Here’s a good quiz question. What’s the first question asked in the Bible?
The answer?
“Where are you?”
It’s the very first question God asks Adam in the book of Genesis. Adam is hiding, He’s eaten forbidden fruit. His innocence is gone. His relationship with his creator and friend who he walked in the garden with has been destroyed by one bite and the lure of a satanic snake with a tempting offer of a different way. We know the story of the Fall.
I wonder if we need to re-hear that question from God. I think we are so familiar with the Adam and Eve stories and so sure that they are about disobedience, original sin, failure, and being bad that we can’t hear anything new or different. But what if there is another way to hear God’s question.
How we understand the question has a lot to do with tone. If we hear a loud angry accusing voice yell, “Where the ___ are you?!” we know what’s coming next. If we hear the concerned and worried voice of a parent looking for his or her child call, “Where are you?” that question has a different meaning.
Maybe God is simply looking for and desiring Adam’s presence. Maybe it’s not an angry accusing question. Maybe it’s not about disobedience, punishment, or being bad. Maybe it’s simply God wanting to be with Adam and Eve.
Adam once knew, in the innocence of paradise the command of God, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” Yet only a short time after being created in the image of God, he questioned the authority of God. He believed the lie of Satan, “But, has God said”?
We do this too every time we go off the rails. We think our thoughts are better than God’s, and our ways more pleasing. “Adam where are you?” As if to say, “Adam, what more could I have given you to make you happy?” “Adam, is this the action of a kind and loyal friend?” The joy of the garden walking with God and creative innocence is over. So Adam hides.
These four words are the first sermon ever preached I think, not just a question: “Adam, where are you?” Here we also see the language of lamentation. Despite having the best God can give to us, we always have a better idea. The snake is about - the fruit that is forbidden is worth risking everything for.
What if God is calling Adam and Eve back to themselves? What if the question is more for Adam and Eve’s benefit than God’s? And what if it’s the kind of question we are to ponder and follow rather than answer? “Where are you?” In their nakedness, they hid. For us, it’s more about having other priorities than just doing what God asks of us. For the church to be relevant or indeed survive, we need to be present to God, even when we’ve made a mess of things. We need to be where God wants us to be.
I spent a day this last week waiting for someone to turn up. Several phone calls were made to ask why there was no show from the person. “Where are you?” I wanted to shout down the phone. The not showing up left me cross and frustrated because I was needing them to be with me now - not when they wanted to get round to remembering I needed help.
I wonder if God looks at us and feels the same as I did?
Do you think God is asking us this question today? “Where are you?”
“In a world where climate change threatens to destroy the planet, where are you?”
“In a society where there is disgraceful injustice, prejudice and selfishness, where are you?”
“Seeing broken relationships and people imploding with fear, where are you?”
“In your church, where you worry about how to keep it going but forget to turn to me in prayer, where are you?”
“In your life as it is right now, even if you’ve made mistakes, and are hiding from me, where are you? I forgive you and we can start again.”
That’s the good news. Remember in Genesis God has a rough time with the people he has made. He banishes Adam and Eve to the land of Nod; Cain kills his brother and takes no responsibility for his actions; God sends a flood it’s so bad, and then at the Tower of Babel the people so want to be like God it all ends in chaos and God confuses everyone by mixing them up with different languages. He starts again through the faith and obedience of an elderly man called Abram. And in Jesus he constantly starts again. He’s always looking for us. “For as in Adam we all die, in Christ we shall all be made alive!”
The grace of God made available to us through the person of Jesus means we don’t have to hide, we don’t have to run away, we don’t have to wallow in regret when we think we’ve ruined everything. I believe the story of God’s love is all about new beginnings and is pastoral. There are consequences when we sin, but God never throws us out.
“Where are you?”
Remember that old wayside pulpit poster outside a church? “If you’re feeling apart from God, guess who moved?” And let’s say this as well… the church that focusses on fripperies and trifles and is less than what she was raised up to be, will die. We need to remember that!
Loving God, when we make mistakes, ask us where we are.
When we hide away in shame or regret, call us by our name, forgive us and renew us.
When we fall short of your call of us as your children by how we behave, restore us and teach us again what matters.
When we lose focus, let your Spirit inspire us again to be your Church.
In Jesus, we know your restorative and perfect love. Our mistakes matter to you so when we muck about, sort us. For we want to start again.
In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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