QUESTIONS GOD ASKS US - Sermon Study Guide #6 - What Is Your Name?

READ – Genesis 32:22-32

Holy Week is here! Our series through Lent will take us all the way to Easter Sunday and a question that Jesus asks His early followers soon after rising from the tomb.

This week we’re listening to God question Jacob in the bizarre account of Jacob wrestling with God by the Jabbok River before his encounter with Esau, his older, twin brother.  Jacob is a pivotal character in the Bible. He’s the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, and the father of twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. Genesis 32 is the account of when Jacob is renamed “Israel.” God’s renaming is destiny-shaping not only for Jacob, but for a nation.

1. GOD DOESN'T FIT IN A BOX, IN FACT HE’S A BOXER

Even though this story is strange, you cannot spiritualize it. Some modern readers attempt to read stories like this in the Bible as if it was a projection of some deep psychological or archetypal truth. There might be some value in that. But it’s not what the Scripture intends – this was a real, bodily wrestling match in the dirt and mud of the banks of the Jabbok River in time and space history. We know that because Jacob left permanently disabled as a result of the fight. It’s important that we read this story as literal history because it shows us a reality of what God is like – He’s a wrestler. He doesn’t fit in our box – and that’s a challenge to both progressives and conservatives. God is not merely a God of tolerance and love, but He’s also not a God who rewards the “good” people and the socially put-together. Instead, He’s a God that pummels us. That’s evidence that the Bible is true because nobody would choose to invent a God like this.

Jacob learned several things wrestling with God. First, he learned that wrestling God (and any relationship with God) requires all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. In a wrestling match it takes everything you’ve got – there can’t be any compartmentalization. Second, wrestling demands your focused attention. You must read your opponent’s moves, be aware of their stance, and your own body and limitations. Third, wrestling is all about challenge – you must oppose the moves and positions of your opponent.

How do we wrestle God – how do we go toe-to-toe with the Almighty? First, read the Bible. Second, God-centered prayer. Third, church & community. Fourth, the sacraments.

2. YOUR MAIN PROBLEM IS NOT YOUR MAIN PROBLEM

Jacob was wounded in his wrestling match with God. But he was already wounded long before he met God by the Jabbok. In fact, Jacob’s life was full of generational patterns of sin, lies, and relational dysfunction, and it was having historic consequences. Jacob hadn’t dealt with his past – he hadn’t been able to fully admit who he was and how the past still had a grip on his present. His ‘wrestling’ with Esau had marked his whole life. Can you imagine what he must have been thinking and feeling before he met the mysterious wrestler in the night? Jacob was thinking he was about to faceoff with his ultimate opponent, Esau. And it’s precisely in that moment that God tackles him. Jacob needed to see that Esau was not his main problem. Your main problem is not your main problem. Who or what is your ‘Esau’ – the person or situation that’s making you anxious, insecure, or fearful? Do you know that they are not your main problem? Your main problem is you are a sinner who is grappling for independence from your Creator. It’s never ultimately about Esau.

3. THE WAY TO WIN IS TO LOSE

Who wins the fight? The story is ambiguous. In fact, it’s so ambiguous there’s a contradiction in Genesis 32:25. After wrestling all night, God is not prevailing against Jacob. So God – with a mere touch – severely injures Jacob and the fight is essentially over. Who won? Both God and Jacob. Who lost? Both God and Jacob. What is happening? God is showing Jacob that the way to win is to lose; the way up is the way down; the last will be first; the way to victory is through defeat. See if God had come with absolute power, He would’ve won, but lost – He would have lost Jacob by destroying him. But instead God gained a son. Jacob loses in the sense that he is marked and scarred by a permanent weakness to his hip. How is that winning? It was a win for Jacob because even though he was physically made weak, spiritually he was made strong. Think about it. In any fight, you are fighting for independence from your opponent. At first, Jacob must have been fighting to get away from the mysterious man – but once he realizes Who it is, Jacob begins wrestling for dependence.  He begins to see that God is the blessing he’s been searching for; God is the strength that he needs. Jacob’s entire life was marked by a search for blessing. And it made sense, he had essentially been living under the negative verdict of his father’s name for him, “Jacob,” which meant “liar, cheat, heel-grabber.” Jacob was the second favorite, the liar, the nobody who wanted to be blessed by a Somebody. He finally realizes that God is the blessing. If he has God, he has everything; if he loses God, it doesn’t matter what he gains, he’ll have nothing.

Why did God touch and wound Jacob’s thigh? The “thigh” actually comes up at several points in the story, but also the “thigh” had a particular significance elsewhere in Genesis (24:2, 9) and Exodus (1:5). The “thigh” was a euphemism for the area of the reproductive organs. In the ancient world, by “swearing on the thigh” you were swearing on your descendants, the offspring of your thigh. What God is saying to Jacob by wounding his thigh is: “You are receiving a touch that will leave you crippled, but one of your descendants will receive a strike that will crush him.” It was prophetic. Jesus was a descendant of Jacob’s thigh who eternally had the blessing and birthright and favor of His Father, and even though He lived a perfectly just and moral life, on the cross He forfeited the birthright, endured the curse, and the Father’s smile became a frown. Jesus did that so that liars and losers could be made winners. Jesus was crushed, but through His death He conquered. He won by losing. He lost so that you could win, was defeated so you could conquer, was made weak so you could be made strong.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. What’s something God has been showing you about Himself or Christianity that surprises, shocks, or provokes you? In what ways do we try to fit God into a box? How can we repent?

3. Wrestling involves all of you, focused attention, and challenge. How are you doing as a follower of Christ – are you compartmentalizing your faith? not giving God the attention He deserves? not allowing God to oppose and challenge are ways of believing and behaving? What might change look like in these areas for you?

4. What’s the big problem in your life right now? Who or what is the Esau? How do you think this story in Genesis 32 invites us to look beyond Esau to our central problem in life? How can dealing with our ultimate problem give us courage in the face of lesser problems?

5. In Christianity, the way to win is to lose, the way up is down, the last will be first. Why is this so challenging for us? What are resources within Christianity to live more fully into the reality that when we are weak then we are strong?

6. How do you see Jesus in this story?  

QUESTIONS GOD ASKS US - Sermon Study Guide #5 - What Are You Doing Here?

READ – 1 Kings 19:1-18

Lent is a season for self-reflection and examination. We go (or should go) to the doctor for regular checkups on our physical health. Lent is a tool to examine our spiritual health. It’s a season to let God ask us some questions about who we are and what we’re doing.

This week we’re hearing God ask Elijah (and us) about our times of depression, despair, and burn out – which we all deal with in some shape or form, if not now then sometime in our life. It’s important to see that 1 Kings 19 follows 1 Kings 18 – chapter 18 is the highest point in Elijah’s career (his confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel). 1 Kings 19 is a description of the lowest point in Elijah’s career. He’s on the run, a hunted man, completely disillusioned from his expectations for success and revival in Israel.

1. THE EXPERIENCE OF DESPAIR

1 Kings 19:3-4 describe Elijah’s journey into the wilderness. What’s going on? He’s not going on a sabbatical – he is literally quitting, giving up, throwing in the towel – even suicidal. Elijah is at rock bottom. That shows us that the experience of depression and despair is part of the spiritual journey – no one is immune or exempt from this experience. Elijah is one of the most important prophets in the history of Israel. He’s an exemplar of righteousness and faith, and yet he experiences hopelessness and burn out. That should be encouraging. Seasons of depression are not a sign that you are a weak person, a faithless Christian, a spiritual loser. The wisdom of the Scripture and the Christian tradition says that these dark nights of the soul are to be expected.

2. THE GOD WHO MEETS US IN OUR DESPAIR

How does God meet Elijah in depression? First, we see that God meets Elijah in Elijah’s full humanity. Notice God doesn’t come to Elijah with a pep talk or moral advice. Instead God gives him food and lets him nap! Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is order takeout and take a nap. The Angel of the LORD also meets Elijah with a touch. In despair we often need the physical presence of another – God created us with bodies and meets us in all our physicality. The Bible doesn’t reduce our problems to the spiritual, psychological, social, or physical – rather it acknowledges that we are complex, embodied beings. And God is concerned with every part of us.

Second, God meets Elijah with gracious persistence. God asks Elijah the same question twice, “What are you doing here?” That repetition is important. God is communicating to Elijah that what Elijah is doing here is not the same thing as what God is doing here. Elijah was where he was because he was done, at a dead end, exhausted, and burned out. But God is there doing something else. He was where Elijah was allowing him rest, showing him who he was and who God is, preparing him for what He would do next in Elijah’s life. When we are in the dark night of the soul, it’s important to ask, ‘What is God doing here?’

Third, God meets Elijah with His glorious comprehensiveness. God meets Elijah in a low whisper. That doesn’t mean God never works in hurricane winds, earthquakes, and fire – but God is showing Elijah (and us) that we shouldn't reduce our conception of God. He doesn’t work with us in a one-size-fits-all approach. God can’t be predicted or controlled. He does the unexpected and meets us with what we need, not what we think we need.

3. HOW GOD LEADS US THROUGH TIMES OF DESPAIR

God leads us through despair by giving us (1) a word of rebuke, and (2) a word of grace. God’s rebuke comes to Elijah was that his own plan and timetable led to his despair, not God. God shows Elijah that His plans are beyond and bigger than Elijah – they’re global and cosmic in their scope. God wanted to release from Elijah the burden and pressure of living like Elijah’s plan was ultimate. When we see that what God has done, is doing, and will do is far greater than us it frees us in unimaginable ways from the burden of living like it’s all up to us. God renews Elijah through a low, quiet whisper. What’s going on? First, don’t miss that as the winds, earthquake, and fire pass over the mountain, Elijah is hiding in a cave. Many scholars think this may be the same cleft or cave of the rock that God hid Moses in when He passed by Moses to show him His glory. In the New Testament, stones and rocks like the one Elijah is hiding in are described by the New Testament writers as pictures of Jesus. Jesus is the cave, the rock that shields us from the blast furnace of God’s holy presence, absorbing our sin and God’s justice, so that we can receive the low, quiet whisper of God’s mercy and grace. God is showing us that in times of despair, we need to hide ourselves in Jesus. The still, small voice is also the quiet ordinary way that God comes to us – not usually through the miraculous, spectacular, and extraordinary, but the powerful, ordinary word of the gospel. See Elijah was high when he was successful, and depressed when he failed. We all need a word that humbles us in our success and lifts us up in our failure. The gospel says that we are such big failures that the Son of God had to die for us, but at the same time we are so loved that Jesus chose to die for us.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2. Is it encouraging that a spiritual giant like Elijah went through seasons of depression and despair? How does that challenge your notions of spiritual health?   

3. Have you experienced seasons of burn out and despair? What was it (or is it) like? How do you feel like God used that in your life – what do you think He was doing there?  

4. God gives Elijah dinner and a nap. Christianity is not about escaping our bodies, but glorifying God through them. How does this story of Elijah help us see the deep connection between our soul and body? What role does your physical well-being play in our spiritual health?  

5. We’re often looking for God in the wind, earthquake, and fire – but often His ways are much more ordinary. How does God meeting Elijah in a low, quiet whisper go against a lot of our Christian cultural expectations that God will always work in extraordinary ways? Are you challenged by that? How important are Scripture, the sacraments, prayer, and church in your life?

6. How did you grow in your awe and appreciation of the gospel through this sermon? How is that changing you?   

QUESTIONS GOD ASKS US - Sermon Study Guide #4 - Is Not This What It Means To Know Me?

READ – Jeremiah 22:1-5; 13-17  

Many times people come to the Bible looking for answers. That presupposes we are asking the right questions. Thankfully, often in the Bible God draws near and asks questions of people (e.g. Adam and Eve, Cain, Abraham, Hagar, Moses, Elijah, Job) not to get clarity for Himself, but to offer people better self-knowledge and knowledge of God.

This week we are looking at a question found in the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah: “Is not this what it means to know me?” It’s a question that gets right at the heart of reality – isn’t this what it means to be in a true relationship with God?  The “this” that God is referring to in Jeremiah 22:5 refers to King Josiah’s practice of administering justice and righteousness in his kingdom – he took care of the poor, oppressed, and needy. Those words, “justice and righteousness,” is really a phrase that uses two words to describe one idea. In the Old Testament, “righteousness” was relational and meant to be in a right relationship. “Justice” was the practice of putting to right those things that were wrong. It was a relational and public concept. Perhaps the best modern equivalent we have is “social justice.” In the Old Testament it involved rescuing the oppressed, not exploiting the immigrant or refugee, guarding innocent life, the fatherless, and widow.  

1. WHO IS THIS QUESTION FOR

God’s question is directed at the audience identified in 22:2 – the king, the officers, and the people at the gates. These were people who had access to opportunity, influence, resources and enjoyed the comforts of life. This question is directed to those living in affluence, luxury, and comfort. Who is that question for today? If you’re living an ordinary, suburban, middle-class life in Orange County – don’t try to dodge or deflect this question. The question is for you.

2. HOW SHOULD THE QUESTION BE ANSWERED

You should let this question do its prophetic and penetrating work. It’s meant to be uncomfortable, to challenge, to shake us up. That’s what prophets do. But from there it’s important to ask to follow-up questions: (1) Do I really know God? (2) Do I really know the poor and oppressed? To help answer the first, do you see that God’s delight in justice and righteousness is not a side hobby, but something that’s central to His character? Do you know this God of the Bible? In any healthy relationship, you should know what delights the other person. God is no different. He delights in setting oppressed people free, righting inequities, befriending the marginalized. Answering the second question is tough for us culturally – many of us live in places designed to isolate us from poverty and injustice. We can read statistics and scan social media – but Scripture is calling us to be in relationship with those who are robbed, exploited, oppressed, neglected, and brutalized.

3. HOW CAN THIS QUESTION CHANGE US

We need change both at the intellectual level, but also the motivational level. It’s not enough merely to know injustice exists, our hearts need to be drawn to see, and feel, and act in ways that right relationships and right wrongs. For king Jehoaikim, his problem was with his eyes and his heart. He only saw and was motivated by things that profited him, his comfort, and his legacy. When Jehoaikim saw the poor, he saw himself above and distanced from them. When we see the poor, who do we see? A change in our vision and motivation will only come when we (1) see Jesus in the poor, and (2) see ourselves in the poor. Jesus is the coming king that Jeremiah foresaw who would bring righteousness (Jer 23:5-6). But He was surprising in that He was the king who became poor to make the poor rich (2 Cor 8:9). He also invited His followers to see the poor as Jesus himself (Matt 25:31-46). Secondly, Scripture offer us resources not to serve the poor out of a guilt-complex (I’ll do this to fix myself) or god-complex (I’ll do this to fix them), but out of grateful posture that knows that in our spiritual bankruptcy and poverty, Christ emptied himself to cure, rescue, and save us.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      Social justice is hot right now. Honestly, where are you with issues of justice in our culture? Are you apathetic, skeptical, passionate? Why do you think you feel the way that you do about justice and righteousness?  How is Scripture shaping your thinking when it comes to injustices in our community, nation, and world?  

3.      What do you think is most challenging for a follower of Jesus living in Orange County to actually live out God’s invitation and call to justice? Doing justice often doesn’t factor into the ordinary ways we view discipleship – we tend to think of growing in Christ in relation to church, Scripture reading and memorization, prayer, small groups. These are all good things, but how is our discipleship stunted if we leave out a public expression of justice?

4.      What’s been your relational experience with “the poor?” How has God changed you through that relationship?

5.       How does the Gospel change both our thinking and feeling about the oppressed and poor?

6.      Trinity OC has a Compassion Team that has been doing some amazing work on connecting our church with opportunities to partner with others in working for justice in our community. Ask a pastor or elder for more information about how you can get involved in following Jesus’ call on this area of your life.  

QUESTIONS GOD ASKS US - Sermon Study Guide #3 - Where Have You Come From, Where Are You Going?

READ – Genesis 16

This week we find ourselves right in the middle of the story of Abraham and Sarah. Abraham is one of the central characters in the entire Bible – and is seen by many as the “father” of three major world religions (Judaism, Islam, and Christianity). After God’s good creation and the tragic rebellion of Adam and Even in Genesis 3, things go from bad to worse. Eventually, the state of the world becomes so corrupt, abusive, and unjust that God starts over by flooding the earth but preserving Noah and his family. But even Noah and his descendants show themselves to be infected by sin. So God comes down to an old, childless, pagan couple (Abraham and Sarah) in ancient Mesopotamia and promises that they will have a child from whose line will come a Rescuer to put things back to rights, bless the nations, and heal the world. Genesis 16 occurs ten years after God had made that promise to Abraham and Sarah. Ten years of waiting, wandering, and infertility.

Hagar is the first of a long line of biblical characters who meet and experience God in the wilderness. Think of Moses, the nation of Israel, Elijah, John the Baptist, or Jesus. In almost every story of someone going into the wilderness and meeting God, the journey proved to be identity-forming – and Hagar is no exception. God comes to Hagar with two questions: “Where do you come from” and “Where are you going?” In these two questions God is uncovering for Hagar to realities that are just as relevant for us today: who are we and what do we want?

1. THE MAID WHO BECAME A PRINCESS

Put yourself in Hagar’s shoes. Presumably she is dead to her family, place of origin, and history. She is the human property of another – and literally has no rights over her life, choices, of even her own body (as the story shamefully recounts). Hagar is an Egyptian, a woman, and a slave – an outsider according to her ethnicity, gender, and social class. She was seen only for her utility, noticed only as a means to an end, not an end in herself.

Does the Bible condone slavery, abusive treatment of women, polygamy? It’s helpful to distinguish between Prescriptive and Descriptive texts in Scripture. Prescriptive texts tell us to do something (e.g. the Ten Commandments). But Descriptive texts often give us an account without the narrator necessarily assigning a positive/negative value to the way the characters behave. Genesis 16 is a descriptive story. The treatment of Hagar is neither justified, nor condoned – and in fact, as the story progresses, leads to incredible heartbreak.

In order to understand how Hagar ends up in the wilderness, it’s helpful to understand what the dynamic was between Sarah and Hagar. Sarah was the mistress, the superior. As such she had absolute power over Hagar – even over Hagar’s womb. Hagar was the slave, the inferior. The culture that these two women found themselves in was a traditional culture. It was a culture that said to women ‘You are only as good or valuable as the children you can bear and the family you can raise.’ So you can understand Sarah’s difficulty. Not only has God promised her that the entire weight of the world is resting on her birthing a son, but Sarah’s entire culture would have been directly and indirectly communicating to her that she was nothing if she couldn't be a mom. Sarah tries to deal with this by using Hagar’s body. But what she comes to discover is that after Hagar has conceived – Sarah begins to feel deflated and worthless, and Hagar begins to feel inflated and superior. The tables have turned. Now Hagar sees her mistress with contempt, (literally, as little or small in her eyes). Sarah’s insecurity leads her to become angry and abusive; Hagar’s superiority leads her to see other people as small. They were both ultimately finding themselves and their identity in their motherhood status.

To our modern sensibilities, that sounds absurd and ridiculous. We’ve moved beyond traditional culture. But our modern world hasn’t moved beyond assigning people identity and value based on their achievement and performance.  

 Timothy Keller talks about three ways our identities are formed:

1.       Look Out: this is the traditional way of forming one’s identity – finding your sense of self with how you fit into the tribe, or your ability to have kids, or raise a family.

2.      Look In: the modern path to identity to is look inside yourself. We look to our desires (‘follow your heart’) or our achievements, academic pedigree, or love relationships. But in both traditional and modern cultures, we’re all ultimately trying to get someone to see, notice, and recognize us.

3.      Look Up: what Hagar discover in the desert is that there’s a God who has already discovered her. She’s trying to find herself, but God has found her. The Christian gospel says that it’s not our past, present, or future achievements that determine who we are, but the achievements of Jesus our substitute through which we find a durable, lasting identity. And it’s an identity that shows us we are more priceless than the most precious diamond.

By my count, there’s 6 children God names while they’re in the womb of their mothers. In almost all 6 instances, the baby boys are royalty or princes. God names Ishmael, Hagar’s son. He’s saying, ‘Up to this point, everyone has seen and noticed you only for your utility, only as a slave, but I see you as a princess, as a queen.” Imagine what it might be like to live with that truth echoing in your heart?

2. THE RUNAWAY SLAVE AND OUR SEARCH FOR FREEDOM

It’s ironic, but because of her meeting God in the wilderness, Hagar turns out to be the most free person in this story. How is Hagar the slave the most free?

First, Hagar discovers a Master who will never exploit, abuse, or oppress her. Our notion of freedom is to be without limitations or constraints, to be free from authority, and to have limitless choices. But that contemporary idea of freedom isn’t workable. Freedom isn’t the absence of authority or constraints, but choosing the right freedoms to lose. For example, you will never experience the freedom of intimate, committed love unless you sacrifice some of your autonomy and independence. Hagar meets someone who loves her. God meets Hagar in an accessible way. God calls her by name. God gives her a question, not a command, and invites her into conversation. God starts by listening. God is the only character in the story who values Hagar as an end in herself. This is a Master she has never known before. 

Second, Hagar discovers that her life is not her own, she must follow this Master’s plan for her life to make sense and for her to arrive at the happiness and freedom she is searching for. We’re all mastered by something or someone. Sarah was mastered by her culture’s evaluation of her. What are you mastered by? If you fail, will that master forgive you? Hagar finds that even though God is commanding her to return to Sarah, He is the Master who will care for her and give her a destiny.

2. THE GOD IN THE WILDERNESS

How could Hagar know for sure that this God she meets in the wilderness, the God of Abraham wasn’t going to manipulate or exploit her like Abraham?

The answer is wrapped up in the identity of this mysterious “angel of the LORD.” This “angel” is not any mere angel. In fact, many theologians and interpreters understand this figure to be “The Messenger” of the LORD – a preincarnate manifestation of the second person of the Trinity, who will eventually be named Jesus. Hagar understands from the blessing that this messenger gives her to her own naming of this figure, “El Roi” (The God who sees me”) that this is God Himself.

What do we know on this side of history that Hagar didn't? We know that God came to another maidservant, a virgin Mary, and promised her that she would bear a son whose name wouldn’t be Ishmael, “God hears your affliction,” but Immanuel, “God with us.” Jesus wasn’t content merely to hear our suffering, He wanted to enter into it and bear it. This Jesus gave up his freedom so we could experience ultimate freedom – from sin, shame, and people’s evaluation of us. Why? So He could be the Master who if we fail, he’ll forgive us; if we let him down, he’ll still love us. Jesus is the God who not only sees us, notices us, but dies for us. When you believe that truth, you become the most affirmed person in the world (‘the Son of God died for me!’) and the most self-denying person in the world (‘I am not my own, I belong to another and His will for my life’).

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      What are some things that you are tempted to base your identity, worth, and value in? How are you learning to see this dynamic and repent from it?   

3.      How does the biblical concept of freedom at odds with our modern notions of freedom?

4.      Is Christianity oppressive? Why or why not?  

5.      What might it look like to live this week with God’s voice saying, “I see you as a princess or prince?” What might change?

6.      Is there an area of your life or heart that you’ve not been submitting to Jesus the Master? How might you work towards change? What could that look like?

QUESTIONS GOD ASKS US - Sermon Study Guide #2 - Where Are You?

READ – Genesis 2:25-3:13; 3:22-23

For Lent, we are doing a series on the questions God has for us.  In the Bible, God doesn't ask questions for his own sake – he isn’t seeking information he doesn’t already know. He asks questions to give us the opportunity to search our hearts. He asks questions to reveal who we are – and more importantly, who He is to us.

This week we’re looking at perhaps the most tragic chapter in the Bible. Genesis 3 is the story of the fall and rebellion of humanity. We’re focusing specifically on Genesis 3:9, God’s question to Adam & Eve – “Where are you?” It’s the first question of the Bible and the first words God speaks to the human race after they’ve chosen to run away and hide from God in their sin and shame. But interestingly, this question also marks the beginning of God’s work of redemption and rescue.

WHAT THIS QUESTION SHOWS US ABOUT OURSELVES 

God’s question to Adam & Eve in Genesis 3:9 shows us one big thing about the human experience, and three facets of that one big thing. The Big Thing is this: we all experience shame – it’s literally at the core of everybody’s story, the story of humanity as a whole. What is shame? Shame is one of the two main feelings or experiences we have because of our broken relationship with God. We all in some way experience guilt and shame. Guilt is the experience that says, “I’ve done something wrong.” But shame says, “Something is wrong with me.” Guilt says “I’ve done bad.” Shame says, “I am bad.”

 So how does shame operate in this primeval story of humanity – how does it operate in our stories?

1.       We all hide in shame. God’s question for Adam concerns Adam’s whereabouts. The story highlights that Adam and Eve hid. Hiding. Covering up. Self-protection. They are all symptoms of shame. The voice of shame tells us, “If they really saw me, the real me, they’d reject me.” Shame says that when you’re fully seen and known you won’t be accepted.

2.      We all blame to evade feeling shame. One of the hallmarks of shame is judgement and blame. Adam blames Eve and God. Eve blames the serpent. It’s an attempt to get the searching spotlight off ourselves and onto someone else in the fear that we will be found out. Sadly, blame leads to more relational alienation and disconnection.

3.      We all cover ourselves to cope with shame. Notice God leads with a question of being before doing. It’s not that Adam and Eve’s “doing” wasn’t important (He questions them about this later). What’s significant is God’s saying that our being precedes our doing. What we do flows out of who we are, especially in relation to God and our neighbor. Adam and Eve tried to cover up who they were. Remember in Genesis 2, it’s recorded that Adam and Eve were both naked and unashamed. But after sin enters the world, they both attempt to conceal their inadequacy, fear, and disconnection with fig leaves. We may not use leaves, but we do use busyness, spirituality, achievement, perfectionism, affluency to create artificial personas to cover up.

WHAT THIS QUESTION SHOWS US ABOUT GOD

Observe how each of God’s actions in Genesis 3 parallels the operations of shame in Adam and Eve’s life.

1.       God comes to find us in our hiding. God’s “walking” in the garden suggests a habitual action – a sign that this was something God often did for relational intimacy with humanity. What’s surprising is that sin and shame don’t drive God away; He doesn’t get awkward with the people who literally just ruined the world. Instead he asks a question - showing that he wants to retain the relationship. Can I be fully known, fully seen, be the real me and not be rejected, disowned, and alienated by God? Yes! God fully knows the real you and still draws near in conversation and connection.

2.      God calls us out of hiding. Shame thrives and grows in isolation. To be called out of shame is to be called into vulnerability and honesty about who we really are. God was calling Adam and Eve into openness and authenticity with him. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Humankind is not permitted to remain alone in its sin; God speaks to Adam and halts him in his flight. Come out of your hiding place, out of your self-reproach, out of your cover-up, out of your secrecy, out of your self-torment, out of your vain remorse. Confess who you are, do not lose yourself in religious despair, be yourself. Adam, where are you? Stand before your Creator.” Full, raw, honest confession before God. Shame cannot be cured without it. The Psalms are full of this honesty. Are you being honest before God? Is there someone safe in your life who you can be real with and receive their assuring smile and a reminder of God’s love?

3.      God covers our shame. In Gen 3:21 God makes clothing for Adam and Eve; clothing out of animal skins. From that moment, clothing becomes a metaphor in scripture for acceptance, worth, dignity. In the modern world, we are taught that we need to clothe ourselves with either self-esteem or self-effort. But both current research and our experience shows that’s not workable. So what’s the solution? A hint is given in the clothing that God provides the primeval couple. Presumably, the skins God used were skins from an animal – that means something had to die to cover Adam and Eve in their shame. The consequence of sin was death – and Adam and Eve did experience a kind of death in being removed from the Garden of Eden and their bodies given over to decay. But the immediate death sentence was absorbed by a substitute – an innocent animal. God was showing that this is how rescue and redemption would come – a substitute would bear our shame, sin, and death so we could be given beauty, righteousness, and life. The Gospel is that Jesus was covered in shame so we could be covered in His beauty. Adam and Eve ate from a tree which resulted in their shame; Jesus hung on a tree to carry our shame.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.       What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?

2.      Shame is difficult to talk about – our tendency is towards concealment and isolation. How did this story of Adam and Eve resonate with your experience? Can you give examples?  

3.      How do you distinguish between guilt and shame? There’s probably some overlap – but what’s unique about shame, and how do you think the gospel offers a unique cure for shame?

4.      Why do you think God addresses Adam and Eve’s being, “Where are you?” before their doing? Is your tendency to focus on whether you’ve done right or wrong or on who you are in relation to God and other people? Why is focusing only on behavior and doing insufficient according to a biblical anthropology?

5.      Have you experienced being exposed and yet loved? How did it feel? How does the gospel free us from cycles of shame? How might your week look different if you really believed that you are fully known and fully loved?

6.      Can you see the value of putting shameful experiences into words and actually speaking them to God and someone who is safe? What are some of the benefits that might come with that kind of a confession?