Our Wicked Problem

Oak Church Sermons

10/07/2018

Genesis 2:25-3:7

Chris Breslin

“Genesis 3 paints the scenario that is the hinge point of history. Humanity grasps at its own peace at the expense of the peace of all. The relationships that were declared tov me-od (very good)in the beginning all are decimated. Here lies the wreckage of that fateful moment of original sin, the moment when humanity chose not to trust God’s way to peace. Instead, humanity chose its own way. The consequences of humanity’s king of dominion- the kind of rule that governs with self-interest above the interests of the other- are sin, separation, and death.” -Lisa Sharon Harper

“If I say the word sin to you…it’s going to sound like as if I am bizarrely opposed to pleasure, and because of the on-going link between sin and sex, it will seem likely that at the root of my problem with pleasure is a problem with sex. So I won’t do that. Because that isn’t at all what I mean. What I and other believers understand by the word I’m not saying to you has got very little to do with yummy transgression. For us, it refers to something much more like the human tendency, the human propensity to [foul] up. Or let’s add one more word; the human propensity to [foul] things up, because what we’re talking about here is not just our tendency to lurch and stumble and screw up accident, our passive role as agents of entropy. It’s our active inclination to break stuff, ‘stuff’ here including moods, promises, relationships we care about, and our own well-being and other people’s, as well as material objects whose high gloss positively seems to invite a big fat scratch. Now I hope we are on common ground.” -Francis Spufford

“Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind… it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began.” -C.S. Lewis

“In any situation, the villain is the person who knows the most but cares the least.” -Chuck Klosterman

When we were children, we traced our knees,

shins, and elbows for the slightest hint of wound,

searched them for any sad red-blue scab marking us

both victim and survivor.

All this before we knew that some wounds can’t heal,

before we knew the jagged scars of Great-Grandmother’s

amputated legs, the way a rock can split a man’s head

open to its red syrup, like a watermelon, the way a brother

can pick at his skin for snakes and spiders only he can see.

Maybe you have grown out of yours–

maybe you no longer haul those wounds with you

onto every bus, through the side streets of a new town,

maybe you have never set them rocking in the lamplight

on a nightstand beside a stranger’s bed, carrying your hurts

like two cracked pomegranates, because you haven’t learned

to see the beauty of a busted fruit, the bright stain it will leave

on your lips, the way it will make people want to kiss you.

–The Beauty of Busted Fruit, Natalie Diaz

Slides from October 7, 2018.

Scripture:

Psalm 89

Psalm 35

Psalm 25

Romans 3:27

Galatians 6:14

Romans 8:5

Romans 7:15-20

Romans 6:6-7

Romans 8:20-25

Romans 5:15

Songs for Today’s Worship Gathering:

Mercy Now by Gauthier

Thy Mercy, My God by Stocker/McCracken

Father, Let Your Kingdom Come by The Porter’s Gate Worship

Come Ye Sinners by Hart/DeConto

Brokenness Aside by Leonard/Jordan

Fortunate Fall by Assad

Doxology

Further Reading:

Confessionsby St. Augustine

Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Powerby Andy Crouch

The Very Good Gospelby Lisa Sharon Harper

Original Sinby Alan Jacobs

The Christian Imaginationby Willie James Jennings

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined)by Chuck Klosterman

The Fall and Sin: What We Have Become as Sinnersby Marguerite Shuster

Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Senseby Francis Spufford

Restoring the Shamedby Robin Stockitt

The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselvesby Curt Thompson

The Lost World of Adam and Eveby John Walton

Way of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianityby Norman Wirzba

Simply Christian: Why Christianity MakesSenseby N.T. Wright