience, do they say, "to get a good education," or "to gain wisdom." They say, "So I can be out on my own, so I can live my own life… free!" But what’s the number one problem? Loneliness

What do older people fear about getting older? Not the loss of a spouse or even death. They say, "I’m afraid of becoming dependent upon my family."

What is a big reason that I hear for why a young couple is delaying marriage? "We just don't want to become dependent on one another. We like our freedom." Or do we want kids? “Well that means we won’t be free: to do what I want, where I want, when I want…now!

We say that we want to be free, that we want to be independent. Yet it is one of the ironies of contemporary life that, in trying so hard to free ourselves of any dependencies and attachments, we end up enslaving ourselves to a host of masters.
 Who are you enslaved too? What did you do when the power went out a year ago? Did you find out just how dependant you were…are?
 I can name people whom I know who worked all their lives to, "one day retire and be free." Yet when they finally finished their life work and got to their long-awaited retirement they found out that they didn't know how to do anything but work.
 How many people did you know who have died right after retirement because now they had complete "freedom" but had nothing interesting to do with that freedom.

"Retirement ain't all it's cracked up to be," said a man from church "When I worked all I could think about was having the freedom to play golf, now I can play 24 hours a day and seven days a week…, it's hell. I used to yearn for it; dream of it. Now…I’m bored stiff."

Saint Augustine said most of the world's "freedom" is merely the rattling of the chains of the happily enslaved.

I can't think of anybody in my church that was killed because he or she was too obedient to Christ. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul and mind….and your neighbor as yourself. How many would say, “Oh man! That’s just killing me!” Maybe it does feel like it. Just kills you to be kind. But that’s the old Adam dying.

What is church? It’s not just the place where you come to have YOUR needs met. I get my spiritual tank filled. That may happen. GREAT! But you see…it would still be about ME.

It’s a place where we can continue to learn how to play well with the others here and new others who come along, to get along and simply to love and care for one another, to learn again that we are interdependent, to get saved…not just for heaven…but for now.

“I will not leave you alone. Orphaned… desolate.” And He hasn’t.