Sermon on Forgiveness Sunday and the Remembrance of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise

Originally given on February 26, 2012 – Sunday before start of Lent

Today is forgiveness Sunday. The reading in the scripture comes just after Jesus taught his apostles the Lord’s Prayer. This is the day we ask each other for forgiveness as we begin Great Lent. The old translation of the Lord’s Prayer uses debts instead of trespasses.  “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” The word debts refers to spiritual or moral debts. We owe restitution to our offended neighbors. An understanding of the word restitution developed into the doctrine that Christ’s death on the cross paid the price for our sin. It sounds like a banker created this doctrine. Who was the debt paid to…  God or Satan? The doctrine developed into the teaching that either God needed restitution for being offended, or to Satan who enslaved humanity through Adam and needed to be paid for Adam’s freedom.  These distorted doctrines came to dominate Western Christianity ─ Catholic and Protestant.

Besides Forgiveness Sunday, this day also remembers the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. It is important to understand what happened in Paradise. Adam, which means “man” is the crown of God’s creation. Adam was created in the image and likeness of God. His purpose was to tend the garden, name the animals, and offer all back to God, His Creator, in prayer, as a priest makes an offering. In creating Adam, God, according to St. Gregory Palamas, had circumspection. He created Adam after a meeting, a council of the Holy Trinity. “Let us create Man in Our image.” Adam is not created out of nothing, like the rest of the creation. He is created from the dust of the earth and is placed in the Garden of Eden with only one commandment: not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Through Eve, Adam disobeys after being tempted by the serpent (Satan). By eating of the fruit of the tree he broke his covenant relationship with God. He misused his priesthood. Instead of offering the creation to God, he offered it to himself. This is called the original sin. A better word would be ancestral sin.

How are we to understand this event? It is the very foundation of the Christian faith. It is the reason for the giving of the Old Testament law, the teaching of the prophets, the birth of Christ and His incarnation, His teachings, His crucifixion, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. This sounds like our creed.  For Orthodox Christians, the sin and fall are not a part of human nature. Humanity is not guilty of Adam’s sin. The sin of Adam is not transferred to the human race through sexuality as St. Augustine taught. The Orthodox Church does not consider human sexuality as innately a sin. What is transferred or inherited is the enslavement to death, not Satan. The fear of Death and its avoidance is the driver of all sin. It is the false use of the passions, carnal desires, sins of the flesh, eating, drinking, sins of our youth, sexual immorality. Last week’s Epistle mentioned the corruption that occurs through illicit sex before marriage called fornication, and adultery after which destroys the marriage covenant.

The reason we fast during Great Lent is to strengthen our ability to war against our passions. Death is inherited from Adam, and because of death we sin.  Adam brought down all creation. Animals kill to survive. We kill to eat. Death rules the creation. Christ is the new Adam. He is obedient. He does not sin. He is tempted by all carnal passions but overcomes them. He dies on the cross which is the symbol of the tree in the Garden of Eden. The only debt paid is like the debt a soldier pays for giving up his life for his country. Christ freely give up his life for us. He trampled down death, by death. By doing so He abolished death and reversed Adams’s sin of disobedience by obedience. Just as Christ died and resurrected, we now die and resurrect. We pass from death to Life.

Great Lent is a symbol ─ an experience, a journey, a reliving of what happened to Adam. It begins today with forgiveness and ends 40 days from now on Pascha. Let us now begin this journey with joy knowing that Christ is risen, and death is overcome and that we will be with Christ in his eternal kingdom forever.

Let us pray to the Lord
O Lord, you overcame the temptations of the devil. You gave up your life for us so we could live eternally with You. You showed us the way to salvation. During this time of Great Lent may we come to know You and love You as You love us. We pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.