This morning while doing some research for Sunday’s sermon I have been reading Elizabeth Achtemeir’s book, Preaching from the Old Testament. She offers some commentary on the nature of human sin and its consequences as told in the Scriptures. I share with you a (rather lengthy) quote, because it so perfectly sums up the reality of humanity’s rebellion of sin and its consequences for our lives.
“God created all good, full of order and life, running over and full of abundance. And God gave it all, in great love and esteem, to us, the creatures made in his image, that we might care for and keep his creation and enjoy it in our communities, as faithful stewards of God’s universe, subject to God’s lordship and kindly guidance.
“Yet, we human beings do not like to be servant to anyone, not even to God. And so daily we try to shake off our creature hood and turn ourselves into our own gods and goddesses, with power over our own affairs, our own destinies, our own relationships. The result has been that we have corrupted God’s world and despoiled its goodness, disrupting all the beauty of nature and all the loveliness of human community. Death now stalks our streets, which were intended to be full of life. Hatreds, suspicions, envies, greed now poison our commerce and our loves. Blood flows, polluting the ground. Loneliness sits in our living rooms. The scarred earth gives back thorns and thistles, and we walk in some awful twilight, where our feet stumble and the goal is uncertain and there is no meaning at all. Such is the world we have created for ourselves by rebelling against God’s lordship and by claiming that we are our own gods and rulers instead.” (pgs. 11-12)